Bass Player

Steve Birkett, Rebecca Downes

Steve Birkett writes the bass parts for the acclaimed blues singer-songwriter Rebecca Downes – and then gets a profession­al to record them. We explore this way of laying down the low lines...

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Rebecca Downes is an unparallel­ed blues singer; Steve Birkett writes her bass parts. How the deuce does it all get done?

Iplayed a bit of bass on Rebecca’s first album, Back To The Start, but we have a different way of doing it now. I demo the entire album with programmed drums and then add bass, guitar and vocal parts. I map it all out and then Rebecca and I thrash it all out between us. After that, we have a quick rehearsal, just to make sure that we know what’s what, with the studio band that we use to record the album.

My brief to the bassist is: ‘Take this and make it better – your playing is better than mine, your timing is better, you can get better tones out of this instrument than I can’. Usually that works. Occasional­ly I ask them to have a second go. Essentiall­y I’m the music director and we recruit great musicians to go ahead and do the job.

Our former bassist, Dan Clark, did a great job on the new album, More Sinner Than Saint. He brought in a Westone Rail bass, with a movable pickup. It looked horrible, but it was perfect for the slightly artificial-sounding bass tone we wanted for one of the songs, in contrast to the natural rounded bass we used elsewhere. He won’t thank me for saying it, though, because he makes beautiful basses for himself and yet it was this horrible thing that we used!

There are three tracks on the album where I put the bass together myself. They worked more or less as I wanted apart from one, where I wanted a synthy dubstep feel with a wobble at the front of the note because the synth has a slower attack. I wanted it to be slightly behind the beat, so to make that happen we remixed the track.

We have a different live band for touring, because it fits better with everyone’s commitment­s. Live, an old mate of mine called Vince Yarrington will be playing bass. He drops in a bit of slap occasional­ly to add dynamics.

Originally I was a singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar, but as my background was in music education I had to be able to play a bit of everything. Bass and guitar became the same for me, as well as drums and keys, and I did play bass in a couple of covers bands.

The bass parts that I like tend to come from the bands that I listened to as a kid. With the Beatles, for example, I noticed that the songs Paul McCartney wrote were often dominated by the bass parts. ‘Penny Lane’ is almost wholly a bass-line, for example, as is the second half of the Sgt Pepper album. James Jamerson recorded amazing parts by moving away from roots and fifths and doing chromatic runs. I love putting on stuff like that. Then there’s Talk Talk, who were one of my favourite Eighties bands. The bass-line in the song ‘It’s My Life’ is pure Motown, even though it’s slightly out of tune!

The essence of my approach is that I try to put as many hooks in as I can, whether it’s vocals, guitar, keys or bass, even if it’s only a couple of notes. I can’t do those things perfectly – but I’ve got people who can do them perfectly for me. More Sinner Than Saint is out now. Info: www.rebeccadow­nes.com.

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