PHOTO : PATRICK RYDER my live shows for the future and I ’ m super stoked to be able to pull it out . I ’ m very lucky to get to play with Stacey Shopsowits , though ; he ’ s the best bass player I know and is a part of my band . Before lockdown , we were working on a cool part in my show where I steal his bass and play it for the bridge in “ i drive me mad .” Stacey is your quintessential bass player that every artist would be lucky to have in their band . renforshort : I recently got a new Fender Jazz Bass and I just plug it in direct mostly [ laughs ]. It ’ s what I use to practice and jam with at home .
CM : You play guitar and piano as well , but you ’ re often pictured with a bass . Do you consider bass your main instrument ? When in your musical development did you pick up the bass , and what role has it played in your evolution as an artist ?
renforshort : The bass was the most recent pickup of the three but it just feels so natural for me . I ’ m not quite where I want to be in terms of skill yet , but I spend most of my time practicing . For writing music , however , I tend to stick to guitar or piano if I already know what sort of melody I want to follow because I feel like those instruments guide my melodies really well . But playing bass notes allows more room for me to create , so I ’ ll sometimes pick up the bass if I want a more unique melody .
CM : Is there anything related to the bass that you ’ ve been working on during all the time off the
road because of the pandemic ? If so , why did you choose that to work on and how did you approach it ?
renforshort : I ’ ve been working on my performance while playing bass as well as my technique . I feel like , for me , my live performance is so important and if you can stand on a stage and rock out , it ’ s automatically a way more engaging show . I move around with the bass and get accustomed to singing and fucking around with it and when live music comes back , I think it ’ s going to have been a really helpful routine .
CM : You ’ re a strong bass player yourself , but in the live videos of I ’ ve seen of you , you ’ re usually not playing it live . So , what are you looking for in a bassist who plays for you ?
renforshort : For my live show I haven ’ t had the chance to pull the bass out yet , I ’ ve only toured for a month and that was right before lockdown , so I was more focused on vocal performance and stage presence just to get comfortable and acclimated to being on stage . I ’ ve worked bass into
CM : You ’ re still very young , but when you look back over your music career so far , what the biggest change you see in your style or approach to bass between then and now ?
renforshort : I haven ’ t been playing bass for that long but it ’ s always something I really wanted to do . Since I ’ ve started , I ’ ve definitely got more into composing music so I ’ m familiarizing myself with scales and bass chords , whereas before I would just learn random songs and not know any theory or anything important about it .
CM : Lastly , for the gear heads , what is your ideal bass rig in the studio or live ?
renforshort : I usually work with my producer Jeff Hazin on bass and the rig we use is usually a variety of different basses ( Hofner violin hollow-body bass with flat wound strings and Squier Jazz Bass ) but always through an [ Eclair Engineering ] Evil Twin DI box , which sounds so good that I don ’ t like to put the bass through anything else really .
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Michael Raine is the Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Musician .
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