home back to interviews	THE BASSICS Ian Salmon Interview – March 2002
	He had just spent three days in a row in Mike Stobbie’s studio recording the bass tracks for the new album, we had been to the pub and had returned to Mike’s apartment at 2:30 AM when we suddenly remembered that we still had to do this interview… Ian Salmon, tired but satisfied. You’ve just finished the bass tracks for the new album. How do you feel now? How do I feel… Very good. It’s been hard. Mikes did exactly what I wanted somebody to do, which is sit there and say things like ‘that’s not good enough, try this’ and play me some ideas that would stretch me and got me thinking. That was good. When I first heard the demo I thought it was good strong material anyway, so it was inspiring to have a go at it. I think we’ve really got something worthwhile over the last three days. It’s been hard work. Basically, I just feel nagged [laughs]. And you just want to go home! Yeah, I just want to go home! But here we are… Being typically Dutch, saying: ‘It’s 3:00 AM, let’s have a chat!’ [laughs]. I feel good about what I’ve done. It’s difficult to say after you’ve just finished, but I get the overall impression that I’ve achieved something good. What’s the main difference between recording Immortal? and recording Contagion? I do feel like I’ve been able to go further to put my own stamp on it and to get my own sound. I’ve used different equipment, which has allowed me to get my own sound. We’ve worked with different sounds. We were coming from The Visitor, which was such a landmark for a lot of people, and now we’re going towards something else. It’s been steps all the way through, it’s been progression and I feel that this is definitely another progression. We’ve really moved on. We’ve got some different sounds. Like any creative person you’re always looking around for new influences. We’ve really got those in place and put some of the influences into the work, into the recording. Mick and Clive already told us that there’s a more prominent role for the bass on the new album. Do you feel it that way too? It seems to have worked that way. I would like to think I always put a tremendous lot of work in whatever I do and try to achieve something. I think a lot went into the last album and therefore possibly less space was left for me in a way. Not because somebody thought ‘let’s not have as much bass there’ or anything, but because there was just such a breath of ideas going into that, that I didn’t get the chance to do as much. That’s obviously been taken into account this time. It’s a more aggressive, cutting sound on this album. A sound that’s been really great to work with and made me want to really try and get everything out of it. So, yeah, that’s really been showing through. Anyway, we’re still in the middle of it. We’ll see what happens in the next few weeks. In a way, we don’t know yet how the final result is going to be. It’ll take shape of its own, like a baby that’s growing up. Does it make a difference that you’ve been part of Arena for some time now and that you’ve been on tour with the band? Yes, I think I feel more confident. I know what is expected and I’ve established myself. From that basis I can possibly take a few more risks. Is that also going to reflect on your live performance in the upcoming tour? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll reassess who I am in the band, what my personality is in the band. Reassess my whole role. It’s very difficult to say in this point of time how that’s going to change. But, yeah, that possibly may come through in the live show. I put a lot of time and effort into doing the live shows and I enjoyed them. That’ll continue and that’ll grow. The more aggressive sound may also provide more opportunity to express yourself on stage. I haven’t really thought about that to be honest with you. It may well happen; it’s going to come across as a bit more aggressive. I like the gentle moments as well, but it’s nice to have something with more light and shade to work with. The bass is often very underrated. When you hear what you’ve just done, there’s a lot going on that people often don’t notice when they listen to an album. I think progressive rock, symphonic music, is very dense, so each instrument individually gets kind of smaller. If you’re a power rock trio, then it’s incredibly obvious what each person is doing. But if you’ve got a big keyboard stack, I’m playing bass pedals and bass guitar, the guitars have got delays going on, it’s a huge sound. It’s just a very dense type of music, so each individual instrument doesn’t get as much of a chance to shine sometimes. At the moment it sounds like that has kind of progressed, certain things have been paired down a little bit to give other things a chance to breathe… Err, what was the question again? [laughs] Do you have a favourite track already, or is it impossible to say now? At the moment I can’t remember. We’ve done some fuzz bass moments and some odds sounds, distortions on the bass. We’ve got a slightly new sound. That’s good. Did you expand your boundaries? Yeah, there were things I thought I couldn’t do. Especially on that bass, it’s a borrowed bass guitar. When I picked it up I didn’t think I’d be able to do more than one track on it. I thought we were going to have to find another bass to use. Why did you borrow one? Because it’s a Rickenbacker and we really wanted that sound. Are you going to use a Rickenbacker on tour? If anyone wants to put one in my direction… Make contributions to the Ian Salmon Rickenbacker Fund [laughs]. Mick and Clive told us that a slight Tool influence crept into the album. The rhythm section really defines the Tool sound, so do you recognize this influence as well? I haven’t listened to it as much as Mick. I don’t know. But I suppose the Tool influence, the fuzz bas and the more aggressive sound we talked about, it’s all part of the same thing. There are always influences when you create something and listen to stuff. You don’t necessarily copy it, but take it somewhere else. What are your main influences? I haven’t got any. As far as playing in a progressive rock band is concerned. No, I really haven’t got any. Years and years ago the standard was Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin, of course. King’s X I like a lot. I like music of all sorts. My record collection is very eclectic. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, that sort of thing. All sorts. Well, we’ll wrap this interview up now, so that you can go home! Thanks for being gentle with me! By: Marcel Kolenbrander, Erik Beers & Marcel Steur