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INQ: Who is Adam Tanner? What is the new album called?
AT: I'm just your regular average long-haired guy, if such a thing even really exists. I work during the day and play bass at night. One job for money, the other because I love it.
Actually, no, hold on, wait a minute. My jokes are much worse than the average guy's, and I'm a bit shorter. I really do work by day and play bass by night, though.
The name of the project is Zen Beer; the name of the album is Grand Unified Chaos. The beauty of both of those titles is that they can mean whatever you want them to mean.
INQ: Why do an ambient bass album? How do you compose your material?
AT: Honestly, I had no idea it would turn out as an ambient album. Well, not really. The idea behind the Zen Beer project has always been to start with one note, one groove, maybe even just an idea, and see what happens. I've been playing improv for a very long time, so that just seems to be the best way that I express myself. Every time I actually try to sit down and write a song, it doesn't work quite as well most of the time.
So anyway, when I went into the studio, I didn't know exactly what was going to come out of it. If what did come out had to be broken down and labeled, I suppose you could say there are five ambient tracks, two dark ambient, three progressive, three experimental, and two solos. Also, it's a full hour long in a day and age where most albums aren't longer than 40 minutes, so you get your money's worth in that way.
For the how, I used looping pedals to layer the parts - background, melody, harmony, weird noises, percussive bits, stuff like that. All of it was done only on bass, even though there are some parts that sound like synth, percussion, and other things. That is, except for one song, "Duel at Dawn" which Dean Watson (of Seismic and Lure fame) played guitar on and did an incredible job.
INQ: What can people expect with the new album?
AT: Well, it's a solo bass album. That might cause people to immediately categorize it or perhaps even dismiss it, but I don't think that it's like your everyday solo bass album. The focus was much more on improvised composition than on chops. So, in a nutshell... expect a solo bass album that doesn't sound like a solo bass album. Could I possibly be any more vague than that?
INQ: When is the album coming out and where can people get it?
AT: We're just finishing up the mastering now, so I'd imagine it would be out by around Christmas at the latest. You can email me to order a copy. I have a few other ideas for selling it, but nothing concrete yet. Zen Beer ringtones might be cool - I could call 'em Zen Beer Shooters or something, hahaha.
Also, I'm on MySpace, just like everyone else in the world. The address is http://www.myspace.com/zenbeerbass. There's nothing up there right now, but there will be some material from the CD posted soon, so keep checking if you're interested.
While I'm at it, I'd like to give shout outs to the following for all their help in getting this album together: Dean Watson, who engineered and co-produced, and laid down some superb guitar work (go see his band Lure play - they rock!); The Gallery Studio for the great recording facilities, which couldn't have been better; Linda at Waken Photography for the killer photos and making the liner notes look purdy; Dave at Precision Transfer for pressing the thing; and, of course, everyone who provided moral support and extra pairs of ears.
INQ: Will you be able to pull the material off live?
AT: Most of it, yes. That was one of my main goals - I didn't want to do too much on the album that couldn't be done live. Some tracks might sound different, because live one has to build up the loops and stuff like that. Some of them have too many parts to effectively pull off live, but I'll figure out some way of doing it.
A lot of what I play live would probably be improvised anyway, because that's still the Zen Beer concept's bread and butter and that's how I seem to work best, but I guess we'll find out. I haven't really thought too much about live shows yet, but it's quickly getting to that point.
INQ: What gear are you currently using?
AT: Ummmmmm... a lot? I'm a bit of a gear whore. If I see a deal and I can afford to swing it, I'll grab it. If I had a wife, she'd probably kill me, hahaha.
I used my custom JAF Minuteman II 6-string bass with Labella exposed-core steel strings for the majority of the album. That bass sounded just incredible and I can't say enough good things about it... you can check out the JAF site at http://www.ebassist.com/jaf - they do some really beautiful work.
I used four other basses on the album as well - a Godin BG4 4-string, a Ned Steinberger electric upright, a Beaver Creek acoustic/electric and a 4-string Telecaster-style bass I built from parts. I have a couple of other basses too - a Treker 5-string and a modified '68 Fender Jazz.
I have way too many amps as well. Ampeg and Aguilar cabinets, Ampeg and Rocktron preamps, an Acoustic Image Clarus head, an old '76 Acoustic 370 head, and this crazy QSC Powerlight amp that puts out 1800 watts. Does anybody wanna be my neighbour?
For looping, I use a Line 6 DL4 delay modeler and a Boss RC-20 Loop Station. I'd love to have a Gibson Echoplex, Eventide Orville or something like that, but I can't justify spending a grand and a half on a looper!
INQ: Do you prefer live or studio work?
AT: Hmmm, good question. I've done far more live work than studio work thus far, and I'd definitely love to get more studio work. There's pluses and minuses to both. I guess what it ultimately depends on is whether you're working with cool people or dickheads.
INQ: Who were your main influences - bass-ically?
AT: Man, that pun was terrible. On bass in general, probably Geezer Butler, Les Claypool and Tony Levin, although I try to take something good from everything I hear. I listen to just about everything.
For this project, musically, some big influences have been stuff like King Crimson, Squarepusher, Blue Man Group, Charlie Hunter, Living Daylights, Steve Lawson... stuff like that, mostly instrumental, but definitely different.
Oddly enough, another influence is old video game music. There's some really great stuff in there and I think I stole from it on this album; like, for example, someone told me that one of my songs sounded like it could have been from a Final Fantasy game, and a tapping part in another sounds like something from the old Nintendo game Rygar.
INQ: What bands/artists should lay down and die?
AT: Music is a pretty subjective thing... but ah, what the hell. I don't like just about anything that's on MuchMusic these days. I like pretty much all genres of music, but in most of them you have to look underground for stuff that's any good - the mainstream stuff just tends to be cookie-cutter and uninspiring. That's to say, just doing music that they know will sell well and not trying anything new, not taking any risks.
INQ: Being the gig slut that you are - Who were the biggest dicks to play with and who were the coolest?
AT: The coolest types of people to work with for me are those who don't take things too seriously and play mostly because they enjoy it, even if it's a pro-level gig. The dudes I'm playing with now are totally like that.
The biggest jackasses I ever played with... As much fun as naming names would be here, I probably shouldn't do that, hehehehe. There was this one guitarist I used to play with where it was either do it his way or he'd start moaning and whining. Well, fuck that. It definitely wasn't a very democratic band and I wouldn't play in that type of situation ever again. It's a completely different kind of slut that actually likes to play with dicks! Now a bunch of guitarists I know are probably gonna read this and call me asking if I was talking about them!
INQ: What's the craziest thing you've encountered while doing a show?
AT: This is pretty sad - I can't think of anything all that crazy at my own damn shows. The most interesting moments were probably with Cauldron, a metal band I played with in Detroit around '00. For one thing, we used to have a Cauldron flag that we used to wave around and give to the audience, and one time at a gig in Bay City we gave it to these kids who were moshing... and they all started trying to get the flag from each other pit-style. That band used to get some pretty crazy pits going.
Another time, we were playing a gig in Hamtramck and there was this old lady who was obviously hammered and probably cracked out who was dancing to our fast crazy evil heavy metal stuff. I had what later turned out to be a pinched nerve in my wrist and it was starting to flare about midway through the set, so I asked the frontman for a bit of a diversion while I iced the bloody thing. So the guitarist and drummer start playing a shuffle (at a METAL show!!!) and the frontman goes and starts dancing with this drunk old lady. Hilarious!
INQ: The biggest/baddest bass player out there today is___________.
AT: Personally I would say Victor Wooten. That guy rips it up on everything I've ever heard him do and he's very innovative, but he never crosses the line into wankfest territory. It's not just about chops for him either - everything he does sounds musical, unlike some bass "virtuosos" out there. And, perhaps most importantly, he always, ALWAYS grooves. The guy's been playing bass since he was three years old, so it's not really all that surprising.
INQ: If given the choice - what band would you play with right now?
AT: Probably King Crimson... any incarnation of 'em. Yep, I think it would be really cool to be able to get up and play with them. I've been a real Fripp-head since I first heard his stuff, and he's always brought in pretty high-caliber players, so I wouldn't mind being on a stage with all that skill!
I'm really happy playing with the guys I'm playing with now, though. If I weren't, I wouldn't be doing it.
INQ: Which do you prefer, the solo thing or the band thing? Why?
AT: I guess neither, really. It's the whole apples and oranges thing. Although I must say it is a lot easier to get to rehearsal for the solo thing, and the chances of there ever being "musical differences" are a lot less.
INQ: Your chance to rant - please don't hold anything back - don't be shy.
AT: Hmmmm, about what? There's plenty of different things I could go into here! Okay, here we go, I'm going to preach today. Too many people, myself included, sometimes get too caught up in thinking about what they don't have and lose sight of how lucky they are with what they do have. Ambition is a good thing to have and if you don't have goals you'll never improve, but never forget that no matter how bad things may seem for you, there is always someone out there who is in worse shape.
Oh yeah, and I hate Canadian Idol. Do I really need to explain why?
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