Steve is the kind of person I could assemble a hundred questions for, but these few will have to suffice for now...
TB:Do your songs tell stories?
S.L:Mmm, I think that on the whole, a gig tells a story about how I'm feeling - if I'm having a great day, it's likely to have a fairly up feel, but if things aren't going to well, it can get pretty dark! I guess there's also a sense of wanting to go on a journey - if I am feeling a bit down, the music might be my way of lifting myself, so there are a lot of emotions at work. That's the great thing with most of my gigs being largely improvised. The tracks on the CD often form the basis of a tune, just as the initial loop, but then my state of mind, the audience, the venue and other things come into play and it ends up wherever it ends up.
The only tune on the CD that has a 'proper' story is 'Bittersweet', which was a chord progression I'd be playing with for months but with no real direction. It wasn't until the death of my second cousin, and playing through it with him in mind that it somehow took on a new resonance. When I recorded it, I'd been thinking about his life a lot and I can hear that reflected in the music somewhat. It's not a tangible thing - no-one's going to hear it and go 'ah, that'll be about death then!', but it was important to me at the time to contextualise the relationship between the music and my thoughts.
TB:Do you compose on the bass guitar?
S.L:Totally - even if I think of a melodic idea while I'm on the bus or wherever, I still only really get it together with the instrument in my hands. I've got great respect for musicians who write away from an instrument, but it's just not something that works for me. And besides, the 6 string fretless is still such a new tool for me, that I'm finding out new sounds every day. Often an effect can trigger a tune - there'll be something inherent in the sound that takes it in a certain direction.
TB:Your songs evoke a sense of place as well as emotions; have you ever considered writing/playing movie scores?
S.L:I would LOVE to write a movie score. The nearest I've come to that was working with a contemporary dance group, which was rather abstract and fun, but I'd love to have a go at music for TV or film. I think documentary work would be cool - the subjects often have very definite musical concepts attached to them, so I could explore that...
TB:The songs are very melodic, and deceptively complex……..how do you go about structuring them?
S.L:Mmm, that's a tricky one - it varies from tune to tune, and depends a lot on how much technology is in play at the time. I try to work through the process of getting from one section to another, and trying to get the loops to cross over without the cleverness of it becoming the focus. I hope that when people are listening to the CD or seeing me live, the fact that I'm noodling away on a bass is not foremost in their thinking. I hope that the music and textures take them on a journey beyond the novelty of how I perform. When I'm improvising, the structure is partly a matter of direction - back to the journey thing - and partly directed by technology; if all three of my loop devices are in play, then I've got to get rid of one loop before I can move on somewhere else, if that makes any sense!
TB:During that process, do you consider that you're going to have to perform them live?
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| Lawson at The Troubadour |
S.L:So far none of what I've done has been developed any other way! 90% of the inspiration for the tunes comes from gigging - I find it really hard to practice a whole performance because two thirds of the equation are missing - audience and venue. Without context, I find it really hard to go anywhere. It's like practicing driving in a stationary vehicle - you can get the mechanics of your body movements in order, like changing gear or pushing the break pedal, but you can't interact with the road and other drivers. So the music is never not live. I may at some point do a non-live recording, but at the moment, my whole musical world is live!
TB:And is the writing process fun for you, or is it a chore?
S.L:Oh it's a dream - I love it. I'm still really excited about where my current crop of compositions take me whenever I play them, so I'm miles away from any sense of blockage. If I'm trying to come up with new stuff and it not coming, I just re-explore my current tunes and see where I end up. The writing process is very much a matter of finding musical 'cells' or 'building blocks' that can then be taken elsewhere. It's not the usual compositional process of writing verses and choruses and coming up with big arrangements. The arrangement is often thinking of what order I'm going to change effects in, and then how they sound affects where I go next.
On a slightly deeper and more fundamental level, I think that my Christian faith and my general approach to life influence greatly the overall direction of my music. I gave up worrying about commercial considerations when I realized that for me, music is about expressing God-given creativity. The bottom line is that I've got to be true to where my state of mind takes me. There are loads of other factors that influence the sound, and I don't think there's such a thing as 'pure creativity', but the fact that audience reaction is not my number one concern is down to my faith, and that has an immeasurable effect on what I play. If I was worried about people thinking it was weird, half the effects would go, and I'd start slapping and tapping again at the speed I did at college. At that time, it was about impressing other bassists, and I got really fast, but it had no context, it was without purpose, and although I still use those techniques if the song is going there, there's no slapping or tapping on the CD - it's just not where the music was heading. It's not a mega 'chops' album, it's about music... does that sound pretentious?? [laughs]
The almost Zen spin-off of that, is that when you forget about the audience, it allows you to be truer to yourself, and audiences connect with that on a whole different level - I think the kind of people who listen to my music can spot music that's contrived, and that would put them off. Because I'm playing for myself, there's an authenticity to it that seems to connect with the listeners. I have a lot of respect and appreciation for anyone who takes the time to listen to my music, live or on CD, and I hope their effort is rewarded.
TB:Tell me about the reactions you're getting to the CD……..
S.L:It's been great - I've not yet had any negative feedback, though I can't see many people e-mailing me to say 'got your album, it's crap'! The best part has been that it's not just selling to bassists and people who know me. There are other people who've heard it on the radio or via a friend who have really got into the vibe of what I'm doing, seem to appreciate the live sound, and the 'visual' element that you mentioned earlier. Bassists seem to be into it as well, and I've had quite a few technical emails from people who have no idea how I get certain sounds, of play certain parts, but the bottom line has been the music.
Reviews are just starting to come back in now, and the first one in Bass Frontiers was hugely positive, so I'm really grateful for that. Bass Player have got one coming up, as have New Age Voice magazine... The radio airplay has been a real surprise - quite a few ambient and experimental shows on US college radio have been playing tracks - mainly the last one, 'Pillow Mountain'.
TB:Your website is one of the most impressive I've seen ……..how important is the internet to you in terms of profile and marketing?
S.L:Thanks! The internet is both a business tool for me, and a way of staying in touch with friends all over the world. I'm on a couple of fantastic bass related discussion lists - The Bottom Line, and Churchbass - both of which provide me with a lot of bass related inspiration and have lead to some really good friendships, particularly with the students that have come to study with me via both those lists.
From a CD sales and gigs point of view, the web-site is vital. Everyone wants to 'try before they buy' these days, so the sound clips on the site are there for people to see if they like what I'm doing. I'm glad of that, because I really wouldn't want to sell someone a CD they didn't want. I hope that all the marketing and comments about the album on my site paint an honest picture about the music - there's so much BS around music marketing - such and such is the greatest thing ever, their music takes you to a higher place, or whatever - I don't really think that my music is going to change anyone's life, beyond my own. If it does, then I'm flattered and humbled that it should have that effect, but it's not likely, as there are about three musicians that have ever picked up an instrument that have had that effect on me, so it's probably in global terms a rather elite grouping. I guess the rather left field nature of the music, coupled with the fact that I'm playing solo bass means that I'd struggle to find a recording deal that was satisfactory, which is why I've done it myself. It will probably sell slower than it would with the clout that a record label would have, but I own it, I did everything on it, the artwork is mine and I just love looking at it! I hate it when I buy a great CD that has rubbish packaging - the whole thing should be a work of art, and I think 'And Nothing But The Bass' is really well packaged.
The net has also allowed me to sell all over the world without having to approach shops, which is great. I've sold CDs in about 14 or 15 countries - places where I'd really struggle to get shop distribution.
It's safe to say that without the net, I'd probably have not done a CD.
TB:Are you encountering difficulty convincing venues/promoters of the viability of a solo bass show?
S.L:Yes! It's still a bit odd. I have a few guys who have heard the music, ignored the fact that it's bass and just booked me because they like what I do, but the rest of the time, I do the same with gigs as I did with the CD and organize it myself. I could really do with an agent though, and am open to playing anywhere if people are up for organizing a concert...
Steve Lawson 
