Gary Willis in a nutshell:
World-renowned leader in contemporary Jazz and Fusion bass playing.
Specialises in: Expressive fretless melodies, 16th note funk grooves and harmonically mind bending bebop solos.
Gear used: Gary Willis Signature Model Ibanez Fretless 5-string, Aguilar Amps and Cabs.
Essential listening:
Solo: No Sweat (1996); Bent (1998)
With Tribal Tech: Illicit (1992); Reality Check (1994)
Website: www.garywillis.com
Lets talk a bit about your history – how you began playing, formative influences, basically, how you got started….
Well… I got a bass when I was 13 and a guitar when I was 15, so I studied and learned a lot more guitar for about 7 or 8 years. For me it was more fully realised music – you know, with melodies and chords, but all of the bands I was playing in already had guitar players and I had experience on the bass. So by the time I was in my 2nd year in college I had to pay back a loan and had a guitar and a bass so…. I sold the guitar, my Les Paul.
Why did you chose the bass – were you more capable as a bassist or was it a role that you enjoyed more?
The main reason I did it was because the bands I was playing in, I would play guitar sometimes and at that point, no matter how well I played the guitar, if the rhythm section wasn’t happening, then I wasn’t happy. I’d play in the same bands on bass and it felt right – the music went where I felt it should, so it told me that’s where my instincts were.
What about formal education – where did you study?
I had a lot of music instruction – improvisation, composition, arranging – the whole thing, but it was always at places where they didn’t have bass teachers.
That was probably a good thing…
In a way, yes – I had to learn all about how music itself was actually constructed, but it let me sort out all of the technique stuff and the application of it on my own.
Were there any particular bass players when you were growing up that really caught you ear and got you inspired?
It had more to do with the music than the playing – you know? There was Rocco Prestia. (Tower of Power) I was digging the stuff he was doing when I had no idea what it was – my ear wasn’t developed enough. I remember someone played me Heavy Weather and it didn’t really do anything for me – the same with Jaco’s solo record – my ear wasn’t ready for it. Within a year though I was playing in a band and I transcribed four Heavy Weather tunes to play, so it was just a matter of where I was in my development.
For me, the list would have, Rocco Prestia, Paul Jackson, Anthony Jackson and Jaco – those were the main four.
You’re living in Europe now – was that for musical reasons or just a change in lifestyle?
It’s kinda both – I lived in LA for eleven years, in Colorado for a few and then Santa Fe, New Mexico for the last five or six. I married my wife about three years ago – she’s from Barcelona, but she came to the US, to live in Santa Fe. The problem was, I wasn’t really doing enough music – there’s not really much of a scene there. I was going out and playing, but it wasn’t anything that I could live off, so when the opportunity came up to move to Barcelona, I took it and it’s enabled me to do a lot more of my own thing musically, which is great.
Over the years, your website has evolved and featured a lot of content – media, gear information, even interactive lessons – how do you feel that the Internet has presented new possibilities for bassists?
I don’t know if it presents new things to do, but it does present new opportunities for people to hear what you’re doing. However – one benefit of record companies that’s going away is that they were able to weed out the stuff that we don’t need to hear – mediocrity, you know?, or worse… And now because everybody has access to the tools and the internet they can create music, there’s just a lot more stuff out there.
Yeah – it’s like there’s no quality control.
The opportunity is there, but it’s diluted the talent pool quite a bit.
Jonas Hellborg called it ‘Musical Pornography’ – guys sitting at home recording whole albums alone in their own studio.
I think it’s much more powerful seeing what can happen in a band situation – that’s always been my goal. I mean you can program stuff, but you always know what’s coming – it’s always the same.
Have you ever done any strange sessions – recording parts and sending them over the Internet for example?
Well, I wouldn’t call it strange, it’s actually quite comfortable, simply because I’m comfortable in improvisational settings – I did the cd recently with Sebastiaan Cornelissen – (Dutch jazz-fusion drummer) his cd had him playing with Lale Larson – they improvised together over these songs, sent me the audio and I did my parts, and it was easy for me to fit in with what they did and still feel like I’m improvising.
When improvising together, things can go in any direction and you can take it there. With the other parts in place, was it not difficult to withstand the urge to be compositional in your soloing?
Well there is that option, but usually what I’ll do if I’m forced in a situation like that, where I can’t have any communication and it’s already fixed, I’ll do one, two or however many full-on takes then listen back and catch a vibe. If it has a vibe, then this establishes a direction for me, as long as it fits with what’s going on.
In the future, are you planning more to focus on recording or getting out and gigging?
Both – I’ve just finished a new cd with Kirk Covington from Tribal Tech and a sax player named Llibert Fortuny, called Slaughterhouse 3 (you can check ‘em out at www.slaughterhouse3.com) The Cd will probably be out in February 2006.
What can we expect to hear on that CD?
It’s kinda nuts, because we just improvised it all in twelve hours in the studio. Llibert plays a lot with sounds and effects and I’m using effects and Kirk is screaming, and a lot of stuff just happens – it’s chaos but at certain points we almost improvised compositions.
It’s an approach we took on the last few Tribal Tech Cds – we found that the less we talked about what we were going to play, the more enjoyable and usually the more musically rewarding it would be. We even tried using that approach live on one tour, but it was too dangerous – if the sound wasn’t good and we couldn’t catch what the others were doing, it didn’t work. When you’re onstage and a jam is bad, it’s the worst feeling ever – it’s painful – you just wish someone would hurry up and end it.
If you had three tips for young players, what would they be?
The biggest problem I’ve experienced in my contact with my students is lack of experience, because with the technology and the tools, it’s possible to develop into a fairly competent instrumentalist but not develop any skills to play with other people. So, the more experience you can get – that’s much more valuable than anything I can tell you. It’s common sense – if you try to get as much experience playing as you can and you search out people to play with who challenge your playing – like you don’t think you’re good enough to play with them but you insist anyway, which is what I did (laughs)
I think that’s irreplaceable and that was what was great about the school that I went to – North Texas State, they didn’t have bass instructors, but they had enough of a programme to attract musicians for ten big bands – and that’s with two bass players in each rhythm section – there was so much going on off-campus, jamming – living rooms, practice rooms, ensembles – that was seventy percent of my education, just that experience.
So much information is available on the Internet, people think they just follow this path and they’re gonna have what it takes. It comes from actually playing with people and that’s hard to organise – it’s not easy.
It’s funny – people who want a system – show up for class, take notes, go home, practice don’t always turn out to be the best players, but the guy who hangs out around the drum practice rooms in the hope of stealing a quick jam with a hot drummer – he usually becomes quite a musician..
Exactly – that’s the main thing and there is no substitute for that. Rule number two would be.. buy my 101 tips for bass book – that also includes a bonus ninety nine other tips…(laughs)
I suppose the other side of the coin is that you need to get out and actually catch some gigs – see people sweating onstage and doing it for real. I noticed a marked difference between seeing you do a clinic with backing tracks and doing a gig.
It’s a completely different experience – you actually get something back from the other guys on the stage, unexpected thing happen – it’s far more exciting. It was a huge problem to me when I was working on my technique (Willis plays with an unorthodox thumb and three-finger technique) – I play through a very loud setup but with a soft touch.
It allows me to get a far wider dynamic range in my playing, but the problem is, when I was on stage and the adrenaline was pumping, the natural urge is to play harder and all my technique would fall apart. You couldn’t possibly know that until you see how a gig works – I had to learn to counteract that natural instinct to play harder. It’s a huge challenge to keep the intensity up but maintain control over your technique and that’s something you’ll never perfect in your bedroom.
