If you are on the lookout for an album that explores the different blues n roots styles of music then look no further than Andy Baylor’s newest release, Blues from the Irene Building. The multi-instrument playing maestro has created an album full of different blues genres and will be playing some dates to showcase his work. The Rockpit spoke with Andy about his latest album, how he came to support both Bob Dylan & Robert Plant and some sound advice for any budding musicians out there wanting to better themselves in their craft…
Sean: Hi Andy, thanks for talking to us here at The Rockpit. Congratulations on the new album, Blues from the Irene Building – great mix of blues n roots music.
Andy: Well thank you very much. I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it.
Sean: So many different styles throughout the album which makes it sound very traditional but with a new vibe to it also. How do you start building such a variety of songs for an album?
Andy: Yes you’re right, it is quite contemporary. I have a deep interest in the older styles. But because I’m writing the music myself, they are all songs & tunes I’ve written so the only answer I can really give you is that I’m the common denominator. I’ve played so many different styles of music in my career that it all comes together with the song writing.
Sean: I love the fact that it sounds so different from track to track.
Andy: I’m glad it works for you. I have been told in the past that I do too many different styles and for many years people couldn’t categorise me. For an artist like myself, it’s almost like I’ve had to wait for the world to catch up and I don’t want to sound like I’m patting myself on the back… I like a little bit of swing… a little bit of rock… you know all sorts of blues music.
Sean: I’m a bit of a sucker for a good blues ballad and tracks like “The Look in Your Eyes” & “Restless Spirit Blues” tick all the boxes for me. I was intrigued by a quote I read from you regarding “Restless Spirit Blues” where you said, “If you can understand this song then you can understand my whole musical journey.”
Andy: Well I’ve been playing music since the ‘70s when I was a kid and I listened to so many different styles, so I’ve had a restless kind of feeling in my music because I’ve played western swing which a sort of country style, I’ve played Cajun music – I went to Louisiana to learn that funky southern Cajun music – I’ve played in rock n roll bands. So in a way I’ve kind of moved like a restless spirit. I’ve found it hard to settle down into one style. And all the way through this journey I’ve been learning and picking up things. Even though they are all so different they also have many similarities. So now, after all these years, I can make these moves between the styles almost naturally. I hope that makes sense.
Sean: It does and I’ve spoken to a few blues players lately and they all say the same – it’s all comes back from the old music on the plantations and the gospel beginnings.
Andy: Exactly. Well, the two tracks you’ve mentioned are definitely blues ballads but also so very different to each other. “The Look in Your Eyes” has that classic blues ballad feel in a kind of Albert Collins, BB King and Albert King kind of way to a point, whereas “Restless Spirit Blues” is a more folky type blues with almost a slight country feel to it.
Sean: I’m looking forward to travelling back through some of your earlier work and exploring the other albums you’ve done.
Andy: Some are a little hard to find but I can certainly point you in the right direction.
Sean: I see you are playing The Drunken Poet in Melbourne on 11th November. I’m over that weekend but was due to fly out a 3.30pm that day. When I saw you were starting at 4.00pm I managed to change my flight for a little bit later, so really looking forward to seeing you playing live.
Andy: Good on you Sean. I hope it’s worth your while. I’m sure we’ll have a good time. That’s fantastic. Really pleased we can catch up. I love playing the smaller venues too because it’s so much more intimate. That’s the way I like to do it.
Sean: I’m really interested about where the album was recorded. The Irene Building sounds such an interesting place.
Andy: So, I was living in Brunswick in Melbourne at the time and had lived there for many, many years. I used to love to walk the streets, checking out places and there are some fantastic old warehouses… although, sadly they are all being turned into high rise apartments now. The Irene Building was an old lingerie factory, which was family run and there is an arts community there and a recording studio in it. It was a real funky place to find. It’s covered in graffiti and it’s part of the Brunswick scene I’ve grown up with which was art & music. Sadly, it won’t be there for much longer because of these high rise apartments – but that’s how the world goes. It was such a dark, quiet and funky little studio. We just went in and let the music happen. It was just so fitting that the look and the feel of the building went into the music.
Sean: And I see you were also joined by Peter Beulke (bass) and Sharkey Ramos (drums). How is it working with those guys?
Andy: Yeah it was great. Peter is a very well know bass player in the Melbourne scene. He’s played with all sorts of people like Lloyd Spiegel & Geoff Achison. I was in a band with him back in the 80s called The Honey Drippers, before Robert Plant’s Honey Drippers I might add [laughs]. Funny story that – I met Robert Plant when I was in a band called The Dancehall Racketeers and we did the support for him when he was here, so we got to spend a bit of time together and I told him about this band I had with Peter “Boom Boom” Beulke called The Honey Drippers… and six months later he had a band called The Honey Drippers [laughs]. Anyway, Sharkey Ramos who produced mastered & mixed the album, he’s a long term drummer I’ve worked with in Melbourne over the years. It’s a very simple band, it’s a trio – it was very clean and straight ahead so that’s why it swings well, the rhythm is good and the songs are strong. It’s a mixture of simplicity but also musical and lyrical stories from a strong simple base. That’s the way it works.
Sean: So your fans have waited over 4 years since the last album “Reels of Joy”…
Andy: Look it’s been the longest time between albums – right through the 90’s and 2000’s I’ve put out an album once every year or two. I was on the cusp of the changeover from vinyl to digital recording. My first few albums were amongst the first CDs to be released in Melbourne. I kept this timeline of releases up fairly regularly, then I moved to Sydney, had a few personal things going on and also felt that I needed a rest. The way music was becoming readily available was also changing with downloading and streaming, so being an independent artist with no record label it was about finding out how I was going to work out how to present my music in the future – I still haven’t really worked it all out yet to tell you the truth. Who has? [laughs]
Sean: So if I were to look down all your previous albums and had to pick one to listen to, what would you be recommending?
Andy: Not knowing where you’ve come from musically makes it difficult but there’s one called “Melville Milk Bar Blues” which is totally obscure and out of print now and another called “Down Where the Banksias Grow” and “Reel of Joy” is full of variety too.
Sean: So taking you back to your support slots, not only with Robert Plant but with Bob Dylan as well, how did it feel when artists of that stature were hand picking you for their tours?
Andy: So the Dylan thing was back in ’89 I think and a friend of mine who is sadly no longer with us, Suzette Webb had a personal relationship with Bob and she was sort of an agent. She got wind that Bob wanted to hear a variety of acts from Australia so he could select a support band for some shows. Apparently he was a bit sick and tired of what he called “industry bands” and wanted to hear something a bit different. So Suzette collected CDs from a lot of musicians that she knew and a week or two later Bob listened to this pile of CDs and he picked Andy Baylor’s Cajun Combo as the band he wanted to have as support. Funnily enough the second band he picked was my two very talented brothers Donal & Peter, who had a little western swing band in Sydney. So I got to fly up and play with my brothers. It was quite an honour and very interesting. It was a terrific opportunity to work with Bob – as a musician he loves the older styles of music. He also knows his musical history backwards – and I think he appreciated that there were some Australian musicians who knew what they were doing with these older styles of music
Sean: How cool that the great Bob Dylan has totally got where you were coming from musically…
Andy: That’s right. He knows about folk music, western swing, blues, Cajun… all the different forms of American music – what they call roots music. He comes out of that himself.
Sean: So how did that differ to the Robert Plant support shows?
Andy: I can’t remember the name of his band back then but it was a hard rock type of thing. I know it was before he had the Honey Drippers obviously [laughs]. His tour manager Richard East was a friend of mine and we were playing one night with the western swing band which is kind of like country jazz. And so we are playing a gig at the Graphic Arts Club in Sydney… must have been around ’85, and we’re doing our thing, everyone is up dancing & having a great time and who should walk in but Robert Plant [laughs]. Well, he came back stage and said he loved what we were doing and invited us to support him. He was a real lovely guy – very talkative and knowledgeable
Sean: It’s always nice to hear these stories from someone like yourself – I know I can read about them online but it’s not the same as actually hearing them. Talking about online stuff I had a look at you website today www.andybaylor.com.au and is a gorgeously put together site and was intrigued by the section called “Writing”. I read a couple – are they song lyrics or poems?
Andy: Well, I do write poetry that sometimes becomes songs and lyrics for songs. I’m not sure which ones you may have read – there’s one called “Busking on Old Burke Street” which is a song with a slightly humorous take on the music industry. It’s about a guy who starts out as a busker on Burke Street, which is the main street in Melbourne, which a lot of us have all done. He gets big in the industry and ends up going to America and then his bubble bursts and he comes back full circle and ends up busking on Burke Street again – it’s classic riches to rags story.
Sean: So, that busking reference leads me nicely to ask where did it all start for you?
Andy: Well as a youngster, I used to buy the Beatles, The Rolling Stones & Bob Dylan – I heard all that stuff and really got into it. As I got older and went to parties I started to hear a broader spectrum of music – the first blues I heard was Lightnin’ Hopkins and that turned me on to black American music and blues. Then I started hearing Jimi Hendrix, Aretha Franklin & Otis Reading and it all just clicked with me and so I followed it all up. So even though there wasn’t a defining moment, you can’t deny as an impressionable teenager in Australia with all this amazing music around, well the influence was so powerful – Muddy Waters, BB King & Howlin Wolf, these were all huge influences.
Sean: And I see you play so many different instruments too. Was it the guitar first for you?
Andy: No, not at all. It was the violin actually – I learnt it at school. I wasn’t a brilliant student or anything like that. I worked in the strawberry fields for a couple of years as a picker and saved up and brought my first guitar and learnt that. So the violin & guitar are my two main instruments but I also play piano, the mandolin and a few other bits and pieces.
Sean: Knowing what you know now, is there any advice you could give any young musicians out there reading this?
Andy: The internet has made music so much more accessible. Whatever music you like whether it’s rock n roll or the blues, the internet is such a good tool for watching clips for great musicians from the past. Follow your passions, be respectful of what others have done before you and find out where it has all come from. Don’t worry about losing yourself in the music either. The more you watch and learn how others have played then the more it puts you in good stead to be a strong performer yourself. Australia is not America, so you need to find yourself and express yourself in your own music. So there you have it – look at the history, learn from the masters & put yourself into it.
Sean: Great advice Andy. I like to finish with a few quick fire questions; if I book you a table in a restaurant for two hours and you can invite 3 guests from the music world, dead or alive, who would you like joining you?
Andy: I definitely need someone who is fond of food [laughs]… So Big Joe Turner would be there. Keeping with the food theme I’d probably invite T-Bone Walker [laughs] and also maybe Billie Holiday too.
Sean: [laughs] Great table for blues & jazz legends and that’s what I love about this question – the randomness of the answers. I haven’t had any of those guys before. What was the last album you listened too?
Andy: I was listening to a collection of Hits of the Early 60’s featuring songs like The Locomotion by Little Eva, Twistin’ The Night Away by Sam Cooke and Dream Lover by Bobby Darin, to name but a few. So I was listening to that because it gave off a great vibe in the house.
Sean: Final question Andy. If you could be credited with any song ever written, what song would you like?
Andy: Oh Lord. That’s tough. The obvious answer would be the song that made one hell of a lot of money [laughs] but for me I’ll take “Summertime” by George Gershwin (Andy starts singing down the phone) “Summertime, and the livin’ is easy, Fish are jump’, And the cotton is high…” Yeah that would be my choice off the top of my head.
Sean: Another new one to my list. I can’t wait to catch the gig at The Drunken Poet on the 11th November and come and say high. It just leaves me to say on behalf of us at The Rockpit I just want to thank you for your time and wish you all the best with “Blues from The Irene Building” and the live dates.
Andy: Thanks Sean. I’m really looking forward to catching up and it’s been a real pleasure chatting to you. I’ve really enjoyed it.
Sean: Thanks Andy
CATCH ANDY LIVE:
NOV 8 ANDY BAYLOR BLUES SHOW @ THE DOGS BAR, St. Kilda, VIC
NOV 9 ANDY BAYLOR BLUES SHOW @ THE LOMOND HOTEL, Melbourne, VIC
NOV 10 ANDY BAYLOR’S HOMETOWN JAZZ BAND @ VICTORIAN JAZZ CLUB @CLAYTON RSL, Clayton, VIC
NOV 11 ANDY BAYLOR BLUES SHOW @ THE DRUNKEN POET, Melbourne, VIC
NOV 22 ANDY BAYLOR’S JUKE JOINT JUMPERS @ MISS PEACHES AT MARLBOROUGH HOTEL, Newtown, NSW
NOV 23 ANDY BAYLOR CAJUN ROOTS TRIO @ THE GASOLINE PONY, Marrickville, NSW
NOV 25 ANDY BAYLOR BLUES SHOW @ THE MARRICKVILLE BOWLING CLUB, Marrickville, NSW
