Which bassists influenced you the most growing up?
Ray Brown, an awesome time player who really swung his ass off. Time playing always interested me more than soloing. I never really developed my soloing, because I find a bass solo never goes down that well—the rest of the band has to stop for the audience to really hear it. I always respected James Jamerson’s approach, sound, and ears. He got away with playing groundbreaking stuff for pop recordings.

Describe your playing technique on electric bass.
My fretting-hand approach comes from the upright; I don’t use my 3rd finger much. The way I move up the neck comes from hours of position-shifting practice. And I do a lot of left-hand muting.
I pluck primarily with my first two fingers. The two fingers can sound different, so sometimes I use one or the other as much as I can to keep it consistent. The electric bass is remarkably versatile; you can create a totally different sound by moving your plucking hand slightly.
I got into pick playing when I heard Carol Kaye’s awesome sound. Sometimes that’s appropriate with the Cat Empire, so I’ll play with a pick and palm-mute. There will be more of it on our next record, because we’re getting into swampy, dirty material, like J.J. Cale.

You really seem to enjoy mixing it up. Are you ever concerned that you’re throwing too many tricks into the same bag?
The Cat Empire plays so many musical styles that every song or song part can call for a different bass approach. I have fun playing, say, salsa for a few bars, and then going to a funky 16th-note feel. Of course, we try to make it sound tasteful, as opposed to just running through every style of music we know how to play. The biggest challenge is resisting the urge to do something new with a song each time we perform it.