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Greatest Basslines - Season 1 Episode 3 -
Nate Mendel: Foo Fighters
Nate Mendel: Foo Fighters
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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.
00:15A bass line is one note that leads to another note
00:21that creates perfect painting.
00:23I'm in the right place at the right time.
00:26The bass is the flavor.
00:28It's the juice, it's the seasoning, right?
00:32It'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.
01:00I say yes. I like that.
01:04Fog horns.
01:05This boom...
01:07...booms and it carries for miles.
01:10Well, if I didn't bass, I don't know what is.
01:12It's all about the groove, baby.
01:14I'm Nate Mendel, bass player and original member of Foo Fighters.
01:20And along with Dave, the only one that's been along for the whole ride.
01:23Nate Mendel plays fucking bass and Foo Fighters always have.
01:26Look at that guy.
01:27Creating the bass lines that glue our songs together is 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 and creating something meaningful that the audience can physically and emotionally feel is my prime motivation.
01:50Along with a stellar lineup of four string heroes, I'm going to explore the vital power of bass in music.
02:00Nice cup of tea there.
02:01I'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!
02:10How are you doing?
02:11And 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.
02:24Psycho 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.
02:36Never quite sure whether it's going to explode.
02:38I didn't think I would appreciate living in Los Angeles because I grew up in the Northwest and I need trees and rain and mountains.
02:56And this is kind of the opposite of that.
03:09But there's definitely beauty up here. You just got to search for it a little bit more.
03:14One of the reasons I love playing bass is it's like a meditation.
03:22I'm so focused on the thing. Everything else just gets cleared away.
03:27And those moments are so rejuvenating.
03:32My 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 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.
03:49Like this propulsive thing.
03:50And like, okay, when's it going to hit?
03:51And then, bam, on that downbeat.
03:53Fire!
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.
04:05And here you go. I play this one on one string.
04:09But 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.
04:17And that's when it becomes something that truly transports you.
04:21For me, playing bass with Foo Fighters, it's flow state.
04:28So when you're in a flow state, you could be writing.
04:31You could be a poet.
04:32You're in your element.
04:33Things are working.
04:34It's coming together.
04:35And you're able to, like, ply your craft in a way that resonates with your soul.
04:41Because when you're feeling it and then you notice that the crowd is too,
04:44you're all part of the same animal.
04:47And then it snowballs.
04:49And that can be pretty magical.
04:58Yeah, it's crazy when we play, like, big gigs.
05:00You 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.
05:08Then you can really tell, like, how they can, like, feel the bass vibrating through them.
05:14Makes you just want to get lost in the music.
05:16A good bottom end has a profound physical effect on people.
05:20As a DJ, I can see it when the bass kicks in.
05:23Because it does it, it vibrates you like a good bass line goes down your rib cage and ends up in your stomach.
05:30That frequency seems to affect this region of the body.
05:44When that bass plays, they have to move their waistline.
05:48Sonically, it's the heaviest thing in the world.
05:55It's like a fucking lion moving like a tiger at its own.
06:01It's not scared of anyone.
06:02It's moving its own half-time pace, yeah?
06:05There's a primeval power there, you know?
06:08Jack Bruce's Sunshine of Your Love.
06:13It's so on the money, you know?
06:17That riff has, like, a certain forbidding quality.
06:24You know, it's heavy. It's a heavy riff.
06:26The 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.
06:49So there's a lot of blues and I love it.
06:54Already, it's like there's several statements in there, right?
06:59So this is a statement.
07:00And then, where could it go from there?
07:06It doesn't get any sunnier.
07:07It's...
07:09So the whole thing, it's darker.
07:12I mean, you can't imagine a time when that rift didn't exist, can you?
07:33When I went to see The Cream up in Birmingham,
07:36everybody was there to see Eric Clapton.
07:39There was hardly anybody where Jack Bruce was playing,
07:42so I was standing next, watching Jack Bruce.
07:44And I'd never thought about bass before.
07:51And I was just absolutely mesmerising what Jack Bruce was doing.
07:55Bending the notes and I'd never heard the bass player do that.
08:00It was sort of like lead guitar on bass.
08:06It was just so different.
08:07Normally, the rhythm guitarist would, like, sort of drown out what the bass was playing.
08:11And he didn't really notice what the bass was playing.
08:13When I saw Jack Bruce, he just had this whole new way of playing.
08:17Jack Bruce, incidentally, always said that the greatest bass player of all was J.S. Bach.
08:22When you listen to orchestral pieces composed by Bach, you get these wonderful…
08:32…dudududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududududu.
08:35that are sometimes can be sort of quite atonal,
08:38but they, oh, my goodness, that's what's driving this whole thing.
08:47Ask a lot of bass players, I know I've heard, you know, Flea has said this,
08:50lots of people say this, Jack Bruce always used to say it,
08:53that, yeah, the father of the bass as we know it is Bach.
08:56That idea of a piece of music that is scaffolding,
08:59the basis of bass playing as we know it is Bach cello.
09:05The Pacific Northwest in the mid-'80s was home to a thriving underground DIY music scene,
09:11and it was this that provided my first insights into what a great bass line could be.
09:19I was maybe 11 or 12.
09:21I had a friend, and he was a guitar player, and we're just hanging out,
09:24I was like, we should start a band.
09:26And he said, I'm already playing guitar, so that leaves you with bass.
09:29I was like, great.
09:30So I got a bass and tried to kind of figure out what was going on.
09:35I was really into the Police's Ghost on the Machine record.
09:40It's fronted by a bass player, great bass lines, amazing record.
09:44So, in the back of my mind, I was like, ah, Sting's cool, I'll do that.
09:49Spirits in the Material World is one of the Police, and therefore Sting's, greatest bass lines.
10:00Masterful in its simplicity, it plays with rhythm to create tension against the syncopated synth line.
10:16Syncopated, up-note stuff that they borrowed from reggae and then come down on the downbeat for the chorus.
10:22It was cool. There wasn't a lot of complicated stuff with Sting. He wasn't like a prog guy.
10:33You want to write a catchy bass line. And he was great at that.
10:36We are spares in the material. We are spares in the material.
10:44Although Sting was a jazz player at heart, the Police had enough punk attitude that it was a natural 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, let's figure out how to buy a van, book shows, and do a band.
11:04And go out there and not worry about the musicianship so much, but go out and have a good time and be weirdos.
11:10Always remember the moment that it clicked for me. That was a Black Flag record, Damaged.
11:15And I'm just sitting in my buddy's room, we're listening to it, like, what is this, what is this, and all of a sudden it was like, this is going to be my life from here on out.
11:27It was like that. I love this. And it fit in really well with skateboarding.
11:32It's like almost everyone who was doing hardcore was on a skateboard, skateboarders were all listening to hardcore, and it was like the perfect soundtrack, and I loved it.
11:45That's a minor threat, baseline. Well, it's really fast, right? A lot of root notes, a lot of following what 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 lines, and it's just, it's doable with your fingers, but because it's a softer tone, and it's harder to maybe play as fast with your fingers, I kind of gravitated towards the pick. So it's just a lot of, like, playing fast.
12:12Before long, my high school band Diddly Squat worked playing throughout the Northwest. We had all the punk prerequisites, snarling guitars, and a fully ignited crowd slam dancing along.
12:24It was furious and weird, and I loved it.
12:27The crowd was slam dancing. People are throwing elbows. I mean, the whole idea is that, like, the music is, at best, it's really explosive and just, like, creates this well of energy within you, and so 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 get 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.
12:56Having grown up emulating the raw energy of punk rock, that was Tony, the singer, Diddly Squat, I began finally to understand what Diddly Squat's guitar player, Jason Cobb, had been trying to tell me all along.
13:11I should be taking cues from the likes of Geddy Lee, Steve Harris, and, of course, the goat, or should I say ox, John Entwistle.
13:19I was trying to learn my generation bass solo.
13:34The bass solo on my generation, it's just insane that, you know, that they thought of that.
13:39You can't really talk about bass playing without mentioning John Entwistle.
13:46He's doing this, like, triplet thing, so instead of doing this, 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, but for me, that's where the symmetry goes off for me.
14:15I can't think in threes.
14:16Also, up here, and he had his bass set up to where it was, the strings were really close to the frets, so he would barely have to touch it.
14:25He was almost, like, happy.
14:29I don't know how he did it, but he was able to get that thing that's very, like, signature, Entwistle, where you got a, and he was just like, I mean, he's a master.
14:39I think Entwistle was unique because he had this deep musicality.
14:46He came from being a horn player, and then he had this just male aggression, and that's what makes it amazing.
14:54He has so many techniques.
14:55He had a very particular, like, a typewriter thing, a certain way of attacking the fretboard and the strings, which I loved and which made perfect sense because not only was he in a band with Pete Townsend, he was in a band with Keith Moon.
15:08So he's got to be heard.
15:10It's my generation, baby.
15:14Entwistle invented the idea of the bass kind of as a weapon, you know, rather than being a polite boy at the back of the class.
15:22Man, what a guy.
15:24The Ox was absolutely astounded.
15:27Really admired, like, I love the Who.
15:28Like I said, I'm a bit of a moddy boy.
15:30Got my scooters in the shed.
15:34God, I'd like to borrow your bass for a minute.
15:38At the dawn of the 90s, I packed up my bass and headed to the epicenter of post-punk, Seattle.
15:44Grunge was about to blow the doors off the mainstream, and my then-new band, Sunny Day Real Estate, was signing to the same label that had released early Nirvana and Soundgarden Records.
15:53We had this house.
15:54I had, like, seven guys living in it, and jammed forever in the basement.
15:58And it became kind of a good band.
16:01Seeking a detour from the blunt aggression of hardcore, I found a better fit in the more melodic sounds in the D-Rock's early days.
16:14I had a lot of things that were helpful to me as a bass player in that band.
16:28There were these arpeggiated, like, wide-open guitar lines, so there's a lot of space to kind of structure the song around what the bass is doing,
16:35because the guitars were a little bit more nebulous, just from in circles.
16:39I don't know.
16:56I like, always, like, if there's anything close to, like, a signature bass line that I've ever had, I think that might be it.
17:02It felt like a progression.
17:07It just, like, was where I wanted to go at the time.
17:10I just wanted to get lost in the song.
17:11You know, that song's got that kind of circular movement where you can kind of get lost in a trance with it,
17:19which is ultimately where I wanted to go.
17:22Where I did go next was somewhere I'd never expected.
17:26The trailblazing Nirvana had shot to fame, then crashed down with the tragic death of Kurt Cobain
17:30in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
17:33We were all in shock.
17:35For Dave Grohl, healing meant writing a collection of songs that would become the first Foo Fighters album.
17:41I finally got the nerve to ask him.
17:43I was like, hey, I heard you might be putting a band together.
17:47So we got together at his house and jammed.
17:50And we went upstairs to grab a sandwich or something and sitting around the table,
17:53and Dave goes, like, you guys want to start a band?
17:58None of us had a clue what this band would become.
18:01Stadiums, Grammy trophies, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
18:05It still feels surreal.
18:11I always thought that there should be, like, like a guidebook.
18:16When you move from, like, playing clubs to, like, operating at a higher level,
18:20where you've got managers and agents and publicists,
18:23and, like, there's this whole operation that happens.
18:26And no one's ever like, oh, by the way, this is how things work.
18:31You just start doing it.
18:34And so you kind of have to, like, get your sea legs a little bit,
18:36figure out how you're going to deal with it.
18:38Definitely early on, it was pretty disconcerting.
18:42Just operating at this level.
18:44The best way that we found to manage this life that we found ourselves in
18:48is to not take it too seriously.
18:51This is my exact commute to work.
18:54We were, like, not really 100% L.A.-based until, like, the early 2000s.
19:09And we were practicing at this place called Mates, which is here in the valley.
19:12And it was fine, but wanted to do a place that was, like, ours.
19:18You know, like, a studio, a place to rehearse.
19:25And it's just kind of like a hangout place.
19:27We'll do, like, everything there.
19:29We've recorded videos there, parties there.
19:34It'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.
19:42We filmed it just outside the studios.
19:44I love this song all the more because, despite my steady diet of punk rock,
19:50I developed an up-down picking style and ignored the power of the downstroke
19:54until I discovered it during this recording.
20:08Like I said, it's self-taught.
20:10So I never did downstrokes, which are kind of a, you know,
20:14principal way of hitting the string with a pick.
20:19For me, it'd always be...
20:22It sort of moves back and forth.
20:23It's not as percussive.
20:26It's just not as good.
20:35With a great bass line, it can be as much about how you hit the strings
20:39as it is the writing of the notes themselves.
20:41Heavy downstrokes with a pick work great for rock,
20:44but there are myriad different ways to express yourself through these four strings.
20:48One 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,
21:05where you can kind of see her doing that bass line.
21:07And that's the foundation of the song.
21:16It, like, starts with a jam and her just doing that, like,
21:19voodoo.
21:21It's kind of, like, spooky.
21:23It's like a spider crawling up your arm.
21:25I love that bass line.
21:27She's using a pick, but she manages to get all these different sounds out of it
21:41that I can't recreate, you know?
21:42Like, that's almost like a pop, but she's not popping.
21:51But if you watch her, she's going.
21:52Which kind of makes all the difference and makes it good.
21:58Very often in the world of bass,
22:03people can have exactly the same equipment,
22:05but their fingers are different.
22:08They just get a different sound.
22:09I thought Tina Weymouth was extraordinary.
22:12For such a petite, waif-like person,
22:16she could find ways of just finding these quite simple rhythms
22:23and quite, you know, minimal parts
22:27that just kind of punched through
22:28and carried the whole song along.
22:32It's really difficult to copy another player's instinctive style,
22:36and this becomes even more elusive when,
22:38as with so many of the greatest bass lines,
22:40it's pared down to just a few simple notes.
22:42Of course, we all know it.
22:46It's like...
22:47Three notes, really simple, but effective bass line
23:02that people still respond to.
23:04Tina, she's of course, like, such a legend,
23:11and she's, like, way more precise and clean and, like, technical.
23:16She always brings this, like, sexy groove into the songs,
23:19and many of the songs of Talking Heads
23:21have this, like, super hooky bass lines
23:24that really makes you want to dance.
23:30Like, Psycho Killer, I think,
23:31it's one of the most famous riffs,
23:33and it just comes from the bass line.
23:40This is, like, the main thing that I loved about Tina
23:43that really stuck with me
23:44and that inspired me a lot
23:45to also try to bring that energy,
23:48that dancey and sexy feeling into our tracks.
23:58Here we are, 606 Studios, Foo Fighters Lair.
24:01We're deep in L.A. San Fernando Valley,
24:10but as you go in,
24:11you may notice a slight nod to Stockholm, Sweden.
24:15It's kind of a low-rent version of ABBA's studio.
24:18When we were putting it together,
24:21I think Dave had a book of ABBA's studio.
24:23I forget what it's called.
24:24It's beautiful, and it's all this woodwork,
24:26and very brown,
24:27and looks like a, you know,
24:28like a Scandinavian, beautiful studio.
24:31So we tried to mimic that as best we could,
24:34but we're ding-dong,
24:35so this is what you get.
24:37The vintage Neve console
24:38was brought in from legendary Sound City Studios
24:41a few miles away,
24:42the birthplace of everything
24:43from rumors to never mind.
24:45A lot of heavy recordings were done on this.
24:50Definitely some Fleetwood Mac.
24:51You've got Stevie Nicks' signature here.
24:54It's a beautiful sounding board.
24:56It's very finicky.
24:58Twist the knob,
24:58you're going to go,
24:59until it finds a decent spot in the knob
25:03where it's like, it's clear,
25:04and then you're good to go.
25:05Onwards!
25:06We're set up here for rehearsal right now
25:11with roughly the setup that we'd have on stage.
25:15I've got the big cabinets with the tiny speakers.
25:18I had these made recently,
25:20just kind of for fun, really.
25:23This is an SVT speaker,
25:25and ordinarily they've got eight speakers,
25:27and this has got nine.
25:29Yeah, what's the difference between eight and nine?
25:32One.
25:33I don't know.
25:34It's beyond that.
25:35Yeah, so Pat's over there.
25:39I'm here.
25:40We've got TBD, drummer, to be there,
25:43and Dave's on either side of the drummer here,
25:46and then Chris is over there
25:48who likes to have a menagerie of amplifiers
25:51because he's very particular about his sound.
25:54We're all just hammering away,
25:55and Chris is like,
25:56hang on a second,
25:57I want it to sound like nuanced.
26:00And Foo Fighters,
26:01I think the role of the bass is to be that glue.
26:04You know, it's stability.
26:07Like, you've got to be solid.
26:12Dave's playing guitar and running and singing.
26:15Still remarkably tight,
26:17but there's a lot going on.
26:19Pat's got an amazing feel and a great ear,
26:22but he gives very few fucks about hitting the note at the right time.
26:28Chris Shifflett.
26:29He's the only guy in the band that reads music.
26:31He's an excellent guitar player.
26:34He's very tight,
26:35but he's all the way on the other side of the stage,
26:36and he's competing with these other two guitar players.
26:39Taylor Hawkins playing drums.
26:40Excellent drummer, but very frenetic.
26:42It's going to be maybe a little bit different every night,
26:45which is cool and exciting,
26:46but it adds an element of chaos.
26:49So whenever that kick drum hits,
26:51I need to be on it.
26:52If the kick drum is hitting with what I'm playing,
26:55then there's going to be a foundation
26:56that's going to read out in the audience,
26:59and the guitars can be a little looser,
27:01and it'll be okay.
27:02Yeah!
27:07I just didn't want it to turn into a cacophony.
27:11Here's a good example.
27:15Our song, The Pretender.
27:17For my part, there's not a lot of notes here,
27:19but this song relies on the timing of those notes.
27:22If you've seen the movie Whiplash,
27:24you'll know what I mean.
27:25Like, you can play behind the beat,
27:27you can play on top of the beat.
27:28You know, there's basically a pulse of where the song is,
27:30and different players will play around with that.
27:37Taylor grew up with Stuart Copeland
27:40from the police as a big influence,
27:43and Stuart's on top.
27:46So he's, like, almost anticipating the beat
27:48and moving the song forward.
27:50You're still in time.
27:51You're just kind of slightly ahead of it.
27:56It creates this tension in the music,
27:58and Taylor was like that.
27:59So I just, I was locked into him.
28:02That was my thing.
28:03It's like, I'm going to play the best I can,
28:05play as interesting as I can,
28:07but what I'm really trying to do is when he goes,
28:09I'm going to be right there with him.
28:14Well, Taylor and I were the odd couple, right?
28:16So I'm more quiet and withdrawn,
28:19not moving through the world with a big ego or a loud voice,
28:23whereas Taylor was, you know,
28:24a bit of a bull in a china shop.
28:27And so I think that we balanced each other well
28:29and had a lot of respect for each other
28:31once we kind of got to know who we were,
28:33and it was fantastic.
28:36It was really, really great.
28:38And I just, I admired him so much as a musician.
28:41We found a real love for each other over the years,
28:43and it was great because of that yin and yang.
28:45When we lost Taylor, we lost a brother,
28:58and our band will never be the same.
29:00For me, I now have to forge
29:02that almost telepathic bond with someone new.
29:06And as every bassist knows,
29:07this very special connection between bass and drums
29:10is the driver of any band.
29:15The connection between bass and drums
29:18is one of the most important things.
29:20With Ethan, we really just, like,
29:22locked with each other since the start.
29:27It's really easy, and we have a lot of fun,
29:30like, jamming just me and him many times.
29:33And many tracks were born just from me and him,
29:36like, creating the bass groove, you know,
29:38of the song and creating the foundation.
29:40Yeah, we have such a strong and special bond,
29:43and that's, I think, what makes the core
29:45of our music.
29:49You know, I just don't have a really better way
29:51to say it than what Keith says about,
29:53you know, the bass and the drums
29:54are like the engine room.
30:03While Charlie loved blues music
30:05and loved, you know, rock and roll,
30:06the thing closest to his heart was jazz music,
30:09and we've had that in common.
30:11He collected antique cars, but he didn't drive.
30:16You know what I mean?
30:16He was really a kind of really interesting fellow.
30:20I listened to him very, very carefully early on.
30:23I learned a lot from him
30:25about not being too precious about certain things.
30:30It's difficult for me to talk about
30:33because I think it's beyond the realm of words, in a way.
30:42Bass and drums are usually inseparable,
30:44locked in tight for the good of the other instruments
30:46in the band.
30:48But on occasion, us bass players
30:51will quietly come up with a line
30:52that's so inescapably good
30:54it can carry the rhythm and the melody,
30:56and with it, the song.
30:57A bass line that you could play
31:00at any time, anywhere, any party,
31:02and it'll probably get it cracking.
31:05Right?
31:06So, when I play those three notes,
31:08what do you hear?
31:09Boom, boom, boom.
31:11Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
31:13Boom, boom, boom.
31:14Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
31:16Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
31:23Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
31:24I think that most great bass lines,
31:27however you want to define great,
31:28they have an element of boldness.
31:30If you're noticing
31:31and you're paying attention to that bass line,
31:33it's because it was played with attitude.
31:36I ain't ready, hey, I ain't ready.
31:39Another one bites the dust
31:40was written around the bass line.
31:42Right?
31:42Sometimes that happens
31:43where the bass player
31:44comes up with something great
31:45everyone joins in. And this bass line has all the things. I think context, construction,
31:58like how it's built in terms of the chord changes, tone, and his tone on that is perfect.
32:05I think the feel, you could have all the other elements, but if the feel is not right,
32:10the feel is missing, something's missing. It's the space. It's the space between the note.
32:16It can do very little, but imply a lot. And I don't know how that magic happens,
32:24but to me it seems like it's like it's what's not there. It kind of sparks you to feel something,
32:30and then you're kind of waiting for it to land or something. And so it, so that becomes more
32:36engaging than something that's just kind of relentless. That's a super famous bass line.
32:41And the whole song is built around that whole riff and nothing else.
32:57Coming 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. And at that very same moment in New York, another music revolution was
33:09underway. Hip-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 back to
33:24all those records just to find those dope samples in order to create new music. And a lot of those best
33:34samples had the fattest bass lines. The SP-1200. This is the same kind of machine that A Tribe Called Quest used.
33:45RZA, Wu-Tang, he actually signed this one. They used SP-1200. So many people use this. This is the machine that
33:52sampled older records to make new music. So what does that mean? You can get a record, right? You put
34:01it on and you play the record and you find that one cool part on the record. And it might be like a six
34:08second loop. You plug it into here and then you press record and it'll sample those six seconds, let's just
34:16say on here. And I could play those six seconds. I could slow it down, speed it up. I could play, play,
34:23play, play, play, play those six seconds and make something new with it.
34:31One of the earliest examples of the power of sampling was when Sugarhill Gang created Rapper's
34:35Delight by upcycling the bass line to Chic's Good Times. The result landed and an iconic song was born.
34:42Bernard Edwards wrote possibly what is the greatest bass line ever, Good Times. It's part of the fabric
34:52of every bass player, I think. That is a groove and it's possibly the groove of all grooves. It makes you
34:58move, makes you feel happy, makes you feel positive and it is just like an old friend. You gonna sing with me?
35:06Yes. Like everyone everywhere knows that bass line.
35:27The original track, when you think of that song, you think of that bass line. And it's because it's
35:38not a small piece of the song. Again, it's one of those where it's like, hmm, is this song written
35:46around this bass line? Because it is so crucial. And I think when it comes to hip hop, now, I mean,
35:54even, you know, growing up in the 90s and hearing all these great songs sampled in hip hop bass lines,
36:01not only are they very functional, but also they now they carry memories. So it's like a functional
36:07bass line for the song that has different meanings for different generations. And that's a beautiful
36:12thing if you can pull it off. I look at records as time capsules waiting to be discovered. The soul is
36:22captured on wax. Those bass lines, they're captured on wax. The spirit is embedded, whether they're dead
36:30or alive. And it becomes reborn once it's sampled.
36:38Hip 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.
36:46Is this the focus?
36:48And here's one of the great originators of a new sound.
36:52Put your hands where I can see them. Put your hands where I can see them!
36:57Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Mr. Chris Novoselic.
36:59Nate!
37:00See you, too. How are you doing?
37:02I, like you, know him best as the man who formed Nirvana.
37:04Want to play some bass?
37:06Alongside his high school friend, Kurt Cobain.
37:08Come as you are, as you were, as I want you to be, as a friend.
37:20Have you ever played in here before or in like new jam room?
37:23I've been in here many, many times.
37:26Yes?
37:27Yes, I have.
37:28When did you start playing like bass?
37:30I started playing bass in 1985 or 6.
37:35Okay.
37:35When did we start Nirvana? I think in 86.
37:37I was a guitar player and then Kurt had a guitar and an amp.
37:41Okay.
37:41I just played bass.
37:42For me, the bass is like, what's my job as a bass player?
37:45It's like, so what does this song need?
37:47So it's not about me.
37:49And a lot of it's just dramatic because we're doing like the music.
37:52It's kind of like the song has a personality and we are performers, right?
37:56Yeah, yeah.
37:57So here's the soundtrack to our performance.
38:00Bass doesn't have to be just like a guitar.
38:03Like you're just, you know, you're stuck on bass and you're following the guitar players.
38:07Like, oh no, no, no, no.
38:08You don't have to do that.
38:09And if you can make a bridge between like what the guitar is doing and the vocals are
38:13doing and then that kick drum, the music will like grow.
38:16A little boom and all of a sudden you sound big.
38:18See, if you can find that, then you've done your job.
38:22So I was listening to Bleach the other day.
38:24Yeah.
38:24And there's a great bass riff that starts on the, starts the record.
38:28I'm going to fucking butcher it, but what is it?
38:32The bass line from Bleach is quintessential crest.
38:43Turned way down, it's a big crushing groove that churns away, ramping up the momentum.
38:49It doesn't seem complex, but there's something of a swagger to it with that bent note at the
38:53end of the phrase, if you can get it.
38:58Play it right.
38:59Okay.
38:59I'll do it.
39:00So it's tuned, it's actually.
39:01You want to play it on your bass?
39:02So it's going to sound good.
39:03I'll play this one.
39:04No, this sounds great.
39:04It's never, it's, it's, it's a slide.
39:16And that's one of the tricks.
39:17But you are bending in there somewhere.
39:18It's a, it's a, it's not a bend, it's a slide.
39:20Because you can go.
39:22It just goes.
39:23I had four SVTs, like just cranked.
39:37It would just blast.
39:38I'd feel it in my feet.
39:40And then basically on the side fill, give me the kick drum.
39:43Boom, boom, boom, boom.
39:45And just like, if you just, then you're tight.
39:47Wait for it.
39:54There she goes.
39:55Do you recognize this ding?
39:57Oh, did I do that?
39:58Did I borrow your guitar and fuck it up?
39:59What did I hit?
40:00Yes, you did.
40:01The story that I heard was that you were playing and then threw the thing up in the air
40:06and caught it, but not quite before it hit the edge of the amp.
40:11I bet it sounded cool.
40:13Yeah.
40:13I could take it.
40:14They're durable.
40:15It's fine.
40:16Well, how old is that bass?
40:17Is that like a...
40:1771.
40:1871.
40:19This is my main, this is my main bass that I played on all my, all my early records.
40:23I never played Fender basses.
40:25I'm a diehard Fender P bass player, but Chris prefers something better suited to his personal
40:30geometry.
40:32The scroll.
40:33Remember those?
40:34Yeah, that's a cool one.
40:35Oh, look at this one, my signature bass.
40:38What do you know?
40:39Yeah.
40:39It's trying to make you feel at home.
40:42I play those Gibson basses because they're big.
40:44Like a lot of people don't like them because they're too big, but they fit my frame.
40:49This is, as the great bassist Mike Watt would say, Thunderbroom that brought grunge its ultimate anthem.
40:54I usually, like, it's a simple song.
40:59Nirvana Smells Like Teen Spirit is a pivotal five minutes of music for our generation.
41:10They put three punks to the top of the charts and smashed the ceiling of our formerly underground
41:14music scene.
41:16Without it, there would be no Foo Fighters.
41:18And it's the brooding, hypnotic heaviness of the bass sound that works to both propel
41:22and ground the song.
41:23You could hear, like, the hooks in the vocals, and then you could just kind of, like,
41:30then you could respond, like, oh, I hear that.
41:32Then you could respond to that, or you could follow it.
41:34Like, the vocal goes, and you're like, I would hear Kurt's guitar riffs.
41:39We wouldn't slow down enough to, like, what are you playing there?
41:42I would just kind of play it.
41:43Why didn't you tell me that, like, five years ago?
41:45And the guitar is doing this, and all of a sudden, you're, like, you're bigger.
41:49And you'd have, they were, like, in Nirvana, there was just three of us, right?
41:57That's always worked for me.
41:58Maybe that was my secret.
42:02So, Chris, tell me, what for you makes a great bass line?
42:06What makes a great bass line is it's...
42:09Oh, I'm dying for this. Let me know.
42:11It's position in the music, in the composition.
42:15It's just like, because it can be too much, or it can be not enough.
42:22Yeah.
42:22So you've got to find a sweet spot, good vibrations, right?
42:29It's just kind of holding, you know, or it's that part of the symphony,
42:32where the part of the symphony that does that, you know,
42:36does that, plays that role in the audio and the, for the listener.
42:41And it's just trying to find that spot.
42:43Do you have any favorites?
42:45Like, oh, that's, that's, like, the smile.
42:47So many.
42:49One great, good vibrations.
42:50There you go.
42:55That was fun, right?
42:55I've heard so much about you.
42:57I've known you for 30 years.
43:03You can never have two record producers in the same room at the same time ever.
43:07It doesn't work.
43:08Guitar players get on if one of them, like, idolizes the other one.
43:14But bass players is kind of, it's kind of a brotherhood, actually.
43:18The camaraderie is amazing.
43:21Nothing like a room full of guitar players.
43:25So I'm just saying.
43:29Bass players are very sensitive, very artistic people.
43:34Bass players tend to be pretty steady.
43:36Not so easily, you know, rattled.
43:40And their personality seems to match that.
43:43You know, bass players are generally cool guys.
43:46And maybe, that's maybe why I was destined to be a bass player all along.
43:50Because I was, I always had that personality.
43:52I'm pretty, I'm pretty quiet.
43:54I'm pretty organized and kind of, you know, meticulous.
43:57Man, I think everybody should play the bass.
44:00I really do.
44:01It's like a horse.
44:02It's good for the inside of the man and for the outside.
44:04Bass players always tend to be the most thoughtful, uh, dependable, imaginative,
44:11but quite, um, happy to take the back seat.
44:16Happy to know that they're in control without, you know, wanting the limelight.
44:22I once poked fun at arena rock bands, but care for what you don't wish for,
44:26or maybe secretly do.
44:29I found myself playing these same venues,
44:31thanks to the energetic talent of one of the great rock and roll frontmen.
44:34In truth, I cherish my place on that stage, sitting just outside the spotlight.
44:39And I don't think I'm alone in that.
44:41It's where most of us space players find our home.
44:44I feel like I kind of have the best world for me,
44:48which is I get to go out and do this thing at a high level,
44:51and then go home and go to soccer practice, and no one gives a fuck.
45:24When you go out and say thank you.
45:34You are welcome.
45:35Here, I can see you.
45:37If you come to the end of this video,
45:38you may be forward to it.
45:40You can hear all of us.
45:41You can hear all of us.
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