The Jazz Bassist

Jazz warrior Ruth gets percussive

I’ve started playing in a new project called Warmer Than Blood, led by my friend, guitarist Chris Montague. He used to have a band called Troyka that some of you might know, and was also part of Squarepusher’s band Shobaleader One. Chris has written some brilliant new music which was originally designed for a quartet consisting of guitar, drums, piano and electric bass. We did some rehearsals with a couple of drummers, but then practised as a trio without drums. As we were getting our heads round the music, it became obvious that we were arranging the music and developing the band to be drumless.

Suddenly we had so many more dynamics to play with, especially with the acoustic piano. By preparing our instruments to produce the percussive sounds that we were missing we discovered a unique sound as a band. I’ve pushed the gain on my Sansamp pedal so that the sound I’m getting is quite distorted. At the same time I’m using quite a low amp volume, while trying to keep enough bottom end in the sound. Kit Downes, our pianist, has modded his piano with magnets and screws, especially on the low strings, to get some fantastic percussive sounds. Chris has equipped his guitar with paper and crocodile clips.

Because we all play in so many different projects, rehearsals are rare, which is a shame, as it’s crucial to get deeply into fine-tuning a band’s sound. However, we all live very close together, so we've managed to get together frequently to work on the band’s sound by incorporating extended techniques and ensemble playing. We’re embracing the extra space you can get from playing without drums.

Time-keeping is tricky; obviously a drummer would usually be responsible for a lot of that side of things. For me as the bass player, it's been a useful reminder about relying on my own time and trying to be responsible for it within the trio. It’s hard to push in front of the beat if you don’t actually have a beat – try it for yourself, it’s a useful exercise!