Marcus Miller

Marcus Miller Interview (05/07/05)

I’ve been noticing that some of the larger studios in America are closing down and the recording industry is becoming decentralised – as someone who grew up playing in those studios, do you think this is healthy?
It’s kind of like a fire in the forest – you know? After a while you need a bit of that to get rid of all the people who aren’t really serious. Right now you have to be really, really serious about it, because it’s not easy any more.
Because the technology for making recorded music is more accessible a lot of the big studios are in trouble man – you don’t really need ‘em. Now you’re even able to mix in software, so it’s making it tough for studios. Some of the big ones are still around, like if you want to do an orchestra or something like that, but it’s the middle sized ones that were there for rhythm section bands – they’re having a tough time.

Do you think that it’s starting to take away the element of human interaction within recording of music?
I think it’s just a reflection of life – music doesn’t exist by itself. It’s just reflecting what people are doing – at the minute we have a lot of people sitting at home on their computers not interacting with society.

It’s strange though – all of this technology and information is more accessible than it’s ever been; yet it doesn’t seem to be producing better players…
It might take a while. Do you remember when the drum machines first came about – how horrible music sounded for a while? Until people got comfortable with the technology – I really think that’s what’s goin’ on now – we just have to get comfortable with the technology and realise that it’s really still about human interaction – that’s always gonna be important. Right now we’re in this little period where, because people can work alone, they are working alone. Once people get comfortable with the technology we’ll start to realize we need to interact with each other – that makes the best music.

How do you feel the Internet is changing the music industry?
You know what’s nice about the Internet? Before, when you performed, if you wanted any kind of feedback you had to wait till a review came out and the review was always some critic who was more trying to show you who he was than tell people about the music. Right now if I went on the Internet I could see people who were just at this gig, telling me what was happening for them and that’s cool because it’s honest and I get it straight away.

Historically, a lot of the great jazz bassists worked not only as players, but also as educators – is that something you’ve ever got involved with?
I’m just starting to do clinics and really feel comfortable doing it, so it’s a road I might go down, but right now, I’m just concentrating on doing my thing as a player.
Were there any specific ‘light bulb moments’ where you made great leaps either as a musician or gained some essential perspective on the bassist career ladder?
I wouldn’t say there have been any ‘light bulb moments’, except for really early on – hearing the first Larry Graham record, the first Jaco record, the first Stanley Clarke record – I remember those – seeing the Jackson Five for the first time.
After that it was all really steady, slow growth although looking back at it, my first year I met a lot of people from picking up the bass to turning professional in three years, from 13 to 16 I must have been playing that thing all day long. That made it a very natural, easy progression – although I think I was always better in my head than I was actually playing – I imagined good things. (Laughs all round)

As a player who has established himself among the bass community as a definitive voice and as an unquestionable master of his instrument, where do you still find challenges?
I don’t think about the bass –it’s really more about music and finding opportunities in music – the bass is just what you use to get it out. I think that’s a mistake a lot of people make – they start focusing on their instrument and the physicality of the instrument. I mean, you do have to get your technique together so you can play the things you imagine, but the real thing is about your imagination.

When did you start playing horns?

At 10 years old I started on the clarinet – before I even picked up a bass. But man I played that bass and within three years I was gigging and it was way different from the clarinet.

I’m sure that helped you develop as a melodic player – a lot of bass parts today are more rhythmic than melodic.
I tell most bass players – learn the piano so that you know what’s going on above you and harmonically you can relate. If you know how deal with it, you can alter your bass parts to make them work with the music. I play everything, so for me, I can borrow a lot of information from different instruments – Herbie licks from the piano, saxophone – Sonny Rollins was my man and ‘Trane and Cannonball and the singers – Stevie and Luther and Marvin Gaye, I listen to them and make sure I can phrase that way.

Phrasing seems to be a lost art for a lot of young players today – they get too caught up in technique, string gauge and setup like that’s the secret of great playing.
For men, there’s two levels of musicianship. The first level is very much a sport – even in high school we used to stand on stage and duel each other and it was sport. It was good though, because it honed your skills and it made you get your technique up, but you have to graduate.
If you don’t make it out of that, it makes you a certain kind of musician. But the guys who make it out of that, like Herbie Hancock – they’ve got all the technique in the world, but it’s really not about that, it’s really about using the technique to say something and a lot of guys never really make it up to that level. Everything they do, you can feel it’s about the physicality of playing an instrument.
If you were a carpenter, you could bring in your toolbox and empty it out on the floor and say ‘look at my tools man, nice, huh?’ gold plated tools, right? You might think that’s cool, but you would see the other guy say ‘Look at the house I just built,’ and you don’t even care about his tools!
I think that’s really most important, and if you look at the tools and realise – yeah, you got some nice tools too, it just adds to it. You enjoy seeing him build the house up, but there has to be a house at the end.

With that athletic approach lots of guys wind up injured – when you aren’t playing the bass, do you have any specific things you do to stay in shape for when you play?
I exercise a lot anyway, but I don’t know if any of it specifically helps with that.  I do a lot of work on my shoulders – when I do my thumb stuff, I know my shoulders are doing a lot of work and I feel it – especially on the first gig of a tour.

Yeah – there’s home fit and there’s gig fit.

Right – the most important thing is keeping yourself balanced. If you only develop one thing it will throw everything else off, so you really have to work hard at keeping things in balance. A few years ago I wound up with carpal tunnel syndrome and I saw a great guy in LA called Doctor Gordon who had worked with Billy Sheehan, and he really helped me.

These days I try to play more with straighter wrists and bend from the elbow – I’ve even had chiropractors watch me play and one told me I had to get my side obliques together. I was like ‘Side obliques! What has that got to do with playin the bass?’ But I really respected her, so I talked a lot and then went and worked my side obliques. I knew when I got my stomach together all of a sudden it made my playing different – I got more centred.

Over the years, have there been any bass players you’ve spotted that people are generally unaware of and should be getting more recognition?

There was a Brazilian guy – I can’t remember his name…. who played for Milton Nacimiento he died about 10 years ago – he was a great bassist, and he played some great solos. Also, Paul Jackson with the Headhunters and Pops Popwell with the Crusaders and Prince – these guys don’t get enough.

Your current band line-up has been together for a while. When you’re auditioning musicians, what sort of things do you look for in a player?

I look for style, you know? That they can make you take notice in a couple of notes. Like we played with Kirk Whalum and in two notes people were like (drops jaw) He hadn’t played in Japan for fifteen years so when we played there, a lot of people were experiencing that for the first time – people were really into it – he had so much spirit in what he played, and you could just tell.
I remember once a lady paid me a great compliment – my daughter is a horse rider and the shop that sells the saddles and stuff – they had a little party with a jazz trio.  I sat down and was just having a soda and the bassist was like ‘hey – sit in.’
So I’m up there struggling away with this upright bass, but I’m having a good time. She said to me – ‘You’re a player, aren’t you? You’re a real player – who are you?’ First of all I asked what makes you think I’m a player? She said – I can just tell – your experience is different from everybody else’s. She could just tell, you know?
I guess that music is really part of me and you approach it a different way, even if you’re not playing your own instrument – you approach it differently – it’s part of you, it’s not just playing music. And that’s what I look for in guys – that the music is like an extension of their personality.
If you talk to Wayne Shorter, he sounds when he talks just like he sounds when he plays. And Jaco – his personality was as out there as his playing. All the great musicians man, their playing was just an extension of their personalities, and I think that’s when you reach that level where it’s just total control.
And that’s what we’re drawn to – we’re not drawn to people who play high or low or fast or slow – we’re drawn to personalities – Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Mike Tyson – you know what I mean?

So what are the plans for the Marcus Miller band in the immediate future?
We’re gonna spread out – we’re going to Asia, all over Europe and the USA – and the UK is difficult because everyone knows about us except the promoters!