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 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 seem to be pretty impressed when you break an E string (the thickest string on a 4 string bass) on stage.

How easy was it for a bass player to switch to lead guitar?

Since starting in Firedaze I've gone from bass to guitar and back again. It wasn't too hard to get on with the guitar because when I first starting playing in bands I was a lead guitarist in a rock band.

Then I 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 and I stayed playing bass because I liked it! In Firedaze I switched to guitar to play the tunes when we were without a fiddle player for a while. As soon as Jen joined us it was natural for me to get back to the bass.

What kind of band is Firedaze then?

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

With Firedaze we're not really "folk rock" or roots rock either but it is a band that draws on rock, dance and folk music. We seem to get the Celtic rock label these days. I guess the trick is come to a gig or buy a cd and decide for yourself.

Muso details!

As far as muso details go, my bass is a trusty, rather ancient, Yamaha with Rotosound or sometimes Elites string sets and I use a Trace Eliot bass rig. Its the heaviest amp in the world but I just love how it sounds - I've used it for years and I'd be lost without. Mind you I've finally had to put some wheels on it to make it easier 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.

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. Also in the more dance area I like Fat Boy Slim, Tiesto, the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Underworld and Faithless too. Otherwise I'm still a bit of a sucker for guitar-based bands like early Manics, Foo Fighters, Radiohead and more recently bands like Muse, Killers, Linkin Park, Editors, Hard-Fi and Arctic Monkeys. I also love Varatie (from Finland).

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 - its possible that the dance stuff has had some bearing on what I've helped to write in Firedaze - though our more recent compositions seem to be moving away from dance.

All of the current line up love the Levellers and we certainly nicked some song structure ideas from them for the old band. 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 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

BEER!

Over the years we've written loads of songs under the influence of the demon drink (some of them even sounded ok when we were sober). So I had to include a picture of me exploring the "drink me any time" quality of beer in Finland (although it could just as easily be in England).

As we used to sing in the Dead After Dark song Last Millenium: "We'll keep on drinking 'cause the drink is fine". Hardly on a par with Existentialist philosophy but it'll do for us poor musicians....

Steff

Back catalogue

[More of String's muso ramblings]

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 tight and giving a great performance AND the audience are well into to it. That is really the best feeling. We used to know the songs so well in Dead After Dark that you never had to think about them - you could just perform and have fun. It was a bit of a shock at first in Firedaze to find myself on stage and wondering what part of the song comes next. Still now we know all the songs - and the audience have got into our new sound - it's getting to be great fun again.

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 . Although we've just finished our first album we're already writing material for new songs.

I also record other bands and musicians in the dmusic studio including solo artists, folk musicians, bands and club dj's.

In the studio over the past couple of years we've experimented with different line-ups and instrument configurations. For example 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 album. Since then he's decided to focus on his song-writing and drumming in band Rack and Ruin and we've returned to programming the drums using samples from: Dunk's drumming; previous Dead After Dark Drummer Holi's drums and a range of loops and other precussive sounds. The latest Firedaze album, Triality was recorded this way - but 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.... itcertainly sounds interesting.

This page was last updated on 25th September 2007

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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 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 seem to be pretty impressed when you break an E string (the thickest string on a 4 string bass) on stage. How easy was it for a bass player to switch to lead guitar? Since starting in Firedaze I've gone from bass to guitar and back again. It wasn't too hard to get on with the guitar because when I first starting playing in bands I was a lead guitarist in a rock band. Then I 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 and I stayed playing bass because I liked it! In Firedaze I switched to guitar to play the tunes when we were without a fiddle player for a while. As soon as Jen joined us it was natural for me to get back to the bass. What kind of band is Firedaze then? Its a dancy rootsy rocky folky kind of thing. I'm not sure exactly what pigeon hole you could put us in. I don't really like labels or pigeon holes but the music industry does! We only found out that Dead After Dark was playing Roots rock after thats what all the reviewers said we were. With Firedaze we're not really "folk rock" or roots rock either but it is a band that draws on rock, dance and folk music. We seem to get the Celtic rock label these days. I guess the trick is come to a gig or buy a cd and decide for yourself.

	Muso details! As far as muso details go, my bass is a trusty, rather ancient, Yamaha with Rotosound or sometimes Elites string sets and I use a Trace Eliot bass rig. Its the heaviest amp in the world but I just love how it sounds - I've used it for years and I'd be lost without. Mind you I've finally had to put some wheels on it to make it easier 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. 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. Also in the more dance area I like Fat Boy Slim, Tiesto, the Chemical Brothers, Prodigy, Underworld and Faithless too. Otherwise I'm still a bit of a sucker for guitar-based bands like early Manics, Foo Fighters, Radiohead and more recently bands like Muse, Killers, Linkin Park, Editors, Hard-Fi and Arctic Monkeys. I also love Varatie (from Finland). 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 - its possible that the dance stuff has had some bearing on what I've helped to write in Firedaze - though our more recent compositions seem to be moving away from dance. All of the current line up love the Levellers and we certainly nicked some song structure ideas from them for the old band. 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 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		BEER! Over the years we've written loads of songs under the influence of the demon drink (some of them even sounded ok when we were sober). So I had to include a picture of me exploring the "drink me any time" quality of beer in Finland (although it could just as easily be in England). As we used to sing in the Dead After Dark song Last Millenium: "We'll keep on drinking 'cause the drink is fine". Hardly on a par with Existentialist philosophy but it'll do for us poor musicians....
Steff