So some of you know that I am in my first band, and am fairly new to bass. The band I'm in does some originals and their previous bass player has some seemingly boring basslines for the song. I was wondering if I could get some help writing my own without being too dramatic or screwing them up.

A little background:

The band plays what you could consider punk/metal (don't flame me I'm being general not specific) 2 Guitarists and keyboardist. The songs seem easy, which is good for me a beginner, but I want to do something better than average. The previous bass player just played the root with variations in beats. I guess if anyone is interested in helping specifically I could send them a pm with the band website with one of the songs on there, I guess I don't want word getting out that I'm asking for help here, in case they happen upon it, might be a little embarrassing :(

Is it normal to just play the 8th note root etc. over chords in metal? Should I even be looking to be more creative? Thanks for any help, sorry if I'm a bit vague.

PM me... I am curious... I may be able to offer you some help. Can you give me a feel for what sort of bass players you think you emulate the most? Not who you love the most, but if you were backed into a corner, gun to head and forced to claim one or two bass players as best describing your current sound, who would they be?

Listen to Frank from Anthrax. Beat on the root, but after a few bars throw a quick walk up the neck and back to the root. There are alot of variables one of the most important is having a good drummer you can lock into. Just my $0.02, YMMV.

In the band setting I'm in now, I think I most emulate Flea and Jeff Ament, just because those are the styles I've been playing the most of at home. So to sum it up, I would say that I like the octave shifting of Flea and the Root - 5th walks that Jeff does a lot of. I like a blues, funk, reggae style I guess you could say. Pumping 8ths doesn't seem like my cup of tea.