I actually started on guitar, but I was always more drawn to rhythm playing and spent most of my free time in high school jamming Green Day songs with my friend Sam, who was learning drums. The two of us ended up going to music college and forming a band with our coursemate Joe. After two years of playing with two guitarists and no bassist, rehearsals started getting stale and we almost considered disbanding. However, one day I decided it might be fun to mess around with one of the college basses – it was a real ‘Why haven’t I been doing this the whole time?’ moment. From that moment, there was new life in the band and before we knew it, we had a full EP worth of new songs. I haven’t looked back since. Bass feels a lot more natural for me, and it has now gotten to the point where I find it more enjoyable to play than guitar.
When I was around 17, my grandpa gave me a bass guitar which he’d had for a little while but never played: it was a Jazz copy that had definitely seen better days. I hate to admit that I kinda neglected it for a while, as I was still primarily into guitar at the time. Looking back, though, I think that the times when I did pick it up for a quick jam helped me a lot with getting used to the different feel for when I eventually moved to bass in my band.