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.