Having brought “tango back to the dancefloor” as one third of Gotan Project, Philippe Cohen Solal couldn’t be accused of repeating himself on his new album. The result of a fortnight spent at Three Trees Studio in rural Nashville, The Moonshine Sessions is a French producer’s take on country music. If those two words make you shudder, then DJ $olal is intent on changing your opinion.

It’s fair to say no one, from dancefloor dwellers to Tennesse bar flys, could’ve expected this album. Stripped of any electronic touches, The Moonshine Sessions is an authentic throwback to the early recordings of Hank Williams and Neil Young. It’s a bold move for a man better known for his slinky lounge beats and tango re-jigs, but each track is completely assured in its aim. Solal’s co-producer on the sessions was Bucky Baxter, a true country music identity and Bob Dylan’s former pedal-steel guitarist. Together, they assembled a group of musicians to record the organic, all-acoustic material. In addition to a cast of distinctive vocalists with plenty of life experience between them, The Moonshine Sessions weaves the sounds of Nashville into the mix – insects humming, car engines starting up, the murmur of old friends sharing stories. It’s a record to make you re-think country music.

In March, the Frenchman is joining his compatriots Nouvelle Vague for a double-headliner tour around Australia. With the intention of making people “dance to the country music vibe”, $olal will command the turntables while collaborator Filip Wauters works the pedal steel. Here ITM’s Jack Tregoning finds out how the Sessions came to be.

How was the album received in France?

In France, we had a really great response. I was really surprised, you know? Not because I didn’t think the album was good, but because in France people have quite a prejudice against country music. Some people love it, but I would say the majority of French people are confusing music with, say, the Bush Administration. They think it’s the soundtrack of the Bush administration. That may be true of mainstream country music, but it’s really not true of the real country music. On The Moonshine Sessions, I tried to keep the spirit of the country music I love, and that inspired me to pursue this album. For me, the challenge was to convert people who don’t love this music. For you in Australia, perhaps it is more obvious, because you have a lot of good – and bad – country music.

Where did your love of country music come from? Is it a longstanding passion?

When I was a teenager, I listened to a bit to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. But I listened mostly to Neil Young. Soon I was listening to more country music, and then bluegrass. Even when I was touring with Gotan Project, playing tango on stage, backstage I was listening only to country and bluegrass! So most of The Moonshine Sessions I wrote while on tour with the Gotan Project, in hotel rooms.

When you went to Nashville, was it intimidating to approach these musicians you’d only known through their music?

Sure, yeah. The first time I was invited by Bucky [Baxter] to a barbeque with his friends, everyone was playing fiddle tunes and Bucky said, “Okay, you play us your songs.” So here was this French guy playing country songs, in Nashville, in front of people who are dedicating their life to country music. It was extremely intimidating, but the people are there for the same reasons. And that’s why Bucky asked me to work with him, to produce this album together. I was really surprised by the attitude of the musicians. I expected almost session musicians to be like mercenaries – they record their parts, take their cheques, and are gone. But I couldn’t have been more wrong. The people came back the day after, sometimes with friends and family, to listen to the result. Bucky told me he’d never seen that before!

The thing that was really interesting for both of us was the exchange of views, knowledge and culture. I’m French, this is not the music I was listening to as a child. Bucky was saying after the sessions it’s funny that a French guy would bring country music back to its roots. We tried to make something quite free, but keep the essence of the music and to give the listener the sense of listening to country music in the countryside. This is why we recorded the sounds of nature in Tennesse for the album – to emerge the listener for 60 minutes in the feeling of the countryside.

That’s something that’s quite striking about the album, the sense of the environment…

Exactly, we wanted to almost have the smell of the wood, or the meadow. That’s why we tried to keep it really rootsy. In a way, each track is kind of an example of country music from the late ‘50s to the early ‘70s, and it could be a good introduction for those who know nothing of this music.

Was there any crossover between how you approach a Gotan Project album and how you approached The Moonshine Sessions? Did you have to learn a discipline in the studio?

Sure. This was an experimental project for me – not in the way of very complex experimental music for five people. I wanted it to be popular music, but also very sincere. With Gotan Project, I tried to bring back tango to the dancefloor, but to keep the tango essence alive, without repeating the clichés. With The Moonshine Sessions, I had to make a contemporary record without electronics. I find more and more that you don’t need to use electronics to make something contemporary. You can do that, but you are not obliged.

Interestingly, when you got back to France after the sessions, you attempted to add some electronic textures to the album, but that obviously didn’t feel right?

It was okay, but it was more like a formula. It would be more for commercial reasons to do that. As I discovered when I did Gotan Project, just make the music you want to and hopefully other people will love it too. I said to Bucky with The Moonshine Sessions, let’s not try for success. Let’s just do the album we’d like to listen to.

You’re coming down in March with Nouvelle Vague for a few dates. Will there be a Moonshine Sessions feel to your show?

Absolutely. It’ll be a DJ set, I’ll be on turntables and Filip Wauters will be on pedal-steel guitar. I really want to make people dance to the country music vibe. I feel right now that club music is quite the same – whether it’s housey, or techno, or minimal techno, or electro. From the shows I’ve just done in Europe, I think people are happy to dance to something new.

Catch DJ $olal and Filip Wauters alongside Nouvelle Vague at the following dates:

Saturday 1 March – The Metro Theatre, Sydney
Sunday 2 March – Prince Bandroom, Melbourne
Monday 3 March – Manchester Lane (off Flinders Lane), Melbourne