Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Saldana.
Andy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in SD on Nov 22 1992 (24 y). I was raised in National city in a low-income household, in a shitty neighborhood. My mom had me when she was 16, so my grandma helped raise me alongside my uncle who is a few years older than me. I would look up to him because he knew about everything that was cool at the time. I have early memories of being 8 years old sitting in his room as he would smoke weed and play Wu-tang albums. Some family members were older pachucos they were veterans (ex-gang members) so that old school Chicano heritage was always big part of my life. When I was around 10 I would go down to Tijuana a lot to visit family but mostly it was to accompany my grandma to church every weekend. As I got older I really started hating going to church so I would sneak out with the older kids and we would go into the church music room. I was amazed when I’d see them play mundano songs (non-church music).
My uncle was a rapper so he would always be performing at events around San Diego and Tijuana, I would be at all the shows selling merch and talking to the older musicians so I’ve always been around functions and helping out with events. Eventually, I reached middle school where in met Pepe (los shadows guitarist) we had a few classes together and eventually became good buds. One-day Pepe brought his guitar to school and was playing “Rape me” by Nirvana, I told pepe “yo what the fuck is he talking about why is he saying these things” I remember Pepe saying “he’s not talking about it literally, he’s expressing himself, by using the word “rape” as a metaphor” When he said that it was like I came to a realization and fell in love with the idea of poetry. So, in began writing about my own life, I would try to express myself through poetry but that can only satisfy the itch so much, there had to be another way to express myself. For some reason I gravitated towards the bass guitar I figured it be easier and faster to learn, plus if I had a bass id be able jam with Pepe since he already had a guitar. So, I begged my mom for a bass but she never had enough money. So, at 13 I started working at my first job. It was a job called Teen Ambition, the job consisted of a couple guys who would drive around picking up inner city kids and dropping them off in random parking lots to sell miscellaneous items out of a box. My hours would vary depending on my school schedule but I was determined and would work every day 4pm- 11 pm. Super Sketchy now that I think about it we would hold like $400 at a time, and would only keep like $50 at the end of the day. Eventually I scraped up enough money to buy my Dean Bass, which I still own to this day.
I quit that fucking job the day after I bought my guitar. After that it was like I had tunnel vision and as soon as I learned the basics, Pepe and I started our first band called “Noose”. It was a grunge band. We would practice every day after school. By the time I was 17 we had played a whole bunch of venues and had even recorded an EP “Pheromones”. Then high school ended. Pepe moved away to Florida and I stayed in Big Nasty. Since I focused all my energy on Music, I really didn’t do that well in school, so all my friends either went to college or started working. After graduation I had no qualifications so I resorted to selling drugs, but that eventually got me into some trouble so in said fuck it it’s time to get a real job and so in did. I became a car salesman at the age of 19 … I hated the job but the pay was good so I saved up for a computer in which it would record songs I wrote. This is also around the time I began singing. I would send songs to Pepe and he would send back songs he made. We would always talk about the good ole times until one day he said fuck it I’m moving back. I Helped him drive from Florida to California the whole way we talked about forming Los Shadows and scheming on ways to infiltrate the scene. So, we hit the ground running as soon as we got back to San Diego we wrote “Mexico” and “wake and bake”, At this point we had decided that I was gonna sing and he was gonna play bass. Only problem was that we had no drummer.
So, we put up an Ad up on Craigslist. That’s when we met Mark. He came thru and we played the songs for him, he immediately caught on to our style. We knew he was in the band from the moment he walked in with a joint and a six pack of beer. So, we spent the majority of 2015 writing songs. Eventually our friend Dan joined as our lead guitar player. We gigged with that line up for a short period of time. But the chemistry wasn’t there. So, Pepe decided to Hop back on guitar and we added Xavier on Bass. We recorded Midnight Climax Shortly after Xavier joined.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been smooth sailing since we got our current line up.
Los Shadows – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Well, when we started we were mostly focusing on just music now we’ve kind a branched out since midnight climax and began working on different ventures. Our company millhaüs specializes in recording bands merchandise for bands as well as marketing.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
I would say anytime I play with a band that I genuinely listen too.
Contact Info:
- Website: Losshadows.bandcamp.com
- Phone: 6197018155
- Email: losshadowsband@gmail.com
- Instagram: @losshadows
- Facebook: Los Shadows
- Twitter: Los shadows
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