String, Firedaze's guitarist and bass-player

STRING

Bassplayer, guitarist, programmer and one of two songwriters in Firedaze.

So where did the name come from?

I'm called String because in the early days I used to have a habit of breaking bass strings when we were on stage! It was a combination of trying to keep drummers in time and not buying new strings often enough due to a lack of money! Still audiences seemed to be pretty impressed when you break an E string (the thickest string on a 4 string bass) on stage.

You're the bass player - didn't you use to play lead guitar?

Early on with Firedaze I played guitar - but since Jen joined I've gone back to the bass. When I first starting playing in bands I was a lead guitarist in a rock band - but I prefer bass.

I originally got into playing the bass when I joined a band that my brother was drumming in. Later I helped to form The Trial and then Dead After Dark. In Firedaze I switched from bass to guitar to play the tunes when we were without a fiddle player. Now I'm back on the bass and loving it - especially my new 5 string MTD Kingston which is going to feature a lot on the new, second album!

What kind of band is Firedaze then?

Its a rocky rootsy folky dancy kind of thing. I'm not sure exactly what pigeon hole you could put us in. Personally I don't really like labels or pigeon holes but unfortunately the music industry does! We only found out that Dead After Dark was playing "Roots rock" after that's what all the reviewers said we were.

With Firedaze we're not really "folk rock" or roots rock, it might be Modern Folk or alt.folk - that's what some people have said. We sometimes seem to get the Celtic rock label these days too. Anyway it's a band that draws on rock, dance beats and rhythms and folk music. I guess the trick is come to a gig, buy a cd or download a track and decide for yourself.

Muso details!

As far as muso details go, my bass is an MTD Kingston series 5 string, before that I played a trusty, rather ancient, Yamaha 4 string. For strings I used to like Elites but recently I've started using the 5 string sets provide by Bass Direct. My amplifier is a Trace Eliot bass rig. It's the heaviest amp in the world but I just love how it sounds - I've used it for years and I've always thought I'd be be lost without. Mind you I've finally had to put some wheels on it to make it easier to unload it from the van and to get on and off stage.

So what kind of music do you like and does it influence the band?

In terms of Firedaze I've loved the music from the moment we started writing the songs and I think with the second album people are going to hear quite a musical development for the band.

Generally I like all sorts of music and I'm a bit of a production anorak which means I love stuff by people like Future Sound of London, Massive Attack and dj Shadow. In the dance kind of area I love the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Underworld, Kosheen and Faithless too. On the more folk side of things there's Bellowhead, Uiscdwr and more recently The Civil Wars. Otherwise I'm still a bit of a sucker for guitar-based bands like early Manics, Foo Fighters, Radiohead and also bands like Muse, Killers, Linkin Park, Editors, Arctic Monkeys and Mastodon. The Levellers were an early influence - I had thought they'd "gone off" a bit in recent years but their album Songs from the Underground was a brilliant return to form .

As far as I can see none of these bands seem to have produced any recognisable influences in any of the music I wrote for Dead After Dark - it's possible that initially the dance stuff had some bearing on what I've helped to write in Firedaze - but our more recent compositions seem to be moving more towards rock....and folk...and jazz(?) at the same time.

All of the current line up love the Levellers and over the years we've certainly nicked some song structure ideas from them. They're great to sing along to when you're drunk and a good live band too. We all went to see the Levs on the tour a couple of years ago where McDermott's 2 Hours supported them - great version of "Dirrty Davy": one of my favourite Levs songs but done by the original writer.

Also when it comes to songwriters - along with the rest of the band - I must admit that I have a weakness for the talents and bizarre music of Tom Waits - I love Swordfishtrombones and Raindogs and the last few albums have been quite good too although they are a bit more of a challenging listen and you have to be in the mood for them - but I still love them.

Jen

So, anything else?

Yes! There are two things I love about being a musician: playing live and going into the studio.

There's nothing to top the feeling of being on-stage when the band are playing really tightly and giving a great performance AND the audience are well into to it.

That is, for me, really the best feeling.

Steff

Back catalogue

[More of String's muso ramblings]

As far as being in the studio goes a few years ago we set up dmusic recording services - its available to hire but obviously we use it for Firedaze and for my own solo recording too.

The whole of the Triality album was recorded there plus I do all the sampled and programmed drum tracks for Firedaze's live shows. There was a lot of work in producing Triality but we're currently working on new songs for the next album.

In the studio over the last few years we've experimented with different line-ups and instrument configurations. At one stage long time collaborator, and former member of Dead Afer Dark, Dunk came in to play drums and we recorded the Coming Home ep with him. Some of those sesssions have ended up on the Triality album. Since then he's decided to focus on his song-writing and drumming in band Rack and Ruin. We also had Steve Bentley on bohdron for a while too which gave the music some energy and urgency - a recording with him on will feature on the new re-mastered Triality.

More recently we've returned to programming the drums using samples from: Dunk's drumming; previous Dead After Dark Drummer Holi's drums. We're also now using foot percussion and a range of loops and other percussive sounds that we can mix up live rathe then using pre-recorded stuff: the sound and line up has a habit of developing and evolving and that keeps things fresh.
We've recently started experimenting with what happens when you give a fiddle player some guitar stomp boxes to run her fiddle pick-up through.... it certainly sounds interesting.

This page was last updated on 12th March 2012

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		Bassplayer, guitarist, programmer and one of two songwriters in Firedaze. So where did the name come from? I'm called String because in the early days I used to have a habit of breaking bass strings when we were on stage! It was a combination of trying to keep drummers in time and not buying new strings often enough due to a lack of money! Still audiences seemed to be pretty impressed when you break an E string (the thickest string on a 4 string bass) on stage. You're the bass player - didn't you use to play lead guitar? Early on with Firedaze I played guitar - but since Jen joined I've gone back to the bass. When I first starting playing in bands I was a lead guitarist in a rock band - but I prefer bass. I originally got into playing the bass when I joined a band that my brother was drumming in. Later I helped to form The Trial and then Dead After Dark. In Firedaze I switched from bass to guitar to play the tunes when we were without a fiddle player. Now I'm back on the bass and loving it - especially my new 5 string MTD Kingston which is going to feature a lot on the new, second album! What kind of band is Firedaze then? Its a rocky rootsy folky dancy kind of thing. I'm not sure exactly what pigeon hole you could put us in. Personally I don't really like labels or pigeon holes but unfortunately the music industry does! We only found out that Dead After Dark was playing "Roots rock" after that's what all the reviewers said we were. With Firedaze we're not really "folk rock" or roots rock, it might be Modern Folk or alt.folk - that's what some people have said. We sometimes seem to get the Celtic rock label these days too. Anyway it's a band that draws on rock, dance beats and rhythms and folk music. I guess the trick is come to a gig, buy a cd or download a track and decide for yourself.

	Muso details! As far as muso details go, my bass is an MTD Kingston series 5 string, before that I played a trusty, rather ancient, Yamaha 4 string. For strings I used to like Elites but recently I've started using the 5 string sets provide by Bass Direct. My amplifier is a Trace Eliot bass rig. It's the heaviest amp in the world but I just love how it sounds - I've used it for years and I've always thought I'd be be lost without. Mind you I've finally had to put some wheels on it to make it easier to unload it from the van and to get on and off stage. So what kind of music do you like and does it influence the band? In terms of Firedaze I've loved the music from the moment we started writing the songs and I think with the second album people are going to hear quite a musical development for the band. Generally I like all sorts of music and I'm a bit of a production anorak which means I love stuff by people like Future Sound of London, Massive Attack and dj Shadow. In the dance kind of area I love the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Underworld, Kosheen and Faithless too. On the more folk side of things there's Bellowhead, Uiscdwr and more recently The Civil Wars. Otherwise I'm still a bit of a sucker for guitar-based bands like early Manics, Foo Fighters, Radiohead and also bands like Muse, Killers, Linkin Park, Editors, Arctic Monkeys and Mastodon. The Levellers were an early influence - I had thought they'd "gone off" a bit in recent years but their album Songs from the Underground was a brilliant return to form . As far as I can see none of these bands seem to have produced any recognisable influences in any of the music I wrote for Dead After Dark - it's possible that initially the dance stuff had some bearing on what I've helped to write in Firedaze - but our more recent compositions seem to be moving more towards rock....and folk...and jazz(?) at the same time. All of the current line up love the Levellers and over the years we've certainly nicked some song structure ideas from them. They're great to sing along to when you're drunk and a good live band too. We all went to see the Levs on the tour a couple of years ago where McDermott's 2 Hours supported them - great version of "Dirrty Davy": one of my favourite Levs songs but done by the original writer. Also when it comes to songwriters - along with the rest of the band - I must admit that I have a weakness for the talents and bizarre music of Tom Waits - I love Swordfishtrombones and Raindogs and the last few albums have been quite good too although they are a bit more of a challenging listen and you have to be in the mood for them - but I still love them.
Jen		So, anything else? Yes! There are two things I love about being a musician: playing live and going into the studio. There's nothing to top the feeling of being on-stage when the band are playing really tightly and giving a great performance AND the audience are well into to it. That is, for me, really the best feeling.
Steff