Category: Music News

Another new video of me has just gone up on the BassTheWorld YouTube channel.

It’s called Same Time Next Year, and is another improvised piece from the Warwick Bass Camp this September.

It features the Quneo (my new lil’ MIDI controller that I’ve been using for drums and synth stuff on the last couple of albums) a little more than some of the other videos I’ve put up recently, so you can see a little more of how I use it… will be doing more videos with it as soon as possible…

And just for the reminder, here’s the other video filmed about 45 seconds after this one ended, that was released last month, called Better Than The Plan:

Both these tracks will be available for subscribers very shortly as a little pre-Christmas solo EP. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss out…

I’ve done a couple of masterclasses recently, talking about the evolution of my approach to live playing, sampling, improvising and recording. One was for ScottsBassLessons.com which you can get if you’re  a subscriber over there, and the other was at Kidderminster College. The Kiddy College one is here in two parts.

Part 1, I introduce the Quneo and explain a little about the influence of two of my recent collaborators, Divinity and Daniel Berkman, and deal with a Looperlative fail (a fault I’ve now fixed! yay!) and end up with a lovely wonky hip-hop thing that’s a good example of where a lot of my music is going (comes in around 8:30) – if you can, listen on headphones, or Chromecast this to your TV 🙂 :

In Part 2, I explain some of where the rhythmic stuff comes from historically, via turntablism and the influence of J Dilla, talk a little about the way it has influenced my playing with other musicians, then play another piece, that starts with a Quneo piano solo before evolving into a groove thing with a Posies/David Torn influenced solo and a lovely change of gear just before the end…

Note: Both the tracks here will be available as an EP for my subscribers soon. Today my subscription is a year old! Check out the subscription here and get LOADS of music for just £20 a year: http://stevelawson.bandcamp.com/subscribe – it’s by far the best way to support what I do 🙂

[UPDATE!] – There’s a third part to the video! It was, I think, still uploading when I posted this first time round 🙂

Here’s Part 3, which has a lot more talking, exploring a lot of ideas around improvisation and performance:

So my lil’ tour with Jonas Hellborg is over – we did just three dates to test the water, with a view to doing lots more soon. And we had a great time. More of that soon – there are photos and video to be shared, and stories to tell, but for now, something else…

Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to see the cover story in Bass Guitar Magazine this month. If you’ve not been able to find it in a shop, the digital edition can be bought from Pocket Mags.

So, the big question is, what did we not get to in the interview that you’re most interested to know? Any burning questions about basses, tech, approach, business, my career, my philosophy, improv, teaching.. anything really… This is where to ask them.

Post those questions in the comments here, and I’ll then compile a second interview to sit alongside the already-very-comprehensive one in the magazine (it really is one of the best interviews I’ve ever had – Joel asked a whole lot of questions that I’ve never explored in that way before at all).

This is the solobasssteve AMA. Sound good? Off you go 🙂

My week of rather lovely media exposure rolls on – last night a track from A Crack Where The Light Gets In was played on my favourite radio show ever. It’s not my favourite radio show because they played the tracks, it’s been that since before they started occasionally playing my music about 14 years ago.

Listen to last night’s Late Junction here.

Late Junction is, not to get too hyperbolic, an amazing example of what the BBC license fee does/did best… eclectic, joyous, and exploratory with none of the demographic limitations that commercial radio’s need to appeal to advertisers demand.

I’ve discovered SO much music through Fiona, and earlier on through Verity Sharp. To have my music played in that context is an amazing validation of what I’m up to. The technical side of it is never discussed, there’s no ‘ooh, it’s so clever for a bass player to do this!’ – just my music alongside a whole load of the most beautiful, wide-ranging wonderfulness from around the world. As a validation of purpose, it’s about as good as it gets.

The track that Fiona played last night was ‘Praxis’ from A Crack Where The Light Gets In – have a listen to the whole album below, but do listen to the show linked above – the new context for the track, between all the other amazing stuff, gives a different perspective on it… and you get to hear Fiona say it’s one of her favourite tracks of the year 😉

…and a free download to the first person to Tweet me and tell me the name of the album that the track referenced in the title of this blog-post is from 😉

OK! The next month is getting really exciting – two new albums out now, Bass Guitar Magazine‘s October issue with me on the cover is in shops now, and the tickets for my October tour with Jonas Hellborg are selling well.

There’s a brand new design for the ‘everything’ USB Stick, a limited edition square one, featuring the artwork to both the new albums.

So, Competition Time! I’ll be giving away three of these USB Sticks in October to people picked at random from anyone who posts a selfie with their copy of the new issue of Bass Guitar Magazine with me on the cover. A few people have done this already, which is really lovely to see. Take a pic, post it on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook and tag me in it, and I’ll stick all the names in a hat in October and send out 3 USB Sticks.

If you can’t wait that long, You can order one now for £25, OR, for the bargain of the century, subscribe for £20 and then buy the subscriber-only offer on the USB stick for £13 – you then also get the 10 album FingerPainting set included too. So that’s 40 albums (seriously, 40!), a live video and my novel, PLUS a year’s worth of new releases with the subscription, for £33 plus postage.

Which is nuts, right?

So, get snapping and tagging.

And if you’ve bought the new albums, please do post a review on Bandcamp and share the link to them around on Twitter.

Hope you’re enjoying the magazine article. More fun stuff on the way!

So, as promised, my long-awaited new solo albums are released now! There are two of them because I recorded WAY too much material for one, but after Sue Edwards (my trusty co-producer) compiled the first one, there was still at least one coherent album there. But they didn’t feel like a double. Two distinct experiences, telling different stories. So here they are.

They’re both live in the studio, none of it is pre-recorded loops, just me and my usual toys plus a Quneo for playing percussion and synth sounds – no overdubs and very little editing at all. Listen here:

I was going to be releasing them next week, but actually brought it forward a couple of days because Bass Guitar Magazine have just announced that I’m on the cover of their October issue, out next week!!

This is by far the highest profile bit of media I’ve ever had – it’s a really bold move for the magazine, in a world where the musician press are often pulled towards putting the members of famous pop bands on the cover in the hope of getting noticed in WH Smiths. To put someone on the cover who’s highest profile gig is playing completely solo is pretty bold. It’s also a fantastic validation of what I’ve been up to for the last 15 years. I’ve spent less time over the last few years courting the world of musicians, and more connecting with the people who want to listen to what I do, whatever their relationship with musical things is outside of that. So to be featured in the biggest bass publication in the UK would be great anyway. To be on the cover is amazing. Huge thanks to Joel and the team for choosing to do this.

So, feel free to reserve the mag at your local newsagent. We’ll have some competition fun with it once it hits the shops.

And go hear the new albums. If you like ’em, you can buy them, or subscribe and them both plus 12 other albums for just £20 a year…

So this is how magical things can happen in Internet-world, I guess.

I was recording yesterday for the new album, finally remembered to film what I was up to, and recorded this straight away. It coincided with getting the new download of Reaper 5.0, which makes video sync to audio WAY easy, so I was able to pretty quickly sync up the audio to the video, put together the artwork while the video was uploading, put it on Bandcamp too and sent out the links on Twitter and Facebook. Simple as.

Here’s the video: Continue reading “The Way Home – New Single Out Today”

Right, the new album is coming along nicely – I’ve started sorting through what I’ve recorded so far, just so the editing and selection process doesn’t get overwhelming later on! I’ve just put up a new track on Soundcloud – a slice of glitchy instrumental hip-hop, all recorded live and solo, with me playing bass and Quneo – I’m loving the expanded range of sounds that this has brought into my music world! The album’s going to be quite different from my earlier work!

Here the track. There’s a full description over on Soundcloud. More like this to come:

And in the middle of all the recording mayhem, I found time to record an episode of the No Treble podcast, in conversation with their resident host, Mitch Joel. Getting an hour to chat with Joel, and respond to his rather brilliant questions and conversational direction, was a huge treat. I hope you enjoy it:

Also, a big thanks to everyone who came to the Manchester Jazz Festival gig with Jon Thorne and Rob Turner. It was the first live outing for the Quneo, which was all kinds of fun!

We’re planning more gigs ASAP!