Funky Roots: Bass Guitarist Freekbass

Interview with Funk Bass Guitarist, Freekbass, from Dec. 28, 2006

Funky Roots

Jimmy Rae: Can you tell me some more about the live DVD and also about the new CD due out late spring/early summer?

Freekbass: The live DVD is going to be both live footage of the band, and some stuff with me sitting in with other folks. It was filmed at different shows over the last year and a half from places such as North Dakota, Montana, Ohio, and Kentucky . Some of the additional musicians that appear on the DVD include Bootsy Collins, Bernie Worrell, and Buckethead. It is shot by Jeremy Sewell of Staunchy Productions who has shot stuff for RatDog, Flaming Lipps, and Les Claypool. Jeremy has a great eye, so was a treat hooking up with him for the DVD. It will be nice to get this out for folks who have not got a chance to see a show, and might know us only by the CD's. Plus we like to stretch it out live, so nice to have that captured and get that side of things out there. I've seen some of the edits, and it is looking and sounding pretty good so far.

We are finishing up the last of the recording on the new studio CD right now. It's been a bit since we released a studio CD . Got some nice, raw tracks going, and the majority of the tunes are all brand new material. Bootsy is going to be the executive producer again like the first two, and got some cool cameos on the disc such as Bernie Worrell, Bootsy, Jen Durkin from The Rhythm Devils/ Deep Banana Blackout, and a couple of other pretty cool ones which we will talk about more as we get closer to the release date. We have been touring quite a bit since the last CD "The Air Is Fresher Underground", so been nice getting some of that heaviness on tape. We'll probably be putting up a ruff mix or two up at our MySpace page soon.

Jimmy Rae: What are your feelings on the two Funk Bass Instructional DVD's you will be working on for a spring '07 release? You won't be just playing to people, but also teaching people now on how to play funk bass, what are your thoughts on that?