The other week I had a bit of free time, so I had a go at something a bit different. Is 3 basses too many?!
I was borderline obsessed with the album Grace when I was a teenager, and this tune has some beautiful changes. I actually came up with the chordal part (as played by the bass on the left) a few years ago, but wasn’t satisfied with how it sounded on its own. I’ve previously done solo bass arrangements with vocalists and other instrumentalists, but this time I decided to make it challenging in a different way.
The stompbox and the foot tambourine were relatively last-minute additions to the arrangement. I had planned to try playing both at once, either whilst playing the harmony part or the upright, but decided to split them between the two to save my brain too much work!
This is also the first time I’ve recorded a video on upright bass, despite having owned one for 4 years. I’m still nowhere near the standard I’d like to be, but it’s such a demanding instrument, so progress is slow. Watching the video shows me just how dodgy my technique is too – something else to work on!
Another learning curve was the video edit. I’d not tried making a composite shot before, apart from some brief tests when preparing for this shoot last week. It’s pretty basic stuff if you’re a proper video editor, but nonetheless it took me a while to figure out how to blend the 3 shots together. Turns out ‘garbage mattes’ are useful!
Hope you enjoy this one. It was fun to put together!
Well, that was fun. Pretty mad to play in front of that many people too!
I mentioned Seeds by Lasperanza a little while back. It’s out everywhere now! Thanks again to Rico for having me on board. I played bass on ‘Working Day and Night’ and ‘One Minute From Love’. The whole album is a stonker though! Get it from all good stores via the Lasperanza site, or listen below:
Continue reading*One of the smaller studios. We’re not big-time yet.
Enjoy this live session Goodfoot recorded a few months back. It’s one of our original tunes this time – in fact, the first song Danny & I wrote together!
I also mixed the audio and edited the video. We only had 3 static angles on the day – we should have had 4 but I forgot my GoPro – so I had to get creative.
Thanks to James Dickson for having us and engineering the session! And it goes without saying, we love our amazing live band.
This is the title track from our new EP. Get it here!
It’s finally here! 6 tracks that we’ve slaved over for far too long. Download/stream here. x
Another video with the Hayman 40/40! It’s Patrice Rushen, so the original bass player can be none other than ‘Ready’ Freddie Washington.
Signal chain for those interested:
Any requests for playalongs? Let me know in the comments below. ↓
A few years ago Rico Garofalo asked me to play a couple of tracks on his album. The project is called Lasperanza, and the album Seeds is released next month.
At the session, Rico explained the concept to me: the album would be comprised of re-worked covers that reflect his musical upbringing, namely soul classics he heard on the radio in the 80s.
One of the tracks I played on is a re-imagined version of MJ’s stonking disco classic ‘Working Day and Night’. Check it out below!
There’s some killer playing all over the first Haim album, but I think this one stands out for me. The pattern in verse 1, with its 16th notes jumping between octaves, is deceptively difficult.
Although Este Haim exclusively uses a Fender Precision for Haim’s live shows, to my ears the bass on this track sounds like a Jazz. At least that’s what it sounds like initially – the tone changes a bit in the pre-chorus, so it could be a variety of basses throughout. At any rate, I thought my recently-acquired Hayman 40/40 would be perfect to attempt this tune. With both pickups on, it sounds like a beefed-up Fender Jazz.
Continue readingOne evening last November I tracked bass on this single by RuthAnne, and last week it finally dropped. It sounds huge! It’s always interesting how a track can evolve after a recording session – I’m pretty sure there wasn’t a gospel choir on the record when I played my part. Thanks to George Moore for getting me involved.
For those who are interested in this sort of thing, here’s some gear chat! I used my trusty Anaconda UJ5-E bass, direct into the desk via my Noble preamp. If I remember the session correctly (and this is pushing it – it had been a long day!), I used the neck pickup only for a warmer and fatter sound.
If you want to hear other tracks I’ve recorded as a session musician, you can follow my Session Cuts playlist on Spotify. 🎚🎛