copertina di bassplayer di marzo
Ex-Racer Juan Alderete Electrifies The Mars Volta
Back on TrackMarch 2005
'We face the complete unknown every time we play", grins Juan Alderete of prog-rock psycho-poets the Mars Volta. "Whether it's rehearsal or a show, we just never know what's going to happen when we look at each other and say, 'let's go!'" Many accomplished players would cower in the face of such uncertainty. "I love it," shrugs the 41-year-old. "it's made me a better player."
Alderete practically defined high-octane shred bass in the ’80s as a member of Racer X, perhaps the most technically adept metal band ever. (“Take another listen to ‘Scarified’ from Fret Board Frenzy,” Juan nods. “It’s still pretty impressive.”) But Racer X ran out of gas, as even Musicians Institute-trained metalheads fell victim to big-hair music’s implosion. Alderete didn’t, though, and he spent the better part of the ’90s pushing the bass envelope from within a wide variety of rock styles. He taught at MI and released an instructional video, and he anchored the experimental twin-fretless attack of Big Sir, along with Rage Against The Machine’s Tim Commerford. He also contributed to the holy racket of Distortion Felix and bluesy hard-rock band the Scream.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (El Paso, Texas, to be exact), the ’90s underground hardcore band At The Drive-In was rolling the credits on its final show. Frontman Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and guitarist Cedric Bixler Zavala headed for Los Angeles, intent on creating something that would combine their shared punk roots, Omar’s operatic compositions, and a mutual need to flat-out rock the house. The result: the grandiose, poetic, MC5-meets-The Wall fury of the Mars Volta. The band started turning heads for real with 2003’s disturbing
De-Loused in the Comatorium, which features a guest bass appearance by Flea. But the formula wasn’t complete until Alderete joined in ’04, in time to create the group’s latest CD, Frances the Mute.
These days, the Mars Volta is shaking foundations and confounding listeners just about everywhere—currently, from Tokyo to Amsterdam and beyond. But wait a minute—how many of today’s sinister thrashers chill out to Eddie Palmieri and Fela Kuti before each show?
What did you think when you were first approached to play Mars Volta’s amazing music?
[Laughs.] Over the years, I’ve been asked to play a lot of bass lines, and it’s amazing how often I’m asked to play something I think is going to be impossible to play. Sometimes I really have to work at it, but I eventually get it. I sit with a metronome and slow things down a lot; that’s often the only way you can really analyze your fingering. In the end, though, the work is worth it, and I’ve been able to contribute to some great tracks.
How many of the bass parts on Frances the Mute did you write?
I work out certain structured things, like lines that are going to be looped, in advance with Omar. My role is then to interpret those parts as I see fit, to give them what I feel they need. For some parts, though, he actually let me write the bass lines. Of course, anything that’s improvised is straight from me.
“The Widow” is a good example of this combination. I had worked out some ideas, but then when we went to record, Omar said things like, “Make that part go up an octave.” It’s a great way to work for us, because Omar used to be a bass player, so he understands the instrument’s fundamentals. Very rarely does he throw something at me that makes me say, “Uh, that’s just something I wouldn’t do.” We rarely disagree; we’re really on the same page when it comes to bass.
Even if Omar is the leader, there’s still an awful lot of collaborating going on within this music.
No doubt. Omar is definitely the composer, but everybody has a strong influence on the outcome. For example, our drummer, Jon Theodore, has a huge impact on the way the Mars Volta sounds, just because of everything he brings to the band. His father is from Haiti, so Jon went there and studied the music, which was a part of him already. He also brings a strong jazz background. Omar and Cedric, on the other hand, listen to everything. I’ve never been in a band with guys who have such a deep understanding of musical styles; usually I’m the variety dude in the group, but these guys listen to music I’ve never heard before. So I’m being exposed to all sorts of stuff. Omar and Cedric are huge dub fans, and Jon has introduced me to all sorts of music from the Haiti area—plus he’s really into avant-jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock. And Neil Young—I just never got him until Jon played me the right cuts, in the right environment, and it was like a lightbulb going on. All of this intense listening has accelerated my musical development. It’s allowed me to skip past a lot of the weeding-out that’s involved in discovering good music.
How did they describe the Mars Volta’s music to you when you first met?
They never did! I had heard of the band, and I was a supporter—mostly because, growing up Latino, you want to believe there is a band that can say something for you that other bands can’t. Rage Against The Machine had a similar effect. Manny, Distortion Felix’s guitar player, told Cedric I was perfect for them. It was a great fit; they weren’t looking for some modern cat who plays with active pickups and all that. In fact, when Flea played bass on the De-Loused record, they made him play a Fender bass. He came down with all his gear, and they just said, “Man, can you please play this?”
What was the audition process like?
I had been working as a radio producer when Omar called me from the tour in Europe and asked me to pick up a CD. I did, and I thought, Wow—this is like punk rock meets Frank Zappa! I knew it would be another musical challenge, and I wondered if I could pull it off, but my wife said, “Take time off work and do nothing but focus on this music until you get it.” So I worked on those songs every day, and my friend Troy, the drummer from Big Sir, helped me with the odd-meter stuff.
Eventually I auditioned, but they gave me no sign of whether I was cutting it or not. But they said I could leave my gear for the next day. On the second day, I didn’t think I played that well. We jammed some more on the third day, but I was having trouble with this crazy drum break in “Roulette Dares” from the first record. I just couldn’t hear what I was supposed to be doing, so I told Omar, “I don’t know why I’m not getting it, but I’ll really work on it,” and he said, “You’d better get it down, because we have a show on Thursday.”
Have things gotten any clearer now that you’re actually in the band?
Not really [laughs], but that’s a good thing. You just never know what’s going to happen with these guys when we play. It’s always chaos at the outset, but it somehow comes together every night. Something will break, and you never know how you’re going to recover musically—or even if you can recover. There have been shows where I was blank, just not knowing what the others were doing. But when you pull yourself out of it, when you start to make the music happen again, there’s nothing like it. I’ve never been in a band where, when we get through certain passages or sections, I find myself thinking, I can’t believe we just pulled that off! And people in the audience can’t believe it either.
Especially during slower passages, you rarely play a note straight. You almost always articulate it somehow.
Articulation is the right word for it. I really didn’t learn that until I started to play funk, after I got through my metal years. Metal is more about force and power, but when I started playing funk, I immediately threw on the flatwounds and tried to play like George Porter Jr. and Rocco Prestia. I started going for that muted, powerful left-hand approach—and once you start listening for it, you start to understand why you don’t sound like those guys. It’s all about the left hand.
The day I decided to tackle fretless was key, as well. I was living in Venice Beach, and the only friend I knew in the area was Timmy from Rage Against The Machine. One day I just decided I’d learn fretless, so I worked at it for a year and a half. Timmy was taking upright lessons, and he told me to check my intonation against open strings; that’s exactly how I got my intonation down. The left-hand articulation came from that. Fretless demands good articulation; it’s all about finger pressure, sliding, and all the subtle things you can do to a note.
Did you feel connected to the fretless right away, or did it take time to get comfortable?
It was a lot of work for sure, but once I became comfortable with the fretless, I thought I’d never play fretted bass again. Note-wise I have a less-is-more approach on fretless, but I do think I’m a lot more musical on fretless. It changes my perspective just enough, and I find myself not wanting to cut off any notes, but instead wanting to let them do their thing—to really sing out. So fretless slows me down and gives me time to think about what I want to do musically. When I play fretted, I’m going for definition over articulation, with the recording levels spot-on and all that. But with fretless, I’m going for fluidity and musicality, and those things come together in ways they just don’t on fretted.
Lots of players spend their energy trying to make the fretless sound fretted, and vice versa.
There are important differences, and you might as well take advantage of them. I feel comfortable with my fretless playing, because when I hear it, it sounds the way I want it to. But you can hear it when someone just isn’t comfortable with fretless, when they don’t sound connected to the instrument.
When did you realize you had found your voice on the fretless?
When Timmy and I played fretless together in Big Sir, and I was responsible for coming up with a lot of the bass lines. It forced me to see the fretless as a lead instrument, as a real voice in the band. Plus, Timmy hated it when I’d use fast vibrato; it drove him nuts. So I had to get comfortable with a slower, more musical vibrato. That got me past thinking of fretless as just a bass without frets, and it made me hear it as simply the bass instrument in the band. Big Sir ended up sounding quite musical, not just like two guys playing fretless bass.
Mario Caldato Jr., who produces the Beastie Boys’ records, calls me for sessions sometimes. Once I broke out the fretless, and the songwriter was like, “Oh, no, I don’t want that.” But Mario said, “This dude doesn’t play fretless the way you think he’s gonna play fretless.” After the session, the songwriter said, “If it had sounded any more like fretless, I would have said no. But it was just enough.” That’s what I strive for: I just want a little more articulation and musical freedom than I have with a fretted bass.
Regardless of the instrument, you’re asked to cover a variety of styles with the Mars Volta, from super-distorted rock to Latin grooves. How do you avoid falling into clichéd lines?
You can’t pull off a style unless you’ve actually spent time with the music, outside of rehearsal. Like on “Facilis Descenus Averni,” I played the heavy part with a pick, which I don’t usually do with the Mars Volta. But I played with a pick and heavy distortion for three years with Distortion Felix, so it wasn’t like I was just trying something new. Because of this experience, I feel comfortable with my distorted tone and my pick playing when the music demands it. As for the Latin feels, c’mon—I’m Latino! I’ve heard that music my entire life. I’m not saying I can pull off any clave rhythm out there; I can’t. But I can definitely feel those grooves, and they may come easier to me than to someone who didn’t grow up surrounded by that music.
If Omar came up with some intense jazz changes and he wanted me to walk through them, you’d hear that I’m not good at it [laughs]—because as much as I love jazz, I haven’t dedicated the time to playing over “Giant Steps.” I’m fine with jazz jams over static chords, but if it’s a composition with lots of changes and things are really moving along, maybe you should just call John Patitucci!
One jazz player in particular, though, is very important to you.
It’s true. Every time I pick up the instrument, I’m thinking of Jaco, more than any other bass player. I’ve always believed that even though a lot of dudes play fretless and claim to be influenced by Jaco, many miss a key element to his playing: He played R&B and funk for years, in clubs, every night. So when Jaco played jazz or anything else, he still had an undeniable R&B feel. I hear lots of great fretless players who just don’t have that feel—there’s no groove. Jaco just happened to be great at many things, but lots of guys focus on only one or two aspects and never learn how important that R&B/funk feel is. His lyrical fretless playing was amazing, but then you hear him rock some James Brown song, and you realize it’s insane how thick his groove is. Listen to “Chromatic Fantasy” off his second record, Word of Mouth. Many guys have covered that song, but it never sounds as good. That’s because of his feel, the way he sat with the groove.
Who else did you listen to for inspiration?
John Paul Jones, for sure. James Jamerson, absolutely. And Steve Evans. He plays with slide guitarist Roy Rogers, and he produced several of John Lee Hooker’s records. I took lessons from him for years. He really pushed me in all the right ways. He’s a sick, sick bass player, he’s heavy into Delta blues, and he’s in the clubs every night. And there’s Paul Farnen, an instructor from my Musicians Institute days. He’s one of those guys who can listen to anything and completely break it down. Coltrane? No problem. All these guys made me a better bass player.
How did you track your parts for Frances the Mute?
I recorded my parts in two stages. We stayed in Australia after our tour ended, so we went ahead and recorded lots of Jon’s drums there. I did some bass lines then, including the improvised 30-minute jam at the end of the album. We weren’t really recording for the record; it was more like we were just getting our headphones set up. But we ended up jamming for a half-hour, with me on fretless. It was just my live setup: a ’71 Ampeg SVT and a great-sounding Ampeg 8x10 cabinet with some special speakers I got from Timmy. The bass was my stock fretless ’71 Precision with an added J pickup. Most of my bass overdubs came later, and for those I used my Acoustic 360, the same Ampeg rig, and an Ampeg B-15 flip-top. There was a direct line as well, but it was mostly the amps. On the first cut, I played a ’75 Fender Jazz. I also played my ’73 P-Bass and my fretless Precision, and I have a fretless ’78 P-Bass, too. I like the P-Bass for fretless, because it sounds more like an upright. All of my P-Basses have J pickups, too, but I like the Precision setup more. If I need to do something fast, I kick on that rear J pickup—especially if I’m using effects, because J pickups react better with distortion—but for the meat of the song, I prefer the P pickup.
I know you’re serious about distortion. What’s your favorite distortion effect?
My Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro Synth. It really kicks that Jazz pickup into overdrive.
You obviously have a real affinity for those old Fenders.
Yeah—unfortunately, because all my basses weigh a ton, and I’m not a big dude! I strongly believe, though, that the heavier the Precision or Jazz Bass, the better it sounds and the more definition it has. Maple necks tend to have a little more sharpness, too. But after a two-hour set, I’m hurting. I just can’t hold those instruments for two hours like I used to. The baseball-bat necks on my P-Basses are another challenge, but they sure sound great. I’m going to try a P-Bass with a Jazz neck and see if that helps. If it didn’t look so goofy, I’d just sit down and play one of those heavy basses all night, but I don’t know if the kids would be into that.
Have you come to terms with your years as an avowed shredder, what you call your “metal years”?
Well, I’m still double-jointed—just like Jaco—so I can still fly [laughs]. Seriously, my time in Racer X was really important, and probably a big reason I got this gig. Just being able to play all that fast, complicated stuff is valuable, and we play everything much faster live than it is on the record. And while the Mars Volta is very different musically, if you can’t play and think fast, you just won’t be able to keep up with this band—even if we aren’t playing fast at the moment.
STRUMENTAZIONE(da intervista su bassplayer.com marzo 2005)
CITAZIONE
BASSES
I own several basses and all of them are passive. Here’s what I actually used on the Mars Volta record and live: Fretless 1971 Fender Precision (at center). There’s a clear-coat finish on the rosewood fretboard à la Jaco’s boat-epoxy finish. The stock bridge was replaced with a late ’70s Stars Guitars bridge, and the stock tuners include a Hipshot D-tuner. It has an ash body and weighs around 12 or 13 pounds. This is the fretless heard on Francis The Mute. The Precision pickup is stock but the bass also has a Bartolini Jazz pickup, a 3-way pickup selector, and vol./vol./tone knobs. I use the selector to cut like a DJ. It’s something I picked up from Invisible Skratch Picklz when I was with Kool Keith’s Dr. Octagon band. Basically I’ll kick on tons of distortion using the Micro Synth, the Fuzz, or both, then roll off the front pickup, and use the switch to cut up the sound. 1973 Fender Precision Bass with maple neck, strung with Ernie Ball flatwounds (at left). All stock except for a Gotoh replacement bridge. It has an ash body and weighs 13 or 14 pounds. 1977 Fender Jazz Bass with a maple neck (at right). All stock except for a Gotoh replacement bridge. It has an ash body and weighs around 14 or 15 pounds. Fender American Series Precision Bass with a Jazz neck, maple fingerboard, and Hipshot D-Tuner. I loaded this bass with ’73 pickups and a Fender S-1 volume pot switch. 1986 Fender Jazz Bass with a rosewood fingerboard. It’s loaded with Bartolini pickups, a Gotoh bridge, and Hipshot tuners with D-tuner. I used this on all the Racer X records. I use standard-gauge Ernie Ball Regular Slinky strings and orange Dunlop Tortex picks. Eric’s Guitar in Van Nuys, CA and Alex Perez at the Fender Custom Shop do all the work on my basses. They’re are as valuable to me as any piece of gear. They keep me sounding as good as I can.
CITAZIONE
AMPS
1971 Ampeg SVT Amplifier (on the left). I have to keep it maintained or it won’t last on the road. For maintenance, I take it to Diemer Electronics in Sherman Oaks, California, every six months. I usually pair it with my early ’90s SVT cabinet, which I upgraded with higher-wattage speakers. That cab has the biggest low end and definition. I used it on the record as well as on tour. Mid-’70s Ampeg SVT Amplifier (center). This is Omar’s head; I use it in my live stereo setup, usually with my mid-’70s SVT cabinet. This cabinet has a sharper/brighter sound because it’s made from plywood and not pressed wood, like the modern cabinets. They both sound great, but different. Early ’70s Acoustic 360 preamp and folded 18" cabinet (right). This is the Jaco rig. John Paul Jones and Larry Graham rocked them too. I love it, and so do most of the producers and engineers I’ve worked with. There is nothing like cranking up the fuzz all the way and turning on the onboard tuner to make crazy theremin-like sounds.
CITAZIONE
EFFECTS
I own a lot of pedals, but here’s a rundown of the live setup: MXR DC Brick (1 and 13). It is a convenient way to power up most of my pedals. '70s Electro Harmonix Bass Micro Synthesizer(2). The craziest of all pedals. Its unpredictability opens up new ideas when creating sound landscapes. Two DigiTech Digital Whammy pedals (3 and 4). Whenever I want to kick up the bass an octave, I go for this pedal. Also, the Doppler-effect sounds are nice in a jam section. The second pedal is set to a whole step pitch shift. They track accurately and are reliable. Moogerfooger Ring Modulator with expression pedal (5). It is invaluable to me when dropping weird, low-end rumbles. Think early ’70s synthesizer sounds.
DigiTech Digital Delay (6). This one sounds amazing, when you kick it off, the pedal continues its effect. It’s a great feature when you want to go to another pedal but don’t want your signal to cut off hard. Boss LS-2 Line Selectors (7). I use these when I want to take an effect out of the main line because of weird output-level issues. I use one on the Bass Micro Synthesizer, the Mutron, and the Moogerfooger—these pedals are really loud and dirty, and the line selectors let me keep my signal to my amp as clean and uncompressed as possible. Fulltone Fuzz (8). A unique fuzz that reacts well when you play lightly, but cuts your head off when approached differently. ’70s Mu-Tron III envelope filter (9). The most over-the-top envelope filter ever made. Sovtek Fuzz, second issue (10). This is my favorite fuzz of all. It has great low end and definition. MXR Phase 100 (11). Good for mellow bass parts. It has that ’70s spaced out sound. DigiTech Bass Synth Wah (12). I use this when I want huge envelopes that sound like the beginning of Rush’s “Tom Sawyer.” Early Boss PN-2 Tremolo/Pan pedal (14). I use it to give the effect of turntable transforming. It cuts really hard and when I use it in stereo, it makes me dizzy. Boss TU-2 Chromatic Tuner (15). Got to be in tune all night long. Two Boss CS-2 Compressor/Sustainers (16 and 18). They’re on most of the set. It gives me a little distortion and compression simultaneously and really brings out the open-string harmonics. Dunlop Bass Wah (17). This wah’s envelope far exceeds any guitar wah. I love opening up the envelope because it freaks out the other pedals. Boss OC-2 Octave pedal (19). Another pedal whose inconsistencies are part of its charm. I use this when I need to drop more low end into the mix. Boss DD-3 Digital Delay (20). An industry standard. I picked this up because Omar said to me, “you can never have enough delays.” He was right, so now I am checking out tape and analog delays. Line 6 DL-4 Digital Delay with expression pedal (21). Arguably the best delay out there, and certainly the most versatile. I love the sampling feature where you can drop a sample an octave lower. Ernie Ball Volume pedal (not pictured). It’s nice to have your distortions going crazy but you can fade them out with this pedal.
As far as the signal chain order, it’s a constant experiment. In the end, all of my pedals are crazy. I am not one to go for subtle pedals. When I step on something, it has to be heard and felt hard or it will never get through the wall of sound coming from the stage.
