Interview With Bassist Barry Adamson: Bass Gear, Nick Cave, Bass Lines, and More…

Photo provided by Barry Adamson, courtesy of Photographer Idil Sukan

Barry Adamson is an English bass player who came to prominence as a member of the band Magazine. He worked with Visage, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Jarvis Cocker, and with some of the film industry’s coolest directors, including Derek Jarman (The Last of England), David Lynch (The Lost Highway), Oliver Stone (Natural Born Killers), and Danny Boyle (The Beach).

KB: Did you always want to be a musician growing up? 

There seemed to be no other choice! I had such strong musical tendencies from an early age and a mind that was (and still is) hyperactive and curious. I was crazy about every rock n roll record I heard on the radio and then later, the Motown sounds booming out from my sister’s bedroom.  Music seemed to speak to me in a language that I instinctively understood, and so I needed to get with it in some way. 

KB: Why did you pick the bass? What is so special about this instrument? 

I had my eye (like a lot of teens) on becoming the next Jimi Hendrix, playing guitar and being able to live out my fascination with rock and soul, and at 13, I also realised that I didn’t ’have it!’ I was quietly devastated until a friend handed me a bass, and it was like being given a key to a lock and being able to articulate the language that I wanted to speak. Two days later, I went for an audition with the band Magazine and got the job.

KB: What kind of bass are you playing (make/brand) and what equipment do you use? 

I have a white Fender Jaguar, a sunburst Squire Precision, a black ‘Beatles’ Hofner, and a sunburst Ovation Magnum. I use an Ampeg head and speakers (currently a Portaflex for smaller gigs and recording). I also have an upright acoustic bass that I jump on now and again to call up those jazz vibes. 

KB: How did you meet Nick Cave, and how was it working with him? What is your fondest memory? 

I met Nick through a family member of his whilst touring Australia in 1980, I guess. The Birthday Party (his band at the time) came to England, and I thought they (like the band ‘The Pop Group’) were the coolest thing around and really set to shake up the scene at the time. I was fortunate in that their bass player, the most wonderful Tracy Pew, didn’t make their next trip over, so I was a stand-in for a few shows and started to hang out with those guys, then rekindled the time spent with them when Nick went solo, becoming the Bad Seeds. There was a four-piece version with Nick, myself, Blixa Bargeld, and Mick Harvey that just spewed greatness whenever and wherever we played, and I remember those times so fondly. 

KB: Why is the bass the most important instrument in a song? 

Bass is the place! It is the soul and the rock and roll! The punch and the melody were needed. The heartbeat of the song. The anchor point that everything in the song leans on.

KB: Duff McKagan and Billy Gould said they are both influenced by you. What is your reaction, and how does that make you feel? 

Well, that’s an honour to be cast amongst such fine company. I feel a sense of comradeship with those guys, as we probably all share something; I guess we are kindred spirits through a particular love of bass.  

KB: The 7 best bass lines in any songs: What would you pick and why? 

So many !! I’ll go with these, though. 

“If You Want Me To Stay (Sly and the Family Stone) 

Rusty Allen embodies all things Sly Stone and Larry Graham and then holds his own, which is no mean feat. He pulls us into the world of the family stone, then skips around while holding it down. I never tire of hearing this. Groove, melody, unexpected detours, he has it all in those fingers and thumb. 

“Blue Turk” (Alice Cooper) 
Dennis Dunaway cranks up the sleaze on this dirty jazz number, all the while still staying as rocky as hell. Major influence, this one. Check out his playing on the ‘School’s Out’ album. Sublimely off-kilter and killer. 

“Love Hangover”  (Diana Ross) Henry E. Davis pulls at the notes and slides around like a drunk in the first half of the song before laying down some of the coolest and coldest lines ever! The exchanges with the keyboard player are obscenely insane. So great.

“Bernadette” (The Four Tops)
The phenomenal James Jamerson does not hold back for one second here. I mean, total genius. He writes the melody and the soul and the rhythm in every note and never stops giving. It’s almost too much to listen to as his playing on this song is just so out there and wonderfully amazing!! Double stops and dead notes, and melodic phrases all at the same time, all executed with one finger! 

“Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself Again” (Sly and the Family Stone) 
There is a whole bunch of Larry Graham bass lines to pick from, including the slower version of this song, ‘Thank you for talking to me, Africa.’ He is the quintessential influence on any soul bass line since the late sixties; Prince et al. Also. The song, ‘Dance to the Music,’ with its bass fuzz tone, feels revolutionary and slips nicely into adding a rock sound to his playing.

“Sex Machine” (James Brown) 
So Bootsie Collins was 17 years old when he played on this song! That in itself blows my mind. It was one of the coolest things I heard when I was about that age, and it has this amazing, simple but extremely complicated repeating structure which requires incredible concentration to both listen and play, but the result sounds so, so great.

“Good Vibrations” (The Beach Boys)
Carol Kaye played on this classic mind-expanding arrangement and starts off playing high up on the neck with a catchy melody before dropping into a swinging groove. A solid member of the LA studio musicians ‘The Wrecking Crew,’ I think this is such an important bass line historically and musically. The part she plays is just so fantastic, and she absolutely kills it.

KB: What are you currently up to? 

Writing songs and thumpin’ the old bass!! It’s been a while, so I’m getting reacquainted with the absolute joy of being a bass man once again! 

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