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The most important part of my musical bio is probably the first
paragraph. I was conceived during the Summer Of Love and born in 1968 in a room overlooking
Manhattan’s Central Park, just like Rosemary’s Baby. When I was an infant,
my parents would put the left and right speakers of the stereo on either side of my
playpen and play whatever they were listening to at the time, which included Surrealistic
Pillow, anything by The Doors, The White Album and the soundtrack to the Broadway show
Hair. Considering how soft and suggestible the infant brain is and the extreme degree
of stereo separation they used when mixing music in those days, it’s no wonder
I’ve always had a love of the psychedelic and the mod.
My dad forced me to take guitar lessons when I was 12 after getting sick of watching
me play air-guitar and bass (left-handed) to a VHS copy of The Kids Are Alright and
the New Wave bands on very early MTV. Later, despairing of my career choices, he would
come to regret that decision. Whether to learn lefty was never really an issue. My
teacher, a respected university-level professor, said that since the guitar is a folk
instrument – as opposed to an orchestra instrument – it didn’t matter
if I played lefty or not from a technical point of view. His way of thinking, which
I agree with, is that if you are at all ambidextrous then it’s more useful to
learn righty. But if you are very lefty – which I am – it’s better
to learn left-handed because you won’t get frustrated at the beginning of the
learning experience while you’re trying to get your brain to work backwards.
You’ll be making music sooner and it will feel natural.
I started taking bass lessons a year later after falling in love with a heavily
modified Hofner Beatle bass and spending my combined Christmas and birthday $350 to
buy it. I so wish I still had that instrument. I studied bass and guitar simultaneously
for 4 years, and while guitar is useful for writing and arranging songs, I always had
more fun playing bass. The guitar scene is overpopulated; even great guitarists struggle
to come up with original ideas. Bass remains the undiscovered country. Every song
is a real chance to do something totally new; to push the envelope with creativity
and, if you’re really lucky, blow some minds with sounds they’ve never heard
before. For that reason, my favorite way to record bass is near the end of the tracking
process once most everything else has been recorded. That way you can slalom around
all the other parts and sounds to come up with something really creative.
I’ve been playing professionally – and sometimes even making a living
doing it – since 1993. I’m not really a fan of performing covers outside
the home or practice space. I like working on original projects and am not educated/talented
enough to teach, so it’s rare when music can be my full time job. From 1999-2008
we ran our own group, Gaijin A Go-Go, which was kind of a cross between the B-52s and
Pizzicato 5. We were signed to Sony Records in Japan for a while. I got to play all
kinds of venues that I always dreamed of performing in and meet and even work with
some of my idols. Currently (2010) I am bassist for Soundpool, “disco-shoegazers
from New York City who enjoy fusing ethereal vocals, spacey lush synths and wall of
sound guitars with funky bass lines, disco beats and psychedelic visuals.• (from
our MySpace bio). We have 3 albums out on various indie-labels and play out as much
as we can.
Anyone can contact me at agent00soul_10012@yahoo.com
INSTRUMENTS:
To be honest, I buy instruments more on how they look than anything else, as long as
the intonation is reliable and they sound decent. It's amazing how much easier it is
now to get good quality stuff at decent prices than back in the early 80s. Still not
enough lefty instruments though.
2009 Fender Jaguar Bass - imported directly from a shop in Japan as they don't sell
lefties of these in the US
1993 Fender Custom Shop Jazz Bass - bought used in 2001. When the neck died, I turned
it into a Frankenbass with a Warmoth neck and a Duncan P-Bass pickup up front (mounted
backwards to accommodate the pickguard, it gives a deeper bass sound).
1997 Epiphone Viola Bass
SOUND REINFORCEMENT:
Again, I have to admit that I bought this unit based mostly on looks but I also need
lots of power as shoegaze bands are loud and I wanted Class-D convenience.
2009 TC Electronic RH450 head - the Swiss Army Knife of amps in fewer than 9lbs. It
can be used for any occasion - all size gigs, recording, practice - and the sound is
closest to a Class-D version of an Ampeg that I could find. Even though I like the
lightshow on the faceplate, this was probably overkill for me. If I did it again, I
would buy the cheaper Classic 450 version.
2009 TC Electronic RS212 cabinet - the 2X12" cabinet that matches the amp
My favorite bass amp of all time is the SWR Basic Black which has a totally organic
sound, although only 125 watts or so. Unfortunately they seem to have a shelf life
of less than a decade of hard use before they are in the repair shop all the time.
I went through 2 of them and would love to keep one for recording if I had the room.
Its replacement, the SWR Black Beauty, is built like a square tank and is 350 watts
but sounds awful to me. So I wasn't just ready to adopt Class-D when it came along,
I wanted to put it in a cute outfit and wheel it around in a baby carriage! Which,
thanks to its size, I can….
EFFECTS:
Yes, please! And lots of them... |
