I recently caught a few minutes with Andy Salge (bassist for Blue Moon Revue & Rich Hardesty Band) to chat about his first solo album, Shuffle.
MOJO: What’s the motivation behind this album?
SALGE: Everything seemed to just fall in place at the right time and it just came naturally. I moved back to Indy from Chicago last fall and the winter proved to be a creative time for me. I had more space than I had in the city so I did the natural thing to do…I added a juno, a piano, and a church organ to my setup and it all just came out.
MOJO: Is it solo, or were others involved?
SALGE: It is solo, as in I wrote the songs and played most of the instruments, but I did have a lot of help from my friends in the bands I play in. Nick Vote from Great Tasting Productions and rock band Genius Johnson played a big role in the making of the album. He played on it, produced it, and mixed it.
MOJO: When I hear your name, I think of Rich Hardesty Band and Blue Moon Revue. Is this the first project you’ve done outside of those bands?
SALGE: This is my first solo record I have ever made, but I have been involved in writing, performing and recording with a bunch of artist and bands in addition to those two, including Dave Thomas, Johnzo West, Sullivan Andrews, and Reedy’s Dream.
MOJO: How long did it take to create?
SALGE: All the songs used and shelved were written and recorded over a 6 month period. I spent a lot of nights alone hanging at Camp Salge getting creative late night style. I tried to capture a lot of spontaneity and emotion in the performances and the writing. It was all written as I was going along making and recording this stuff. It was only later on at Nicks place when we refined them a bit into something really cool. Most of the time I let the lyrics write themselves and before I knew it they were there.
MOJO: Do you plan to tour or gig around town in support of the album?.
SALGE: You know, I think I’m going to book some shows and see how they go, maybe film and record a sound stage performance and put it out there. But I didn’t really think about that at all while I was making it. Blue Moon Revue is slated to release a new record in August, so things are always busy. But moving onward and upward, I love playing music in all these bands I play in and I’m sure we will play some of these solo songs in the bands as well.
MOJO: Anything else special or interesting about Shuffle?
SALEG: I programmed a good amount of the drums on the Funk Box App for my iPhone; technology is really catching up with itself and it’s a fun time to be a musician and producer. I wrote and recorded the song “Find A Way” in one morning and shared it on Soundcloud that afternoon. Back in the day, people could not even fathom that… but anything is possible now.
Pick up your own digital version of Salge’s album on 
