This prompted Jim to write the opening line of Til We Die: My friends are all hurting., There was a real fear that he wasnt doing well, said Shawn. Yet again, he moved. Grays recorded output with the Damned includes two of the bands most revered and musically fibrous albums, Strawberries (1982) and The Black Album (1980). Growing up with little money, his family were living in shitty roach- infested apartments, and by age 14 Paul was out on his own, struggling with homelessness, bouncing between friends and locations. Someone else can probably add more, or demonstrate that my memory is faulty. When I tried out I constantly turned myself down or turned the tone knob down by accident. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Gray: We turned everything up full! Im a dreadful singer, but Ive got all of these melodies in my head and I kind of approach the bass as a tool for countermelody, and I weave between what the Captains playing and what Daves singing. Paul and Joey even formed grindcore outfit Anal Blast. Here we go again motherfucker, indeed. Premier Guitar sought an audience with Sensible and Gray to discuss the making of the Damneds triumphant return to studio recording, their philosophies and roots as players, the symbiosis that exists within their playing relationship, and even a bit of gear geekery. Seven months later, Paul was gone. 1970s Ampeg SVT V9 When I moved to Iowa, I didnt have any friends or know anybody. Recorded at Download 2009, Paul talked to TG about his solid playing style, his reason for being a bass player and his tips for making you play better. Based on the Ibanez ATK series, it features a massive 5-piece maple/walnut neck, light ash body and an ultra-powerful tripl Show More. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Im curious where all of the blues and lead stuff comes from. Peavey has been amazing to me and because they have worldwide distribution it makes it easier for me when touring. No, you just dont put that together, because youre young.. I had to go back and listen to them. It was hard to comprehend. You have to use D'Addario short scale bass strings, 080 for the 5th and 0.100 for the 6th It's not easy to do this because you have to have a bridge that you can hook the bass string to as they are a lot larger than a guitar string. Add Paul Gray (2)'s Strings Ernie Ball Power Slinky Bass Strings (55-110) Paul Gray was known to use the Ernie Ball Slinky Bass Strings. We used that with an 8x10 and had everything up full blast and thats the sound on the record. His knack for finger-twisting, down-tuned riffs including extreme slides and bends is what made their assault all the more bludgeoning, a skill which hed undoubtedly sharpened as a death metal-obsessed teenager. With the emergence of Eddie Van Halen as a phenomenon in the late 1970s and 1980s . Oh, and he didnt have a bass, either. It's worked for me So far anyway! Title Written by Originally by Original date Covered by ; Before I Forget . It allows you to throw things into the set on the flyjust call out a key and hell have a go at it. We spend a lot of time thinking about Paul, Shawn told us in 2018. After the third or fourth show I met somebody from Warwick and they sent me out a Corvette or some model and it was awesome. JavaScript is disabled. . and four years as Production Editor and Deputy Editor at Bizarre. Try this!. Its cheaper, too, and once youve smoothed the frets and boshed on a scratchplate, youve got yourself a cracking guitar for what it costs. When Macca's Rickie was sent for an overhaul to Rickenbacker, they found that the bridge pickup was dead and had been dead for a long time, turns out that when Macca stripped his Rickie, he tried to get rid of the cover for the bridge pickup, so he sawed it open, which in a horse shoe is a big mistake, since that cover he wanted to get rid of is part of the pickup. Edinboro, PA. In sixth grade, aged 11, he got Suicidal Tendencies self-titled debut, which fuelled a desire to learn the guitar. I dont know much about scales, but I like the choice of notes in some Indian music and some of that creeps in occasionally with the McPhee, Berry, Hendrix knock-offs. It's been 10 years since we lost Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. Just seeing them up there with the red lights and smoke it was all evil. If you listen to Pauls note choices on Vermilion, he was all over the shop and it sounded great I wanted to try things like that.. This was thanks in no small part to his abilities. Paul is survived by his wife Brenna and their daughter October, who was born three months after his death. Really being up against the clock meant we were just going for it. I listened to Chili Peppers, lots of funk and jazz players Lots of Bootsy Collins stuff, so I tried to learn as much as I could. You gotta find your pocket, he said. While Paul tragically left us too soon, his creative influence remains. Lurking in the back of the studio was this really, really old Ampeg, which the guy said was handwired. What is it about them that you like so much?Gray: I was very much drawn to Rickenbacker sounds, to the point where Id listen to the radio as a kid and was always trying to figure out if it was a Rickenbacker I was hearing. Its been 10 years since we lost Slipknot bassist Paul Gray. Sensible: Theres something about the Gibson SG 60s Tribute. I figured that it couldn't be that different to playing guitar, but later on I found out it's a totally different thing. The same was said of his personality, Corey often describing him as the glue of the band the one member who lived and breathed Slipknot all day every day, the worlds best cheerleader to bring them together no matter what challenge or hurdle lay ahead. Barely a year before, they had played their career-best show as first-time headliners at Download. I just pick out licks and phrases I heard my heroes play. The main guitar is a 1959 Les Paul Standard . I saved up and bought their album Thank Christ for the Bomb and I played it over and over. "After that the first real bass I bought was an Ibanez Soundgear and I still play Ibanez now. They were the first company to give me a deal and Warwick basses are great - I'll never talk crap about Warwick because they're amazing basses and an amazing company too and super great guys. John Paul Jones. This is the strings in Paul Simon's Guild F-30. And yes, listen to any isolated Beatles-era bass track and it's pretty obvious that flat wounds are part of the equation. Paul, who cofounded Slipknot in 1995 with drummer Joey Jordison and percussionist Shawn Crahan, was found dead at age 38 in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room in May 2010. two very different bands. The 77 I have has the toaster pickup, and that one is much filthier sounding. Although the Captain was stationed on bass for the Damneds first few recordings, he emerged on the groups third album, 1979s Machine Gun Etiquette, as a dexterous and melodic guitarist with a knack for penning killer hooks that draw on a surprisingly vast range of influences. Simple as it may be, especially when compared to their earlier tracks, Duality is also the sound of The Nine at their most effective its four minutes and 12 seconds condensed down to three and a half for a single version that would become directly responsible for converting new armies of metalheads around the world. And seeing as Eventide HQ was just across the Hudson, Tony V. invited Tony Agnello to the studio, where, despite working against the clock, everything stopped while we played around with some guitar effects or talent boosters according to Pinch. I didn't think they would, but they called me up and said, 'Here you go!'". With Slipknot, my bass playing is a little more laid back and subdued, like I get spots where I get to do some stuff I guess, but it's hard to kind of like We have three drummers, there's a lot of low end, you know what I mean? In 1975, Eventides Tony designed the first harmonizer, so it was nice to meet the bloke whose gear Id used so extensively over the years. So my second string was in A but I was actually an octave below the low A, so I was super low. Offstage, he couldnt have been more different. Despite being less overtly punk than the typical Damned record, I managed to squeeze the odd solo in here and there. I looked at the sheet Id been working on and at the bottom was the chorus for Psychosocial already This song was meant to be. The breakdown after the guitar solo remains a highlight of any Slipknot live set, its members falling into a Meshuggah-esque groove as Corey screams of, The limits of the dead! Using a mixture of palm-muting, chromatics and pauses to twist and stretch the listeners ear in new and unexpected ways, it would be one of Pauls final contributions to the Knot. As a standing tribute to the late Paul Gray, TG presents this never-before published interview with the Slipknot bassist. staff present the albums that shaped their individual 2022s! He brought the knowledge and the enthusiasm, and he was the most social of all the people on the metal scene. Let your thoughts out and dont let anyone stop you from what you feel and what you think! So now Ive got his blood boiling in my veins. Paul didnt know anyone in Iowa, so six months in, when he overheard some guys in a local record store talking about needing a bass player for Metallica and Slayer covers, he volunteered his services. Apart from a regular open-G blues tuning [Editors note: Check out Silly Kids Games on The Black Album for an example. Rhythmically, however, the song was a bit more challenging; Pauls verse basslines picked as strict alternate 16th notes throughout, which, once you factor in the boiler suit and pig mask for the live shows, would have been a quite a workout for his left arm. Everything else has been me just experimenting.". Other guitars at the studio were a StratI never got on with them as the volume knob is too close to bridge; a Rickenbacker 12-string, which I found to be lovely; and the studio acoustic, which had an almost unplayably high action. There had been a headline-generating arrest for drugs and drink-driving in 2003, sobriety, relapses and recent treatment for addiction. Largely penned by Paul and Shawn Clown Crahan before the band had formed, the song was originally titled Slipknot though the group ended up using the name for one of their first shows. Captains songs are Gods gift because theyre so melodic. It was the first time the whole band had been in my house together and it was a very surreal moment There was this wall of anguish and silence just sitting on top of us and it was fucking gnarly., The band knew their friend had been suffering. There were three mics on it: one on the speakers, one three feet back, and one six feet back, and a little bit of DI. The bass fills he did, I really had to fucking rewind tapes and play them over and over to get it.". Added by Bastien. So I switched the strings on it and it kind of looked OK, like a left-handed bass if they'd put the knobs on the top. Theyve been far too busy touring to devote time to nostalgia. Ibanez and Peavey have somebody everywhere.". Inkcarceration announces headliners Slipknot and Limp Bizkit alongside Megadeth, Lamb Of God, In This Moment and more. The quiet lay heavy in the air, and seemed to stretch for miles. So I was like, I've moved to Iowa, I don't know anybody, so maybe I should jump in and say I play bass and try to meet some people? They put together the spine-tingling Vermillion (for Vol. I was cutting myself with a razor, bleeding all over the place. The Damned opened for T. Rex back in the day, and I even asked Captain why we never did this before. The world will never know another man as amazing as you.. I'm able to leave gear at home, and that was the same with Ibanez. Theres a massive range of guitar ideas in the Damneds discography, from straight-ahead punk stuff to psych-rock. A guitar most often associated with him is the 1959 Gibson Les Paul Standard "Greeny".Now a famous guitar, once owned by Peter Green of the Fleetwood Mac, and now in the possession of Metallica's Kirk Hammett.Another one worth singling out is the Les Paul Standard nicknamed . But my favorite was Tony McPhee of the Groundhogs. To make it worth your while, you must consider how much sugar was added to their . Aqua Marine. It couldve also been our disgraceful behavior, but who really knows? We had two weeks in the studio, which included rehearsals, so there was no time for faffing about changing amps. The bass player always looked the coolest in the band! Basses How long have you been playing bass guitar for, Paul, and why did you choose bass as your main instrument? A true athlete when it comes to traversing the fretboard of a Rickenbacker bass, Grays lead bass style and the way his playing seamlessly weaves with the Captains is a massive part of Evil Spirits musical bedrock. "You know, the first one I bought was a Charvel, a weird reddish purple Charvel It was not that great a bass. We made the tour and we were able to get out there, but by the end of it, he was so sad, there was a lot of fighting going on, remembered Shawn. I always watch other bass players no matter what kind of band they're in, how long they've been playing for or if they're any good, because you can always learn something from someone else to add to your technique and make you play better. Feed. Do you remember what your first bass guitar was? "But then I ended up going to Ibanez on the last album because - I can't remember where we were - but I went to a pawn shop and picked up this Ibanez ATK that they've stopped making and I just loved the way it played and sounded, so I started playing it too and Ibanez approached me to offer me a deal. Try not to get stuck playing the same thing and if you feel yourself wanting to play something a certain way all the time, change it up by using different fingers. Its what he was born to do, its what hed love to do, its the thing hed love more than anything., As fans wondered about Slipknots future, the band grieved. He wrote that whole song, and there was such an essence about it that was so odd; the way his eyes were looking at his guitar, and the way he was writing it when we were playing together, it was almost scary, he told Revolver in 2010. The guy I got it from says that it was a factory custom that had been requested to have the toaster pickup put on it. Sadly, those close to Paul knew hed been battling demons for a while. Overview. in July 2008. During the press conference, percussionist Shawn Clown Crahan, who co-founded Slipknot with Paul, wanted the world to know how devastating his death was. Hed listen to Cliff Burtons bass fills repeatedly, rewinding his tapes until he had figured them out. Alter Bridge, Halestorm, Neck Deep, Bob Vylan, Hot Milk, Palaye Royale, Jinjer and more join this years Download Festival. How would you describe your playing style? Luckily it all seems to work most of the time anyway. Works 23; All; Songs written by Paul Gray [US1] Original songs. What strings did Paul Gray use? But it was seeing a nascent Slayer touring the merciless Hell Awaits that made the biggest impact on the young Paul Gray. Doing that actually made me fall in love with bass guitar and thats why I became a bass player., Paul was my biggest influence when he came into the band, recalled Anders Colsefni, Vexxs drummer. Gray: I used the 1980 Ric that I used on TheBlack Album, but the one that ended up on most of the tracks was my very early 74. How do you get A Slipknot guitar tone? Whats your dual playing relationship like? Take the song 'Scissors', from the first album, where I'm tuned to an octave below A. Which is a hard thing to do with nine people in the band!". Apart from the TC Nova System, for its analog distortions, and a Dunlop wah, the only other pedal used was the H9 Harmonizer. But also, Ive never known trust like the nine.. Blending subtle humor and loud guitar has been his forte since he switched to the bands lead musical role in 1977. Although not as light as some other guys on this . Or why not treat yourself? Punk rock has morphed, been bastardized, revitalized, and analyzed infinitely since becoming a defined movement in the late 70s. I try not to step on anybodys toes but try not to get lost either. With Slipknot, my bass playing is a little more laidback and subdued. I wish I had known that back then! It dealt with depression and survivors guilt, but also the strong love Corey had spoken about in the press conference. Onstage, as it filled with sweat and snot and spit, he cut a forbidding, expressionless figure, often bent double as he sunk down into those low-end notes. Its complexity is countered by the open-string drone that dramatically brings everything to a close the guitar and bass amps ringing out together in a hellish orchestra of earth-shaking noise. The worlds biggest and best metal magazine, Every Slipknot album ranked from worst to best, Slipknots Mate. He was everything that was wonderful about this band and about this group of people. The day after it happened, we were all over the place, and we all kind of made our way to my house, he recalled. Instead of sticking with the drop B tuning used on its other tracks, Paul used a drop A tuning with this thickest string another octave down - which he described as a super low, almost. Gibson SG 60s Tribute models with EverTune bridges I go to the same fucking bar and hang out with the same fucking people, so I really havent changed that much. That evening, the eight remaining members of the Knot, aided by early bandmember/stand-in bassist Donnie Steele, provided their own loud tribute. You've mentioned quite a few genres there, so what's your favourite bassline of all time? From triumph to tragedy, here is his story. I still do the same shit, man. One of my brothers friends had a weird right-handed bass, which I strung left-handed, and a practice amp. The 1980s were yet another decade that brought massive changes in music. He doesnt use conventional tunings a lot of the time, and a lot of the strings sort of ring on in an open tuning, and it gives the bass so much more room to trade off and prompts more ideas in my playing. Theyre just magnificent! And how about you, personally? String gauge. And what about tunings, do you experiment when you're writing? Its a clairvoyant chemistry that cant be really pinned down. His playing was informed by his early devotion to thrash, and that conversion to the bass. Does new pickguard & knobs = NGD? The deep, menacing notes heard during the intro and verses build an almost horror movie kind of suspense in between the grinding guitars and its hair-raising You all stare but youll never see theres something inside me chorus. The two I mainly use are very different. During the recording sessions for All Hope Is Gone, Paul had called Shawn to say he was too sick to come to the studio. It was always the singer or the guitarist that got the glory, so I liked the slightly subversive nature of those bass players. By their own admission, it was a chaotic time for The Nine Clown once described the sessions as hell and this track in particular as their way of saying, "Fuck off and leave us alone.". We recorded at Atomic Sound in Brooklyn, which is a beautiful studio with a lovely, big wooden live room. Originally posted by volumefiend. "It was weird because when I started practising these songs on bass, I didn't know any of them. The Des Moines scene was thriving, as Americas corn belt misfits ploughed their frustrations into thrash, death metal and rock at clubs like the Runway. I don't know what he used on actual recording. I try to avoid soloing for its own sake and you have to judge when its run its course and its best to get out for something else to take over, or risk boring the listener for ones own ego gratification. When you play, do you prefer to play with a pick or your fingers? Sprayed sparks all over the place. It suits the Damned material better and cleans up nicer with the volume knob than a straight SG Standard, for some reason. Its a real players bass and has obviously been played and loved for over 40 years and it really feels like it! You dont often get that, and I struggle to think of any other guitarist that Ive worked with that Ive had that relationship with. But more importantly than anything else, Paul Grays songs and performances have resonated louder and prouder with each and every passing year. The founding bassists untimely passing remains one of metals most heartbreaking tragedies, Slipknots loyal legions left no choice but to ponder the prodigious creations his mind would have gone on to conceive. Its safe to say that when Slipknot takes time off, Paul was the one person worst affected by the other side-bands. Im not just playing for Clown; Im playing for him, for his wife and daughter, his legacy, his love for the band, his love for music.. Scott D. Smith/Retna ./Retna Ltd./Corbis. Slipknot have just released a brand-new song, Bone Church, which started life in a jam room on the .5: The Gray Chapter tour. He could listen to something and de-construct it in his head and go, You know what? What was the first bassline you ever tried to play? Ive used them since I discovered them back in 1976, and Ive tried all the other makes and I always go back to Rotosound. [Editors note: Thats Andrew Pinching, the Damneds drummer.] Gray has been in and out of the bandmostly outsince 1984.Photo by Tony Woolliscroft. What did you hope to get out of the Damned in the studio? What Guitar Strings Does Paul Simon Use? You gotta find your pocket. For bass, he uses two main string sets: Hofner H1133B Flat Wound Nickel strings and RotoSound Tru Bass 88 Nylon Tapewound strings, both of which have a tremendous impact on his tone. Heavy gauge picks. Gray: Yeah! I went into the local music store and heard some guys talking about needing a bass player for their band, they did covers of Slayer and Metallica songs, So, not knowing anybody and wanting to meet people, I told them I could play bass even though I had never played one in my life. Although Slipknot's Paul Gray was known to many simply as . After then he used steel strings. http://www.bassstringsonline.com/Hofner-Beatle-Bass-Strings_c_101.html, First New Bass Day in decades for me: Yamaha BB350F, Fun with a Squier Bass VI and a AB165 1968 Bassman setup -. The Nova is great, combining analog distortions with digital delays and reverbsand despite being a bit long in the tooth these days, theres not a lot of similar alternatives. He had something going on in his mind, and I was like, OK, I need to back off I cant touch this. And if you listen to that song, you can tell that theres heartfelt pain in that., Shawn had never intended to join a metal band, but got sucked into the promise of what he could create with someone as talented as Paul. 19 years ago Wow, I'm getting old! On July 10, at 2pm, thousands of Sonisphere-goers joined together in a two-minute silence for #2. So I begged my mum for a guitar, and she finally got me one. Things like that made a big difference, and on some tracks, youre hearing five to six guitar takes all at once. I havent a clue about scales and stuff. They received a settlement in 2018. Stay up to date with in depth music reviews, exclusive interviews and widespread coverage of whats happening from your favourite music genre. 3 era, he was unequivocal about the feelings Slipknot had stirred in him from the outset. It required the heaviest gauge top string he could find in order to hold the notes well enough to record. Tony McPhees Groundhogs performance of Cherry Red on Top of the Pops departed radically from the shows usual fare, and that was the moment I decided to get a guitar and only a Gibson SG would do. If you think it's fucked up and weird, then that's cool because it's your thing. Some of it I tap out, some of it is more simple, and some of it I have to follow the guitars and do runs and leads and stuff like that. As well as his work in Slipknot, he also filled in on bass for desert rockers Unida fronted by Kyuss singer John Garcia and other projects like Drop Dead, Gorgeous and Reggie And The Full Effect. I was used to hearing the guitar in each song and the bass is there and you can hear it filling out the song, but I really had to listen to his parts. Bands rose and fall, members came and went. Works 23; All; Songs written by Paul Gray [US1] Original songs. "We were on Ozzfest and I had the one Soundgear bass, which was really old, with no back-up guitar and we were playing all these shows. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). Sensible: Tony and engineer Kevin Killen thought the material had a 60s garage vibe, so sought out less-saturated distortions, mainly from the studio Vox AC30 and an excellent Matrix VB800 amp that Id packed in my suitcase, which certainly packs a punch despite being on the dainty side. Columbus Ohio. Did I ever really think a friend was going to die? Rock n roll needs its rough edges. Thats my go-to bass at the moment with the Damned, and thats the one I used on our tour. Has there ever been something that was just too far out for the Damned? We had to kick everything up a notch, and that required the Captain playing a bunch of different guitars in the studio. Gary Moore preferred Dean Markley Electric Guitar strings he used .010 set (2504B) or a .009 set (2508). Frank Zappa? Not quite, but I'll take that as a compliment whether intended or not! ran an early assessment of the new tracks, describing Left Behind as "considerably more melodic than the rest of the album, providing a brief moment of respite from the outright nastiness elsewhere". Whether he knew you or not. Strings 2 : Electric Bass Nickel Plated Steel with NANOWEB Coating. People say they eat into frets, but Ive never found that to be the case, and I change them every night when Im on tour. We may earn a commission on any affiliated purchases. I used to use heavier strings, but a couple of years ago I injured my hand and I had to go down a gauge. If I have a lack of inspiration, theres a few tunings I like, which have come up with some good results. Surprise! There was nothing funny going on with the studio desk: everything was flat. However, it is generally believed that he typically uses roundwound strings on his bass, with a gauge somewhere in the range of 45-60. Whats the writing process in the band today?Sensible: We write as individuals, then throw our stuff into the Damned pot and see what it sounds like. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)), a beautifully unnerving departure for the band, setting quiet, sinister tension against wretched release. I helped start one of the biggest metal bands in the world and Im not necessarily a metalhead. scullyfan. Rock n roll needs its rough edges. One has a clanky sound and one has much more growl. It's definitely a different thing compared to if I was playing in a punk band with only one guitar player and I could fucking, y'know, noodle around and do lots of stuff. As his bandmates drift in and out, its really just #2 holding everything together from beginning to end. It features a pre-bend that has an almost rubbery, time-warp kind of feel and returns at the end of the track, switching to half-time while Corey continues roaring, Look me in my brand new eye! Its these extra touches and twists that gave an unmistakable feel and identity to the bands seemingly inexhaustible supply of sonic violence. Did he have any interesting methods for capturing the powerful guitar sound on Evil Spirits? Joey also recalls laying down the drums for All Hope Is Gones Gehenna, while Paul wrote instinctively. To the outside world, everything was fine. A long time ago we used to do a cover of that song 'The Humpty Dance' and I would have to tune during the song, as we're playing.". Fans held t-shirts aloft, while Shawn and Corey stood at the back of the stage, arms around each others shoulders, faces crumpled with emotion. 1990s Vox 4x10 cab He turned up to rehearsal with a right-handed bass borrowed from his brothers friend, Frankensteind into a left-handed one, and played the regular guitar parts on it. Pure Ric-into-Ampeg glory. While it might seem unusual that I like Mountain and Deep Purple, considering the music Im known for playing, Captain is into the really obscure progressive rock stuff and has that in his playing. As far as opening gambits go, the first musical track on Slipknots debut is as good as it gets. We've got songs on the albums that are in our normal drop B tuning, and we do a drop A tuning, and I do another tuning where I'm actually in octaves - it's weird! His eyebrows would go down, his brain would switch off, and the music sang through him. Corey called him their secret weapon. The blueprint Paul helped draw up for Slipknot shines through its bludgeoning riffs, and even through the energy of latest album We Are Not Your Kind. The legendary Dan Erlewine, luthier Gene Imbody and Berklees Tomo Fujita have shot a 6-point lesson video to help, Producer Mura Masa says that PinkPantheresss Boys A Liar was made in a couple of hours, and that he didnt know about the Ice Spice 'Pt 2' remix until he saw the video, A-ha interview: "We were convinced that the record company would drop us and everything was over before it began" the story of Take On Me and their debut album Hunting High And Low. Paul, youve name-checked unexpected influences for a guy whos made his bones playing punk: particularly Felix Pappalardi from Mountain and Roger Glover of Deep Purple.Paul Gray: I was always drawn to the bass end for some reason. There was, however, a lot more to the man than extreme noise Paul cited names like Flea and Bootsy Collins alongside more audible influences such as Cliff Burton and Steve Harris, describing the latter as an idol for his ability to play all over the bass and leave no fret untouched. A Les Paul is easier to play than a Strat because a Les Paul has a far lower string tension compared to a Strat with the same gauge strings. Its so easy to be generic or cheesy in metal, and Paul never was.