Bass Player UK Magazine 106 July 2014 Vorige editie

Our cover star this month is both insanely talented and unbelievably modest, a combination which very few of us can hope to approach, especially when your guitarist shouts the magic words ‘Want to play a solo here?’ in the middle of a jam. John Myung, for indeed it is he, has been quietly pushing forward the barriers of progressive bass player for two decades with his band Dream Theater, firing off fusillades of notes in perfect unison and counterpoint with his equally dexterous bandmates and leaving the rest of us open-mouthed in awe in doing so. Rather than ask the great man about his life, career, teenage escapades and what have you as per normal, we’re focusing in our interview on the coolest and most technically challenging bass parts that he has recorded to date, leading to many a revelation about his phenomenal technique and all-round philosophy. And all this from a guy whose bands plays stadiums. We should be so lucky, eh?

We’re all about variety here at the BGM command bunker, so we’ve also brought you interviews with Scott Shriner from the permanently tongue-in-cheek rockers Weezer and Jeff Walker of the über-heavy Carcass. Then there’s an in-depth interview with the astoundingly experimental Jonas Hellborg, funked-up bass educator Andy Irvine and Craig Adams from British ‘goff’ legends The Mission. The same applies to our reviews section, where the gear on test runs from the price of a ‘clean but used’ BMW 520 to a mere few hundred quid. And of course, if you’re looking for tuition, you’ll find no better place to go than our hand-picked team of bass teachers, all tutors, music-school graduates, touring musicians or simply virtuosos. What are you waiting for? See you at the end of July!