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00:00What is a bass line?
00:07What is a bass line?
00:09No, a bass line to me is something that has groove
00:12and that carries the song that makes you want to dance.
00:17A bass line is one note that leads to another note
00:21that creates perfect painting.
00:24I'm in the right place at the right time.
00:27The bass is the flavor, it's the juice, it's the seasoning, right?
00:33It's a melody down low.
00:35It's the roots from which the part of the song grows.
00:41If you were from space and you wanted to know what a bass line was...
00:45It's the hands on the wheel of the car.
00:48Sexy, rude, low notes.
00:52Bass is a physical thing.
00:54It kind of hits you in the gut.
00:57My puns are shaking, my nose is tickling.
01:01I say yes, I like that.
01:04Fog horns.
01:05This boom...
01:07...booms and it carries for miles.
01:09Well, if I didn't bass, I don't know what is.
01:11It's all about the groove, baby.
01:13I'm Nate Mendel, bass player and original member of Foo Fighters.
01:19And along with Dave, the only one that's been along for the whole ride.
01:22Nate Mendel plays fucking bass and Foo Fighters always have.
01:26Look at that guy.
01:28Creating the bass lines that glue our songs together
01:30is a job I've loved for over 30 years.
01:33It's the bass that lies at the heart of the songs we all cherish.
01:43Cementing the foundation that is Foo Fighters rhythm section
01:45and creating something meaningful that the audience can physically and emotionally feel
01:49is my prime motivation.
01:54Along with a stellar line-up of four-string heroes,
01:56I'm going to explore the vital power of bass in music.
02:00Nice cup of tea there.
02:02I'll take you to the studio where Foo Fighters' bass lines are born.
02:05A lot of heavy recordings were done on this.
02:09Nate, how are you doing?
02:10And swap some stories with friend and Nirvana bassist, Chris Novoselic.
02:16It's a simple song.
02:19We're going to celebrate our favorite bass lines.
02:21Psycho Killer is one of the most iconic bass riffs in history.
02:28This bass line has all the things.
02:31And explore the unique sonic element of the low end.
02:35Never quite sure whether it's going to explode.
02:51I didn't think I would appreciate living in Los Angeles because I grew up in the Northwest.
03:04I need trees and rain and mountains.
03:07And this is kind of the opposite of that.
03:12But there's definitely beauty up here.
03:14You just got to search for it a little bit more.
03:16One of the reasons I love playing bass is it's like a meditation.
03:22I'm so focused on the thing.
03:25Everything else just gets cleared away.
03:29And those moments are so rejuvenating.
03:35My role serves as both the backbone supporting and the heartbeat propelling Foo Fighters forward.
03:41All my life I've been searching for something.
03:44It's all of my life.
03:45I love that one because it's a great one to start with.
03:47Because you've got that dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun.
03:49Like this propulsive thing.
03:50I'm like, okay, when's it going to hit?
03:52And then, bam, on that downbeat.
03:54Fire!
03:57You've got to go in that riff with everybody going full speed.
04:00Kind of awesome.
04:02It's well known that many of the best bass lines can be spare.
04:06And here you go. I play this one on one string.
04:07But it's what the song needs here.
04:11A relentless pace at the low frequency to rumble and plow through the speakers.
04:15And then you throw an audience on top of that.
04:18And that's when it becomes something that truly transports you.
04:21Yeah, let's go away!
04:25For me, playing bass with Foo Fighters, it's flow state.
04:29So when you're in a flow state, you could be writing, you could be a poet.
04:33You're in your element, things are working, it's coming together, and you're able to, like, ply your craft in a way that resonates with your soul.
04:39Because when you're feeling it, and then you notice that the crowd is too, you're all part of the same animal. And then it snowballs.
04:49And that can be pretty magical.
04:53Yeah, it's crazy when we play, like, big gigs, you can really see the effect it has on the crowd.
05:02So sometimes playing even one simple riff, and you really see the crowd react to that.
05:07Then you can really tell, like, how they can, like, feel the bass vibrating through them.
05:14It makes you just want to get lost in the music.
05:17A good bottom end has a profound physical effect on people.
05:21As a DJ, I can see it when the bass kicks in.
05:24Because it does it, it vibrates you like a good bass line goes down your ribcage and ends up in your stomach.
05:38That frequency seems to affect this region of the body.
05:44When that bass plays, they have to move their waistline.
05:53Sonically, it's the heaviest thing in the world.
05:57It's like a fucking lion moving like a tiger.
06:01It's not scared of anyone, it's moving its own half-time pace, yeah?
06:05There's a primeval power there, you know?
06:11Jack Bruce, Sunshine of Your Love.
06:14It's so on the money, you know?
06:21That riff has, like, a certain forbidding quality.
06:25You know, it's heavy, it's a heavy riff.
06:28The simplicity is fantastic.
06:31And then Jack starts singing.
06:34It's getting it done.
06:37That riff, I'm loud and I'm proud and I'm dark, right?
06:42In this way of, it's a minor key.
06:46This is not happy and uplifting.
06:50So there's a lot of blues and I love it.
06:54Already, it's like there's several statements in there, right?
06:58So this is a statement.
07:03And then, where could it go from there?
07:06It doesn't get any sunnier.
07:08It's...
07:10So the whole thing, it's darker.
07:11I mean, you can't imagine a time when that rift didn't exist, can you?
07:27I went to see The Cream up in Birmingham.
07:29Everybody was there to see Eric Clapton.
07:30There was hardly anybody where Jack Bruce was playing.
07:31So I was standing next, watching Jack Bruce.
07:32And I'd never thought about bass before.
07:33And I was just absolutely mesmerised at what Jack Bruce was doing.
07:34Bending the notes, and I'd never heard the bass player do that.
07:35It was sort of like lead guitar on bass.
07:36And I was just absolutely mesmerised at what Jack Bruce was doing.
07:37Bending the notes, and I'd never heard the bass player do that.
07:38It was sort of like lead guitar on bass.
07:39It was just so different normally.
07:40The rhythm was different.
07:41And I'd never heard the bass player do that.
07:42It was sort of like lead guitar on bass.
07:43It was just so different normally.
07:44The rhythm guitarist would like sort of drown out what the bass was playing.
07:58You didn't really notice what the bass was playing.
08:03And I was just so different normally.
08:07The rhythm guitarist would like sort of drown out what the bass was playing.
08:11But you didn't really notice what the bass was playing.
08:13playing when i saw jack bruce he just had this whole new way of playing jack bruce incidentally
08:19always said that the greatest bass player of all was uh j.s bach when you listen to
08:25orchestral pieces that composed by bach you get these wonderful
08:31these wonderful walking bass lines that are sometimes can be sort of quite atonal
08:38but they oh my goodness it that's what's driving this whole thing
08:43i ask a lot of bass players i know i've heard you know flea has said this lots of people say this
08:51the uh jack bruce always used to say that yeah the father of the bass as we know it is bach
08:57that idea of a piece of music that is scaffolding the basis of bass playing as we know it is bark cello
09:06the pacific northwest in the mid 80s was home to a thriving underground diy music scene
09:12and it was this that provided my first insights into what a great baseline could be
09:19i was maybe 11 or 12. i had a friend and he was a guitar player and we're just hanging out
09:24like we should start a band and he said i'm already playing guitar so that leaves you with
09:28bass i was like great so i got a got a base and tried to kind of figure out what was going on
09:34i was really into the police's ghost and the machine record it's fronted by a bass player great
09:42bass lines amazing record so in the back of my mind i was like oh sting's cool i'll i'll do that
09:49spirits in the material world is one of the police and therefore stings greatest bass lines
10:09masterful in its simplicity it plays with rhythm to create tension against the syncopated synth line
10:14they subjugated up note stuff that they borrowed from reggae and then come down on the downbeat for
10:22the chorus
10:22it was cool there wasn't a lot of complicated stuff with sting he wasn't like a prog guy you want
10:33to write a catchy bass line um and he was great at that
10:35although sting was a jazz player at heart the police had enough punk attitude that it was a
10:49natural evolution for me to gravitate to the hardcore scene springing up around me
10:54i gravitated towards punk rock really early on and let's print the t-shirts let's print the stickers
11:00let's figure out how to buy a van book shows and do a band and go out there and not worry about
11:06the musicianship so much but go out and have a good time and be weirdos always remember the moment
11:11that it clicked for me that was a black flag record damaged
11:19and i'm just sitting in my buddy's room or listening to it like what is this what is this and all of a
11:24sudden it was like this is going to be my life from here on out it was like that i i love this and
11:30it fit in really well with skateboarding it's like almost everyone was doing hardcore was on
11:34a skateboard skateboarders were all listening to hardcore and it was like the perfect soundtrack and
11:38i loved it
11:46that's a minor threat baseline well it's really fast right a lot of root notes a lot of following
11:52what the guitars are doing primarily like really fast pick work that's why i started playing with a pick
11:57you're trying to play those those lines and it's just it's doable with your fingers but because it's
12:04a softer tone uh and it's harder to maybe play as fast with your fingers i kind of gravitated towards
12:10the pick so it's just a lot of like playing fast before long my high school band diddly squat worked
12:16playing throughout the northwest we had all the punk prerequisites snarling guitars and a fully ignited
12:21crowd slam dancing along it was furious and weird and i loved it the crowd was slam dancing people
12:29are throwing elbows i mean the whole idea is that like the music is at best it's it's really explosive
12:35and just like creates this well of energy within you and so that's that's where slam dancing came from
12:41i was like how are we going to react to this we're not going to be doing this you know why don't we just
12:45get a big circle pit going and try to mimic the energy that's coming off the stage
12:52it was like loose and small and energetic so it was exciting
13:01having grown up emulating the raw energy of punk rock that was tony the singer diddly squat i began
13:06finally to understand what diddly squats guitar player jason cobb had been trying to tell me all along
13:11i should be taking cues from the likes of getty lee steve harris and of course the goat or should i say
13:17ox john entwistle i was trying to learn my generation bass solo the the the bass solo of my generation it's
13:36just insane that that you know that they they thought of that you can't really talk about
13:43bass playing without mentioning john entwistle he's doing this like triplet thing so instead of doing
13:51this he's going he's doing all three and they're like trying to do this weird triplet thing with it
13:57i still don't get this three finger thing that he can do and i've seen other players demonstrating it
14:11but for me that's where the symmetry goes goes off for me can't think in threes also up here and he
14:18had his bass set up to where it was the strings were really close to the frets so he would barely have
14:24to touch it he was almost like happy i don't know how he did it but he was able to get that thing
14:31that's very like signature and so it's always got a ring and he was like i mean he's he's a master
14:40i think entwistle was unique because he had this deep musicality he came from being a horn player
14:48and then he had this just male aggression and and that's what makes it amazing he has so many
14:54techniques he had a very particular like a typewriter thing a certain way of attacking
14:59the fretboard and the strings uh which i loved and which made perfect sense because not only
15:05was he in a band with pete towns he was a band with keith moon so he's got to be heard
15:14entwistle invented the idea of the bass kind of as a weapon you know rather than being a polite boy at
15:20the back of the class man what a guy the ox was absolutely astounded really admired like i love
15:28the who like to tell him he's a bit of a moddy boy got me scooters in the shed i'd like to borrow your
15:36bass for a minute the dawn of the 90s i packed up my bass and headed to the epicenter of post-punk
15:43seattle grunge was about to blow the doors off the mainstream and my then new band sunny day real
15:48estate was signing to the same label that had released early nirvana and sound garden records
15:53we had this house had like seven guys living in it and jam forever in the basement and it became kind
16:00of a good band seeking a detour from the blunt aggression of hardcore i found a better fit in
16:11the more melodic sounds in the d-rock's early days i had a lot of things that were helpful to me as a
16:22bass player in that band there are these arpeggiated like wide open guitar lines so there's a lot of
16:32space to kind of structure the song around what the bass is doing because the guitars were a little bit more
16:37nebulous just from in circles
16:56i don't know i like always like if there's anything close to like a signature bass line that i've ever
17:00had i think that might be it it felt like a progression and just like was where i wanted to
17:09go at the time i just wanted to get lost in the song you know that song's got that kind of circular
17:14movement where you can kind of get lost in a trance with it which is ultimately where i wanted to go
17:22where i did go next was somewhere i'd never expected the trailblazing nirvana had shot to fame
17:28then crashed down with the tragic death of kurt cobain in what seemed like the blink of an eye
17:33we were all in shock for dave grohl healing meant writing a collection of songs that become the first
17:39foo fighters album i finally got the nerve uh to ask him i was like hey i heard you might be putting
17:45a band together so we got together to toss and jammed and we went upstairs to grab a sandwich or
17:51something and sitting around the table and david goes like you guys want to start a band
17:58none of us had a clue what this band would become stadiums grammy trophies and the rock
18:04and roll hall of fame it still feels surreal
18:11i always thought that there should be like like a guidebook when you move from like playing clubs like
18:19operating at a higher level where you've got managers and agents and publicists and like
18:23there's this whole operation that happens and no one's ever like oh by the way this is how things
18:31work you just start doing it and so you kind of have to like get your sea legs a little bit figure
18:37out how you're going to deal with it definitely early on it was pretty disconcerting just operating
18:43at this level the best way that we found to manage this life that we found ourselves in
18:48is to not take it too seriously this is my exact commute to work
18:58we were like not really 100 l.a based until like the early 2000s
19:04and we were practicing at this place called mates which is here in the valley and it was fine but
19:15wanted to do a place that was like ours you know like a studio a place to rehearse
19:25and it's just kind of like a hangout place we'll do like everything there we've recorded videos there
19:30parties there it's just kind of like home base
19:37the video for white limo was an homage to the lo-fi super 8 videos we'd grown up with
19:42and we filmed it just outside the studios
19:46i love this song all the more because despite my steady diet of punk rock i developed an up-down
19:51picking style and ignored the power of the downstroke until i discovered it during this recording
20:00like i said it's self-taught so i never did down strokes which sound are kind of a you know
20:14principle way of hitting the hitting the string with a pick where
20:17for me it always be it sort of moves back and forth it's not as as percussive
20:32it's just not as good
20:35with a great bass line it can be as much about how you hit the strings as it is the writing of
20:40the notes themselves heavy down strokes with a pick work great for rock
20:44but there are myriad different ways to express yourself through these four strings
20:50one of my all-time favorite bass players is tina weymouth
20:53whose fingers brought so much feel and creativity to her playing with talking heads
21:01they've got this concert from rome in like 1980 we can kind of see her doing that bass line
21:13and that's the foundation of the song it like starts with a jam and her just doing that like
21:19voodoo oh man oh man oh man it's kind of like spooky it's like a spider crawling up your arm i'd
21:25love to love that bass line
21:27like that's almost like a pop but she's not popping
21:42but if you watch her she's going
21:55which kind of makes all the difference and makes it good
21:59very often
22:01in in the world of of bass people can have exactly the same equipment um but their fingers are different
22:07they just get a different sound i thought tina weymouth was extraordinary for such a a a petite
22:15waif-like person she could find ways of of of just finding these quite simple rhythms
22:24and quite you know minimal parts that just kind of punch through and carried the whole song along
22:30it's really difficult to copy another player's instinctive style and this becomes even more
22:36elusive when as with so many of the greatest bass lines it's pared down to just a few simple notes
22:44of course we all know it it's like
22:54three notes really simple but effective baseline that people still respond to
23:08tina she's of course like such a legend and she's like way more precise and clean and like technical
23:16she always brings this like sexy groove into the songs and many of the songs of talking heads have
23:21this like super hooky bass lines that really makes you want to dance
23:30like psycho killer i think is one of the most famous riffs and it just comes from the baseline
23:40this is like the main thing that i loved about tina that really stuck with me and that inspired
23:45me a lot to also try to bring that energy that dancey and sexy feeling into our tracks
23:51and that's what's happening here we are 606 studios foo fighters lair
24:08we're deep in la san fernando valley but as you go in you may notice a slight nod to stockholm sweden
24:13it's kind of a low rent version of abba's studio when we were putting it together i think dave had a
24:22book of abba studio i forget what it's called it's beautiful it's all this woodwork and very brown and
24:27looks like a you know like a scandinavian beautiful studio so we tried to mimic that as best we could
24:34but we're ding dong so this is what you get the vintage neve console was brought in from legendary sound
24:40city studios a few miles away the birthplace of everything from rumors to never mind a lot of
24:46heavy recordings uh were done on this definitely some fleetwood mac you've got stevie nix's signature
24:53here it's beautiful sounding board it's very finicky twist the knob you're like until it finds a decent
25:02spot in the knob where it's like it's clear and then you're good to go onwards
25:09we're set up here for rehearsal right now uh with roughly this the setup that we have on stage
25:15i've got the big cabinets with the tiny speakers i had these made recently just kind of for fun really
25:23this is an svt speaker and ordinarily they've got eight speakers and this has got nine yeah what's the
25:30distance between eight and nine one i don't know it's beyond that i don't yeah so pat's over there
25:39i'm here we've got uh tbd drummer to be there and uh dave's on either side of the drummer here and then
25:47chris is over there who likes to have a menagerie of amplifiers because he's very particular about his
25:53sound we're all just hammering away and chris is like hang on a second i want it to sound like
25:58nuanced and foo fighters i think the role of the bass is to is to be that that glue you know it's
26:06stability like you've got it you've got to be solid
26:12dave's playing guitar and running and singing still remarkably tight but there's a lot going on
26:19pat's got amazing feel and a great ear but he gives very few fucks about hitting the note at
26:27the right time chris shifflett he's the only guy in the band that reads music he's excellent guitar
26:33player he's very tight but he's all the way on the other side of the stage and he's competing with
26:37these other two guitar players taylor hawkins playing drums excellent drummer but very frenetic
26:42it's going to be maybe a little bit different every night which is cool and exciting but it adds an
26:47element of chaos so whenever that kick drum hits i need to be on it if the kick drum is hitting with
26:54what i'm playing then there's going to be a foundation that's going to read out in the audience
26:58and the guitars can be a little looser and it can it'll be okay
27:07i just didn't want it to turn into a cacophony
27:11here's a good example our song the pretender for my part there's not a lot of notes here
27:19but this song relies on the timing of those notes if you've seen the movie whiplash you'll know what
27:24i mean like you can play behind the beat you can play on top of the beat you know there's basically
27:29a pulse of where the song is and different players will play around with that
27:33so taylor grew up with stuart copeland from the police as a big influence and stuart's on top
27:46so he's like almost anticipating the beat and moving the song for you're still
27:50you're still in time you're just kind of slightly ahead of it
27:56it creates this tension in the music and taylor was like that
27:59so i just i was locked into him that that was my thing is like i'm gonna
28:04play the best i can play as interesting as i can but what i'm really trying to do is when he
28:09goes i'm gonna be right there with him
28:14well taylor and i were the odd couple right so i'm more quiet and withdrawn uh not moving through
28:20the world with a a big ego or a loud voice whereas taylor was you know a bit of a bull in a china shop
28:25and so i think that we balanced each other well and had a lot of respect for each other once we
28:31kind of got to know who we were and it was uh it was it was fantastic it was really really great and
28:38i just i admired him so much as a musician we found a real love for each other over the years and it was
28:44great because of that yin and yang when we lost taylor we lost a brother and our band will never be the
28:59same for me i now have to forge that almost telepathic bond with someone new as every bassist knows this
29:07very special connection between bass and drums is the driver of any band
29:16the connection between bass and drum is one of the most important things with etan we really just
29:21like locked with each other since the start
29:27it's really easy and we have a lot of fun like jamming just me and him many times
29:32and many tracks were born just from me and him like creating the bass groove you know of the song
29:39and creating the foundation yeah we have such a strong and special bond and that's i think what
29:44makes the core of of our music you know i don't have a really better way to say it than what keith
29:52says about you know the bass and the drums are like the engine room while charlie loved blues music
30:05and loved you know rock and roll the thing closest to his heart was jazz music and uh we've had that in
30:11common he collected antique cars but he didn't drive you know what i mean he was really a kind of
30:18really interesting interesting fellow i listened to him very very carefully early on i learned a lot
30:25from him about not being too precious about certain things i it's difficult for me to talk to talk about
30:33because i i think it it's uh beyond the realm of of words in a way
30:42bass and drums are usually inseparable locked in tight for the good of the other instruments in the band
30:47but on occasion us bass players will quietly come up with a line that's so inescapably good
30:54it can carry the rhythm and the melody and with it the song a bass line that you could play it
31:00anytime anywhere any party and it'll probably get it cracking right so when i play those three notes
31:08what do you hear boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom
31:17boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom
31:47and this bass line has all the things I think context construction like how it's built in terms
31:59of the chord changes tone and his tone on that is perfect I think the feel you could have all
32:07the other elements but if the feel is not right the feel is missing something's missing it's the
32:14space it's the space between the note it can do very little but imply a lot and I don't know how
32:23that magic happens but to me it seems like it's like it's what's not there it kind of sparks you
32:29to feel something and then you're kind of waiting for it to land or something and so it so that
32:35becomes more engaging than something that's just kind of relentless that's a super famous baseline
32:41and the whole song is built around that whole riff and nothing else
32:45coming up on the west coast of the 80s punk shot through our world like a lightning bolt
33:01it was new and it was ours
33:03and at that very same moment in New York another music revolution was underway
33:09hip-hop channeled the same angst and energy into its lyrics but its sonic power was fueled by big
33:15bass lines there's so much great music created in the 60s and the 70s but what hip-hop did was go
33:23back to all those records just to find those dope samples in order to create new music and a lot of
33:33those best samples had the fattest bass lines the SP-1200 this is the same kind of machine that a tribe
33:43called Quest used RZA Wu-Tang he actually signed this one they used SP-1200 so many people use this this
33:51is the machine that sampled older records to make new music so what does that mean you can get a record
33:58right you put it on and you play the record and you find that one cool part on the record and it might
34:08be like a six second loop you plug it into here and then you press record and it'll sample those six
34:15seconds let's just say on here and I could play those six seconds I could slow it down speed it up I
34:22could play play play play play those six seconds and make something new with it one of the earliest
34:32examples of the power of sampling was when Sugar Hill Gang created Rapper's Delight by upcycling the
34:37bass line to Chic's good times the result landed and an iconic song was born Bernard Edwards wrote
34:47possibly what is the greatest bass line ever good times it's part of the fabric of every every bass
34:52player I think that's a groove and it's possibly the groove of all grooves it makes you move makes
34:59you feel happy makes you feel positive and it's just like an old friend you're gonna sing with me yes
35:17like everyone everywhere knows that bass line the original track when you think of that song you
35:34think about bass lines and it's because it's not a small piece of the song again it's one of those
35:44where it's like hmm is this song written around this bass line is it is so crucial and I think when
35:49it comes to hip-hop now I mean even you know growing up in the 90s and hearing all these great songs
35:58sampled in hip-hop bass lines not only are they very functional but also they now they carry memories so
36:06it's like a functional bass line for the song that has different meanings for different generations and
36:11that's a beautiful thing if you can pull it off I look at records as time capsules waiting to be
36:20discovered the soul is captured on wax those bass lines they're captured on wax the spirit is embedded
36:29whether they're dead or alive and it becomes reborn once it's sampled
36:35hip-hop's sampled bass lines allowed creators to tap into the superpowers of funk and soul masters
36:43shaping the tone and feel of a new song or sound is this the focus and here's one of the great
36:50originators of a new sound put your hands where I can see them put your hands where I could see them
36:56ladies and gentlemen the one and only mr chris novicelli how are you doing I like you know
37:03I'm best as the man who formed nirvana want to play some bass alongside his high school friend
37:07Kurt Cobain have you ever played in here before or in like new jam room I've been in here many many times
37:26yes yes I have when did you start playing like bass I started playing bass in 1985 or six
37:34okay when did we start nirvana I think in 86 and I was a guitar player and then Kurt had a guitar and
37:40an amp I just played bass for me the bass is like what's my job as the bass player it's like so what
37:46does this song need so it's not about me and a lot of it's just dramatic because we're doing like the
37:52music it's kind of like the song has a personality and we are performers right yeah yeah so here's the
37:58soundtrack to our performance bass doesn't have to be just like a guitar like you're just you know
38:05you're stuck on bass and you're following the guitar players like oh no no no no you don't have to do
38:09that and if you can make a bridge between like what the guitar is doing and the vocals are doing and
38:14that kick drum the music will like grow a little boom all of a sudden you sound big see if you can find
38:19that then you've done your job so I was listening to bleach the other day and there's a great bass riff
38:26that starts on the starts record I'm gonna fucking butcher it but
38:29what is it
38:32the bass line from blue is quintessential crisp turned way down it's a big crushing groove that
38:46churns away ramping up the momentum it doesn't seem complex but there's something of a swagger to
38:52it with that bent note at the end of the phrase if you can get it
38:56oh no wow now now play it right okay I'll do it so it's tuned it's actually you want to play it on your
39:02bass I'll play this one I'll play with no this sounds great
39:05it's never it's it's it's a slide and that's one of the tricks but you are bending in there
39:18somewhere it's a it's a it's not a bend it's a slide because you can go it just goes
39:23I had four SVTs like just cranked it would just blast I'd feel it in my feet and then basically
39:41on the side fill give me the kick drum boom boom boom boom and just like if you just then you're tight
39:47wait for it there she goes do you recognize this ding oh did I do that did I borrow your
39:58guitar and fuck it up what did I hit yes you did the story that I heard was that you were playing
40:04and then threw the thing up in the air and caught it but not quite before it hit the edge of the amp
40:11I bet it sounded cool yeah I could take it they're durable it's fine well how old is that
40:17bass is that like 71 71 this is my main this is my main bass that I played on all my all my early
40:23records I never played Fender basses I'm a diehard Fender P bass player but Chris prefers something
40:29better suited to his personal geometry the scroll remember those yeah that's a cool one oh look at
40:36this one my signature bass what do you know yeah it's trying to make you feel at home I play those
40:42Gibson basses because they're big like a lot of people don't like them because they're too big
40:47but they fit my frame this is as the great bassist Mike Watt would say thunder broom that brought grunge
40:53its ultimate anthem I usually like it's a simple song Nirvana smells like teen spirit as a pivotal five
41:05minutes of music for our generation they put three punks to the top of the charts and smash the
41:13ceiling of our formerly underground music scene without it there would be no Foo Fighters and it's
41:18the brooding hypnotic heaviness of the bass sound that works to both propel and ground the song you
41:24could hear like the hooks in the vocals and then you could just kind of like then you could respond like
41:31oh I hear that then you could respond to that or you could follow it like the vocal goes and you're
41:36like I would hear Kurt's guitar riffs we wouldn't slow down enough to like what are you playing there
41:42I would just kind of play it why didn't you tell me that like five years ago and the guitar is doing
41:46this and all of a sudden you're you're like you're bigger and you'd have they were like in Nirvana
41:51there's just three of us right
41:52that's always worked for me maybe that was my secret
42:00so Chris tell me what for you makes a great bass line
42:05what makes a great bass line is
42:08oh I'm dying for this let me know
42:11this position in the in the music in the composition it's just like
42:16because it could be too much or it could be not enough yeah so you got to find a sweet spot
42:24good vibrations right
42:26it's just kind of holding you know or it's that part of the symphony with a part of the symphony
42:33that does that you know does that plays that role in the audio and the for the listener it's just
42:41trying to find that spot do you have any favorites like oh that's that's like my smell so many
42:48one great good vibrations there you go
42:53that was fun right I've heard so much about you I've known you for 30 years
42:58you can never have two record producers in the same room at the same time ever doesn't work
43:08guitar players get on if one of them like idolizes the other one but
43:14bass players is kind of kind of a brotherhood actually
43:17the camaraderie is amazing nothing like a room full of guitar players
43:23so I'm just saying
43:26bass players are very sensitive very artistic people
43:34bass players tend to be pretty steady not so easily you know rattled and their personality
43:41seems to match that you know bass players are generally cool guys
43:46maybe that's maybe why I was destined to be a bass player all along because I was I always had that
43:51personality I'm pretty I'm pretty quiet I'm pretty organized and kind of you know meticulous
43:57man I think everybody should play the bass I really do it's like a horse it's good for the inside of the man
44:03bass players always tend to be the most thoughtful uh dependable
44:09imaginative but quite um happy to take the back seat happy to know that they're in control without
44:18you know wanting the limelight
44:20I once poked fun at arena rock bands but care for what you don't wish for or maybe secretly do
44:28I found myself playing these same venues thanks to the energetic talent of one of the great rock and
44:33roll front men in truth I cherish my place on that stage sitting just outside the spotlight
44:39and I don't think I'm alone in that it's where most of us space players find our home
44:43I feel like I kind of have the best world for me which is I get to go out
44:49and do this thing at a high level and then go home and go to soccer practice and no one gives a fuck
45:19you
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