How trailblazing Yardbird Paul Samwell-Smith helped bass playing take flight By Joe Shooman The best-dressed bass player of all time, hero of Billy Sheehan and more, we salute the incomparable Yardbirds bassist
Billy Sheehan: "I never considered I had any natural talent at all. I just had a burning desire to play" By Joel McIver Guest editor and lord of the low-end, Sheehan talks complex arrangements, gear essentials and low-carb diets
Carol Kaye: "You want an instrument that gets all the sounds, not just rock and pop" By Alison Richter How the history of popular music changed in 1963 when A-list studio guitarist Carol Kaye was asked to fill in on bass
Mike Watt: "There’s something about using the bass as a composition tool. Why only compose on a piano or a guitar?" By Joel McIver The Minuteman punk icon talks signature models, trying to be funky, and starting out on bass not knowing what it was
Stanley Clarke: "The bass is a very important instrument in film. It can create tension - that's powerful" By Alison Richter The skilled bassist discusses working on the soundtrack to Frédéric Tcheng's Halston, which documents the life and work of fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick
Kinga Glyk: "The hardest thing to do onstage is to stop playing - we play because we are afraid of silence, but silence is part of the music" By Kinga Glyk The Polish bassist goes deep into her low-end philosophy
Flea: "Playing bass gets you into this hypnotic state - you’re not thinking because you’re just a conduit for the rhythm" By Joel McIver The iconic Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist discusses philosophy, gear and his new autobiography, Acid For The Children
Mike Gallo: "My father told me guitar players are a dime a dozen, but it’s harder for a band to find a good bass player" By Ian Glasper The Agnostic Front bassist and NY hardcore legend on the power of Motown, starting out and developing his own style
Andrew Levy: "If a track’s really going to travel, you’ve got to pull back the bassline and make sure the song is the star" By Bass Player Staff The bassist of acid jazz legends Brand New Heavies takes on our questions on longevity, gear and how brass can age a song
Issues bassist Skyler Acord details his funk-informed metalcore approach and tricked-out signature Spector bass By Joel McIver Ever been so deep into your music that you’ve lost your grip on reality? Meet Issues bassist Skyler Acord, newly equipped with a state-of-the-art signature Spector bass – and stand clear
Gene Simmons: "Many guitarists call their instruments 'axes', but nobody trademarked it. Except this guy!" By Lee Barrett The fire-breathing Kiss frontman and bassist on being the hardest working, hardest rocking band in the business
Dream Theater's John Myung: "There are moments when I’m playing parts live that I wish I did on the album the first time round" By Bass Player Staff The Dream Theater bassist on the 20th anniversary of Scenes from a Memory, the magic of down-tuning and how he brings the energy live
Vicky Warwick: "I love playing Fender Mustang basses, but the Jazz has more punch" By Ellen O'Reilly The fast-rising Charli XCX, Gabrielle Aplin and Josh Kumra bassist talks high-profile collaborations and her love of short-scale Fender basses
Voyager's Alex Canion: "I knew absolutely nothing about being a DJ, so, I got my dad’s old basses out and started chipping away" By Alex Canion The Aussie prog bass wizard on his failed attempts at DJ-ing, love for the 5-string, and favorite bass tone of all time
Megadeth's Dave Ellefson: "With bass design, sometimes the best way forward is to go back in time" By Bass Player Staff The thrash-metal bassist is not one to sit still between the band's touring cycles. Here he talks solo ventures, spoken word and collaborating with Jackson
Victor Wooten: "Music is about more than the time spent on your instrument. It’s about the time spent on yourself" By Ellen O'Reilly How the Wooten Brothers ended up among the most accomplished musical families in history
Life of Agony's Alan Robert reveals his vintage bass guitar collection By Bass Player Staff "I've stage dived into the crowd countless times over the years holding my vintage basses"
Iron Maiden's Steve Harris talks British Lion, songwriting, and why his SansAmp is a carry-on essential when touring By Joel McIver "Whether the crowd is 200 or 200,000 people, there’s no difference - I still give 110 per cent wherever I'm playing"
Stuart Zender: "I remember recording Just Can’t Stop with Jamiroquai and it felt as though the bass was flowing into me" By Bass Player Staff Stuart Zender returns with the Sound Of London Collective - and a bass performance to equal his very best
The Analogues' Bart van Poppel: "A lot of Paul McCartney’s bass thinking came from him starting out as a guitar player" By Amit Sharma The tonally authentic Beatles tribute band's bass player, producer and musical director serves up a McCartney masterclass…
