How long have you been playing Arlyn?

Since New Year's, 2000.

How did you get started?

In 1998 I happened to go to a big Christian meeting/concert in Pietermaritzburg, and there was this rather shaky band from England that played there, except that the bassist was superb - his style and the sound of his instrument were just delicious - so powerful and crunchy, and also sweet and melodic. It was really beautiful. I had respected bass for a while, but it was on that evening that I decided that bass was inside me. At that time I played no instruments at all. I only wrote songs in my head and wished I had the money to realise them. Bass started it all…

Are you from a musical family?

Yes - my mother's done a lot of singing of the classical kind; my dad played guitar and organ; and my sister plays piano and also sings.

So it's in your blood!!!

Well, it’s definitely in my soul! I think that blood consists of millions of tiny red cells floating in a salty mixture of water and other things. Does blood vibrate? Now that I think about it, bits of it probably do… I been thinking about this whole mad ‘vibrations’ idea – we are biological things that have evolved to have an integral and intimate relationship with our surroundings. These surroundings are in turn connected very fundamentally to all the other things around them (through laws of physics, chemistry, etc.). And, all these things vibrate (atoms, light, brainwaves, heat, wings, hearts, subatomic particles, radio waves, guitars…). Obviously, all these things affect us deeply. If we’re so integrally connected to all these vibrations, I’ll be very surprised if they don’t have a big impact on our musical awareness. I had a realisation the other day that music almost inevitably ends up describing elements of the character of the place it was played at – the spatial elements of it, its colour, texture, size, & purpose; what people were doing in it, and its similarities / contrasts to other places – in other words, its overall emotional atmosphere. So much for self-expression – that’s all surface. Music mirrors our perceptions about anything, completely naturally and normally unconsciously.

What's your favourite band / solo artist?

I don't have one. There's just various musical geniuses here and there that I love and respect. Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake, Scott Weiland (for some weird reasons…), The Cinematic Orchestra, The Libertines, Doves, Mercury Rev.

Maybe it's because you move in different circles, but most other guys cite people like Jaco Pastorius, Stanley Clarke, Victor Wooten and Miles Davis when they're speaking of musical geniuses!!! Can you possibly enlighten us?

I'm over the greats.

No, not really! I love some jazz, and there's good stuff all over the place. I think I might move in my own circle! In any case, I am a bit of a semiotician (if any of you have ever read any Peircian semiotics, you'll know why...), and so I understand some of the basic ways in which music is understood by people - how meaning is established and how people mirror emotions, thoughts, and experiences in music. When you know a bit about how music communicates, everything changes. You suddenly realise how silly (i.e. badly expressed) some artists/styles are, and you have a deeper appreciation of the good stuff. Of course from that point onwards no-one understands your music tastes, and you set out on an increasingly miserable search for good music...

Now I'm looking at Dream Theater, Yes and ELP and wondering………………….?

I think I gotta listen to Dream Theater. I’ve been meaning to for years, and for some reason have never got around to it. But then there’s so many things I’ll never get to do.

What are the amps and instruments you currently use?

I play a Cort Action Bass 5-string. I got it for R1700 and I've never really wanted another one. I use it in the studio and always get a sound I really like. Maybe I'm blessed. Or just weird. Amp-wise I've got a 300W Peavey mono PA system which is superb because it doesn't try too hard. So many bass amps boost certain frequencies, or have bad high-spectrum response. Other amps completely mess up the natural dynamic response of a bass or dissolve notes into piles of low-frequency mud. This one is at its best when it's about to distort. It grinds like a beast and then becomes as pure and clean as a synth as if it was reading your mind.

In a sense, you have a similar set up to me - my back up bass is a 5 stringed Cort (Artisan) and my amp is a Peavy 300W combo - I also enjoy that growl that's just a tad short of distorting (and boy, do I HATE sonic mud!!) - makes you feel alive doesn't it?

Ya. For sure. My PA isn't really meant for bass at all. It's got like 6 inputs, & no compressor or active/passive input switch or anything. It's just a dirty beast.

But if the piece of equipment is giving you exactly what you're asking of it, why change? I know of some muso's that just buy equipment in a haphazard fashion and never really get that sound that they're striving for!!

I hear you. I choose my instruments and equipment very carefully. Right now I’m looking for a bass with that brilliant 60’s/70’s rock sound – controlled, with a prominent attack, a short sustain, and the smoothest grooviest sound ever! Think Donovan, the Moody Blues, and early Magna Carta. Any suggestions?

What instruments would you like to have if money were no object?

A seven-string (high B#, low F), switchable active/passive pickups, low action, closely spaced strings, 24 fret, not-too-rigid neck so you can get a bit retro, with some or other beautiful wooden finish. Or just a double bass.

Sounds like you feel ready to go the 'multi-stringed' route! Ever considered fretless bass guitar?

Yes,.but they normally sound funny. It's not in my soul. Double bass on the other hand... (that's fretless)

What do you mean when you say they sound funny? Are you referring to the unstable low-end on 34" necks or the stratospheric frequencies that actually fall well outside of the 'acceptable' bass range?

No, just that when you slide from note to note it has such a different character to sliding with frets (and I do a lot of that). It reminds me of slide guitar at its cheesiest combined with a total lack of grit. It weirds me out. I like those little semitones.

What have you been doing for the last five years or so?

Playing in Old Mol, running my studio (HFL), planning a revolution, and (more constructively) inventing a whole new genre of music for events where worshipping God is in order.

Of course, you'll find it stimulating but do you find working in the praise and worship team challenging musically?

I really hate praise & worship music. About 99% of it I find appallingly mediocre. When you think of all the amazing Christian music in history, or those Gothic cathedrals where no imperfection was permitted - that took 500 years to build - this praise & worship stuff is just insulting.
Ok, maybe I should qualify that. Evidently there's a lot of sincerity involved, & people do worship God, but everyone seems blinded by slogans like "it's not about the music, it's about your heart for worshipping God." Yes, very well - you can't worship God without that. However, you need to express yourself somehow. People are multifaceted things, and actualising a thought involves doing something. Music is an especially good thing to do because it is possibly the medium best suited to mirroring your emotions and thoughts. So if you need to actualise your thoughts - that is - make them fully meaningful and integrate them into your life - you need to express yourself. If the songs you're singing do a dismal job at that, sorry for you…
At the moment I'm writing a paper on worship music and events, and my thesis is that praise and worship events most often alienate you from yourself. You become numb to what you think, instead of actualising those thoughts. That is an especially bad thing when you're saying something like "I love you Lord", because you can't really mean it - even if you intend to. Your words get bound up in layers of numbness to what is actually going on inside and around you, and what is left is hypocrisy. Sobering stuff.

I've seen you at, at least one S.A.B.P.C. meeting - do you like the concept?

Ya I do. I've been too busy this year, and so I've only come to one, but it was really good to hear some properly skilled musicians talk about their thing…

Yeah, that was a particularly good evening wasn't it? Will we be seeing you at some recital evenings next year?

If possible! I should have more time on my hands, but that could all be wiped away in an instant of brain-dead time management! I’m very keen though.

Martin - Have you visited our website www.bassplayers.co.za yet?

Yes - saw a whole lot of photos and then had to do something else. [my bad] It's a really good resource though.

What recordings that you've played on would you recommend for listening?

Old Mol - Salmonanimosity (check out the lastest SL magazine CD - it's on that)
The Mellerines - I Wish I Knew (unreleased as yet. Look out for the revolution…)

What's been the low point in your career so far?

That would probably be my increasing awareness of the sheer amount of mediocrity there is… everywhere. As Max Weber might have said, 'Bollocks to Capitalism!'

Bring back Mozart!!!

Bring back a non-institutionalised world!!! I know that's a crazy idea, but the more I study Capitalism and modern society where massive bureaucracies run the show, the more I wish they would bugger off and go run someone else's lives.

Power to the people!!!

Well, within limits. The last thing we want is another Socialist black hole. I think the trick would be to put structures in place that ensure that the most beneficial thing to do for yourself is to serve other people. That way, you could turn all that unstable, exploitative capitalism on its head and make people take a personal interest in being un-selfcentred. (At least in action. Whether they do it in their own minds is their problem.) While you’re at it, you could minimalise the need for large bureaucracies that suck the humanity out of all of us. That would be nice.

Of course, I don’t have the slightest idea how to accomplish all this…

And what has been the high point of your career?

The hope of figuring out some kind of remedy.
Becoming no.1 on TUKS FM's SA Chart with 'Missing In Action' (by Old Mol).
Jamming in a worship session, where suddenly a song just emerges, unrecited, and suddenly everyone realises that its atmosphere is a reflection of our collective experience and of just what God feels about it. (no, really)

What do you get up to outside of the musical arena?

I study Philosophy and Anthropology at WITS, I dream about heaven, and I play touch rugby. And badminton.

Now that's interesting!! I thought that if you believed what the Bible is telling us then there's no room for beliefs in the evolution theory? The one doctrine informs us we all came from Adam and Eve and the other says "nonsense - we came from apes"!!!!

Not at all! Don’t believe a word those fundamentalists tell you. Genesis was written in a particular literary form – an Ancient Near Eastern Epic. Moses took the existing stories – mythical tales with no intention of being scientific or even reductionistic – and turned them on their heads when he wrote Genesis. In this light, his intention was to teach us about God’s character, his will, and about the human condition. There is no evidence at all to support the opinion that he was concerned with questions of science.
I think part of the problem with the creationist frame of mind is that they assume the bible must be taken literally, universally. Yes, the bible is true, but you can’t apply passages on Jewish ritual cleanliness, for example, to questions of grace and salvation. Pay attention to context, and all those horrible and rather embarrassing doctrines dissolve.

P.S. It’s possible (and very reasonable, I think) to be an evolutionist who believes God created everything. Being a creationist and believing in God as a creator are two very different things. Science cannot explain its own existence. Have you ever wondered why there is such a thing as Newton’s third law? Or what started the big bang off? Either you argue that something natural caused that, or that something uncaused caused it (i.e. God). If it was something natural, then what cause that? And the next? And the next?
Imagine a link in a chain, hanging in the air. You wonder what’s holding it up. You look and see that there’s another link attached to it, and yet another one attached to the second one, all the way up and up. Now, what would be holding the whole chain up? A ring attached to a ceiling of course! Sooner or later you gotta concede that there’s an uncaused something out there upon which everything depends. God?

What are your goals currently?

To change the world. Ok, maybe slowly. It's not really up to me, though, but I'm keen anyway…

Unfortunately, time's running out fast (if you believe what Revelation tells us). The hurricanes and earthquakes have already started arriving!!!