Bass Musician Magazine - SPECIAL March 2014 Issue | Page 13

really tried to represent what my musical
fingerprint is on this record.
You played four tunes from it live at the
Yamaha release event a few weeks ago.
Describe what it was like being up there
performing your debut album. You had
mentioned on stage that it was one of the
highlights of all the things you’ve done in
35 years in the business.
You know what? Again, it was surreal.
It’s been one of those years where I’ve
had multiple surreal experiences, where
I’m doing something that’s basically
considered a first. I mean, there aren’t
very many firsts when you’ve been around
this long. So it was refreshing, but I had
butterflies, because now all of a sudden I’m
responsible. The buck stops here, and I’m
responsible for every note that’s coming
off the stage.
Are you comfortable being in the spotlight,
after spending a career making others
comfortable in the spotlight?
I’m comfortable in that role. I’ve had a
lot of experience being musical director
at many functions, Yamaha uses me for
all their corporate events, I’ve done the
NAMM shows and lots of big concerts, so
that role is a pretty comfortable position
for me. But I must say, that afternoon I
went over there to sound check and run
the tunes with the guys and I was a little
bit like, in this place where my feet were
shaking just a bit in my boots. [Laughs]

Well both you and the band sounded great
that night. Speaking of Yamaha, let’s talk
about your relationship with them, which
goes back a long way. In fact, I remember
that you said it started when you heard
Abe Laboriel playing a Yamaha bass in a
studio. Take me through how it went from
that point to developing your signature
bass with the company.
Well he was, as I’m sure he is to most bass
players, sort of a hero and a bit of a mentor
to me as well. Back in the days when he
would invite me to come to a session, I
would listen to him and, although it’s
obviously in his chops and in his fingers,
his bass sounded so pure and warm and fat
and I loved everything about the sound. So
he said, “Oh yeah, this is a Yamaha bass”. I
was getting ready to go to Japan with Lee
Ritenour, so he gave me the name of Hagi,
who was the A&R guy for Yamaha. I called
Hagi and he brought one to a gig, I think
it was the BB1000, and it was everything
that I wanted in a bass. I remember saying
I have to go home with this, because it’s
too good. And from that day on I’ve been
playing Yamaha basses. Obviously the
relationship has developed, we started
doing a lot of R&D in LA and came up with
the 5-string. It’s gone through very many
incarnations and we’ve ended up with the
Nathan East signature version, which I
play all the time.
One thing that’s really unique about your
signature bass is the mid-cut parametric
EQ, which originally had been the
MAR 2014 / BASSMUSICIANMAGAZINE.COM