How long did you work on your solo CD?
The moment I got home from touring with Incubus in 2004, I started writing and recording and just experimenting. I had lots of energy and drive pent up from playing two hours a night on the road for 11 months. It took a real lazy six months or so, during which I got a cool routine going. Every day I’d wake up, play and record drums until about noon, then go to the skate park for about an hour, get lunch, and then go back home and cut guitars with fresh ears and a full stomach. The last instrument I cut would usually be bass. After a couple of months I had a bunch of songs, so I started writing lyrics, singing, and then mixing.
Your bass playing on Maduro is more subtle and lower in the mix than on a typical Incubus record. Do you have a different approach to making music when you work by yourself?
Definitely. With Incubus, I’m usually coming into established ideas, and my creative input is about one fifth of the equation. When I write by myself, I’m playing the role of every musician in the band, so I get to play different characters. I’ve played guitar longer than I’ve played bass, and I’ve played drums even longer—with each instrument, it’s very important for me to be “that guy” in the band. It may sound a little corny, but I try to get my head into the roles. Having written each part, I know them front-to-back, and the interplay is easier and there’s less discussion.
Did you go for a different bass sound on your record than you do with Incubus?
I’ve played so much bass in the past few years that I’m at a place where I just plug the same bass into the same gear every time. With Incubus, where we are a bunch of individuals coming together, the benefit of me playing bass is me finding my voice. By myself it’s a different benefit, because the song just becomes this one big entity. The bass kind of loses its individual identity and becomes more of the whole. It’s just another dimension of my schizophrenia.
What has versatility with so many instruments added to your bass playing?
A long time ago when I was doing session work in Philly, somebody said to me, “Oh, you’re the jack of all trades and the master of none!” It stuck with me; I don’t feel like I’m a virtuoso, and I’m on par with a lot of musicians on their instruments. So considering that, it became important for me to define my style. If you don’t have the technical chops, you’ve got to have style. I want to sound like James Jamerson on a rock track. When everything else stops and the bass keeps going, I want it to be that part where everybody says, “Oh, shit!”