Be Honest: Who are Your REAL Influences?
Yesterday I was talking about trying to figure out what my bass style was. And I've actually been thinking about this for a little bit.
I think my biggest influence on the basis of my style is probably Sting, and that's historical from doing a lot of listening, but not a lot of playing. And then once I was able to start playing, learning his stuff.
In a town like Austin, you need to be behind the beat, and Sting is on top of or in front of it. So that took a few years to work out.
But, kind of, my second influence is bigger, if that makes sense? We're talking chronological here. So maybe my second influence is my biggest.
And that's the Lemonheads from the '90s.
Which I know is not a typical answer, but they did the coolest covers in the It's a Shame About Ray. Come on Feel the Lemonheads, period. I bought every single, which was digital at that point, and dug into kind of who the original people were.
The coolest path ever? Maybe not. But it makes a lot of sense today. 100% stand by it.
For instance, I wasn't really aware of Gram Parsons. There was no way to find out about him really back in the day until Evan Dando shone a light on him and what he did.
And then I went deep, found the records. Austin was a real easy place to do it.
Same with bands like Big Star. Those were the two big rediscoveries of the mid to late '90s, I guess, people like me were making.
So I got really into Gram. And his songs. Grievous Angel.
But the biggest revelation for me was he had joined the Byrds for a record, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. A huge record for me.
Really fell in love with the bass playing. So musical and always on the move. At the same time, I kind of had enough knowledge and maturity to hear it and not say, wow, that's simple. I can do that.
Instead it was, this guy really knows his shit and would have had to learn years of stuff to play that fluidly. Simple notes, experienced feel. And so free, with all that movement.
This coincided with me not wanting to just be a "punk rock bass player." (Which meant you owned a bass and you could play it some, but you were really shit.)
So that's when I also found the book The Lost Art of Country Bass. My bass teacher after Ed Friedland, a guy named Joshua, we went through that book.
I think I made it through basically the whole thing. Of course, but not totally finished, because no one's ever finished one of those books ever.
But it's funny when you look back and retrace.
I bet there's not another country-style bass player that counts the Lemonheads as a huge influence. But I also bet there's a bunch of people out there who wouldn't claim Evan Dando or give him credit for being the influence that he was on a lot of us.
Because for a while there, even in pop culture, you couldn't get away from them.
But if you dug deep musically, the real stuff was there.
Not the most prolific songwriter in the world, but when he got it right, it was wonderful.
And more than that, his influences and his knowledge were rock solid.