Hi, I'm Mike and I play the bass. I went to Berklee...studied
composition & bass, then did some studying with Charlie Banacos &
Dave Holland after that. Come to think of it, I've been very
fortunate to have had some really good teachers! If you want to see
my formal, 3rd person bio, click here . Moving onward...I pretty much
like anything that creates bottom...low end, and like a lot of bass
dudes would give their right one to sound like Stevie Wonder's Mini-
moog playing, I mean COME ON. Or for that matter, Bootsy on "Since
You've Been Gone"...or Dave Holland in Mile's '69 Quintet...um, Tom
Fowler on Zappa's Roxy & Elsewhere? "Echidna's Arf Of You"? Damn. And
seeing Tony Levin with King Crimson in '81...holy crap. This is the stuff
I have in the back of my mind....somewhere...and if anything good
comes out it's probably due to stealing shamelessly from one of the
people in that list on the left. Either that or the alien that
crawled into me many years ago. Just kidding!
I started playing the sintir (guimbri, hejhouj) in 2001 after my
friend Abderrahim brought one back from Morocco for me. With the help
I got from my band-mate & teacher, Brahim Fribgane, I began a long
journey into exploring this amazing instrument. Mark Sandman, who I
played with a lot in the late 80s and throughout the 90s, turned me
onto the sound of the sintir on Hassan Hakmoun's Gift Of The Gnawa,
and I was a goner. Hassan calls it the "1000 Year Old Bass". It's
heavy, yo. It scares me sometimes when I play it, and it's like some
spirit takes over, but did I mention that I have an alien already
inside of me? So there's that, and besides...I like to be scared!
See, I like Hallowe'en a whole lot, and only mention this because I think
it's pretty evident in my playing that I have a thing for monster
movies, and you know what? I'm really OK with that, thanks. And sci-
fi...I like Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. Ever read Snowcrash by
Neal Stephenson? Blood Music by Greg Bear? Yikes. That sort of thing
is just as influential as the music I like, and don't get me started
on directors, because I get a lot of ideas from people like David
Lynch, Guillermo Del Toro, Kubrick, the Quay Brothers. To be able to
create something as utterly dream-like and simultaneously beautiful
and unspeakably creepy as the Lady Behind The Radiator in
Eraserhead....but you know, on the bass...THAT would not suck.
To that end, I lead a group called Club d'Elf , and most of what I do these days is directed towards
d'Elfian purposes. It's been a real learning experience, I tell you
what. I get to make the kind of crazy sounds in this music that would
get me fired from most gigs, but it makes Uncle Skulky happy and
keeps him out of trouble, and that's all I ask for. I was reading a
lot of Terence McKenna when I
started the band and he had an, um influence.
For a long time I thought I might make my living as a guy who toured
with bands and also did session work, and for most of the 90s that's
what I did. If you want to hear some of the music I played on for a
bunch of different people from a period of about 1991 to more
recently, take a listen to the Session Bass Reels. You'll hear these
fine folks' music: Duke Levine ,
Jonatha Brooke , The Story , Morphine & Mark Sandman , DJ Logic , Jen Trynin ,
Tracy Grammer , Zoux ,
Eugene Ruffolo ,
Catie Curtis , Todd Thibeaud ,
Mighty Sam McLain ,
Erin O'Donnel , Jennifer Kimball ,
Groovelily ,
John McVey , Linda Sharar ,
& Tomo Fujita .
I also put up a track with a new sintir song, and a Club d'Elf track
that is in production. I'll post it on various versions on it's way
through the abattoir. Stay tuned.
