Breaking News
This track was recorded in January 2015 as part of a Peculiar Disco Moves EP. I took a DI out of my Sansamp and mic’d up my SVT rig (Ampeg SVT CL and SVT 4×10 classic). I did it in one take with an extra run through just for safety (in case of audio glitches or unwanted noise). Once again pre-production makes everything easier, you should always go into the studio knowing exactly what you need to play.
The song’s in Db major but has some chromatic harmony and borrowed chords. There’s nothing too fancy in this one bass-wise, I mostly stay down the bottom of the neck and hold down the root and as always use chromatic and diatonic approach notes and runs to keep the track bouncing along.
In verse 1 there’s a bass counter melody to the main vocal that then walks down a major pentatonic scale to the root. Before each ‘in the news’ section I superimpose an Ab over an Ebm chord to lead nicely back to the tonic (Db). Using the 5th of the next chord as an approach note to it is a standard bassist technique and is a great way to create some forward momentum harmonically speaking. The ‘in the news’ section has two chords (Db – Ebm) per bar with an ascending root note. The bass essentially plays a up Db major scale with added #4 (G) and b7 (B). This leads to some interesting chords (Db/G or Gb9#11 (no3rd) being one). The chorus has a pseudo latin/bossa nova feel with each root note being anticipated a quaver before leading up to Bbm arpeggio that follows the phrasing of the vocal.
This version was recorded on the same bass (now with a jazz bass neck) through my sansamp then into Logic Pro X via my Mbox 2. I added a little compression and a slight a EQ bump at around 3-5k. I hope you enjoy the video and transcription, if you like the song check out http://peculiardiscomoves.com/ for more info on the band.
Jonathan Proud 