My mother had the musical gift on her side of our family. She played piano and sang in our church choir when I was real young. She also had the record albums and record player in our house. I remember her Elvis records, Motown albums from Kitty Wells and a Beatles single of She Loves Me, that I would play all the time. That led me to take lessons on our family Wurlitzer organ we had in our house when I was about 8 years old, which taught me how to read music. A couple years later I took up tenor saxophone in elementary school orchestra band, which I continued through my senior year of high school.
But, it was when I was 11 years old that my own musical excitement began and changed everything for me. I was hearing rock n roll on the school bus radio, things like Styx, Foreigner, Kiss, BTO and the likes, and somewhere in that the bass guitar got my ear. Not sure what it was about the electric bass that grabbed me but a few months later my mother bought me a used Gibson EBO bass from the local newspaper classifieds, and that started my rock n roll musical journey.
2. You grew up in Minnesota, as was the music scene there, and as was the heavy metal in that city?
Jackson, Minnesota is a small town farm community and when I was growing up everyone there listened to pretty much only Country & Western music, which I did not like. It had no appeal to me whatsoever. The only people listening to rock n roll were young adults, mostly those who attended the local vocational school. But, one summer, one of those men was hired to work on my fathers farm and he'd let me listen to his 8-track tape of BTO everyday in the tractor while working.
Immediately after that, I met other kids my age in school who were listening to bands like Foghat, Kiss, Alice Cooper and those types of really cool hard rock bands of the day. It all seemed really underground and even dangerous in some way. I liked it! Some of those kids became my best friends and remain that way even to this day. That's how strong music was for me growing up in a small rural farm town. In many ways, it was my way out to find my real destiny elsewhere.
3. His foray into the metal as it was?
Once I got my bass guitar at age 11, I immediately learned how to play it with the specific purpose of learning songs by Kiss, BTO, etc. so I could jam and start a band. I spent hours in my basement learning to play but I was never going to be a closet musician. My goal was to get on the stage and play like my heroes of hard rock. Almost immediately I began looking for other musicians to jam with and started forming my own bands by age 12.
4. Who were your main influences in heavy metal?
By the time I was a teenager, a couple buddies and I were the main ones discovering all the newest bands coming on the scene from around the world. There was a local music store in Jackson that imported 12? vinyl records and sometimes they?d get in new releases that inspired me to buy them often just by the album covers because they were so cool. These were albums like Rush "All The World's A Stage", AC/DC "If You Want Blood You Got It", Judas Priest, "Unleashed In The East", The Ramones "Rocket To Russia", The Sex Pistols "Never Mind The Bullocks" and so forth. Those albums were my foray into Metal and Punk rock.
Then, at about 16 years of age, the NWOBHM was well on its way to America so I discovered bands like Iron Maiden, Moterhead, Def Leppard, UFO, Scorpions and Venom. Even the Black Sabbath record Heaven & Hell was a game changer for me. Those bands totally inspired me to get fully steeped in metal as a way of life.
5. And the bass, who was his inspiration for you to be bearish?
Geddy Lee, Steve Harris, Bob Daisley and Geezer Butler where some of the most inspirational because they played in a way I never heard the bass played before. Metal bass is not easy because the songs are so dominated by guitars and drums. But these bassists were also songwriters and I discovered that bassists who wrote and/or sang were very melodic, even in heavy bands. They somehow created bass lines that were new and innovative, not just pop, disco or blues based pentatonic jams like so much of the rock n roll from the 1970s I heard on FM radio.
I also came to admire other really simple and solid players like Ian Hill and Cliff Williams, too. They were subtle in their licks and held down the root notes under some of the heaviest riffs in rock. They taught me that you don't always have to be a busy player in order to make your band sound heavy. I often apply that same approach in some of my playing to this day.
6. You play instruments other than the bass?
These days I play quite a bit of guitar (electric & acoustic), some piano and a fair amount of drum programming for composing. I put the saxophone away 30 years ago and haven't really touched it since. It's just not my thing.
7. As prefer playing bass, fingers or serrated?
I gravitated to a pick when I was just starting out because it gave me a sharp, cutting tone to be heard above the guitars and drums in my first bands. Even as a fan, I tend to like the tone from a pick much better than fingers in most cases. In fact, I remember really liking the tone of pick bassists as a young lad from guys like Chris Squire, Gene Simmons, and Anthony Jackson's work on Al Dimeola's Electric Rendezvous, The Cars, The Atlanta Rhythm Section and The Tubes hit record The Completion Backward Principle. To me, those guys just had such an aggressive approach to their playing and I discovered they all played with a pick.
For my personal style it allows me to better lock in with the guitars. In Megadeth the pick allows me to really replicate those unison lines with the guitars when called upon to do that. I can still play solid bass lines but I can also more easily step over into guitar land when I need to really groove on the riff or pick up fast melody lines.
8.Can you describe a technique for executing best bass, you need?
To me the pick is my secret weapon, although I?ll use fingers when needed for tone or to best play a line. It's the palm muting of the pick technique that really allows for a dynamic method of playing. For the left hand, I play up on my finger-tips as it gives a much more precise tone to the note. The less skin that touches the string, the cleaner the note. That is why my tone and sound tends to be quite clean. My bass, strings, picks, pick-ups and amplification are just tools that help me further obtain that clean sound.
9. We know that you are also co-author of the lyrics of Megadeth, you speak in general terms?
Yes, I love writing lyrics. Sometimes concepts come to me and I?ll write them down and apply them to music. Other times, the music dictates a certain feeling or emotion that brings out a lyric idea.
In fact, I write so many lyrics that last year I self-published a book on www.blurb.com of all new lyrics called, UNSUNG, Words & Images. I juxtaposed each lyric with photo images. I didn't have time to write music to all these lyrics because we were on tour at the time so I found the photos helped illustrate the lyrics visually in a similar way that music would if you were listening to them.
10. Leaving what is music to other things you do?
On tour I exercise to stay fit, go sight seeing, and even picked up golf again, which I haven?t played much in almost 20 years. It?s a nice way to get off campus and get outdoors for some fresh air and scenery. At home, I spend time with my family as much as I can.
11. Megadeth, meet 30 years, as you describe?
It?s been a 30-year over night success! We?ve never looked at it like ?when we make it big we?ll quite and just retire?. For us, the band is just a way of life?it?s what we are put here to do.
They visited my country in 2011, it seemed that my country will, you learned something about our language Guarani, support bands, you remember that concert?
Yes, we were there very briefly for the festival show but it was a terrific visit. Asuncion reminded me of this cool little village that was quaint, quiet but very connected by its people. I really liked it.
12. And Cateura Recycling Orchestra, as you get to them?
The Landfill Harmonic film producer Juliana, who lives right by me in Scottsdale, Arizona, introduced me to them. We have a mutual friend who introduced us and from there I learned of the film and the orchestra. I learned they are huge Megadeth fans so I sent them some t-shirts, wristbands and autographs in hopes it would inspire them and make them happy. That led to our friendship online.
13. They have a giant future musically, until even played together in a show, what is your opinion about them?
They are fantastic and so inspiring to everyone who is around them. There really is something special about the orchestra and their story to rise up through such amazing poverty and challenges, all because of their love for playing music. In many ways, they reflect how music has changed many of our lives, which is why I relate to them so much.
I went down to visit them in May of this year, just days before launching our most recent world tour and just being there with them inspired me more than almost anything else. It really made an impact on me. From there, we sought out to make it a reality that they could have their dream come true by coming to the USA to perform live with Megadeth. The whole experience inspired all of us in such an amazing way.
14. From already thank you very much for giving me the chance to realize yourself this note, as I said in previous emails, you are for me one of the biggest influence on bass and listening to you and see you play that earned me that I practiced this instrument and see you in live that November of 2011 we will delete as there are no words to describe the sensation to see your maximum idol on stage and in your country. Thank you very much, I hope soon to step back Guarani land, is a desire, but any message you want to leave your fans here in Paraguay to finish the note hehe...
Thank you to everyone in Paraguay. You are an amazing country and so inspiring to all of us. I can?t wait to visit you all again!
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