Henny Vrienten has been performing and composing music since the 1960’s. The band in which he performs as bassist and singer called “Doe Maar” is one of the most popular live pop phenomenons in Dutch music history.

Surprisingly, not only was Henny willing to do an interview, but he suggested to do it in his studio, demonstrating his bass playing and singing and entertaining all sorts of questions about his music past, present and future. A very enjoyable and enlightening time.

Thank you Tessa for translations and Tanya for coordination and transcription.

Thank you Dennis Alstrand for this Interview!

Time to meet a singing bassist who has been living on the big island of Hawaii for over 30 years.
Roger Hawney does something that sometimes is even harder than being a lead singer/bass player.  He is a harmonist.  He’s clearly very good at keeping a clear train of thought going while trying to marshal both forces.  I’ll let him take it from here.

 
Dennis Alstrand: Roger, can you start by telling us about your musical background?
Roger Hawley: I was banging on the family piano as a child, then started playing saxophone in grade school. I picked up guitar when I was 18 and did some sound mixing for live shows in the Seattle area. I started my recording studio about 15 years ago when digital recording equipment made the process more feasible and affordable.
DA: How long have you been playing bass?
RH: I didn’t start playing bass until about 20 years ago.
DA: How long have you been singing and playing bass?
RH: I was able to sing and play guitar, so when I started playing bass I continued to try to sing and play, but I found it to be more difficult.  
DA: What do you recall being difficult about playing bass and singing simultaneously when you first tried it?
RH: It was probably because of the newness of the instrument and having to give so much of my attention to learning it. As you know, playing a rhythm instrument and singing melody require two completely separate aspects of the brain. 
DA: What are your thoughts about this?
RH: I have to practice both parts individually first, and then put them together after the muscle memory kicks in. Muscle memory is every bit as important in singing as it is in playing. I have to learn the words and the melody so that they just roll off the tongue without having to think about them. And very often when I put the two together I have to slow the song way down to make sure I get the word phrasing in the right place with the groove. I do more harmony singing now than lead singing, and it is the same thing but with additional challenges. First, I have to learn the harmony line as if it was the melody, so that my voice will go there automatically and without wavering. The hardest part is synchronizing with the lead singer, because very often he/she will add color or feeling to the song by playing with the beat a little bit. Holding a steady groove with the bass while singing a little off the beat is definitely the most challenging aspect.
DA: Is there any thought process you enter before singing while you have a bass in front of you?  Do you have any advice for aspiring singing bassists?
RH: If I have done my homework, I shouldn’t have to think too much about it. As the saying goes, it’s all about practice, practice, practice.

Solo artist, and in-demand singing bassist, Gail Ann Dorsey has had some high profile gigs over the years. Almost ten years with David Bowie was the longest-running one, in addition to which she has also contributed to his 2013 comeback album, “The Next Day“. She’s also touring with Lenny Kravitz, and has toured with acts like Gwen Stefani, Tears For Fears, The Gang Of Four, and Olivia Newton-John. She has also contributed some bass on the brand new release from Suzanne Vega, and provided some backing vocals on the upcoming release from Joan Osborne. Gail Ann is currently preparing songs for her next solo album, which promises to be rooted in warm and melodic ‘70’s type soft rock. Anders Lundquist hooked up with her in Stockholm, to discuss her career so far.

Anders Lundquist for SingingBassist Although I’ve been a fan of her solo work since the mid 80’s, I make no attempt to hide the fact that the Bowie connection is part of the reason why it’s such a thrill for me to finally meet Gail Ann Dorsey in person.
Gail Ann Dorsey That’s fine! A lot of things have happened for me because of him, and that’s a good thing! He is very supportive and musically generous artist to work for. He makes room for the members of his band to be involved in the creative process; to shine in their individuality, and do what they do best. It’s refreshing. He’s very comfortable with that. He’s a real gem. Not many artists have the confidence and ease that he has.
SB How did the bass playing start?
Gail Ann Dorsey It started by accident, actually. I always wanted to be a guitar player. I guess singing was really my first instrument, but in terms of picking up something, an object in my hands, the six-string guitar was my first love and probably will always be the instrument dearest to my heart. I got my first guitar when I was nine and started teaching myself how to play. We could not afford lessons, so I learned by experience, playing with other kids in the neighborhood, starting little bands here and there. I dreamed of being as good as my guitar heroes of the time, like Terry Kath of Chicago, Neil Young, Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, etc. I still dream of that! But I could never seem to get to that place on the guitar. I could never get really good and express myself the way I wanted to!. When I was around 14, I started to look for work as a guitarist in Top 40 bands around Philadelphia, which is where I grew up. I wanted to play music all the time! I didn’t want to have to flip burgers or work in a shoe store to get my own pocket money, when I was out of school for summer holidays. I went to the local music store, where they used to have a bulletin board with index cards where local musicians would place want ads for other musicians they needed for their bands. What I soon realized was that everyone played the guitar and all of the guitarists were looking for either drummers or bass players for their bands.
SB When was this?
Gail Ann Dorsey This would have been 1976 or 1977. This is how I started to play bass! With all of the guitarists looking for other musicians, I figured I’d never get hired playing the guitar, so I went for the bass! “It’s only four strings, so it can’t be that hard, and I don’t even have to worry about chords”. I asked my older sister’s boyfriend if I could borrow his Rickenbacker bass for an audition.
SB Did you end up getting the job?
Gail Ann Dorsey I did! I don’t know what songs we played, but I know we ended up playing Top 40 stuff, some of which I used to sing the lead on as well. Lots of Rolling Stones, Boston, Pete Frampton, The Eagles, all the popular music of the day. The first bass I ever owned, which I wish I still had in my possession, is an Epiphone bass that can be seen on my Facebook fan page. My mother had promised she’d get me my own bass if I got a job. That was the bass. My mother was always supportive, bless her, even if she didn’t understand how I wanted to play music all day and not be concerned with the “normal” things a young teenage girl should be doing…
SB Did you get good on bass quickly?
Gail Ann Dorsey Yes, in fact a lot quicker than I did on guitar.
SB When did you start singing while playing the bass?
Gail Ann Dorsey I was always singing with my guitar. Writing songs, and singing with my various little bands. I don’t remember it being difficult; not until the styles of music I was playing began to change – the funkier stuff. Classic “70’s” songs, like The Eagles, were more about just following and enhancing the chord structure…keeping it groovy but simple. It was a bit closer to strumming a guitar, so singing and playing bass was not too challenging in the early days. Later in my professional career when it came to playing more complicated rhythms against the singing it was “my goodness, how am I gonna do this?”
SB Did you figure out a routine for practicing?
Gail Ann Dorsey Yes, and I still use it to this day. It’s kind of a common sense approach. Basically, I slow everything down, either using a metronome, or not, I take small sections at a time, whatever the bass part is and the vocal part that goes against it, and I figure out, very slowly, exactly how the parts fit together, where they come together like a puzzle. Once I break that code, so to speak, then I repeat the parts, playing them over and over and slowly bringing them up to speed, until I can play it at the correct tempo of the song. And once I get it to that point, and I have cracked how to coordinate some complex bass line and vocal part, I can even go back years later and it’s still there. I can’t explain why, but it seems once my body figures out the connection, it’s locked in for good!
SB You started playing the bass seriously again around the age of 20?
Gail Ann Dorsey Yeah, that’s when I moved to London from New York. I was trying to get a solo deal for my first solo album, which became Corporate World, and I was totally playing guitar and being a vocalist, and I didn’t think seriously about bass playing for a few years in between. But it was the same kind of impetus that made me return to the bass: I knew that I could play the bass pretty proficiently, and people always needed bass players – it’s still the same thing today! So I picked up the bass again, and could play three nights a week in the pubs in London, and make just enough money to get by. So I did that, and through that I made connections and met a lot of great musicians in the early 80’s London music scene. I crossed paths with Courtney Pine, a saxophone player who was breaking big at the time, Richie Stevens, who was drumming for Boy George, Julia Fordham, a bunch of up and coming talents. My bass playing became so popular that word spread and started getting a lot of calls – it grew so quickly! Suddenly I was one of the bass players of the day. It was then that I started to really love the instrument and to begin to understand its’ power and beauty. I worked for a lot of artists at Virgin records, and Boy George was the first professional recording session I ever did. It was for his first solo album after Culture Club. Then I worked for Donny Osmond, The Kane Gang, Well Red, and some other Virgin artists before joining A&M recording artists, The Thrashing Doves and having my first professional touring experience with them. The Thrashing Doves gave me my first Music Man Stingray bass, “Marilyn”, as a gift! After touring and recording a couple of albums with The Thrashing Doves, I went on to record my first solo album for Warner Brothers. (see below for the story of “Marilyn”).
SB Why Stingray?
Gail Ann Dorsey I always wanted one of those. I always loved the way it looked, and that’s usually how it starts when you’re young. You see a guitar, or a bass, or a car that looks cool, and that’s the beginning of the love affair! I think it was seeing Louis Johnson of The Brothers Johnson on TV playing one. I remember him doing that slapping thing on “Strawberry Letter 23” in a music video or some TV performance. Stingrays were all over on TV shows like The Midnight Special and Rock Concert and Soul Train. There was something about how it looked, as well as the versatility of the tone it could produce. You saw players from funk to rock to easy listening all holding a gorgeous Stingray. It was obviously a bass that could do a lot of things. Before going to London, I had bought a headless Kramer bass called “The Duke” in New York to write with for my eight track demos. It had an aluminium neck, and when the metal got warmed up, it would go sharp (laughs). It was a nightmare on stage! So, when I started doing professional sessions, I used to rent a Stingray or Fender bass.
SB The Stingray is very versatile.
Gail Ann Dorsey Yeah, that’s why I use it. It works for rock, funk, metal, fusion, pop – everything. I really, really swear by it. I just love that bass. Every time people ask my for advice, whether they are beginners, or wanna get a good bass for somebody, I just say “I don’t care what style you play, if you wanna get a good bass, get a Stingray.”
SB How did you get the gig with Bowie?
Gail Ann Dorsey I actually got up the courage to ask him about that back in 1997, after having played with him a couple of years already. I remember saying, “you could have asked any player in the entire Universe. Why in the world did you pick me? I can’t read music, I don’t have some special technique, I don’t have amazing chops to run up and down the neck… Hell, I don’t really know what I’m doing compared to the legacy of Bowie bass players before me!”. He told me that he had seen me on TV once, on the late 80’s. This was in London, and I was on some music program promoting my debut album. Whatever I said or played on that program I really made an impression on him because according to him he told himself, “one day, when the project is right, I really want to work with that woman”, and that was it! And this was nearly seven or eight years before he called me! But he is like that. He pays close attention, and really remembers things.
SB What was the hardest thing you ever had to learn to sing and play with Bowie?
Gail Ann Dorsey Doing the “Under Pressure” duet with Bowie. The juxtaposition of rhythms are a bit complicated on that one! The bass part in itself is very strong, as with most Queen songs, and the way Freddie phrases things is so very unique to him. He was the greatest. I love him. When David asked me to do it, I was in tears, because A) Queen is my favorite band of all time and B) because I didn’t think if I could do it!!!
SB Opportunity meets challenge!
Gail Ann Dorsey Yeah! And it has been the biggest, most well-known event in my musical life! The one that just never dies. It seems to connect with people so hugely, and it means a lot to me as well. It’s just one of those things you never dream could happen. I’ve seen Queen more times than any other band, and they were just the most amazing band ever. Just four little guys, and the heavens opening up! I’ve seen thousands of concerts and never had the same feeling to this day as watching Freddie, Roger, Brian and John do their thing. It really was magic. There was never a night when I sang “Under Pressure” that I didn’t look into the spotlight and didn’t think of Freddie. I would ask him to give me strength to do honour him as best as I could. I had to do him proud.
SB Did you ever take lessons?
Gail Ann Dorsey No, I mainly learnt by playing on my own, but I also learnt from other players I’ve worked with throughout the years. I’ve played with some of the most amazing musicians, each one so different, and that’s been a gift, too. I’d ask questions, and they would show me something. But I mainly imitated records – and that’s still what I do for a living, ha ha! I don’t learn quickly, but I’m always trying to learn something new. My dream is to go back to school and take a course in composition. I’d love to be able to write for all kinds of instruments; strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion… to be able to understand harmony and music theory. I hope I will have the time, one day, to dive into that. It’s there instinctively, but I want to be able to write it down, and understand what I’m doing. I want to broaden my musical palate, instead of reducing it. I want to have as many “colours” at my disposal as possible so that I can say more, even with less, if that makes any sense! Ha-ha!
SB And it’s very easy, using new technology, to make it sounds OK.
Gail Ann Dorsey Think of the popular artists from the 70’s. Paul Simon, David Bowie, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty, Alice Cooper, Heart – they all sounded so different. It was a time when artistic individuality was the norm. Not to mention the way they used arrangements! The R&B music like Thom Bell and the Philly Sound Gamble & Huff, was off the hook! The string arrangements, flutes, vibraphones and piccolos… Imagine the joy of using all that to make sounds interesting and exciting music, instead of some generic loop or a plugin? I am not a modern music hater, and I totally embrace technology and the wonderful things that it can contribute to modern music, but without the organic passion that comes from organic seed of man and his or her instrument, something is lost, something is missing.
SB Other basses you’ve played?
Gail Ann Dorsey For Lenny Kravitz, I use a 1961 (or ’62) Fender Jazz bass. It belongs to Lenny. With Lenny I also play one of the new reissues of the very first Classic Stingray. At least that model Stingray looks old enough for Lenny (laughs). It’s a whole “visual thing” touring with him!
I also play and endorse MTD basses. Michael Tobias Designs. I love his basses for the more modern, active sound. His basses also have the best necks I have ever played on ANY bass! Smooth, and comfortable, and made with love… Michael is a superb luthier, as well as a good friend and neighbour. I am a huge fan of his basses. The only fretless bass I own was hand made for me by Michael, and you can hear its’ sweet tone on the last cut of the Bowie ‘Next Day’ album on the track called “Heat”. I also played it on the ‘Reality Tour’ on “Slip Away” and “The Motel”. An absolutely beautiful bass… I have quite a collection of basses at this point!
SB What amp do you use yourself?
Gail Ann Dorsey Ampeg SVT-VR, the classic. I use and 8×10 or 4×12 cabinet, depending on the power required. I use the Ampeg Micro Stack when I play local gigs in and around Woodstock, New York where I live, and in the studio it’s always a vintage Ampeg B-15 flip-top… Ampeg all the way!
SB How would you describe your signature sound?
Gail Ann Dorsey Smooth, simple and emotive… and very melodic. I wasn’t always good at it, but I’m getting better. I’m learning to “sing” more with the bass. Because of all the instruments in an ensemble, I think the bass and the vocal do a little dance together. I think that’s been part of my success working with really great singers. Even though many people don’t think they can hear or pick out the bass, it actually takes up an enormous amount of space and totally dictates the movement and direction of everything. I think very much like a singer, so my bass playing doesn’t get in their way. I also play with a very light touch. I don’t really “dig in” when I play, even though it might sound that way. For Lenny, I do have to approach his bass lines with much more power and aggression than I have ever done with anyone else, but it totally suits what he is doing, his sound. On my own, I find I can get a bigger, richer sound with a lighter touch… Nice and round and warm, but still with balls. Nathan East is one of my favourite bass players. He kind of has that nice, smooth tone, and he definitely knows how to be a bass player to the great singers of the world! He knows how to do that bass vocal dance better brilliantly. Nathan produced my first solo album. What a thrill!
SB Anybody else?
Gail Ann Dorsey Joe Osborne. He played on a lot of the classic 70’s soft rock stuff – America, The Carpenters, The Fifth Dimension. He was the Hal Blaine of the bass! Other favorites are Pino Palladino, Lee Sklar, and my neighbor, Tony Levin.
SB Pick or no pick?
Gail Ann Dorsey I don’t mind playing with a pick, probably because I was a guitarist to begin with. I always laugh when bass players say they don’t like it when bassists use picks, and I think “you just don’t like it because you can’t do it” (laughs). There are no rules. As long as it sounds good, and feels good. Sometime the sound of a pick is what is required. It’s a vibe.
SB Strings?
Gail Ann Dorsey Ernie Ball, hybrid slinky 0.45, 0.65, 0.85, 1.05. With Lenny, I was forced to play flat wound strings, and I’ve really started diggin’ it. I have always had a go-to bass or two that was designated to flat wounds, but only for special occasions. My bass tech on Lenny Kravitz said to me when I first joined the band, “once you play this, you won’t want to go back to round wounds. It’s gonna sound really bright and weird!”. I did go back to playing my basses with round wound strings during a break, and I could see what he meant. I have to admit, he was kind of right! But I’ll never stop playing round wound completely, because it’s me. For flat wounds, I am using LaBells strings. Good enough for James Jamerson, good enough for me!
SB Is there any piece of classical music that inspired one of your basslines?
Gail Ann Dorsey The obvious one is the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. It’s the basis for the last song of my solo album called “Call Me Off To Heaven”, and it came out of my loving the Moonlight Sonata, and practically everything else that Beethoven has written. He is the Master. Everybody loves the “Moonlight”, it’s such a gorgeous piece of music, and conjures so many feelings. Romantic, sad… It’s so Beethoven: beautiful, but dark and moody. My favorite piece of music of all time is his 7th Symphony, especially the second movement. It’s so beautiful it hurts. But I don’t know that I’ll ever write anything based on it, or even like it. A lot of people have take classical pieces and made brilliant pop songs out of them, like Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself” or Barry Manilow’s “Could It Be Magic”, which I believe were both based on a Rachmaninov piece. I have not thought about looking to a classical piece for the inspiration of a specific bass line, but maybe I will. Could be fun!

SB What did you learn from working with David Bowie?
Gail Ann Dorsey That’s always a tough question. It’s not so easy to put it into words, but I feel I have learned quite a lot. I have learned a lot about being a “performer”, how to work a stage, how to play to an audience. I think I have also learned a bit about how to dress, believe it or not. I had the opportunity to wear clothing by some of the greatest designers in the world, and work with some of the most amazing stylists. It taught me what works for me, and what doesn’t, and I don’t think I had ever really thought so deeply about that before working with him.

I don’t know how much of this I have absorbed or applied to my own process because I am very finicky and precise when I work, but Bowie is fast moving when he creates. He is not the methodical type who sits on one little thing for ages and obsesses over it. He’s more about throwing everything, all ideas into the pot, then stripping down and taking things away to reveal the finished product. The “art” is not about what you add to something, it’s what you take away.
SB Any advice for a young, aspiring singing bassist?
Gail Ann Dorsey Be a singing bassist, for a start! If you can sing and play the bass, I highly recommend you make a marriage of that, and a permanent one! It will certainly help your chances of working. It’s been a real asset for me, and that’s probably one of the main reasons for my success, because I can cover two jobs in one person!
I always tell young musicians that playing the bass is the biggest responsibility in any ensemble, even though a lot of people think they can’t hear the bass, or that it’s not interesting or cool. If the bass moves in a certain direction, everybody moves that way. If the bass stops, you feel it. If the bass plays a wrong note – you hear it! (laughs). The bass is a very big chair to fill. It doesn’t even have to be a bass guitar; it can be a tuba, or the left hand on the organ –anything fulfilling the role of the bass is in complete control of the ensemble. It is The Leader! I once saw this bumper stick in a music shop in Sydney, Australia that said, “Like most people, you’re following the bass player”. I bought one of those bumper stickers for all of my bass playing friends! It’s the truth! Playing the bass is not for the weak-hearted or indecisive! You are the one responsible for taking the music where it needs to go, and getting it there in style. Ponder this…
SB Do you feel comfortable, doing what you do?
Gail Ann Dorsey I used to beat myself up about the fact that I wasn’t Nathan East or Tony Levin or Carol Kaye; that I couldn’t do what they do. I used to be frightened and worried that somebody would ask me to play something that would show that I wasn’t really as good as they thought I was. Only in the last couple of years have I finally realized, and finally been able to say to myself, “I am a really good bass player”. I could never say that, because I honestly believed I was inferior and could never stand up to the greats that I admired. Even after ten years with Bowie, countless recording sessions, hundreds of concerts on some of the worlds’ greatest stages with some of the most legendary artists, I’d still feel that I was only hanging on by the skin of my teeth, that I was not as good as I “should” be. But one day, only a couple of years ago, I just hit me like a ton of brick, and I was finally ready to accept and to embrace the reality and own the fact that I am indeed decent bass player and a pretty good singer too. I don’t know why, but something clicked. I have made music my life. I have put in the time, put in the hours, made the sacrifices – because there’s a lot of things you have to give up to make room for music. I may never be Will Lee, or Nathan, or Leland, but what I do is just as valuable, and it works. What more can I ask?

HOW MARILYN GOT HER NAME

Gail Ann DorseyMarilyn was a gift from the British band The Thrashing Doves. When I got the job playing bass for them on their US tour (which was the first real concert tour of my career!), I didn’t have a good bass of my own other than the headless Kramer that I had brought to London with me from New York. When I had done sessions previously, the label would always rent a Stingray for me to play on the recordings. I had yet to afford one of my own, but there was no way I could get through this US tour with my Kramer, so I asked the band if they could front me a Stingray and take it out of my pay check until it was mine. Needless to say, they gave it to me as a gift at the end of the tour, and I cherish this bass more than any other instrument I own. It signifies many things for me, and occupies an extremely special place in my life and in my heart.

I bought the bass new from The Bass Centre in London. I believe it was 1985-ish. I used to spend a lot of time at The Bass Centre in those days, as you can imagine, and not long after I purchased Marilyn, another Stingray came into the shop with a clear pick guard. I thought it would be cool to have a clear pick guard because you could put pictures, or drawings, or collages underneath to change the look whenever you wanted… So that’s what happened! I got The Bass Centre to order a clear pick guard for my bass, and the rest is history. I don’t even recall what Marilyn’s original pick guard colour was, but I think it was most likely black.

The fist thing I put under my new pick guard was a collage of Bazooka Joe bubblegum comics… Because I love bubblegum! You can see a photo of Marilyn in that stage on the cover of my second solo album on Island Records called “Rude Blue”. I think the next thing I put there was some drawing I had done… And then I was on a train in Europe, opened a magazine, and saw a very small photo of Marilyn Monroe in the corner of the page. She’s outside her trailer, reading a script for the last film she ever made – The Misfits, which is one of my favorite films. The expression on her face is total frustration and anxiety. One hand is holding her head, and the other is holding the script, and she’s looking like “oh my god, I’m never going to remember these lines”. It’s not like I’m some Marilyn Monroe fanatic. I just saw a woman in a photo who was caught in a moment of vulnerability and slight panic, yet she was right where she was supposed to be; on the edge, facing her challenges head on. I thought, “That captures just how I feel sometimes when I am playing the bass.” She’s there, she’s doing it, and she’s good at it – but it’s that funny relationship between the sometime painful process of self expression, and the glamour side that people always see where it all looks so confortable and easy. So, I tore the photo from the magazine, took it to a Xerox place, and had them blow it up to a size that would fit under my pick guard, and there is has lived for about 22 years now!

When I got the job with David Bowie in 1995, one of my bass technicians would say to me “Are you playing Marilyn on that song tonight?” or, “Do you want me to change strings on Marilyn before the show tonight, or after?”, and so on. So her name came from Mike. He took very good care of Marilyn, as many have before and after him. Marilyn has been with me on every major tour and every record album session I’ve ever done. She’s my good luck charm… and a big part of my sound!

Anders Lundquist caught up with Sting earlier this year in Stockholm for an interview for SingingBassist.com.

When SingingBassist met Sting, it was February 12, and he was about to play a comparatively small 3000-seater, a new concert hall in Stockholm, Sweden, that’s part of the Waterfront – a new conference centre. The show will be an intimate one. All music, a little light show. No pyrotechnics or dancers. The emphasis will be on Sting’s solo career, with very few Police songs, and he will throw in quite a few songs that were never released as singles. He will sing and play as good as ever, and legendary drummer Vinnie Colaiuta was one fire throughout.
I met Gordon ”Sting” Sumner at about two hours ’til showtime. Sting politely answers my questions (apart from the most equpiment-related ones, for which he refers to his longtime bass tech), but his body language is not entirely relaxed. The latter may be due to the fact that a lot of music journalists and critics have given him a hard time over the last 30 years, often for reason that have nothing to do with his obvious abilities as a songwriter and – the reason we’re sitting here – a singing bassist. He needn’t have had to worry. There will be no questions about tantra sex, or the supposed ”pretentiousness” of playing the lute – or trying to save the rainforests. This conversation is to be all about music. It is only when our talk is over that he really starts to loosen up, have his picture taken together with my intern, Cornelia, and sign my treasured copy of his first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles from 1986. ”I really miss vinyl” he sighs before saying ta.
–Anders Lundquist

Singing Bassist: You have chosen to call the tour Back To Bass…
Sting: Yes. It was supposed to be ”Back To Base” but the guys who did the posters got it wrong! (Yes, a joke from self-confessed control-freak Sting, who would never let a mistake like that slip through unnoticed).

SB: Was the name of the tour meant to be a celebration of bass playing, a reaction against the big arena and stadium gigs that you’ve done in recent years, including the Police reunion – or perhaps both?
Sting: You know, it’s really a reaction against my last tour, which was with a huge symphony orchestra with 55 people on stage. I always feel like I need to do something at the opposite end of the spectrum when I’ve done something big. This time, there are six of us on stage, and I play the bass and sing. I enjoy that. But I also like just singing. It’s more difficult to play the bass and sing – but that’s why we get paid!

SB: Do you remember the first time you sang and played the bass simultaneously?
Sting: Yeah – the first time I played the bass, I sang! I worked it out. I didn’t want to be a ”guitar hero”. I was a guitar player, but I thought it was a much cleverer thing to control the harmony of the band from the bottom. You know, the piano player can play a C chord on the piano, but it’s only a C chord if I play C on the bass. If I play something else, it’s a totally different chord. For instance, an A. So you control the harmony. If you are also a singer, you control the top – yes, I’m a control freak! So everybody performs within your parameters. So, as a band leader it’s a very good position to be in.

SB: Did you think in those terms, even back in the early 70’s?
Sting: Yes, I did. Well, maybe I’d like to think that I was cleverer than I was, but I actually think so. I thought ”what strategy do I need to get on in this world. Everybody wants to be Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page”. Maybe there’s another route that’s more…me?” More stoic. Quieter. But, nonetheless, powerful. I had played guitar from the age of seven, in 1969. I played classical guitar – Spanish guitar. Then I played double bass at school, and after that I joined a band. But I didn’t join a rock band, I joined a jazz group, and played in a big band, a mainstream jazz group, and a jazz-rock group. So the first rock band I was in was The Police in 1977. I’d never really played rock’n’roll. But I think, again, that was a good education. To have a wider experience of music than just three chords. I like rock’n’roll, but my musical background is much wider.

SB: Did you have any problems singing and playing at the same time?
Sting: No, because I figured it out. I figured you can do anything if you slow it down. So I would learn bass lines through playing 45 RPM singles and speed them up to 78, so I could hear the bass. And then I played it very slowly, And I had to sing I’d sing in the ”holes”. You can play and sing anything, it’s just a question of application. It’s not like strumming a guitar and singing, which is very natural. Playing the bass, you play counterpointed lines against the vocals, so you have to do some work.

SB: So, you are a trained musician, then?
Sting: Yeah, my reading is pretty good.

SB: Who were your favorite singing bassists back then?
Sting:; Jack Bruce, Paul McCartney and Phil Lynott. And they were all good singers as well as bass players.

SB: As well as being charismatic frontmen.
Sting: Yeah, well, I don’t have that – but I have the rest (smiles).

Sting’s Fender Precision Basses, photographed by Cornelia Andersson
SB: Was Fender Precision always your ”weapon of choice”?
Sting: Yes, I’ve played the P-bass since the late Sixties. I’ve tried other basses. I had a Gibson for a while, but I like Fender. I like the old ones. Mine are from 1955 and 1957. Those are the two that I use, really. The old ones were made by Leo Fender, physically handled by one guy. There’s a sense of history and love there. They weren’t made on an assembly line. They were made by one man who chopped a piece of wood and shaped it, wound the coils and the pickup himself. When you hold it in your hand it feels like a weapon. It’s a piece of work. And there’s something powerful about playing the bass. The root. Something simple and fundemental. It doesn’t have to be flashy. Of couse there are some flashy bass players out there, but it’s not what I do. I like putting it on every night – even though it fucks up my shoulder!

SB: Do you feel naked without the bass?
Sting: No, I don’t mind singing without it, and I play a little guitar at the end of the show. But I guess people are used to seeing me with the bass, so by now it looks like it’s part of me. Which is nice. But I don’t need anything to hide behind.

SB: Did you ever collect?
Sting: No. I like my basses, but I don’t have a room full of basses. There’s no point!

SB: What advice would you give to singing bassists?
Sting: (Laughs out loud, like this is starting to become too nerdy, or that he runs the risk of being accused of becoming pretentious. Which wouldn’t be the first time). Just practice, you know. Slow it down. Work out where you can sing and where you can play. You can do anything, you can play Rachmaninov’s third piano concerto if you slow it down. Though it may take a while to speed it up… We create new pathways in our brains through using our fingers. Muscle memory.

SB: I always hesitate to call myself a musician, but I have no problem referring to myself as a songwriter. It’s just that I can’t play some of my own songs in real time.
Sting: Haha. Well, it’s a different talent. I know some fantastic musicians, and I work with great musicians, but they would never consider themselves songwriters. And I’m lucky that I teach my musicians the song when I’ve written it – and then I forget it. I truly forget. I suppose it’s so I can write new songs. But luckily I have (guitarist) Dominic Miller, who remembers everything. He has amazing memory. You know, it’s a different part of the brain the writes songs, to the part that plays.

SB: In your recent box set 25 Years, which sums up your solo career so far, you have written a moving piece about your father’s hands. Can you tell us the story?
Sting: Very late in life I realized that my hands looked just like my father’s. We have working man’s hands. I mentioned this when he was dying, and he said ”you used your hands better than I did”. And I think that was the first compliment he’d ever paid me. So that was a very emotional moment for me. And, of course, I do use my hands every day, like a working man. I make something. I think that’s rare in modern life. We don’t use our hands very much. And I think the way we’ve evolved as a species, involving using hands to make things, makes us cleverer. I’m not sure how working a Blackberry makes you cleverer, you know.

SB: That depends what you write.
Sting: Yeah, I guess so.

SB: If you had to lose the playing, the singing or the writing – what would you do without?
Sting: Do I have do do without anything? I’m struggling as it is! I don’t need to lose anything: But you know, I often wondered… if I couldn’t sing, I’m not sure I would write. It’s just a happy combination of things that I can do that makes me a writer. So I really don’t want to think about that.

SB: Was there any period where you felt jaded? Like you had done it all, or that you discovered that you were starting to repeat yourself as a songwriter?
Sting: Luckily, I do music as an endless study. I consider myself a student of music, so I’m always practicing, always try to play new things. I like classical music very much. I tend to learn more from classical music than anything else.

SB: Who are your favorites?
Sting: My favorites tend to be French piano music of the late 19th century and early 20th century. Impressionistic composers, like Ravel, Debussy – that kind of thing. But I also like modern pieces by Ludoslawski and Schnittke. I like difficult music, because it challenges me.

SB: Do you think the classical composers you just mentioned have inspired you when it comes to finding new bass lines?
Sting: Everything you listen to, you learn from, yes. You absorb, you learn, you steal. And it comes out in a different way, once the ideas have come through you. I couldn’t give you an example, but you always learn about bass lines listening to Johann Sebastian Bach.

SB: Around the release of Ten Summoner’s Tales you said that part of the reason you tried to make interesting music musicians was so that your top class musicians would stay with you. Is that still the case?
Sting: Yeah I still have the best musicians in the world – they’re still with me. Yeah, you have to challenge them. And you have to give them things that aren’t too easy for them.

SB: But is that always such a good thing for songwriting?
Sting: Well, you know, every musician on the stage performing a song, is telling a story. Sometimes musicians can forget that, and just play their thing. They want to show off, and think ”I’m gonna play that fill, and everybody’s gonna be impressed by that”. Which, if it doesn’t tell the story, is of no interest to me. It’s just distracting, it’s just egoistic and stupid. So everyone knows that I’m telling a story, and each intrument is adding to that story, not taking away from it. So that’s what I demand and my musicians are smart enough to understand that.

SB: And popular music?
Sting: I hear pop music, and I know it – where it comes from. I’m not surprised by it very often. I need constant surprise when I’m listening, or I listen to nothing. Silence. I don’t like hearing music in restaurants.

SB: Unfortunately, silence is very hard to come by these days.
Sting: I know. It’s too much. And, as a musician, you tend to analyze what you’re hearing. When all I want to do is eat my fish! And this fucking music comes on, and it’s something horrible with flattened fifths. But I still analyze it. I think music is overrated – as a constant thing. It shouldn’t be constant, it should be something that you specifically listen to. I sound like a fascist now, but I want to listen to a piece of music for a reason. Not while I’m shopping, of in a cafeteria. Then it’s just noise. Pollution.

SD: Do you still listen to other singing bass players?
Sting: Occasionally I hear someone, like Esperanza Spalding, an American jazz singer who plays double bass as well as electric. She’s fantastic.

SB: What type of songwriting moves you these days?
Sting: It’s difficult to write a song that hasn’t been done before, and it gets more difficult as you get older. Because your standards get higher, and because you filter much. Your self-judgment and self-criticism gets harder, whereas when you’re youger, you just write anything and it’s fine. So it gets more difficult, but it’s still possible. There are still good songwriters out there, like Leonard Cohen, and he’s…ancient. And he’s still great. So it’s possible.

SB: Any younger songwriters that you like?
Sting: Of course there are. But I’m not sitting here to make a list for you. I hear a lot of stuff that I’m impressed by, but it gets more and more difficult in the modern age to be original. We’re in a crisis, we don’t know what the future is. Economics, philosophy, politics, art. I’m not despondent by that. I think the only progress, the only evolution comes from crisis, so we have to solve the problems.

SB: Your children, Joe and Coco, are artists and musicians as well. Did you give them any advice?
Sting: Just ”practice”. They’re both serious musicians, they know they’re not there to be famous or make money. They’re there because they love music, which means that no harm will come to them. If you set out to become famous, or become a millionaire, you won’t.

SB: Do you think your son Joe, who sings and plays bass in Fiction Plane, tried to avoid doing the same thing as you do?
Sting: Not really. It feels natural to him, and he lives his life without reference to me, and I’m proud of him. He doesn’t live off my back or live on my name. He’s very independent.

SB: Do you miss the naivité of the early Police days, where you could play a bum note during the studio recording of ”So Lonely” and keep it?
Sting: Do I miss it? I don’t miss anything about The Police, actually! (laughs). Regarding bum notes, I can still do that, but it doesn’t matter it’s just the feel, you know? I’m a 60-year old musician, and that’s what you get. I don’t want to be 17 again, you know?

SB: After such a varied career, and the dialectics of moving between opposites, what is left for you to discover?
Sting: Oh, there’s plenty to discover. I’m writing a play at the moment, with songs. It’s for other people to sing. Mostly new songs. Writing in different keys for women to sing and how that fits. It’s quite a difficult process, but I like it.

SB: You do like a challenge, don’t you?
Sting: Yeah, I do. I get bored very easily.

SB: What kind of strings do you use?
Sting: The ones that are given to me for free. When you’re rich and famous people want to give you things. It’s a wonderful irony that amuses me. And now I’ve run out of wisdom of charisma. But if you want to know more about my equipment I can make sure you get to speak to my Danny, who handles that.

DANNY QUATROCHI, BASS TECH

Sting’s Fender Precision Basses, photographed by Cornelia Andersson

SB: Ten minutes later, I am talking to Danny Quatrochi, who has been Sting’s personal bass and guitar tech Sting since 1979, right before The Police releaed their third album Zenyatta Mondatta, which made them one of the biggest acts in the world.

Danny shows me the Fender Precision ’55 and one from ’57 that Sting previously mentioned.
Danny Quatrochi: When he got the ’55 bass, he only wanted to play this one, nothing else. If anything, he wanted another one just like it. But they are really hard to come by. He’s had the ’57 bass for around 23 years. He’d just done a video for a movie called ”Demolition Man”, for which he hired this bass in California. It was all beat up, a complete mess. Really noisy. But he bought it, and we did some emergency wiring to make it work right away.

DQ: We use DR Strings. 40/60/80/100 in gauges. Avalon Preamps. I have a switching unit that switches between basses, made by a British electrical engineer called Pete Cornish. The amp is Lab.gruppen and the speakers are Clare Brothers Audio. The bottoms have 18” speakers, and the top have 12” and a front driver. They’re internally crossed at the amplifiers. Sting doesn’t use any effects, apart from a little octave divider at the close of ”Demolition Man”, and that’s only about eight bars during the guitar solo. I can just turn it on and off here. That’s it. Otherwise it’s straight bass.

SB: What instructions do you get from Sting?
DQ: I don’t get instructions. Usually we have a soundcheck, and if he’s not happy with the sound, we’ll fix it then. We set the equalizers, and the only thing I really change during the show is the volume.

SB: What’s Sting like as an employer?
DQ: He’s great. I mean, I’ve known him and worked with him for 33 years now. I started around the time Zenyatta Mondatta came out. The Police had just fired a guy and were looking for somebody new, and I knew a girl at the record company. She called me and asked me if I was interested in working for a group. I applied for the job and started working the next day. I had no idea how big it was going to get, but I knew he had something from the first night I saw The Police. The band in general, and Sting in particular. I enjoyed the reunion tour. Of course everything was on a much bigger scale compared to back then. In those days, we were seven people working with them. This time it was 70. Even in 1983, when they were at their original peak, it wasn’t on the same scale at all. Compared to bands like U2, and The Stones today, where there are hundreds of people involved it was still not that huge.