XTC has refused to tour since
1982 (due mostly to frontman Andy Partridge’s
stagefright), but XTC fans – many of whom gather on the
Internet – now have much to celebrate. In addition to Apple
Venus, the band has released a four-CD box set titled Transistor
Blast. Also, XTC and Neville Farmer have written a
colorful and insightful book, Song Stories: The Exclusive
Authorised Story Behind The Music [Hyperion].
There’s been a great
development in your groove, from the punky, on-top-of-the-beat
approach of earlier XTC records to a warmer, more flowing,
laid-back sound.
I think I just learned to play
better. There’s a lot of overplaying on those early
records, especially on my part. I think I play less than I
did all those years ago, and yet it doesn’t sound any
emptier. It just sounds better placed – that’s the
secret. When I was about 22 all I wanted was to be heard, but
you can make it sound fuller by playing less. You’re
just scribbling over somebody else’s song when you’re
playing too much. You’ve got to have self-discipline
about your playing, which I didn’t really have until we
came off the road.
Any examples where you
thought you overplayed?
The first four albums!
Was there a particular role
model for your bass playing?
The bassist for Free, Andy
Fraser, used to play the cheekiest things; that’s
probably what really started me on the road to playing. On
bass you can be cheekier than everybody else, because you’re
supposed to be in the background—and when you do come to
the fore it’s like, "Oh, where did that come from!"
Then you retreat to your former position. I still think
"All Right Now" is one of the best bass lines ever.
He doesn’t even play in the verses; he just comes in for
the choruses and that middle bit, which was a revelation for
me at the time.
What are some of your most
successful bass parts?
I couldn’t really single
out any one track as the best. It’s nicer to say I think
I’ve done me duty on each track. One track might not be
as distinctive a line as another, but if it does the job,
then it’s as good because it’s fulfilled its
purpose.
Are you getting better at
that?
I’d like to think so. I
was bloody awful when I started out, and probably playing so
many gigs made it worse! It wasn’t really until the
early to mid ‘80s before I started getting anywhere near
good.
How do you and Andy work on
the songs he writes?
He plays bass on his demos.
Sometimes there’s no bass, in which case he’s
looking to me to come up with something. Sometimes there’s
half an idea of how the bass should go, and then the
difficult bits he’ll leave blank. But if he comes up
with something he feels is integral to the song, obviously I’ll
play it. It’s nice when you come up with a good line for
somebody else’s song, but it’s not essential. You
can make a song better with a good arrangement—but it’s
the song people are interested in. They have to enjoy the
song; they don’t have to enjoy the bass part. I mean, it’s
a musician’s thing, really, to enjoy bass parts and
stuff.
As an entirely self-taught
musician do you ever regret not having studied formally, so
you could write out string arrangements, for example?
That would be nice to do. I’m
quite pleased with my brass arrangements on "Frivolous
Tonight," although they were done in conjunction with [former
XTC keyboardist/guitarist] Dave Gregory. I’d just sing
the tunes and he’d figure out the notes on piano and
write them in.
Do you know the chord names
when you write a song?
No. I don’t think you
need to know the names of the chords the melody is falling
onto. But you do have to have a melodic ear. The best stuff
is done intuitively anyway. Forget about the technical side
of it; it’s just what you feel. Although I would like to
read the dots—that would be helpful in conveying ideas
to other people.
What is your approach to
working with drummers in the studio?
I’m always the last to do
my stuff. We put everything on, and then I put mine on—so
it’s not that essential who I play with. When their
parts are done I can take away a tape and put my stuff to it.
I certainly love doing the bass later, when I know all the
elements. You can really hone down your part.
What do you think of
yourself as a bass player?
Technically I think I’m
awful. Technology has been fantastic to me. You know, we
insert things here and there and everywhere, chop it up and
fly it in. But that’s all part of it. The palette’s
grown much wider now; you can do all kinds of things so you
can express yourself a lot better. If you do three or four
takes! Okay, if you’re going to record a part for days
on end it will get a bit boring, and you’ll lose the
impetus. The important thing is to keep the spirit up,
because once the spirit’s broken, there’s no way
the song will be great.
Do you have a special
approach to coming with bass lines?
I like to take Andy’s
demo or my demo, put it down to two tracks on my Portastudio,
and play along on the other two tracks. It helps so much if
you can listen to it coming back, as a song.
How conscious are you of
the craft oft process? Do you think, Okay, we’ve had a
busy verse section on the bass, so perhaps in the bridge we’ll
open it up....
Yeah, just like that. You
criticize yourself and simplify the part. Take the essence of
it, but just cut out one or two notes. What’s the least
you can get away with? The least will be the strongest. And
you listen to it coming back several times to see what you
prefer. Don’t listen to it technically - listen to it
emotionally.
You talk about doing the
least amount possible yet many players would just play eighth-note
roots, doing even less but also contributing less.
It’s a feel thing. If the
song requires eight-notes on the root, then it’s what
you’ve got to do. You’ve got to look at it as a
song and say, "That part’s more interesting, but is
it really doing justice to the song? Maybe I can do something
a more interesting in the second verse—but in the first
verse that’s what it’s gotta be."
XTC’s music changed a
lot after you stopped touring in 1982.
When you don’t tour it
opens up your palette, since you don’t need to worry
whether you can reproduce everything live. We can do what we
want in the studio, we can indulge our selves to the hilt—and
I’m afraid we do, as well. We’re in our 40s now,
and the prospect of going onstage and jumping up and down
seems a little undignified.
Does your music’s
increased harmonic sophistication give you more opportunity?
I think it gives me less,
actually. Usually, more complicated the chord, the more it
requires an absolute bass anchor. In those cases you don’t
look to the song’s melodic interest, you look to the
rhythmic interest. For example, something like "That
Wave" [Nonsuch], where it’s got the very
discordant, horrible little chords, I probably thought, Okay—we’ll
have to anchor this down. So you look at what accents you can
play to make the line more interesting. There’s a lot
you can do with octaves and 5ths, believe it or not.
You seem to have the
quintessential bassist personality: mellow, reserved, stable,
pragmatic.
I’m one of the "backroom
boys"—that’s what I enjoy doing. If you write
a song and you sing it, you’ve got to go out there and
deliver, but I always feel as though I’m not really in
my right place. I enjoy being one of life’s backroom
boys.
Well, for starters there’s
no justice in this world. But you don’t need that to
carry on. As you get older, it’s more and more important
that you make music you really love and that gets you off. I
want the record to sell, because we’ve got to pay the
bills and all the rest. But it’s very important that we
please ourselves. If you write for other people you’ll
be hurt; you’re not going to get the acclaim you think
you should. If you please your-self, then if it gets panned
and doesn’t sell at least you’ve got something. I
think Apple Venus is a really good record, and sooner
or later somebody will play it somewhere and appreciate it.
That’s the only thing we can hope for.
Moulding's Holdings
Colin Moulding's current main
base is a 1969 Vox Apollo; producer T-Bone Burnett gave him
the instrument in 1993 during the recording of Sam Philip's
Martinis And Bikinis. "This is the sound I've been
wanting for the last ten years," Moulding reveals.
"It has a real nice bottom end and that '60s click as
well, which I'm fond of. It's McCartney-esque, loves
compression, and really sings. Apple Venus is the
first XTC album we've used it on; I think it's on every track
but two. It needs an amp, because it sounds very flat through
DI." Colin Epiphone Newport, which he bought in '79 for
the Black Sea sessions, shows up on "The Last
Balloon" and "Greenman." "It's an old '60s-type
bass with a damper, which gives it that stringy double-bass
sound. But the intonation's gone on it, so I don't use it
much now."
For recording the Vox bass on Apple
Venus Colin bought a small 140-watt Gallien-Krueger
combo amp, which he augmented with a G-K 4x12 cabinet. "Those
Gallien-Krueger amps are very good because they don't have
that hard, honky sound. It's solid-state but sounds very warm.
Up until this year whgen I bought the G-K, I haven't had an
amp since we came off the road - I've always DI'd."
The instrument Colin used on
most XTC recordings from The Big ExpressI onward was
a Wal Pro Bass. "It has a very barky tone, and it's
quite versatile - but it doesn't go really low, and that's
what I like about a lot of '60s bass sounds. The Wal has a
more modern, active, cutting sound."
Colin has always strung up
with Rotosound Swing Bass 66 roundwounds (.045, .065, .080, .105).
"It's the only make I know, so that's what I get. I don't
change them very often, either. I think at the end of the day
it's what you get used to. I probably started off on them by
accident."
Mayor Of Melody
Although Colin Moulding talks
about playing "as little as possible," his
impressive body of recorded work is full of clever melodic
gems and witty harmonic twists. For those new to his playing,
Nonsuch, Oranges and Lemons and Skylarking
all make for excellent introductions.
1989's Oranges and Lemons,
featuring the single "Mayor of Simpleton,"
showcases Moulding's strong melodic style. His parts'
perfection is enhanced by Paul Fox's crystal-clear production,
which places Colin's Wal bass upfront. "What I enjoy
doing, and what I think I got into on that record more than
on any ohter, is actually playing tunes," says Colin.
"If there's nothing going on with the guitars and you're
looking to some other instrument to fulfill the melodic
purpose, it's good for the bass to play the melodic line. On
'Mayor of Simpleton' the bass is playing a melody. I love tunes."
Colin's main "tune" is shown on Ex 1;
its rhythmic density is relieved by the the sparser root
notes of the section that follows which features a descending
C major scale leading back into the chorus.
"Summer's Cauldron,"
from Skylarking, showcases Colin's knack for
phrasing. His lines weave between Any Partridge's vocal lines
- note the gaps in Ex 2. Subtle syncopation
throughout the song gives Moulding's line added depth and an
understated funkiness, as in the way he rhythmically breaks
up the scalar line in Ex 3.
Pete Murray
