Anyone who frequents The Strip has probably heard Andy Hall’s music drifting down from The Bear Trap’s rooftop bar. A native from Hartselle, Ala., Hall has been playing music in Tuscaloosa for the past several years.
“As a musician you want to make the kind of music you’d want to listen to,” Hall said. “I want to tell a story with my music and create a peaceful setting for people, because that is what music is for me.”
Hall uses a looping machine to layer different tracks and create his unique sound. A loop is a repeating section of sound material. A musician can record pieces of himself playing and have them looping as long as he needs them in the background.
“The loop station compounds every aspect of the songs that I write and piles them on top of each other in such a way that, if I were cloned five times, that is exactly how it would sound,” Hall said. “That’s something I enjoy about what I do. When you’re by yourself you can do anything you want and go any direction just like you’re every person in the band. That’s why I get a kick out of playing with loop stations because I have to answer to me and me only.”
He described his process of looping music as always changing. Sometimes it is a bass rhythm or a rhythm guitar part or sometimes he will start with vocals.
“I usually start with something to let me know the beat of the song, whether it is a cymbal track with my mouth or setting the delay on my pedals, where rhythmically, it’s like a metronome,” Hall said. “I’ll go ahead and do that first so I know exactly what the beat is.”
Getting started is the most important part for him, he said.
“‘Don’t mess up’ is really the only thing going through my head,” he said. “You’ve got to redo everything if you mess up.”
Even in a place like The Bear Trap where he feels the most comfortable performing, Hall said it always takes him two or three songs to warm up.
“When I’m actually building this part up I think I could ignore a bombing of the city when I’m making that stuff,” he said. “That’s when I’m zoned in and really focused. The rest of it, when I’m singing or soloing up top, that’s just me having fun.”
Hall said there have been times before when he has run out of breath because he is concentrating so hard.
“I just forgot to take a breath until it was too late, then I took a big breath and you could hear it on the loop station,” he said. “I’m reminded every time I mess up, at least once every few seconds.”
Hall is in the process of producing his solo debut album, “Mighty Tree.” Hall’s family has a big impact on his music career, encouraging him to pursue what he loves. His parents were in a motorcycle accident last year. For him, that accident became a creative catalyst for writing music.
“It was like the creative switch just turned on,” he said.
His new album is devoted to the idea of family as a mighty support tree and will be coming out soon.
“What I love about music is how it can make you change the way you feel at any given time,” Hall said. “It is a way to let out emotion and a way to bottle it up at the same time. The way I see the world is through music. If you could see my music, really see it, you would be seeing the world as I see it. That is what music does for me.”
