To me it's very important. THE most important.
Much can be said on this subject, but above all it's a barer of feelings and communication!
As a musician myself I started playing bass, but over the years went more and more over to keyboards, to return back to play bass again in recent years, although in a very different way both technically and the role the instrument takes.
I've done two albums, and am working on the third now. All
with the project pROmEMORIA.
I play bass, keyboards, program drums, as well as writing, arranging
and producing.
Lets begin with the difference between favourite artists and
influences.
Influences are those who in some way have affected my own
way of creating or performing music.
It may or may not be something I listen to today.
Artists are those I like to listen to for one reason or
another.
Some artists I listen to have influenced me in someway, but far
from all.
Take the canadian
group Rush for instance. In the late eighties I listened
a lot to them and then had enough of them. During 2002 while building
our new studio, I had a revival with Rush, and was amazed finding
how much they had affected me in the way I arrange songs: long
songs with many different parts, seldom built in the obvious pattern
of verse-chorus-verse-chorus.
Now I listen to them only now and then, but they have been a major
impact as an influence.
On the other
end we have Dream Theater. This is a band I like to listen
to a lot. They are not an influence, but the funny thing is that
they in their turn have some of the same influences as myself.
I.e. Rush and Yes. Pick the best of Rush's and Yes's progressive/symphonic
rock and put it on a big doze of steroids and you get Dream Theater.
Well, sort of... Of course they have a sound and profile of their
very own.
And while on the subject, let's speak about Yes. This
is a group I really like both listening to and exploring their
music as a structure. They are so totally wide - from long epic
symphonic songs during the seventies, re-charging with guitarist
Trevor Rabin on the album 90125 which gave us the massive radio
hit "Owner of a lonely heart" in 1983, re-forming the
symphonic era during the nineties and finally crowning their career
with the great album Magnification from 2001 and the following
tour with a full symphony orchestra giving new dimensions to all
their old songs. As I came into their music via 90125, I don't
share the opinion of the old hard-core fans from the seventies;
that nothing Yes have done after Tales from Topographic Oceans
can live up to their name. I think they have done great music
all along - maybe some of their best on Magnification - and I
actually like the album Union, which you are expected to really
hate if you are a "true hard-core fan of Yes".
I had the great pleasure of seeing them live at Sweden Rock Festival
2003, and on their 35th anniversary tour 2004 in Stockholm.
Influence production- and soundwise, great inspiration to writing
and performing music, enjoyable to listen to - always!
Chris Squire
of YES is really the only bass player that I can call an influence.
Oh yes, there are several other bass players I find very skilled
and good musicians and enjoyable to listen to. The mighty Tony
Levin for instance, versatile as few, and Geddy Lee of Rush.
But Mr Squire has something very special in his way of playing
melodic, virtuosly riffy, simply heavy, - and pausing. And I absolutely
love his sound, at least from the eighties til today. Hard, distinct,
deepest deep and crystal high, so much string and instrument.
And he does a tremendous job using both.
Joe Satriani
Guitarist/songwriter who has it all.
Vangelis
The greek who´s the father of synthesized symphonic
music. Made filmscores for "Blade Runner", "Chariots
of Fire" and "Conquest of Paradise", and for the
TV-series "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan.
I recommend: the compilation album "Portraits"
Jean Michel Jarre
Along side with Vangelis walks the legend of this french genius.
Everything done today in the field of synth music has already
been done by the master. Well almost. At least things that matter.
I recommend: The album "Chronlogie" or some of the early
stuff.
Mike
Oldfield
Guitarist/songwriter with his very own mix of celtic-symphonic-rock,
and a very personal touch on the guitar.
I recommend: the album "Tubular Bells II"
Genesis
Great symphonic/pop/rock when at its best
I recommend: The live albums "The way we walk 1 and 2"
Six
degrees of inner turbulence (disc two)
By: Dream Theater
Pick the best of Rush's and Yes's progressive/symphonic rock and
put it on steroids.
Add a good singer, modern heavy sound, and a bunch of good songs
put together into one long piece of music with feedback on themes
and lyrics. Et voila! A record that really grows on me every time
I listen to it.
Gladiator
(soundtrack)
By: Hans Zimmer, Lisa Gerrard, Klaus Badelt and Djivan Gasparyan.
The strongest musical experience for me in a very long time has
been the soundtrack to the epic drama GLADIATOR.