Daron's Guitar Chronicles: Vol 4

315 DON'T GET ME WRONG

DON'T GET ME WRONG

We ended up convening in the back around J.'s little gray tape recorder.

"Okay, first thing, my usual thing. If there's something you don't want to answer, just say so, or wave your hand like you're passing your turn," Jonathan said. I didn't remember him ever saying that before, but Bart and Ziggy nodded like they knew what he was talking about. "So, if you weren't doing this, what would you be doing?"

"You mean if we weren't on tour right now?" I asked.

"If you want. Though I kind of meant it more as if you weren't pursuing a career in music, what would you be doing?"

All three of us pondered that for a moment. Ziggy spoke first. "I have no idea. I guess probably by now I would've quit the job at the video rental store and moved up to waiting tables somewhere."

We laughed, because he said it like a joke, but then he went on. "Seriously, it's that or I would have come up with something else as crazy, wonderful, wild, and creative as what I'm doing now, just different."

It was me who said, "You mean like starring in a movie?"

"Yeah, or something even weirder. Who knows? Without the band that movie wouldn't have happened. But maybe something would have." He shrugged. "When I was a kid, I always thought I would be famous."

"What do you mean by that?" Jonathan prompted.

"I mean, when people always ask little kids what are you going to be when you grow up my answer was always 'Famous.' It's kind of... amusing... actually, that it's come true."

"What about you, Daron?" Jonathan asked.

"Did I want to be famous? I didn't really think of it that way. I just..." I looked at my hands. "I mean, guitar is what I do. And I want to do it well, and successfully, and if success is fame, then, I guess so?"

"What about the original question? What would you be doing now if you weren't pursuing a career in music?"

"Well, but I'd still be pursuing it, I think, I just wouldn't have got here yet," I said. "I'd still be working a cash register at Tower Records, I guess."

"Bart?"

Bart shrugged. "I imagine if I hadn't met this one..." He knocked me on the arm. "...I might've stayed on the orchestra track. But probably not. I'd have gone postal by now if I did. I'd still be in music somewhere, somehow, though. Session work. Half the reason I worked so hard on the electric bass is because there are a hell of a lot more gigs for the bass than the bassoon."

"He's not half bad at the standup concert bass either," I added.

Bart shrugged.

"All right," J. said. "Let's talk influences. You've told me a little before about the other rock and pop artists who've influenced you. But what about other genres? Bart, do you have classical influences?"

"Well, sure, but the classical influence comes more from composers than from artists or musicians. So, you know, Brahms, Wagner." He pronounced it "Vogner," of course. "Jazz, though, I took a lot from Jaco Pastorius."

"I don't know if I'd call it a LOT," I said. "I mean, I hear the Jaco in what you do, but it's only a little."

"What else do you hear in Bart's playing?" J. asked.

"I hear John Taylor, for one thing."

"Which John Taylor?" Bart asked, intrigued.

"Both of them. Queen and Duran Duran. And Porl Thompson. And T-Bone Burnett." I waved my hand suddenly. "Wait, no, I mean T-Bone Wolk."