Trip and I have been friends for over a decade. We met at the NAMM Show in LA in ’99, and I was immediately a fan of his music. I doubt he heard anything I was on at the time – I was still 11 months away from my first ever solo gig, and he’d already been doing the solo bass thing for best part of a decade – he was SO far ahead of the curve, inspired by Michael Manring, playing opening shows for big name acts in The South all on his own. A real inspiration.
Over the years, we met up each year at NAMM, listened to each other’s records, and whenever possible played shows together – mainly in California around NAMM time. He’s been over to the UK to play, and this last US trip was our second time visiting him and his lovely family in Louisiana, playing house concerts at their place both times.
This time, we got to record a load of music together – with my new travel set-up, it’s so easy for me to plug in and make a noise, without any of the dread expectation that hiring a studio would inspire. We could play, it could be good or terrible and no-one was going to lose anything.
Trip and I have very different work-flows – I tend to record live, do minimal editing/mixing and put it out. He’s much more meticulous in how he puts things together. So after a day of trying things my way, my had another bash at things his way – starting with loops and noises made in Reason… At the end of it all, we’ll (probably) have two EPs – one of his, one of mine.
We’ve both just put our first pieces up on Soundcloud for you to enjoy. Here’s his:
TITUS by TripWamsley
And here’s mine:
Walking In This Heat Is An Act Of Civil Disobedience (feat. Trip Wamsley) by solobasssteve
Enjoy, share them around, and we’ll see you back here for more ASAP 🙂