“How many
chords do I know? That’s a stupid
question, hahaha! I think I know all of them, but
I
don’t know how many all of them’ is.
There are
augmented chords, diminished chords, chords to
do with different scales, sevenths and ninths,
y’know
what I mean? (No, we don’t have the
foggiest...) If
you know all the octaves, you know all the
chords.
Once you know a chord, you know all the
variations.
“Guitarists have a reputation for being
show-offs,
and though I’m not really a show-off, it can
happen
sometimes. Like, I’ll go to the front of the
stage
and touch all the girls’ hands! Once, I was
in the
middle of the song so I waved my leg instead,
but they grabbed it and started pulling me off
the
stage! I was going, ‘Let go~ I’ve got
to get back to
my mic before the next verse!”’ |
|
The
bass has four strings (compared to a guitar's
six)
but it’s bigger and longer than a guitar,
with a
lower tone. I play a full-sized one, though
it’s got
the smallest body and neck that we could find.
(We measure Kieran ‘s hands —
they’re tiny.’) If my
bass didn’t have a thin neck, I’d only
be able to
reach two of the strings!
“I can’t learn a song ‘til
Mark’s learnt it, ‘cos the
notes I play are the same as the guitar. I used
to
want to play rhythm guitar, but I’ll stick
with the
bass for the moment.
“Do we ever smash up our instruments?
(“If it’s
somebody else~s!” chips in Mark.) No,
we’re not
like that. You can feel sorry for an instrument,
even though you know it’s an inanimate
object.
If I smashed it up, I’d be like, ‘Poor
guitar...”’ |
|
You’ve got
your bass drum, your snare and your
toms, then you’ve got cymbals, high hats,
bells...
When you come to make up the beat, it depends
on the tempo of the song, then you add little
flicks.
Once you’ve got the rhythm, you can stick in
any
fills (fancy little drum rolls) you want. When
you’re
playing, you just make it up as you go along.
You’re
just grooving. Sometimes I go a bit mad and these
two don’t like it — but I love to just
go for it.
“I’m always tapping my feet
(‘Smash Hits can
confirm this is true!). I used to do it at school
— they
thought it was a nervous twitch. I used to run
round
the house, banging walls. Me mum thought there
was something wrong and took me to the
doctor’s!
She should have just bought me a drum kit!” |
