From Ozzy to Alice in Chains
"I remember the exact moment when I heard my first sound," recalls Mike Inez. "It was the sound of my own heartbeat." Taking a cue from his early memory, Inez has now spent half his life providing one of metal's steadiest pulses for the likes of Ozzy Osbourne, Alice In Chains, Heart, Slash, Black Label Society, and Michael Schenker. These days, however, he faces a rebirth of sorts. Alice In Chains, his musical home, has recorded and released its first album of new material in 14 years. Black Gives Way to Blue is a full-on, four-man phoenix rising from the grungey ashes of early-'90s Seattle, when AIC, Soundgarden, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam ruled the rock roost. Inez, guitarist Jerry Cantrell, drummer Sean Kinney, and new lead vocalist/guitarist WilliamDuVall reinvigorate the band's buzzsaw blend of maniac metal and acoustic aptitude, with vivid, pain-filled lyrics meant to reveal and heal.
That Inez was able to fill the AIC bass chair vacated by original bottom-keeper Mike Starr in 1993 is further testament to his sonic sensibilities. Born May 14, 1966, in an Fernando, Californio, Inez was raised amid the sound of his uncle's Top 40 band, which included Earth, Wind & Fire guitarist A1 McCay. He laughs, "When my mother first brought me home, the band was rehearsing, so I always say I went straight from the hospital to a rehearsal. That's how I got interested in music; uncle Matt would say,'Don't touch the gear', so as soon as he went out I was all over it". Inez wanted to play drums, but his father steered him toward clarinet and saxophone in school, while his grandmother bought him a guitar. By age 13, rock & roll had caught his ear, and an old Fender Telecaster Bass-left by a musician who owed his uncle money-caught his eye. "I painted it black and put on a mirrored pickguard to be like Phil Lynott, and I played along with albums by Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Van Halen".
A mainstay in local bands through and after high school, Inez took music courses at Pasadena City College and had been accepted at UCLA. Then came the break of a lifetime: A rehearsal studio owner told Inez that Ozzy Osbourne was auditioning bassists around the corner. On a lark, he headed
over. “Finally, two weeks later, Sharon
Osbourne called to say the gig was mine.
One week after that I was living in Ozzy’s
castle in Ireland rehearsing for our first
shows at Wembley Stadium!”
During a run of gigs opening up for
Osbourne, Alice In Chains cemented a
connection with Mike that led to Inez’s
invitation to join the band. Inez recorded
the Billboard No. 1 albums Jar of Flies,
Alice In Chains, and the later-released
MTV Unplugged with AIC before internal
problems stemming from frontman
Layne Staley’s drug addiction ground the
group to an unofficial halt in 1996. In
1998, Cantrell recorded his solo album
Boggy Depot using Inez and Kinney, but
Staley’s death in 2002 signaled a painful
end to an era. It was the Asian tsunami disaster
that first brought the surviving members
of AIC back together for a Seattle
benefit concert in 2005. This led to a series
of reunion tours in 2007, with DuVall—who
first sang with the band at a VH-1 tribute
to Heart—handling lead vocals. In 2008,
AIC began writing in earnest, eventually
recording at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606 in
L.A. last winter. With much anticipation,
the initial launch of multiple “comeback”
tours commenced in late July.
How has the band’s sound evolved on this
album?
We mainly evolved as people, having
learned a heck of a lot of lessons. What
hasn’t changed as much is what’s coming
out of the speakers; we tried to stay true
to that. Of course we’ve grown as musicians
and we have a fantastic new singer,
a new label, new management, and new
crew. The whole album, from the first lyric
to the last note, is a journey. It’s pretty much
the story of what we went through the past
five years to get here. I’m ecstatic because
I never thought it would happen.
How has your playing changed since
the last AIC CD in 1995?
I got to grow and refine my style by
virtue of playing with some different artists—
mainly, doing five tours, an album, and a
soundtrack with Ann and Nancy Wilson of
Heart. Music just oozes out of their pores.
They’ll jam all day, perform at night, and
then get on the bus and play Beatles tunes
until 6 AM. We would do country sessions
jamming with folks like Wynonna Judd,
Carrie Underwood, Rufus Wainwright, and
Gretchen Wilson. That really stretched me
out, musically. And a personal crowning
moment for me was having Lemmy ask me
to play on a Motörhead record!
How did the songs come together?
Most of the songs were written by Jerry,
and when we got them into that laboratory
setting, we picked them apart to come up
with all of our parts.
How do you come up with bass lines?
I’ve always gone for countermelodies
first. Jerry will throw a riff at me and I’ll
play a bunch of counter parts, so initially it
sounds like I’m overplaying. But I’m just
trying to find the cool notes—the ones that
rub against the riff or complete the chord.
Then I’ll strip it down to come up with the
tastiest line that fits the song and the time
feel, without trying to be showy.
Do you think your melodic instincts
come from starting on horn?
My dirty little secret is that when I make
a chart for a session, I chart it in treble clef,
like a sax player. With AIC, often I’ll put a
part down early on, and after I hear the guitars
and vocals I’ll add to it or edit it down;
or, I’ll redo it altogether because I’ll hear a
new line running through everything that
will hook up all the notes. Our music is so
dense with guitars and vocals that sometimes
I’ll just stay heavy and low to let everything
ride on top. It all depends on the
character of the song; I try to approach each
one as its own entity. This album was produced
by Nick Raskulinecz, and he’s a bass
player. It was fun for me to be under the
microscope a bit more. I’d do a take and
ask him, “How was it?” And he’d say,
“Perfect … can you do it again?” [Laughs.]
How does an acoustic setting, like the
title track, make you play differently?
On our MTV Unplugged album [1996]
I noticed I played “Rooster” and “Rain
When I Die” differently. There’s more space.
The tone and physical act of playing an
acoustic bass guitar are not the same as on
electric bass. I tend to float around more
on the acoustic, and add more counter lines.
How did the band get the pitchshifting
effect on “Check My Brain”?
Believe it or not, it’s just us bending our
strings; there are no effects at all. That was
my thought when I first heard Jerry’s demo:
What effect are you using? When Jerry
showed me the riff, I could see it came from
pulling the strings up and down. Jerry calls
it his “car sickness” sound. [Laughs.] After
all these years, we’ve found we both play
our bends a little behind the beat, so it came
really naturally when we had to record the
track and match up with each other.
Are you primarily a pick player?
I have been, but now it’s pick and fingers.
Over the last three years I’ve been diving
into alternating-string exercises with my
index and middle fingers to get my right
hand happening. It depends on the song;
there’s something about fingers that makes
you feel like a bonafide bassist. “Your Decision”
from the new album is fingers, but on
an AIC classic like “Them Bones” I need
the cutting sound of a pick. I use the pick
to slam a lot of 5ths and power chords, especially
behind the guitar solos, but I haven’t
had to use them as much with the addition
of William playing guitar. I do a lot of string
bends with my left hand, and I like using
vibrato and slides to make my parts fluid.
Do you slap, tap, palm mute, or have
any unorthodox techniques?
I don’t slap or tap; there are so many
players who do those well. I’ll mute with
my palm to varying degrees when using a
pick, to shorten notes and reduce string
noise—having in-ears has really helped clean
up my playing. I have a technique I call
“crabbing,” where I pluck with my thumb
and index finger to play octaves, or to grab
other shapes. My only other quirk is I’ll start
patterns or riffs at different places on the
neck to change it up and keep from getting
bored. I mean, after you’ve been playing
“Man in the Box” for 16 years . . . .
Let’s talk drummers, starting with Sean.
Sean is an intense, interesting person,
and that translates into his drumming. When
I get excited, I tend to start pushing. Jerry
is laid back, and Sean is in the middle, so
it makes for a thick pocket. Lately I’ve been
learning to lay back and relax, I think having
in-ears helps there, too. I’ve also had
the chance to record with other top drummers,
like Matt Sorum, Kenny Aronoff, and
John Tempesta. One of my favorites is Ben
Smith of Heart, who’s somewhat unsung.
He’s established in New York and Seattle,
and he’s like a musical encyclopedia.
What current bassists have caught
your ear?
So many! I love hanging and talking
with other bass players, and here in L.A. I
have great access to them at studio sessions,
the NAMM show, or at Ampeg events. I’ve
met Billy Sheehan, Hutch Hutchinson,
Alphonso Johnson, Michael Anthony, Will
Lee, Flea, Les Claypool, Chris Chaney, Lee
Sklar, Randy Jackson, Victor Wooten, and
Tony Levin. There are more amazing bass
players now than ever.
Any advice for young bassists?
I see a lot of kids, especially in these
new emo punk kind of bands, putting a
whole lot of effort into their image but not
so much into their music. They’re glossing
over the bass playing part and going straight
to appearance and lifestyles and ego battles.
You have to put the craft ahead of
everything else; you have to really respect
the art of making music on the bass. A key
lesson I learned from being amazingly lucky
enough to start my career with Ozzy was
that I was representing a million-dollar
organization. So I took it very seriously,
and I’ve been that way ever since. I still go
through my warmups and practice the
modes, and at home I love to play along
with records in all styles; it always makes
the lightbulb go on when I hear a different
way to approach a groove or some chord
changes.
Do you have future plans to expand
your sideman roles or start a solo career?
Maybe eventually; I’m blessed to have a
magic phone that keeps ringing with people
asking me to jam with them, and I love
the challenges. But right now it’s all about
Alice In Chains and our new journey. We’re
just going to take it a step at a time and keep
on rocking. For me, I love walking up that
ramp in a stadium setting, grabbing the bass,
and hearing all those speakers going at once;
that’s my favorite place on earth.
Inez Unchained
On Black Gives Way to Blue, nihilistic grunge-metal unisons give
way to tension-filled pedals and countermelodies, courtesy of
Mike Inez’s thundering, detuned basses. Ex. 1 contains the main
unison riff of “Last of My Kind.” Tune your bass (or at least your
E string) down to Db and dig in. Ex. 2 features Mike’s potent pedal
on “Take Her Out.” With his bass tuned down a half-step, his
open-string Eb serves as the root of the tonic and the 3rd of the
B chord in alternate measures. Note how he alludes to the B at
the end of bars 2 and 4. “I like to stay on the same note through
chord changes at times, to give the song a different personality.”
It’s back to crunching unison riffs and fret-grinding string pulls
in Ex. 3, from the verses of the CD’s first single, “A Looking In
View.” Although his bass is tuned to Eb, Mike drops his E string
to Db (C#) and matches guitarist Jerry Cantrell’s mid-bar bends
in bars 1, 3, and 4 (by pulling his Ab string down toward the floor).
“I know my theory and chord qualities, but in Chains it’s wideopen;
not being handcuffed by the rules is cool and liberating.”
Finally, Ex. 4 shows Mike’s typical part on the balladic “Private
Hell” (with his bass tuned to Eb). Catch his application of other
chord tones in his fills, as he moves along, leading to his use of
the 5th of the chords in bar 4. “I play the 5th or other non-roots
at times to add tension or create an unsettled feeling.”
Mike Inez’s 5 Favorite Bassists
1. DEE MURRAY (Elton John)
“When I’m at home, I find myself playing along with a lot of early Elton John.
Dee’s playing on Elton’s live radio show album [11-17-70, Rocket/Island, 1971]
is a showcase for how to be a tasty, melodic, space-filling bassist, without
being pretentious. Doing all those moving lines underneath with such pocket
and imagination is hard, but he’s fluid and natural with it.”
2. JOHN ENTWISTLE (The Who)
“I was drawn to John’s aggression and lead bass tones. He never took the easy
approach and always wrote in context with each individual song. I met him when
I was starting out, and I said to him, ‘Mr. Entwistle, I think you are a brilliant
bass player.’ He looked me in the eye and without blinking, said, ‘I fucking
know that!’ and walked away. I thought that was the coolest thing ever!”
3. PAUL MCCARTNEY (The Beatles)
“His bass playing gets overlooked sometimes. If you sit and listen to his bass
lines as their own little pieces, you’ll be blown away by how much personality
and tongue-in-cheek humor he puts into them. He’s Bass Playing 101—a great
place to start if you are just picking up the instrument.”
4. JOHN PAUL JONES (Led Zeppelin)
“Zeppelin was an amalgamation of some truly great ideas: heavy riffage and
superstar musicians creating a unique blend of timeless tunes. Mr. Jones is
such a fantastic all-around musician, and it bleeds into his amazing bass lines.
His solid fundamentals gave him a great platform to experiment as a bassist,
songwriter, and producer. Chops, tone, and an inventive brain—this dude is an
all-timer!”
5. CLIFF BURTON (Metallica)
“Cliff was magical to watch in concert. I always felt he wasn’t there to entertain
you, he was there to kick your face in! He had a unique way of focusing
all that aggression and angst into a finely tuned assault, delivered with the
explosiveness of a shuttle launch. He smashed stereotypes of what the capabilities
and limitations of the instrument were at the time.”
GEAR
Basses Two Warwick Streamer Stage I 4-
strings (one tuned EbAbDbGb, one tuned
C#F#BE, both with Hipshot Xtenders); Warwick
Alien acoustic bass guitar; Alvarez
acoustic bass guitar; Gibson Les Paul Bass;
Fender Telecaster Bass; fretted and fretless
Fender P-Basses; Warwick Streamer
5-string; Kubicki Factor bass; Spector 4-
string, Gibson Thunderbird
Strings & picks Dean Markley Blue Steels
medium-light and medium gauges; Jim
Dunlop heavy-gauge picks
Rig Bi-amped Ampeg rig: Two SVT-2PRO
heads into four 1x18 cabinets for the lows
(“They’re 8" deeper than the 1x18 cabs
Ampeg used to make”); Two SVT-2PRO
heads into two SVT-810E cabinets laid on
their sides atop the 18s for the highs
Effects None; plugs into a SansAmp Bass
DI live, which sends his signal three ways
(direct, amp, and miked-amp) to the house
board. “I also use the
SansAmp to dirty up
my sound in my
Ultimate Ears inears.
I keep them
at about 3 or 4, so
they’re more like earplugs,
while still allowing me to hear my
rig and side fills, if needed. Mix-wise, I have
the whole band in my in-ears, with a bit
more Jerry in the left ear.”
Selected Discography
With Alice In Chains (on Columbia, except
where noted) Black Gives Way to Blue, 2009
[Virgin/EMI]; MTV Unplugged, 1996; Alice
In Chains, 1995; Jar of Flies, 1994.With Jerry
Cantrell Boggy Depot, 1998 [Columbia].
With Ozzy Osbourne Live and Loud, 1993;
No More Tears, 1991 [Epic]. With Heart:
Jupiter’s Darling, 2004 [Sovereign Artists];
Alive In Seattle, 2003 [Epic/Legacy]. With
Nancy Wilson: Elizabethtown [Soundtrack],
2005 [RCA Victor]. With Slash’s Snakepit:
It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere, 1995 [Geffen].
With Motörhead: Kiss of Death, 2006
[Sanctuary]. Instructional DVD: Behind The
Player: Mike Inez, 2009 [iMV]