Anyone in your band ask about your influences?

[oldslapper]

I was asking our guitarist who their favourite slide player was, who influenced them, etc. I gave some examples of my favourites and is was a perfectly reasonable, informative and pleasant exchange.

It struck me though how many times I’ve had similar conversations with other band members over the years. But for the life of me, I can’t remember any non bassists asking me who my bass influences are or favourite bassists are, other than if I instigate that topic. 
That usually evokes non bassists waxing lyrical about Mark King……(or Jaco at a stretch). 
 

Just found it odd.
Maybe it’s just my experience, but seriously! 50 years of playing in bands and not one guitarist, singer, keys or drummer have mentioned Kenny Passeralli &  Pierre Brock’s contributions? Do they think Mark King is the only bassist worthy of mention? 
 

🤣 

(I’m not being overly serious peeps) just a personal observation) 

[neepheid]

In general, I've found that bass is only interesting to bassists.

[NHM]

I think I've only been asked once about which bass players I like / influenced me. But being asked what bands I'm into is a regular topic of conversation, so perhaps this is a more useful line of discussion. To be honest, other than the really big names I don't know the names of many guitarists, keys or drummers so I wouldn't be equipped to ask the reverse question in a meaningful way.

[Acebassmusic]

9 minutes ago, neepheid said:

In general, I've found that bass is only interesting to bassists.

....and even thats pushing it a bit! 🤣

 

Maybe as @NHM says, to most people "the band" is the influence and the bass player is a by product of that eg: from the age of 10 I was influenced by a range of bands from Black Sabbath to Abba and only much later knew who the bass players were!

[gjones]

Your average musician (who isn't a bass player) probably couldn't name the bassist in their favourite band. Bassists are invisible to everybody, other than other bassists.

 

Sad but true

 

Edited January 12 by gjones

[BigRedX]

Maybe its different in originals bands (which is what I've mostly been in over the past 50 years) in that the musicians involved tend to be interested in the same kinds of music and those whose influences are wildly different don't tend to last long enough in the band, so it's rarely a discussion I have ever had.

 

Also my influences tend to be bands, and songwriters/composers rather than musicians. On the whole I find individual musicians rather uninteresting.There are two exceptions to this and one is very obvious to anyone who has heard me play recently.

[TimR]

Maybe it's me, I don't know many musicians names full stop. Obviously the famous ones but that's where it stops.

 

It amazes me that the guys at work seem to have an encyclopedic knowledge of football players names, what teams they played for and when, even being able to tell you who scored goals in games long past. 

 

I guess that might be the same for some people who are just so much into music. 

 

I know a guitarist who talks to me about musicians I've never heard of as if I should know who they were. I often go home and Google who they were to find out what band they played in.

 

So I'm not sure which bass players actually influenced me, I probably couldn't name more than 20 bass players; Harris, Lee, King, Lemmy, Trullio, Sting, Sklar, Carol Kaye, Pastorius, Dunn, Weymouth, Wilkenfeld, Karn, McCartney, JPJones, and now I'm struggling off the top of my head.

[oldslapper]

33 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Maybe its different in originals bands (which is what I've mostly been in over the past 50 years) in that the musicians involved tend to be interested in the same kinds of music and those whose influences are wildly different don't tend to last long enough in the band, so it's rarely a discussion I have ever had.

 

Also my influences tend to be bands, and songwriters/composers rather than musicians. On the whole I find individual musicians rather uninteresting.There are two exceptions to this and one is very obvious to anyone who has heard me play recently.

Indeed. I’m more influenced by songwriters or bands that have songwriters I like in them.

I don’t find musicians talking about gear, technique and scales particularly interesting. 
I’m interested in what influences people though, how they’ve arrived at their current state of playing. 

As I said, it was more of an observation than any kind of value judgement. 

[MacDaddy]

"who are your influences" often translates as "who are your favourite players", but these are completely different questions.

I 💕 Bootsy Collins (as indeed you all should 😜) but I don't play or sound anything like him.

I've been influenced by @Steve Lawson not necessarily his (amazing) playing, but more his philosophy. 

The main influence on my bass playing is classical guitar, because that's where my technique comes from.

But to answer the OP, yes, I was asked who my favourite bassists are when I joined my Alt-Country/Americana band, and none of them were from that genre 😆

[Baloney Balderdash]

1 hour ago, BigRedX said:

Maybe its different in originals bands (which is what I've mostly been in over the past 50 years) in that the musicians involved tend to be interested in the same kinds of music and those whose influences are wildly different don't tend to last long enough in the band, so it's rarely a discussion I have ever had.

 

Also my influences tend to be bands, and songwriters/composers rather than musicians. On the whole I find individual musicians rather uninteresting.There are two exceptions to this and one is very obvious to anyone who has heard me play recently.

As someone who ever only played in original bands/projects this is my experience too.

 

Also people I have played with have always been into music to an extend that they actually knew who the band members, including the bass player, was in the bands they'd listen to, and actually did care for bass too.

 

And suggesting/introducing new artists to each other has been part of the regular conversation band members between.

 

Edited January 12 by Baloney Balderdash

[uk_lefty]

Nobody has ever asked me which bass players I like, why do I do certain things (there's licks and things I recycle from others) but occasionally I will get asked "have you heard the bass player on x record? He's awesome!". Pretty much the same as my conversations with the drummer: "I really liked the drum sound on that record." End of statement.

[Baloney Balderdash]

52 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

"who are your influences" often translates as "who are your favourite players", but these are completely different questions.

I 💕 Bootsy Collins (as indeed you all should 😜) but I don't play or sound anything like him.

I've been influenced by @Steve Lawson not necessarily his (amazing) playing, but more his philosophy. 

The main influence on my bass playing is classical guitar, because that's where my technique comes from.

But to answer the OP, yes, I was asked who my favourite bassists are when I joined my Alt-Country/Americana band, and none of them were from that genre 😆

I would dare claim that being inspired musically by someone's playing in general, without necessarily having a direct influence on how you play your instrument, is still an influence.

 

The other way around though isn't necessarily true.

 

So while not being 1:1 related, they are definitely still related, and not completely different questions.

 

 

Edited January 12 by Baloney Balderdash

[Cat Burrito]

I think on the originals circuit, it is pretty standard to ask about favourite bands when joining / auditioning. Occasionally, this is dressed up as "influences" but really they just want to check you will fit and not pull the band in a different direction. As said, in covers bands, it matters less as you are usually aiming to play like the recording.

 

I don't think I have ever asked any musician friends about influences but I am always interested in what friends are listening to. For years I have answered that question across webzines, radio and old school fanzines. Mainly it gets asked by disinterested interviewers who are only asking because it is a fairly typical question that you can ask band members. For me, it's whether I like a band mates playing. I'm not massively interested in a list of approved players. 

 

[Happy Jack]

On 12/01/2024 at 13:32, MacDaddy said:

But to answer the OP, yes, I was asked who my favourite bassists are when I joined my Alt-Country/Americana band, and none of them were from that genre 😆

 

Does Suzi Quattro count as "Americana"? 

 

😉😂

[Mykesbass]

On 12/01/2024 at 12:09, NHM said:

I think I've only been asked once about which bass players I like / influenced me. But being asked what bands I'm into is a regular topic of conversation, so perhaps this is a more useful line of discussion. To be honest, other than the really big names I don't know the names of many guitarists, keys or drummers so I wouldn't be equipped to ask the reverse question in a meaningful way.

This.

Also, I think that guitarists tend to be the ones that follow their influences closest.

[Lfalex v1.1]

I broached this subject when I joined my last band. 

More as an icebreaker than anything else, but also to get a feel for what they liked and admired.

Neither the guitarist nor the drummer had ever been asked nor discussed it.

 

Ever.

 

Which I thought was weird. 

Their answers were good, though; John Frusciante and Stewart Copeland respectively. 

My response drew blank faces (and it's not like  I play or sound like him!) : Tony Levin.

 

As stated earlier- only bassists care about bass.

 

Neither could name a songwriter that they thought was inspirational, whereas I rolled out a handful, including

 

Stuart Adamson

Elvis Costello

Andy Partridge

Randy Newman

 

And got instantly tarred with the band music-geek label 🏷 

[Rib13Bass]

It happens, but it's rare.....most often at a hired gun gig when players that don't really know me personally and want to know more of what I'm about......

[EssentialTension]

On 12/01/2024 at 11:35, oldslapper said:

...

Maybe it’s just my experience, but seriously! 50 years of playing in bands and not one guitarist, singer, keys or drummer have mentioned Kenny Passeralli &  Pierre Brock’s contributions? Do they think Mark King is the only bassist worthy of mention? 
 

Fifty years and I agree I have never heard a guitarist, or singer, or etc, mention Kenny Passerelli or Pierre Brocks.

 

Can you tell me who they are?

[acidbass]

We talk about influences regularly in our band.  I often get asked too when I'm depping etc.  It's always the same list so I just rhyme it off!