to be able to compare myself to those guys,
because that’s what really pushed me to be
better. I wasn’t comparing myself to my band
guys, or the church guys, or the school band, I
was really striving to try and be better. KC and
the Sunshine Band, Kool and the Gang, all of
these dudes that my Dad would just go, “Listen
to this guy…try and be like that guy.” Listen
to the part that he’s playing and try and learn
it, and try to be a little more technical, and a
little bit better. It wasn’t so much a competitive
thing, I just wanted to see how far I could push
myself. It wasn’t that I wanted to be better than
that guy, I just wanted to be my best self and
see how far I could go.
[WM] In the States we’ve got giant stores
like Guitar Center and online retailers like
Sweetwater and Reverb, but in Australia it’s a
lot different.
[Josh] That was a hard one for me, because in
Australia with all the import tax and conversion
rates and all the rest of it, instruments are just
so much more expensive. They can be three or
four times more expensive than in the States. I
remember there was a music shop down the
street and I would go in there all the time just to
have a look at what instruments they had, and
different pedals, thinking I’d never be able to
afford anything, I’d just have my bass.
I had a Cort four string. I remember playing on
that for ages, and then I finally saved up enough
money to buy a Yamaha five string, just a cheap
RBX. I didn’t really have that much gear, which
wasn’t devastating, it’s just that I knew that I
could sound better than I did. It forced me to try
and sound the best with what I had. I couldn’t
all these things and he’d ask, “Could you play turned out pretty soon, and when it did I was rely on core pedals, I just learned how to set
that?” and give me the bass. So, I’d try and ravenous, just looking at what bass players up my own bass so that it played the best it
play along with this Herbie Hancock bass line… were doing, who they were playing with, how possibly could, and then I just tried to play the
it just kind of went from there. It wasn’t so much they were playing things. best that I could on that bass.
wanted to look into him and research that. It Victor Wooten was a big one as well, he was I remember going into music college after
was more that these were the albums that were really good in the way that he would not just doing high school, and it was almost a little
available to me and they, just by pure chance, play the bass or play a solo, but he would talk embarrassing when I came in with my bass,
were the ones everyone else was listening to. about it afterwards and it really pushed me to looking at all the other people with their boutique
So that was pretty lucky. But again, YouTube want to get better in my craft. I think it was good five figure basses. Then there was my Yamaha
this bass player who had influenced me and I
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February 2019
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