Cinema Scope
Viktor Krauss
“Cinematic instrumental rock” might be the best way to describe the second solo CD from Viktor Krauss. II has the longtime anchorman for Texas singer/songwriter Lyle Lovett playing acoustic and electric basses, keyboards, and guitar on eight originals and a pair of inventive covers, with Lovett singing Tracy Nelson’s “(I Could Have Been Your) Best Friend” and Shawn Colvin guesting on Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond.” In keeping with the album’s direction, Krauss, an Illinois native, Nashville resident, and brother of bluegrass star Alison Krauss, has applied his talents as an instrumentalist and composer to several film scores, including the forthcoming All Hat. He has also gigged or recorded with Elvis Costello, Chet Atkins, Jerry Douglas, Bill Frisell, John Fogerty, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gillian Welch, Randy Travis, and Emmylou Harris.
II sounds laid-back and atmospheric. Was that your intention?
It feels a lot more cinematic to me than my first record. It’s less about particular soloists or virtuosic things, and more about subtlety and details. If people know that that’s the intent, then it’ll probably be better received. It might capture something in you internally, but it won’t hit you over the head.
What is it about movie music that’s so appealing to you?
It calls up so many pictures in your head and brings out a kind of emotion. If you listen to the score of a film you haven’t seen, you can let your brain fill in the blanks when the music seems to imply action. Why would there be a ten-bar phrase here or an eight-bar phrase here, or why does the triangle come in? What is the musical gesture here? It can then be a guide to your own personal story rather than being about what happened in the film.
Does your cinematic approach to your own music apply to how you play bass with others?
As I’ve gotten older or wiser, I’ve made my playing less about myself. I grew up listening to John Paul Jones and Leland Sklar, and I was always more interested in finding out what they did in a particular song that might make it special instead of having a rule of thumb for every song. I try to think of what’s best for each tune. If one of the other instruments is doing something special, I don’t necessarily try to double that. I want to let that instrument speak, and if there’s a hole that’s better for me, I try to take that. In a lot of ways, it’s thinking like a drummer, figuring out whether the best fill is at the beginning or end of a phrase.
just the facts
Can Be Heard On:
Viktor Krauss, II [Narada, 2007];
Alan Jackson, Like Red on a Rose [Arista, 2006];
Peter Rowan, Crucial Country: Live at Telluride [There, 2006];
Janis Ian, Folk Is the New Black [Evosound, 2006];
Bill Frisell, Nashville [Nonesuch, 1997];
Dolly Parton, Those Were the Days [Sugar Hill, 2005]
CURRENTLY SPINNING:
“Dig,” from Incubus’s Light Grenades [Sony, 2006];
Spoon, Gimme Fiction [Merge, 2005];
Thomas Newman, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events [Sony, 2004]
GEAR
Basses:
1940s Juzek upright with Thomastik Spirocore orchestra strings and Fishman BP-100 and Underwood pickups; Warwick Triumph electric upright with Thomastik Spirocore orchestras, ’59 Fender Precision with GHS Pressurewound mediums, ’71 Fender Jazz with Thomastik Jazz flats; Warwick Stryker; Hi-Fi Bass, custom made in Los Angeles
Recording Rig:
Early-’60s Ampeg B-12N 1x12 combo, SWR Mr. Tone Controls EQ
Gigging Rig:
Warwick Quad VI head and two Warwick 411 Pro 4x10 cabinets
