'When everyone else realises how good O'Shea is, remember where you heard it first'
Bassist Magazine
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Franc O'Shea: about Jazz and Alkimia
by Enrique Farelo from www.tomajazz.com, Spain, October 2006
'When everyone else realises how good O'Shea is, remember where you heard it first'
Bassist Magazine
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The human being. His Philosophy.
EF: What is the meaning of Music in the context of Life?
FO: To me real music is a gateway to another realm of consciousness. The whole Universe is music, the whole Universe is vibrating. I believe that music can calm our minds and our thought processes so that we can connect with the true Oneness of everything. We can experience it without the words and labels that we veil this realm with in our normal everyday lives.
EF: Is happiness the aim of music or is it something deeper?
FO: I believe that happiness is more fleeting and superficial than joy and peace. Happiness is like an emotion whereas joy and peace are eternal states of being. Some music brings happiness often due to association with a memory, but timeless music like J.S. Bach comes from joy and peace and therefore connects with the eternal not just personal memories. Music’s ultimate intention is to heal and take us out of time to the Source that we are.
EF: What is Art?
FO: Art to me is the utilisation of the natural creative power inherent in us all. To be creative, inspired and use our imaginations is our natural state and I believe when that is taken away from people they become ill. This power can be used in any creative medium whether it be music, painting, acting, conversation, teaching, writing, serving others and so on.
EF: How do you differentiate from music that is artistic and music that isn’t?
FO: I think most music is artistic on different levels to a point, but obviously commerciality for commerciality’s sake is often completely devoid of any artistic merit. I also think it is important to realise that ‘artistic’ doesn’t always equate spiritual.
EF: You have expressed in some occasions that you would obey your heart before following money and fashions, that the soul is the important thing. How do you to bring together these ideas into the everyday life, with the people that form your family circle?
FO: I believe that if you follow your spirit and allow your creativity to flow becoming a channel of the Source then everything falls into place in your life. You don’t have to worry as the Universe, which you are, takes care of things. Sometimes it’s scary and you might not be able to see the bigger picture but in hindsight you look back and you think ‘wow, that worked out so well!’ I am blessed as it isn’t just me that feels this way but also my immediate family.
EF: When you speak about the soul, are you referring to anything that transcends the material?
FO: I believe that you can’t separate the spiritual and the physical. It is all part of the same thing. Just because your eyes can’t see microwaves doesn’t mean that they exist in an entirely different realm. Some people think that the physical realm is something of lesser importance than the spiritual and that they are just biding their time till they enter this realm, when in fact it is already here and NOW! So to become enlightened is to actually fully realise this.
EF: In the same way you have expressed that, on having submerged yourself in the music of other cultures, it is as if you knew them already from a previous life. Are we capable of remembering past lives and, consequently, musics from the past?
FO: I believe that all things are happening at once, all time is happening at once. I think that the past is no different from the future, it is just that the limited perception of our conditioned minds only sees a small proportion of the bigger picture. If you think of a computer game, all the possibilities and outcomes already exist in the digital data, everything is there already at once and the player is only following a path or thread through the sum total of outcomes. So I believe that ultimate reality is like this analogy, that time doesn’t actually exist in the linear way that we perceive it, in the same way that most people believe that we are all separate beings when in reality we are a ‘unified field of energy’, to quote Einstein. So as John Lennon said ‘I am you and you are me’. In this sense I am every life that has ever been and every life that is and will be, therefore if I connect with music from another time and culture, I am only ultimately connecting with myself.
EF: Do you pick up sounds from all parts of the planet, elaborate them on a unconscious level and then manifest them on a conscious level?
FO: The whole thing is done from a level of consciousness but using the thinking mind only as a tool. The deepest expression of music for me is beyond thoughts and words. Words are merely signposts that point in the direction but are not the things themselves. Confusion arises when people believe that words and symbols are the things themselves, as you can only REALLY experience something by being in its presence and quietening the mind, taking away the mental veil of images and preconceptions. In this sense I believe that written music is merely a tool but it is not the music itself, so to really understand music from another culture you have to be quiet and feel it. Understanding something technically can help but ultimately you have to be able to feel it.
EF: Do dreams have any influence on your compositions?
FO: Chuang Tzu once said that he dreamt of being a butterfly and when he awoke he began to wonder if he was a butterfly dreaming that he was a man. To me it is all part of the same thing so in that sense yes! I have actually had many dreams where I have been composing and playing but I have never written them down but I am the same person that dreams and wakes, so when I compose the same channels are open whether I am asleep or awake.
EF: Are you interested in psychology? And in parapsychology?
FO: I am interested in metaphysics and science, but not particularly psychology per se.
EF: Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu is one of your bedside books. Is that right? What is the Tao, and to what extent does it influence your music?
FO: The Tao Te Ching is an incredible book that completely changed my life. When you ask the question ‘what is the Tao’ you ask the same question that many before have asked for thousands of years. The answer is that you are asking the wrong question. You should ask what is the Tao like. You can’t say what the Tao is with mere words because once again the words themselves aren’t the actual thing itself. You can use words to point someone in the right direction but in the end it is something that you have to discover for yourself. To try and describe the Tao directly is like trying to get your finger to point at itself so we have to use analogy. Probably the best analogy we can use for the Tao is water. Water flows freely, taking the least path of resistance, in this way being in accordance with the Tao is not fighting against the flow of your life. To be a channel for my music I use these principles.
EF: The front cover of Alkimia is an Aleister Crowley temple painting titled ‘The Tree of Life’, who was this character and to what extent does he influence your life?
FO: The front cover painting represents the ‘Tree of Life’ amongst many other things but that not what it’s entitled. Crowley was a complex, controversial and charismatic figure who died age 72 in 1947 and was cremated in Brighton where I live at the moment. Much of his work with the Magick Arts was ahead of its time and misunderstood during his life. He spent a large portion of his inheritance on publishing books that didn’t sell whilst he was alive but original copies now exchange hands for thousands of dollars. He was an extremely gifted mountaineer and climbed K2. He was also a very intelligent outspoken character, who was the head of the Cambridge Chess Society and could play three opponents simultaneously. But his path was ultimately cut out in Magick and by the swinging sixties he had become one of the esteemed spiritual leaders along with Timothy Leary and Aldous Huxley. He appeared as one of The Beatles ‘favourite people’ on the cover of Sgt.Peppers and others were drawn to Crowley’s teachings such as David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones. I wouldn’t say that Crowley massively influences my life but is definitely one of the few people’s lives that I find inspirational.
EF: And to end this first part: what other arts are you interested in?, literature, painting, cinema, etc?
FO: I love Salvador Dali’s work as well as Gustav Klimt’s paintings and Frida Kahlo’s amongst others. I love the great British philosopher Alan Watts’ work as well as Eckhart Tolle, and enjoy studying various spiritual teachings from around the world. I like reading biographies and autobiographies too. I also enjoy great films especially ones that challenge our preconceptions of what reality is and I enjoy watching dance especially Flamenco.
The Musician. His work.
EF: When did you start being interested in music and who influenced you in these first years?
FO: I remember becoming aware of music in the early seventies when I was about 7. My brother John was into Bowie and I liked him. Later on I got into Hendrix and Santana courtesy of a box of records that a friend of my mothers had left at ours. The Beatles affected me a lot too and then the whole Punk thing was starting in the UK and I got into some of the more musical bands like The Stranglers, Ian Dury and Bauhaus. Out of that came the New Wave thing which was very experimental and it really was a creative period of time, there was some crap but there was some absolute works of genius. I eventually got into Jazz and the first Jazz record I bought was a Jan Garbarek record. After that I got into Weather Report, Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and then music from around the world including Paco de Lucia and Ravi Shankar.
EF: When did you start playing electric bass?
FO: I started playing guitar when I was 11. I really liked the bass on records and I used to play bass lines on the deeper strings of the guitar. A year later I got hold of a bass and started playing that.
EF: Why did you choose to play fretless bass?
FO: I do actually play fretted bass as well. They both have individual qualities, for instance playing chordal pieces is much more suited to the fretted instrument. In terms of expression I do prefer fretless as it is much freer and voice like which is why I tend to play it more. I used fretless exclusively on Alkimia.
EF: Could you briefly explain what a fretless bass is and what is the difference with regard to other electric basses?
FO: A fretless bass is as its name suggests a bass without frets. As I said before it gives you much more scope in terms of expression than a fretted as you can slide, bend and use vibrato within your playing with much greater freedom. The sound is more wood like and resonant as the strings have direct contact with the fingerboard and you can also play things like sharp and flat notes that are beyond the Western tempered tuning system like in Indian Ragas.
EF: What bassists have influenced you the most and which seem to you the most relevant ones at present?
FO: Jaco Pastorius has influenced me more than any other bassist and his work is still as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. He definitely connected with the timeless element and his music will stand up as long as people have ears to listen. Other bassists that I really like are Carles Benavent, Percy Jones, Mick Karn, Gary Willis, Geddy Lee and Dominique Di Piazza amongst others. I like some upright players too like Danny Thompson, Eberhard Weber, Neils Orsted-Pederson, Eddie Gomez and Stanley Clarke.
EF: What music do you listen to currently, what styles and, what artists would you highlight regardless of their styles?
FO: I still enjoy a lot of the same music that I have liked for many years including John McLaughlin, Weather Report, Shakti, Paco De Lucia, Jorge Pardo, Juan Manuel Cañizares, Ravi Shankar, Hariprasad Chaurasia, J.S.Bach, Camarón de la Isla, Chick Corea, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Songhai, Herbie Hancock, Zakir Hussain, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Rush, Henryk Górecki, Michael McGoldrick, Flook, Jazzpaña, Bauhaus, Bowie, Kate Bush, the list just goes on and on. As you can see I don’t just appreciate instrumental music, I do also enjoy vocal music and especially enjoy lyrics that are signposts pointing in some way to the greater reality. Recent musical discoveries include a band from the mid 90’s called Almagama, I really like their album ‘Encuentro’. This mixes Flamenco with Indian percussion and vocals and features an array of brilliant artists. I like the Tomatito and Michel Camilo duo album called ‘Spain’ and Chick Corea’s new album ‘The Ultimate Adventure’ with Jorge, Rubem and Carles is very good too. I have been recently listening to a lot more Indian classical music too.
EF: What periods of recent history, that is to say from the 60’s up to today, seem to you the most outstanding apart from jazz?
FO: The golden period for me is from about 1965 to the late 70’s including some of the early 80’s music. This whole period was just so amazingly creative and I know many others who agree with me. Major record labels were a lot more open to experimental music and a lot of the artists from those times who had great commercial success wouldn’t see the light of day these days in terms of major label support. There was so many ground breaking mixtures of cultural elements that were highly inspirational especially because of the innocence of the players who refused to allow themselves to be tainted by cynicism. Audiences were very open to this music too and it was definitely a circular buzz of energy that was growing but eventually got destroyed in many quarters by the industry.
EF: And from jazz?
FO: I would say the same period too but also the amazing music Miles and others were making in the Kind of Blue period. All periods of music are as important in comparison for different reasons of course but I guess you are asking me about my preference in terms of taste. It is heartbreaking to see Jazz documentaries like the Ken Burns series where all the great Jazz music from the 70’s is just skipped over as if it was unimportant. It’s like who creates this music, the musicians or the critics. Wayne Shorter’s and Miles Davis’ music in the 70’s was just as important to them as the music they made in previous times. If Charlie Parker was around in the 70’s he would have been playing with electric instrumentalists too. I consider the electric bass first and foremost as an amplified acoustic instrument, because the wood gives you the sound and different pickups are like using different microphones on a human voice. They colour the sound but they are not the source. A lot of Jazz purists complain about electric instruments but remember even Charlie Christian was using an electric guitar in the 1930’s!
EF: Is jazz the base of your music, to which you are enriching with tones, colours and flavours from other styles?
FO: To be honest I believe that musical labels are only really used for convenience, especially for major record company marketing purposes. There is so much music out there today that is really beyond categorization that these labels don’t do the music justice. In the end it is just ‘music’, isn’t it. How would you define ‘Jazz?’ If you say it is improvised music then so is Indian Classical music and many other forms have improvisational elements including Flamenco. Is it swing? It doesn’t have to swing! You see the problems you can get into by using labels, we come back to the Taoist situation where we realise that labels are not the thing themselves. In this way my music comes from a foundation of just being music that encompasses the whole of the musical universe without prejudice.
EF: What do you owe to new age, if you are influenced by it?
FO: I have never wittingly listened to any music with that label of categorization.
EF: When you say “They have common roots, even the most disparate music”. What do you refer to?
FO: What I truly meant was ‘seemingly’ disparate elements. All musical forms are branches of the same tree. Just because some have branches further away from the same trunk doesn’t mean they are not related. Human music is made by human beings and no human has developed separately from the human race in isolation. All music is fusion and is just another branch of the same tree. Constant evolution takes place by music from different cultures and regions intertwining. It can’t be stopped. Some people become so closed minded that they suffer from a form of musical racism. These are the purists. You can’t stop time within time otherwise you kill ‘life’ and some people are intent on putting time limits on what constitutes good music, but it becomes a museum piece like an artefact that is dead and lifeless. You can take inspiration from the past but if you get stuck there your music will die. The best thing to connect with is the ‘timeless’ in music because this transcends fashions and touches on something much deeper and profound. This is why I like the 60’s and 70’s, not because of some fashion head trip thing, but because of the openness of experimentation that lead to many creating timeless music. It may sound dated to some because of the instrumentation but compositionally and spiritually there is often that timeless element there. For me timelessness is not about instrumentation anyway, it is about a channelling of the Source whether it be a good orchestra playing Bach or a guru beautifully playing sitar.
EF: Speaking about the musicians who accompany you, there are two members of the old group of Paco de Lucía. What did it mean for your music to have them in your formation and how did you recruit them for Alkimia?
FO: There are actually three members from Paco’s previous group. Jorge Pardo on flute, Rubem Dantas on percussion and Juan Manuel Cañizares on guitar, who was with Paco for ten years including a duo, trio and Paco’s group. Jorge and Rubem are both playing with Chick Corea now. It was obviously fabulous for me to have these guys on my album since they are all such great players and legends in their own right. Also because of the heavy Flamenco influences in Alkimia I don’t think that anyone could have been better suited to play on the album. They were interested in doing the album after they heard my first album and a demo of some of the material from Alkimia.
EF: From all the musicians who accompany you, is Chema Víchez the one nearest to your way of seeing things musically and philosophically?
FO: I wouldn’t say that, everyone definitely brought a warmth of spirituality to the table. I chose everyone on the project because of the depth of their playing and how it affects me in terms of what I wanted to achieve. They all totally were in tune with the whole concept, not one more than the other, and I was and am genuinely overwhelmed with the results.
EF: We can consider Stephan Micus as musician of the world, in this sense do you consider yourself to have similar ideas to him?
FO: What I have heard of Stephan Micus I really like, but I think we are coming from different angles as he is a multi-instrumentalist whereas I play only the bass and also compose. From what I have heard and know about Stephan is that he travels around the world and studies rare and exotic instruments with great masters and then creates compositions for that particular instrument.
EF: What stage or stages would you like to play with your musical projects?
FO: Anywhere in the world where the atmosphere is great and conducive for creating a good performance and the musicians have the space to connect with the Eternal.
EF: Would outside concerts be more suitable to develop the spirituality that is implied in your work?
FO: Not necessarily.
EF: Almost finishing, what type of public do you think listens to your music and goes to your concerts?
FO: A broad spectrum from musicians to music lovers who enjoy styles from World Music to Jazz and just good ‘music’ and even those interested in things metaphysical.
EF: And lastly, what future projects do you have with regards to concerts and recordings?
FO: I plan to do some concerts around Europe next year playing the material from Alkimia with Benjamin Sarfas, Philippe Barnes, Nan Mercader and some other Spanish musicians. There will be special guests on some concerts too. I am also currently writing material for my next album and continuing to study Indian classical music both Hindustani and Karnatic.
My first strongly conscious musical memories are from when I was about 8 or 9. A friend of mine had this instrumental piece of music he played for me on vinyl. It was like a big band piece, quite commercial and catchy but done really well. There were lots of trumpets and brass, I can still remember the tune in my head even though I don’t know what it was, I was captivated by it and kept asking him to play it. Around the same time my mother’s friend had left a big box of records at our house and I went through the whole box listening to everything. There was Jimi Hendrix ‘Smash Hits’ and Santana’s ‘Abraxas’ both of which I fell in love with. There were other things like 10cc’s ‘I’m not in love’ and Ram Jam’s ‘Black Betty’ which were in the charts about this time and I loved those records. Then on a holiday to Copenhagen when I was 10 years old I saw the Beatles cartoon film ‘The Yellow Submarine’ in the hotel room which fascinated me and I told my father I loved the sound of guitar. A year later on my eleventh birthday he bought me a 6 string classical guitar. By this time the whole punk movement had taken off in the UK and I was listening to bands like The Stranglers, The Jam and Ian Dury. All of them had great bass players and I was really taken by the sound of the bass and bass lines, so I used to play bass lines on the guitar until eventually, when I was 12, my eldest brother got a bass. He never used it and I began playing that. It was a cheap Jazz Bass copy. Eventually he got rid of that bass and I bought a Kay Precision copy from a catalogue using my pocket money. As I got older my tastes in music just grew and grew but I have always loved bands with great bass players as well.
Were you self-taught or did you study formally?
I am basically self taught. My brother Ric helped me develop my ear as he was 4 years older than me and was very good at picking out tunes on both keyboards and the guitar. He used to play things on the guitar and I would try and emulate what he was doing. I remember one of the first things I learnt was the Pink Panther theme. I then began to work lines out by myself from records like Rush’s ‘Xanadu’. Later on, when I was 19, I took a one year course in Jazz and Popular music at Chichester college. This was great in terms of getting to play in a Jazz context with lots of different players as the course was for all instruments. There were two other bassists on the course when I started but they left after about the first month and I ended up getting the bass chair for all the different groups. There were sax players, guitarists and piano players and we all studied together, it wasn’t bass specific. In fact they had a problem with bass teachers at the time and I only got 6 half hour bass lessons in the whole year! I managed to get joint highest marks at the end of the year with a sax player and received a distinction. After that I just hit the street and started playing loads of jazz gigs in bars and clubs. I would ask everyone questions like ‘how are you voicing that chord’ etc… I also studied George Russel’s ‘Lydian Chromatic Concept’ book and Nicolas Slominsky’s ‘Thesaurus of Melodic Patterns and Scales’. In fact I was studying every book I could get my hands on and also working out my own systems. These systems have become part of an advanced theory book that I have been working on for about 20 years.
Tell me about your CD ‘Esprit’.
Esprit was my first solo album, which I recorded back in 1999. I had a lot of music together that I had been writing since about ’91 and just wanted to put an album out. I paid for the whole thing to be recorded myself and then touted it around record labels and chose the best deal. I had some great players on there like Byron Wallen (we used to have a duo together in the past and studied a lot together in the early days) on trumpet, Nigel Hitchcock on Sax and Gerard Presencer on trumpet. Lianne Carroll also played piano and sang on a tune. I had known her for a while and she just recently one two BBC Jazz awards.
The album was quite an eclectic mix of styles as I have so many influences and it received great reviews and opened up many opportunities for me including an appearance at the European Bass Day in 2003. Tracks were used for some bass compilation albums where I appeared alongside people like Marcus Miller, Victor Wooten, Matthew Garrison and Michael Manring. It got a lot of radio play too and was a good introduction to my music.
After Esprit you lived out in Spain for a few years, can you tell me something about those times?
I was studying Flamenco and playing in different Flamenco situations in England before I moved out to Spain. My wife is Spanish and it was like a decision we came up with one day, you know like lets have an adventure. This turned out to be a three and a half year sojourn and we still have all our connections out there and a place to go to. It was great meeting all these different Flamenco guys and we used to go to lots of concerts and informal gypsy jams in the Sacromonte. I began to play a lot out there myself too, which was great. We were living in Granada in Andalucia, southern Spain. Andalucia is where Flamenco originated from and there is a strong Northern African and Arabic population there. So it was great just to soak in that whole atmosphere and culture.
Was it difficult to be accepted by the community of Flamenco musicians out there?
It was funny because a lot of the gypsy guys are really proud of their roots and culture and quite rightly so. So some were a bit suspicious of this English guy coming along until they realised how well I could play, and they were even more shocked that I could actually play Flamenco. Because I had studied Flamenco before I even went to Spain I had all those difficult rhythms down like the Bulerias and Tanguillos. So once they realised that, I got respect and it was easy to integrate.
I remember when we first got there, we went to see this guy who owns this big venue to see if I could play there with my own group. We sat there talking with him in the club on a quiet weekday night and had a drink. He played my first album Esprit on the club sound system but wasn’t really listening to it. He was saying ‘ Oh I might be able to give you a gig in 6 months time if I can find a slot’. Then later on I was rehearsing with this band I was asked to join for a big concert we had in the Jazz festival. They had all the top Flamenco and Jazz musicians from Granada in it and we were rehearsing at this club in the afternoon. This same guy saw me playing with all these top guys. He came running over all excited saying I was brilliant and I could have TWO gigs in a couple of weeks time. It is amazing how quickly some people change their tune!
How did you get acquainted with musicians from Paco de Lucia’s band?
They heard my first album ‘Esprit’ and a demo of ‘Alkimia’, really liked it and agreed to play on Alkima. This was Jorge Pardo on flute, Rubem Dantas on percussion and Juan Manuel Cañizares on Flamenco guitar. Each of them added such a warm presence to the album that I feel very privileged to have worked with them. They definitely captured the whole spirit and concept that I had in mind and took it even beyond my expectations.
Your second CD is recorded wonderfully and sounds superb. Please tell me about your CD "Alkimia".
I composed all the tracks on Alkimia and it was influenced by a lot of things that were happening in my life. As I mentioned before I was studying Flamenco music, but there are other influences in Alkimia such as my love for Irish folk music and African rhythms. I managed to marry some of these elements together creating something different. For instance the tune Anam Cara (this means soul friend in Gaelic) is a blending of an African abakwa polyrhythm with a Spanish tanguillos rhythm and an Irish jig. This is quite fitting since I was born in Africa, most of my blood is Irish, although I do have some Spanish blood, and my wife is Spanish. So it wasn’t just a technical exercise. These things are close to me.
There is also the spiritual aspect to Alkimia. I have had a deep interest in things metaphysical for years and have studied religions and spiritual teachings from many cultures. My album is a gateway for channelling energy from other dimensions.
Also I did most of the engineering and all of the mixing and mastering myself, and since I was new to this it was quite a challenge to learn how to do it well. I just threw myself in at the deep end and I think the results have made it all worth while.
Do you record with a direct line in the studio or with your amplifier miked up?
I record into the desk but I use a valve compressor and a valve parametric equaliser before I get to the desk.
Please tell me about your basses
I have three 5 string basses. Two are fretless and one is fretted. Two of these basses were made for me by a local UK luthier called Jeff Chapman. He just makes one off instruments to the customers exact specifications which is great for me and we have incorporated lots of my ideas into the design. He also rebuilt a Tobias classic bass for me which is my other fretless. It has a rosewood fingerboard made from an old Victorian dining table and it sings like an angel. The fingerboard is over a hundred years old. I use EMG single coil Jazz type pickups (but with a wider aperture) to get that clarity and I only use the bridge pickup. I got Jeff to put wooden tops on them as I have them really high. These wooden tops have scallops in them just underneath each string to stop them rattling. I have them really high as I like to have that ‘tabletop’ feel under the strings where my right hand plays over the pickup. All these basses sound great.
What type of amplifier do you use?
At the moment I am using a TL Audio valve compressor with a TL Audio valve parametric equaliser. For effects I use a Lexicon MPX1 and when I play live I put all this through two Mackie SRM450 speakers and run it in stereo.
What are your favourite strings?
Bass Centre Elites with a light gauge, that is 30-110 with the 110 for the B string.
What bass players influenced you?
My first influence on the bass when I was 11 was Jean Jacques Burnel from the Stranglers. I loved those albums ‘Rattus Norvegicus’ and ‘Black and White’. Then bassists like Bruce Foxton from the Jam and Norman Watt Roy from Ian Dury and the Blockheads, I loved his playing on ‘Hit me with your rhythm stick’ and ‘What a waste’. When I was about fourteen I got into Level 42’s first album with Mark King on bass and Mick Karn’s playing with Japan and his solo stuff. When I was about 16 I got into Geddy Lee’s playing with Rush, I love ‘A farewell to kings’. Then when I was about 17 or 18 I got into more fretless stuff starting with John Giblin on John Martyn’s ‘Grace and Danger’ and then Percy Jones with Brand X (Product, Masques and Do they hurt) and then of course Jaco Pastorius. The first Jaco track I heard was Havona and I was just totally blown away. I used to go and see Laurence Cottle play live a lot as well and he was a big influence on me as well as a local guy called Roger Carey who is the husband of Liane Carroll. I liked Jeff Berlin’s playing too. Later when I got into Flamenco I really got into Carles Benavent who plays with Paco de Lucia’s band. I liked Kai Eckhardt’s playing on ‘Live at the Festival Hall’ too and Dominique Di Piazza, especially on John McLaughlin’s ‘Que Alegria’ album.
What music do you like to listen to?
I listen to all kinds of stuff from classical to world music to jazz to rock. I go through phases of really getting into particular albums and then after a while I will put that particular album away for a while and leave it as a gem to be re-discovered later on. At the moment I am listening to the Indian fusion band Shakti a lot with John McLaughlin, my favourite album of theirs is ‘A Handful of Beauty’. I bought a great album recently by a band called Almagama that mixes Flamenco with Indian music, it’s called ‘Encuentro’. I like that album ‘Spain’ with Tomatito and Michel Camilo. Other than that there are all my classic favourites by artists like John McLaughlin, Paco de Lucia, Kate Bush, Zakir Hussain, Pink Floyd, Hariprasad Chaurasia, Bowie, Henryk Gorecki, The Beatles, Weather Report, Ravi Shankar…the list just goes on and on.
What do you think is the key to success?
It really depends on what you consider success to be. For me it is not a money thing, it is an artistic and spiritual thing. If you are making music that is satisfying to yourself on a deep level and is connecting with other people on that level too, then you are successful, regardless of how much money you earn.
How many hours a day do you practice?
At one time I used to practice 8 or more hours a day, but now I tend to play for at least an hour a day if not more, but sometimes I will go for days without playing, but I always get my chops back fairly quickly. You have to live your life too so that those influences come out in your playing and as you get more mature as a player you find that your technique is pretty much there most of the time. You can also practice without your instrument if you know how, by thinking about it and applying things in your head, then with maturity it just comes right out on the instrument itself when you actually do it physically.
How do you achieve ideal intonation on fretless bass?
I use a lined fretless which helps. You just have to work at it and it is a combination of ears and technique. Make sure you practice against other instruments (as well as on your own) so that you have something to be in tune with.
What creative plans do you have for the future?
At the moment I am studying the classical forms of North Indian Hindustani music and South Indian Karnatic music. There were some of those elements on Alkimia and there will be even more on the next one. The fretless bass is a great instrument for playing ragas as you can get all those sharp and flat notes that are outside of the Western tuning system. There is also all that scope for slides and swoops, basically using voice like phrasing.
Do you have any advice for young musicians?
All the usual stuff like keep focused when other people try to knock you down and learn to distinguish between positive criticism and downright jealousy. Also don’t play your instrument with too much force, leave room for dynamics. One thing I believe to be really important is to get into MUSIC and not technical fads. Some younger bassists get into technical players that play really fast but aren’t saying anything musically. In a hundred years time no one will remember these players because it was all fireworks without any real musical substance. There is nothing wrong with chops, and I have a few myself, but it has to be balanced with, and be in a musical context otherwise it is just shallow. Music is an art form not a sport and if you can’t remember anything about a performance apart from ‘wow he was so fast’ then you are not feeling what this ancient art is really about. But if you can still remember melodies, rhythms and feel stirred in your spirit after experiencing a performance then you have connected with some REAL music.
Franc O'Shea is the mastermind of Alkimia, his latest project as a producer, on which he was the bass player, composer and arranger of all the material, and also the sound engineer. The result of this remarkable effort proved to be fabulous. The music of three cultures is fused with art and spirit in an unique, original concept. Franc O'Shea is also a fine intellectual aware of the challenges that artists face today, yet confident in his art and creative power.
In " The Power of Myth" Joseph Campbell said :" Myth must be kept alive. The people who can keep it alive are artists of one kind or another. The function of the artist is the mythologization of the environment and the world." Do you share Campbell's view? Can we still think about a certain mission of the artist in the actual world of show business?
I do think that myth is important in the sense of it being a gateway to the spiritual. To me it goes beyond just pure myth and is a doorway to a reality that exists at a different vibrational frequency. The artist definitely has a mission to keep that doorway open whilst preventing themselves from being drowned in the quagmire of commerce. But for someone like me it isn't a problem as the music I make has its eye on creativity as opposed to being strangled by commercial concerns. This is why I set up my own label so that I didn't have some A&R guy with dollars signs in his eyes breathing down my neck. I look back over some of the albums that have actually been, in the long run, commercially successful but where the artists have maintained their integrity like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. What will really endure for centuries is the timeless beauty that is being channelled through the artist and not how many dollars were poured into the marketing campaign.
What would be the message conveyed by the music of Alkimia?
There is not direct message being conveyed by Alkimia, rather more I liken it to a finger pointing to other realms and dimensions that we don't encounter in normal every day life. I do really enjoy works that have vocals and lyrics but I think instrumental music is very special too. It's like giving a blank canvas for the listeners imagination to play with. As with all music, I'm sure that not everyone will enjoy Alkimia but for those who are sensitive to its charms it's possible that Alkimia will be very inspiring and maybe even healing.
Alkimia does display an interesting merging of music from different cultures and improvisational elements within those cultures. In this sense, the musical message is that it is unbelievable how well these sometimes supposedly disparate branches of music have roots more in common than we may at first realise. Sometimes to me it almost seems like there are traditions around the world that have crossed over but haven't been recorded in the history books and it's not until you mix them together that you realise how snugly many of them fit.
From a conceptual perspective is Alkimia a step ahead in a direction you may want to pursuit? Can you see Alkimia as a musical and spiritual voyage that may have continuity and lead to similar fusion projects later on?
For me Alkimia is an expression of my life and, as I continue to grow as a being, I'm sure that my music will do the same. With music I'm like a child in a sweet shop, there are so many flavours to explore but I can't but help being dragged down the avenues that have spirit. These avenues are where time stops still and in this stillness I began to realise that time itself is an illusion. For me the best music is where the artists connect with that, either on a conscious or subconscious level.
This is definitely a voyage for me. I am continuously immersing myself in music from other cultures on a deep level melodically, harmonically and rhythmically. Sometimes, it's like encountering ghosts from the past, almost as if I had played this music in a previous life.
What were challenges in combining Spanish, Irish and Eastern elements in one coherent, organic work?They have some "natural" commonalties that make them "fuse" better than other?
There weren't any challenges for me because everything came so naturally. It wasn't like I was trying to fit square pegs into round holes. In fact, it was very simple because, as I said before, these different styles work together so well that I am sure they have a hidden history. As I gather influences, I don't actually start writing straight away. These different elements mingle in my head for a while and the connections happen naturally. A melody comes from here and a rhythm comes from there, they mingle and then it's similar to someone turning a light on and off I go....
What chances are for Alkimia to go on tour as a live project?
I am putting a band together at the moment and juggling the logistics of the whole thing as I want to include some of the musicians from Spain as well as guys in the UK. It's been great playing with guys like Jorge Pardo, Rubem Dantas, Juan Manuel Cañizares, Nan Mercader, Chema Vilchez and Serguei Sapricheff. All of them brought such a warm presence to the record that I am indebted to be blessed with being the perpetrator of such a musical occasion.
Some of this music was developed originally through my band that I had put together in England just before I moved to Spain. This was with Ollie Boorman on drums, Tom Phelan on keyboards, Philippe Barnes on flute and Benjamin Sarfas on violin. It was so good to be involved with these very talented young musicians who weren't, at that time, being given the credit that they deserved and were so open to this new fusion. They came with such a hunger that it was a revelation compared to playing with old pros who thought they have been there, done it and seen it all. Tom, Ben and Philippe were involved in the recording, and captured the spirit of the album so well that I was and still am genuinely touched by their contributions.
The live band will include of course myself on fretless bass, Ben on violin, Philippe on flute, percussion, palmas, flamenco guitar, and many other special guests. These should be very inspiring happenings.
Franc, You recently sent me a copy of your new seven track CD, Alkimia (playing time 47:38), which is a fascinating album. What I’d like to do is talk to you about this disc and hopefully give you a platform in which to speak about the project.
How long have you been playing bass Franc?
I started playing acoustic guitar when I was 11 and decided to put a band together with a friend. He suggested that I play bass as he wanted to play guitar. Ironically I didn’t mind this at all as I was listening to Jean Jacques Burnel, Bruce Foxton, and Norman Watt-Roy, and bass was my favourite instrument anyway. So I switched to bass when I was 12. My older brother John had a bass which he never used and I gave it a home. So since then I have been playing 25 odd years.
Sounds like you were very much into New-Wave music when you first began getting into music?
I started out with some Hendrix, The Beatles and Santana and by the time I started playing, Punk Rock was beginning to hit big time and it had a great impact in the UK. Suddenly there were all these new bands coming out and it was very much a do it yourself type scene where anyone could have a go and age didn’t matter. Of course some absolute crap came out of it but there was some brilliant stuff too.
Any other influences?
I have so many influences that it would be impossible to list them all. But I do find that all the music I have liked during my lifetime so far, I still like now. You know you get some people that get embarrassed about stuff they listened to when they were younger. I’m not like that. So I have a very diverse range of stuff that has influenced me from Bauhaus to Pink Floyd to Weather Report to Paco de Lucia to Henryk Gorecki.
Looking back to my very first influences, when I was baby, it was the Tribal music from Swaziland, Africa, were I was born in tandem with the Beatles!
Can you remember much about that first bass?
I knew that first bass I borrowed from my brother wasn’t going to be around for long so I ordered a bass from a catalogue and paid it off weekly. It was a Kay precision copy, cheap and cheerful but to me it was a glorious event. I couldn’t wait to get home from school and play and also jam with friends, trading new lines we had picked up or invented. It was like there was all this unemployment and moaning about Thatcher’s government but this instrument was like the magic wand that would transport you out of all that.
Do you come from a musical family?
My first lessons in music came from my brother Ric. He was 4 years older than me and had developed his ear quite well and was working stuff out like the Pink Panther theme. He would then teach them to me and show me how to use my ears more effectively. My dad played trumpet when he was in the army and my granddad was an alto sax player in a big band and then there are various relatives who have played things like flute and drums, so it is sort of there in the blood.
What Basses and amps are you currently using?
I have an endorsement deal with a local UK bass maker called Jeff Chapman. He has created a couple of wonderful 5 string basses for me, one fretless and the other fretted. He also totally customised a Tobias 5 string fretless for me. They all sound amazing and play faultlessly. I string them up with Elites.
I also use a TL Audio valve parametric and a TL Audio valve compressor. These are made by Tony Larkin in the UK and have a really clear warm punchy sound.
For effects I use a Lexicon MPX1 and I put everything through two Mackie SRM450 powered speakers in stereo for live use.
Would you ever try expanding to double bass or going in the other direction of paying extended range bass guitars?
I have tried the double bass just for fun but it is not my thing. I do know a lot of electric players that take it up just to get more work, but for me even if I don’t eat I have to follow my heart and expression of my soul is more important than just making money or following trends. Of course some people genuinely love to play both acoustic and electric.
I do already play an extended range bass, a five string with a low B. I do find that a lot of bass players get into this whole business of having a zillion strings and playing the bass with their toe nails but for me the main thing is to get a good sound and then explore musically.
It is almost as if some people thought the show was over when Jaco came and went. Like he had explored all the musical possibilities and the only thing left was extra strings and new techniques. This is far from the truth. Jaco helped open the door to a whole new world of musical expression but it was and is far from over. As far as I’m concerned it is only just the beginning and as more and more music from around the globe continues to fuse there are no limits.
The thing about Jaco is that he actually played mainly with standard two finger picking technique and what was important was the combination of notes and the expression he conveyed.
I don’t think it’s wrong to explore strings and techniques but some people do tend to focus on technical aspects too much as opposed to music.
Getting onto the Album project. The sleeve is interesting with a picture that I couldn’t understand at first but after opening up the sleeve and reading the notes about each track, things became a little clearer. You obviously had a lot of input in creating the sleeve. Could you tell us a little about the design.
The picture on the sleeve is an Aleister Crowley temple painting from 1909 representing the Tree of Life. I have been interested in magickal things for a long time. I use the term magick with a ‘K,’ which is about allowing real change to occur using creative energy, as opposed to ‘magic illusion’ as a form of trickery or banal sentimentalism. If you link the picture up with the excerpt on the back of the booklet it points to some very deep profound truths. Lao Tzu’s famous Tao Te Ching book from 2,500 years ago is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read.
I’m very curious to know why you chose the symbol representing the second track, The Three Princes of Serendip to go under the tray – why not the complete picture?
The pentacle consists of a pentagram and a crescent moonrise. The pentagram represents the four Elements with the added dimension of Akasha. Since these symbols represent all the creative channels, I thought it a fitting place for the CD to be at home on, rather like recharging a battery.
You’ve given a good explanation of each piece on the album’s sleeve, which all have an accompanying symbol that come from the design on the front cover. Could you take us through the album, giving us a rundown on how each track was recorded:-
I did most of the engineering and all of the mastering myself, so before I even started recording I had to put in a lot of time to really learn about getting a good sound.
The recording schedule was quite hectic as we recorded in Barcelona, Madrid, Granada and also in the UK in many different studios. I had to wait a long time for some of the sessions to happen as everyone was so busy with touring commitments, etc.
Some strange events happened during the recording, like when we were recording the track Alkimia in Huétor Vega, Granada, they had the biggest storm there for years and all the power went out in the studio. We were left sitting in the dark with the elements raging outside. Eventually the power was restored and when we emerged from the studio there was flooding and bits of trees all over the roads. I thought it was quite apt that I had decided beforehand to start Alkimia with a recorded thunderstorm to represent the power of nature.
I also recorded the last track Shakti on my daughters first birthday and this was obviously the most special time I could choose to get exactly the right feeling for the piece.
All the musicians really understood the concept. I feel that each of them brought their best to the album and we managed to capture some really inspiring performances. Recording is a difficult media to channel more profound musical statements through but I think we managed to open up some doors that glimpse other dimensions.
Was it recorded completely in digital?
Everything was recorded in digital but I used valve pre-amps to create a warmer sound and analogue and valve outboard mastering equipment too.
Most artists / bands make at least two or three albums before crafting a masterpiece but you’ve done so at your first attempt – is it downhill from here on for Franc O’Shea?
I did actually release an album before Alkimia called Esprit back in ’99 which received some really good reviews and I believe my albums will only get better and better as I evolve in different directions musically and personally.
Have you ever played any of the material in front of a live audience and if so, what has been the response?
I did play some of the material in the UK before I moved to Spain although the whole album wasn’t written at that point. My band at the time consisted of bass, violin, flute, keyboards and drum kit. It was very well received but at some point I knew that I would have to switch to percussion and flamenco guitar instead of drums and keyboards to create the type of sonic textures needed for the music.
I plan to put together a tour to perform Alkimia live featuring many of the musicians from the album with some surprises as well.
Could we possibly eventually hear a live version of Alkimia?
Before I make a live concert album of previous compositions I would like to release some more albums with new stuff on them, and as I already write all my own material, in the future I will have a substantial backlog to choose from.
What does Franc O’Shea get up to when he’s taking a break from music?
I love to spend time with my family and we like to go for long drives exploring the Sussex countryside. We are both really into nature and we also like spending time at the Portichuelo, in Jayena village near Granada, Southern Spain.
Apart from playing, I do love listening to music too, and because music is so pleasurable to me, there is nothing to take a break from.
I read lots of books and particularly enjoy spiritual tomes, cutting edge physics and biographies.
And when it all gets too much, I like to go wild, let my hair down and fiesta till dawn.
Thanks very much for your time Franc – good luck with the new disc.
In a copy-cat world, where an idea that even remotely looks like it might be innovative or new is eaten by your contemporaries and then released as their own, it is a rare thing indeed to find someone who is not copying someone. A perfect example of that is the obligatory slap, tap and pop technique found in 95% of all releases today. The "let's see if we can cram 512 notes into this next three bars and do it all in 11/7 time!" mentality. If I could go to one gig, one show, even one trade convention and not hear every bassist there trying to outdo this, that and the other guy (or girl), I think I would die!
How did we ever devolve to the point where next to no one has the guts to just be unique, just be truly different, to be content with trying to capture the hearts of their listeners instead of their aggression? Chances are high that Bass Inside hears more bass-focused albums than most of our readers (it's our job!), so the same chances are that we have a pretty good idea of what is going on out there. Sad to report, not a whole hell of a lot. Things seem to be on hold here, with most bassists standing around like sheep watching what the other guy is doing. To grow, there HAS to be leaders, the rare and special few who don't care what the other guy is doing.
You're gonna meet one now…
Franc O'Shea released a totally self-financed album in '99 that caught a lot of people in the jazz world by surprise, a pleasant surprise. Franc is just about ready to release his newest CD entitled Alkimia, a term which, according to his latest bio means "the power to transmute different existing forms into a new form." In light of what was said earlier, boy, do we need that!!! Transmute, Franc, puleeeeze! Take a minute or so and read into this lad a bit, hit his website and our audio sample at the end of this interview. A bit of a breathe of fresh air. And he sounds like…nobody but himself. What a scary concept, eh?
Bass Inside: The release of Alkimia, your next album, was slated for sometime this mid-summer (2003). Does it still seem that things are on track for that date?
Franc O'Shea: It is now looking more like an autumn release as it is a big project. There are going to be lots of different musicians on Alkimia, and it is impossible to record them all at once due to everyone's busy schedules. I am recording it in Spain, but some of the musicians are flying out from England to do it. There are also many Spanish guys doing it too, like Jorge Pardo (flute), Rubem Dantas (percussion) and Juan Manuel Cañizares (flamenco guitar). These guys are renowned for their work with people like Paco De Lucia, Chick Corea, Michael Brecker, Al Di Meola and Peter Gabriel, so obviously they are really busy too.
BI: Your approach for Alkimia is a broad-minded one indeed. What a combination of styles and instruments. Your bio states that the instruments are a diverse collection from around the world. Tones drawn from dulcimer to udus & congas, flutes to violins, then voices and on and on; a veritable choir of potential. Influences for the album will be from Africa to Arabia, from Spain to Ireland, and not surprising three of those four areas were once, or are now, places you have called 'home'. I can certainly see where the resolute power of the liquid and fathomless sound of fretless bass would fit in so well! How did you come to choose these exotic instruments over other choices? Was there a sound in your head and heart that you set out to capture?
FO: I chose flute and violin as the main melodic instruments for many reasons. There were no other choices, the sound was there as I wrote the album. Both these instruments have a real magical quality about them, which is the theme of this album, and they are perfect for the type of Flamenco, Arabic and Irish melodies which I have composed for Alkimia. They are in a much higher range than the fretless, so this gives them good separation, but yet the sonic qualities of all these instruments blend together in a most beautiful way. They also both have great dynamic range. They can play from the most subtle enchanting melody to real blazing virtuosity. Alkimia will also feature Flamenco guitar, Arabic dulcimer and many Spanish, African and Cuban percussion instruments. A little imagination will help you realise how well all these instruments blend together.
BI: It has been said to me on more than one occasion, particularly when an artist is embracing a more organic overall sound, that the music (perhaps because of that very organic nature) seems to almost develop a mind of it's own, going its own way. That the album tends to head in directions far different from the original ideas set out. Can you describe the development of Alkimia for us in that light? (if it applies!)
FO: The way I see it is that I am a channel for this music. I have studied percussion instruments from all over the world, I have created my own music theories etc… but obviously music is more than just theory. I get all these separate ideas that seem to have no connection at first but then they all just fit together so well that it is unbelievable to me sometimes. It is real serendipity. It is like if the music has a mind of its own, and I do think that music is a living, breathing entity. Music is a celebration of the Universe and we are the ears and the soul of the Universe that experience it. We are the Universe listening to itself.
BI: When reading your bio, it is obvious you have not lived a simple, quiet life. High school, suburbia - the route most people take in life - was not your fate. You were born in a seemingly exotic place, of Irish, English and Spanish blood. I cannot help but wonder how different life might have been if you had not moved from Swaziland. Does the musical direction your life took seem to you that it would have likely happened regardless of where you grew up?
FO: It is hard for me to say if I had stayed in Africa would my life have taken a different musical direction. I left Africa when I was 3 and then we moved to Indonesia and then later to England. I was originally a very gifted artist when I was very young. I was drawing things in three dimensional perspective when all the other kids could only draw matchstick men. So maybee I would have been an artist, but I must say that music did captivate in a very big way. I was drawn to the immediacy of it. The fact that it is something that happens in the now and is constantly changing, and has the power to invoke the deepest emotions, and yet it is totally invisible.
BI: It is odd that a person can be born somewhere, live most of their life there, and one day find a new home or country that just feels so right, that there is a recognition that demands you relocate. I grew up in Canada, yet after 50 years found that Switzerland was where I was supposed to be. Is that how you feel about Spain? Is it your true home?
FO: Many things drew me toward Spain. I had already been a great admirer of the Flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucia when I met my wife in England. She is Spanish and we married in Granada in the Albaycin facing the ancient Arabic Alhambra Palace. I love it here, there are so many things I could mention including obviously the weather, but Granada in particular is a very mysterious magical city. I do feel this is my true home and the warm and generous people here make me feel that way too.
BI: You started playing bass at the ripe of age of 12, pretty early in the game really! What brought the bass into your life and what were the circumstances that made it obvious that bass was where you wanted to stay?
FO: I originally started on guitar when I was 11. My father knew I was keen on music and one day he presented me with a guitar. I started playing bass lines on the guitar. Then a year later my eldest brother was in a band and he was designated as the bass player. He had a Jazz bass copy which I don't think he ever played , and it was lying around the house, so I picked it up with great enthusiasm. This was in the late seventies and Punk had hit. I was really into the Stranglers and their great bass player Jean Jaques Burnel. I was hooked by the sound of the bass but I obviously liked other instruments too.
Over the next few years I just began discovering lots of different music from Hendrix to Pink Floyd to early Level 42 to Rush. Then, in my late teens, I got into Jazz and Jazz Rock with groups like Weather Report, Brand X and John McLaughlin's Trio. And then into World Jazz with groups like Shakti and Paco De Lucia's Sextet and then all music from around the world. It was like going back to my roots in Africa when my mother would take me to the Tribal gatherings, or re-encountering strange instruments like the Ankalongs from Indonesia which we had a whole set of. Also along the way I discovered some great classical composers like J.S. Bach and Henryk Gorecki. So it wasn't just bass I was influenced by.
BI: When I look at your work itinerary, it seems that at this time you do most of your work in Spain, your adopted home. Is this a case of "well, that's where the work is!" or is it a matter of appreciative audiences you can connect to?
FO: The audiences here are great. People really know how to have a good time and they love their fiestas. So I can definitely connect with the audience here. People here really love music. As far as work goes I can get many gigs in Britain and other places and I will too in the future. I have played all over the world and every country has its good points. But I am waiting to finish Alkimia before I start travelling abroad with it.
BI: Do you hope to take a project to other countries, (like Switzerland? Hint hint hint) once Alkimia is on the shelves?
Switzerland will definitely be on the list!
FO: How did you come to hear of Jeff Chapman, UK luthier for the basses you endorse? What about these basses drew your admiration?
I met Jeff Chapman when I was living in Brighton in England. I wanted someone to make me a bass exactly how I wanted it. I also wanted someone that I lived close to so I could drop in to see how the work was going. Jeff was incredible. He pays so much attention to detail and has a fantastic mind. He would call me up at every stage to see the instruments or try them out. He built me a really good five string fretted and has nearly finished a fretless for me. He also totally rebuilt a Tobias fretless for me, including changing the electronics and the fingerboard. For the fingerboard he used a piece of rosewood (with such a tight grain it looks almost like ebony) that came from an old Victorian dining table. So its over a hundred years old with a history of people living around it. Someone was throwing it away for the garbage men in the street and he asked if he could have it. It sings like an angel!
He has this great knack of finding extraordinary pieces of wood. The fretless he is making me now is going to be a killer, too. I have some design features that are really unique. The pickups have ebony attached to the covers which is scalloped under each string. This is because I have the pickups really high as I play over them. Normally the strings would rattle on the pickups with them this high but the scallops prevent this. These wooden attachments also match the exact camber radius of the fingerboard so that both hands feel the same symmetry. Jeff doesn't have a catalogue and he doesn't have a website yet (he has one coming soon). He basically works on his own and makes acoustic guitars and basses for people to their own specifications.
BI: Having your music chosen for various bass compilation albums is a good way to get the word out there relatively inexpensively. Is this something you actively pursue, or do they contact you?
FO: At first I contacted them to get my music out there amongst bassists, because it is very orientated to all musicians and people, not just bassists. But now they seem to be contacting me.
I do find that the bass community is in a big crisis at the moment. It doesn't seem to be so much about music anymore but about what the latest technique is. Bassists often go on about "have you seen so and so, he's amazing. He plays the bass with his nose while standing on his head and he's only 4 years old!" This isn't music, this is a circus!
Unfortunately bass seems to have suffered this fate. When saxophonists talk about different players, they say so and so is great because of the quality of his lines. Because of his musical inventiveness, not because he plays his sax with drum sticks! I think people get too worried about doing something completely new and don't focus on playing good music. If you are a channel for something new, that will come naturally from artistic necessity rather than sitting around pulling out your hair thinking how can I be different from everyone else. You ARE different from everyone else, it is not something you have to try to be.
Also bassists will often rant on about so and so is great because he has played with someone famous. Just because they play with someone famous doesn't mean they are great. Use your ears and your heart, not your mind! Everyone seems to be trying to sound like Marcus Miller at the moment. Marcus sounds great but the copyists don't. The music just sounds like bland television theme music now. There is no soul, no real thought, no dynamics, no originality, no taste and then people wonder why the general public don't buy bassists' albums. When Jaco released his first solo album it wasn't a bass solo album. It was excellent music that EVERYONE could relate to. That's what the bass community needs to get back to, making good music.
BI: In a world of bassists all competing for limited work, what did you do to capture the attention of all the fine people you have worked with over the years? Would you say it is no small amount of business savvy, aggressive publicists, and some reeeeeaaaally hard work on your part?
FO: People have asked me to play with them over the years because they like what I do. I haven't chased it. I built up a reputation with all my gigging around, by word of mouth and by records I have played on. They realised that I could bring something special to their music not only with my playing but often with my musical knowledge, and production and arranging skills too.
BI: Looking back in time a bit, you financed the first CD you put out by yourself, relying on no one but yourself, giving you the freedom to choose the right companies and people to work with. A lot of bassists and musicians these days also go the independent way, and find happiness that way. You were on that path to independence quite some time before most of them. What was different about the Alltone label that made them worthy of your trust, to hand over that independence, you must have felt they were different. If so, in what way?
FO: I paid for Esprit myself and then put it around different labels. I knew that no one would want to sign up a bassist unless they had something feasible to go on. So I just produced the finished product before I approached anyone. It was like "this is what I do, take it or leave it, I have other companies interested". I chose Alltone's offer over others as it was a two album deal and they really care about music, being musicians themselves. Although now I am setting up my own label, so I can have absolute control over every aspect of what I do.
As far as the major labels go you may as well just forget it. They have been killing music slowly for the past 30 years. They are stupid. Music has become a disposable commodity like Mac Donalds hamburgers. People eat one burger and it doesn't fill them up, so they have to buy more. Major label music is like this now. Major labels won't promote good music as they want people to buy rubbish music that they get bored with really quickly, so that they have to go out and buy more crap the next week, and so on. They don't want people to have CD's in their collections that they can enjoy listening to for years. But this has backfired, and much of the general public has lost respect for music altogether and they don't want to pay for their worthless crap. They just want to download it for free on the internet.
The major labels are stupid because if you look at some of the best selling albums of all times you have some really good music, when the bands had the freedom to create something special, like The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Instead of developing peoples curiosity and fascination for good music they have destroyed much of it.
But as Goliath falls hopefully the independents will rise.
Introducing a genuine rarity - a British electric jazz bass player who is not only brilliant, but leading his own band
I think it's fair to say that the Americans have got a bit of a head start on us Brits in terms of taking bass seriously when fronting a band. Thank God for players like Franc O'Shea. His debut album, Esprit is a vibrant slice of fusion - not crap 70s Moog noodling nonsense, but 90s electric jazz blending styles and influences from all over the globe, where - despite his considerable technical abilities - the compositions take president over bass pyrotechnics.
Considering Franc's musical beginnings, it's not surprising that his musical vision is a bit wider than 'fast is best'. "I've always thought of myself as more than just a bass player", he confirms. "A lot of projects I've been involved with I've co-founded, so it wasn't a big transition to leading my own group. I've been composing ever since I started playing bass when I was 12."
But surely it's difficult for a bassist/leader to get gigs in the UK? "Not really" he argues. "Music is about expressing yourself and if you're sincere, and believe in what you're doing, that's what will come across and touch people no matter what instrument you play."
The story behind his album Esprit reflects a 'go out and get it' approach to getting the music heard, in stark contrast to the many wannabies desperate for record company money before playing a note. "I borrowed some money and paid for the album to be recorded myself. I had a finished product before I even approached anyone. I touted it around and ended up going with Alltone as their offer was the best - it's a label run by musicians for musicians."
Franc, whose CV already includes a session stint with soulster Lisa Moorish as well as co-founding Latin Jazz-Funk outfit Urubu, is not resting on his laurels, either. "I'm already working on material for the next album, and I am gigging with my own group promoting Esprit and I'm working with Urubu, who are just about to record for Loaded Records."
With some great reviews and the backing of radio stations such as Jazz FM, the future's bright for Franc - watch out for him and when everyone else realises how good he is, remember where you heard it first -