Bass Guitar Mag Janek Gwidzala

[iamthewalrus]

[quote name='Davemarks' post='158446' date='Mar 16 2008, 04:41 PM']To add to all that's been said, i feel it is essential to understand how the industry has changed - people like to buy sh*t. They buy rubbish magazines full of celebrity gossip, watch big brother and generally popularise and promote the value of soul-less rubbish. Gone are the days when bands can take 6 months or a year to make an album, where a lukewarm second album could lead to an awesome 3rd... a lukewarm 2nd album will get you dropped. Rec companies will fund you for a couple of weeks of recording...
With all of the technology that we have today, very poor musicians can be bolstered and supported into making good albums while genuinely good musicians struggle to be heard unless they wish to play pumping quarter notes on a Kylie record. Gone are the days of Pino, Chuck Rainey, Steve Gadd et al playing awesome parts on pop albums.
The music industry is in a bad place these days. I wonder if there was ever a time when it wasn't this hard...

If anyone watched the Xmas special of Extras - this is so true to life it's heartbreaking.

Don't hate the player, hate the game... :-)[/quote]

I didn't see Janek's article, but have read a lot of the posts on this subject. If the guy can practice 10 hrs a day, fair play to him - I wish I could. But the vast majority of us with families, full time jobs & bills to pay can only practice when those small time windows allow. I haven't heard any of his music or seen him play, but if he's making a living in a place like NYC he must be pretty good. IMO, I think it's good for the bass community that he shares his knowledge & experience either via his columns in BGM or on Talkbass.

Janek's got his own opinions - there was a thread on Talkbass about Hadrien Feraud which ran for a while where he made some valid points. I think Dave's post above pretty much ties in with Janek's view that there are only a few bass players out in the US who are part of the remnants of the session game over there. How that relates to us in the UK I don't know, maybe Dave, Stuart Clayton & the other pros who post here can take this thread in a different direction with their views?

I also think Dave's post has also pretty much summed up the state of the music industry & what the public are willing to accept nowadays (no, Dave isn't my bass teacher, but his website & YouTube lessons are good).

Just my ten bob's worth...

Cheers,
iamthewalrus.

[mcgraham]

Hadrien Feraud, very interesting player.

With regards his technique and playing style I find him very inspiring, he's doing things that a lot of us have never even seen before. What I particularly like is his ability to traverse the fingerboard in quite angular and bizarre ways, yet with great ease (saying nothing about the musicality of that, just about the comfort level he has with the instrument).

However I don't find many of his ideas particularly musical, and I really don't like his tone. I find it very... plastic-ky? sounding, if that makes any sense, particularly on the videos. His recorded tone on Industrial Zen (IMO) is somewhat unspecial, unmoving and unremarkable. Whatever bass he's playing he sounds that way too, although he sounded good/better on the ACG bass that is on a youtube vid.

Please note that I have said this is just my opinion, and I am not condemning his playing in the slightest, it's just not my thing.

Mark

[BigBeefChief]

Carefull - he'll be on here with a toothache, going mental at you soon.

[mcgraham]

Did you not notice my cunning ploy? He's a French musician and I don't speak French! I won't be able to understand him.

Actually, (to my knowledge) he writes and speaks very good English. So I may be snookered there...

Mark