NESTOR
CLAY SHEA
PHOTO : ANDREW CARVER AT NATIONAL CAPITAL ROCK
NESTOR
CHUMAK
PUP
Basses Fender Standard Precision Bass Fender Jaguar Bass
Amps Traynor Mono Block B Head Orange AD200B MK 3 Head Emperor Powerhouse Cab
Pedals Wren and Cuff Tri Pie ‘ 70 Big
Muff Clone EHX / Sovtek Green TallFont Big
M u ff Korg Pitch Black Tuner
CM : What ’ s the most recent piece you ’ ve added to your live set-up and why did it earn that spot ?
NC : I got a bass maybe half a year or a year ago now . It ’ s a [ Fender ] ’ 98 American Standard P Bass . P Basses are just dead simple : one pickup , one volume , one tone knob , that ’ s it . So if anything happened to it , I ’ m pretty confident I could fix it on my own .
CM : What ’ s the one thing you can ’ t go without on stage ?
NC : I pride myself on being able to work in any sort of situation that we find ourselves in . We ’ ve been touring a bunch and we started out doing smaller clubs and house shows and , you know , beer gets spilled on amps and amps blow up . I can basically make a show work as long as I have a bass . If I am afforded the luxury of everything working perfectly , I run everything through a Big Muff clone . It just dirties up my signal the way I like it and just compresses the crap out of it so I have an easier time playing .
CM : What kind of influence has the Toronto music scene had on you as a punk bass player ?
NC : The funny thing is , I think a lot of it has to do with the Traynor Mono Block . It ’ s the bass amp they made in the ’ 70s that has definitely stood the test of time . I have one and I ’ ve used it for a number of years . If you rail , it just drives really hard and has this awesome punk bass sound to it . Since it ’ s a vintage Traynor thing , a lot of them pop up in and around Toronto . A lot of guys I know in the scene use them , just because they ’ re reliable and sound great for the genre .
CM : With one album and a bunch of touring under your belt now , what ’ s the biggest difference moving forward into the next album or the most important thing you learned from that experience that you might bring with you going forward ?
NC : This next record is going to be different from the first one in that , the first one we wrote as we were starting the band and all of those songs we prepared to play live . This time around we had a couple of months to write all the songs , so we weren ’ t really writing them with an idea of playing anything live right away . We really took our time crafting the sound this time . But , after the last year of touring , the four of us as a band definitely got better at not worrying about the little things and just focusing on doing a good job .
CLAY SHEA
Black Mastiff
Black Mastiff is that soulful hard rock trio that you ‘ ve been dying to get down to . Clay Shea is that bassist who reaches into your soul with silky rollin ’ bass lines and takes you to that place you don ’ t know what to call . Give the band ’ s 2015 LP Music Machine a listen for proof . Here , the musical magician tells us a bit about his tools and humbly gives a nod to a fellow wizard .
Bass Rickenbacker 1975 4001
Amp Ampeg SVT II Head Ampeg 8x10 Cab
Effects Electro Harmonix Russian
Big Muff
CM : What ’ s the most recent piece you ’ ve added to your live set-up and why did it earn that spot ?
CS : I ’ ve been using the same set-up for a really long time , but probably about seven years ago I started using a Russian Big Muff pedal , one of the black ones , for an overdrive . In my opinion , they ’ re the best .
CM : Why is the Rickenbacker your go-to bass ?
CS : I ’ ve always liked them and always wanted one and then , at one point , I decided to really shop and wait until I could find a ’ 75 . It sounds dumb , but it was the year I was born so I wanted to find a ’ 75 . I bought the ’ 75 I found on a whim on eBay back when our dollar was awesome . It ’ s just an unbelievable feeling . It plays so nice and feels so good . I do also like the muddier tone .
CM : How have you progressed as a bass player over the years ?
CS : A ton . When I started playing bass I didn ’ t really understand the instrument very well . Before Black Mastiff , I played in a technical punk band called Choke for about 13 years . Right off the get go , I was playing above my head . I think that was really good for me . After a couple of records with that band , I hate to say it , but I was probably faking it for the first couple . About half way through I started to really understand the role of the bass player and started to listen to the drummer instead of the guitar player . It was definitely a few years in when I really started to understand the instrument . Then , when I started playing with Allan [ Harding , Black Mastiff drummer ] around about 2007 with [ Passenger Action ], I really took another big step with my playing . I really started to understand everything that a rhythm section could be .
... continued on pg . 56
54 • CANADIAN MUSICIAN