How did you hone the material for The Dream?When we were touring with Ozzy we did a lot of writing on the bus, recording the ideas using a Line 6 POD and Cubase software. We honed the bass and guitar parts when we got home to L.A., and e-mailed them for Jeff and Maria to add drums and vocals in New York.
How do you like to record your bass?I normally add overdrive to my live tone for punch, but we recorded the bass clean using a tube preamp, light compression, and my MXR Stereo Chorus pedal, which makes a part sing through the mix.
How would you compare your bass playing on this record to the previous one?Some of Beautiful Tragedy [Century Media, 2007] was written before I joined the band, and it was the first record, so I played it a little safe. This time I just went for it when the time seemed right to throw in a cool bass lick.
What’s something you learned from this latest studio stint?[Producer] Kevin Churko was constantly yelling at me because I hold my pick like a guitar player. It sounds cool when you palm mute and scrape the strings on guitar, but not when you’re recording bass. So I had to adjust my grip to get the attack without the scrape.
How do you balance precision playing with exciting onstage performance?I might dumb down an intricate picking part for the sake of the show, but that’s rare, because I’ve learned what works through years of touring. A lot of great bass players get overshadowed by singers or guitar players—we’ve got to work twice as hard to keep our faces in the game. Going crazy for its own sake looks stupid and comes across as fake. If you do what comes naturally when the music moves you, it’s cool no matter what.
CAN BE HEARD ON
In This Moment, The Dream [Century Media, 2008]
CURRENTLY SPINNING
Failure, Fantastic Planet [Warner Bros., 1996]
“The song ‘Heliotropic’ has such an awesome distorted bass tone that we use it on tour to test each venue’s PA system.”
GEAR
Basses Schecter Hellraiser tuned BC#G#C#, Schecter Stiletto tuned BEAD Rig Ampeg SVT-2PRO and SVT-4PRO heads, two Ampeg SVT-810AV 8x10 cabinets, dbx 160A rackmount compressor, Boss TU-2 tuner, Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI Effects Boss ODB-3 Bass OverDrive, BBE Sonic Stomp Sonic Maximizer, MXR Stereo Chorus Strings Dunlop Nickel Plated Steel (.045–.125) Picks Dunlop .045mm Custom Imprint Tortex Series
“For studio parts that required a smoother ‘fingerstyle’ sound, I used a felt pick. It’s like having the best of both worlds.”