CLIENT/COLLABORATOR: Andrew Sa
PROJECT: Full length debut album
ROLES: Producer, Songwriter, Lyricist, Composer
For the last two years, I’ve had the great honor of walking beside Andrew Sa on his journey to make a debut album. What began as a one-song trial collaboration became a full length album. What started out as a single-role production project evolved into a sweeping creative immersion of inspired contributions, from lyrics to chord progressions, to melodies and arrangements, to instruments and vocals. In an industry that has historically overlooked, undervalued, and dismissed female leadership, being hand-picked to direct this effort has felt significant both professionally and personally. For a queer self-taught musician to be given the curatory power to enlist an additional female producer and audio engineer (longtime collaborator, Missy Thangs) and work in tandem with a gay country singer from Chicago by-way-of California felt—though unfortunately unique—quite powerful and symbolic.
When I first heard Andrew’s home-spun demos, I was blown away. His voice is a downright blue-ribbon stunner—timeless, soulful, dynamic; tender and bold at once. Yet also its own thing. One mustn’t throw around a reference to “Roy Orbison” just willy nilly—it has to hold up. And just because you are blessed with a godlike golden throat doesn’t mean that what comes out of it is an automatic translation of greatness. On the contrary, I believe that gift comes with great responsibility and justiable scrutiny. As a songwriter, I welcome that challenge—to create something compelling and brave and alive with meaning, but also approachable to universal interpretation and free of pretension. To work so intimately and expansively with such a skilled and passionate singer like Andrew was a total dream.
From the onset, Andrew and I approached the lyrical tone carefully making sure to empower our shared belief that to be queer and country can be more than one-dimensional tropes and taglines. We dug deep into gender expression and sexuality, found ways to confront archaic delineations of "tradition" and policed self-expression in country music. In particular, Andrew examined the complicated experience with toxic masculinity in the gay community and his own relationship with desire. This album is proof that narratives long-existing only in the hushed margins can nd their spotlight. Sometimes, it’s inside moody Halsted cocktail clubs where the thirsty and unapologetic among us rule. Other times, it’s a beet-cheeked gorgeous boy two-stepping into the rough hands of a well-built workingman. To name is to validate, and I’m so proud to have helped these stories so vividly exist.
I’ll save the lion’s share of details for a future unveiling, but I do wish to illuminate the individual efforts within what has been a dynamically robust and talent-rich collective of artists along a well-oiled North Carolina-Chicago pipeline:
Spencer Tweedy (drums, percussion), Macie Stewart (strings), Luke Norton (guitars), Casey Toll (bass), TJ Maiani (drums), Allyn Love (pedal steel), Sully Davis (bass), Hunter Diamond (saxophone), Ivan Pyzow (trumpet), Nick Broste (trombone), David Mueller (horn arrangements), Missy Thangs (horn arrangements, keys), Rosali Middleman (vocals), Andrew Sa (vocals), H.C. McEntire (guitar, backing vocals, harmony arrangements)
Produced by H.C. McEntire + Missy Thangs
Recorded by Missy Thangs in Kernersville, NC at Fidelitorium
Additional recordings by Dorian Gehring in Chicago, IL at Foxhall; Alli Blois in Durham, NC at Halloween on Raspberry Hill; H.C. McEntire in Durham, NC at True Blue; Luke Norton in Durham, NC at Reality Recordings; Allyn Love in Raleigh, NC
Mixed by Missy Thangs in Raleigh, NC at Square Tire and Chapel Hill, NC at Betty’s