Rising Son
A regular with Son Of Sam, Incognito, Sister Sledge, Gizelle Smith and other funk-heavy acts, Joe Sam catches up
“MANY BANDS PLAYING FUNK THESE DAYS ARE TOO BUSY, WITH MUSICIANS IMPROVISING AND NOT LISTENING”
Different gigs call for different approaches. I love writing bass-lines, creating melodies and sub hooks. I’m a big Paul McCartney fan, because he wrote the perfect bass-lines, and I try to take that approach if I’m in the studio. If you were to ask anyone that has seen me play or played with me, they’d probably say that I’m predominantly groove based and like to dig in. I love rhythm, I like to take control of a groove and drive it forward if that’s what the song requires. My brother John is my favourite drummer, he’s amazing. We formed Son Of Sam in our teens and we’ve been playing together since childhood. Having a drummer for a sibling is any bass player’s dream. We have a deep pocket together. Funk is where I’m most at home.
I’m endorsed by Anaconda Basses and EBS. There’s something special about dealing with independent companies. The attention and care you receive is unlike anything you’ll get from a big corporation. I’ve been very lucky to have worked with Andrew TaylorCummings, he’s a very skilled luthier and his basses are works of art. I love slap bass but I’m old school about it. I prefer Larry Graham to Victor Wooten or Marcus Miller. I’ve learned many different slap techniques over the years. I would watch my favourite bass players and I noticed that they all had different techniques. Compare Flea to Larry, for example – the whole thumb-up or-thumb down thing. I would mimic them to try to figure out the benefits of each technique. I now incorporate them both for different situations. I like to double thumb too, like Prince or Brown Mark.
It’s important to listen. I find many bands playing funk these days are too busy, with musicians improvising and not listening. I’ve been guilty of this myself – it’s easy to get carried away – but there’s a reason why James Brown and the JB’s sounded as good as they did; it’s because everyone was playing their part respectfully as part of a collective, and there was no room for self-indulgence. That’s why I love artists like D’Angelo or Vulfpeck, they know when to stop.
I recently released an album called Cinder Hill with my hip-hop band Son Of Sam. Many of the songs were written as far back as 2002; it’s been a real labour of love. Back in the early noughties we were a live hip-hop band consisting of drums, bass, guitar and keys, playing a mixture of our own beats and classic breaks with various MCs and DJs. We did a couple of shows in Brighton supporting KRS-One and Raekwon from Wu-Tang. We always knew we had written some cool stuff, but it only came together when producer Tom Caruana got us all in a studio for a day in 2008 to record our beats. We added horns, flutes, strings, harps and percussion – all live instruments. I drew from my Paul McCartney and Pino Palladino influences, but I mainly tried to create samples in my head before laying down a bass-line that sounded like them. It’s definitely a fun discipline!