The Matrix + Musician in Austin, TX

SEEKING

ABOUT

I am now in Austin. LOOKING FOR A BAND. Very interested in open jams, feel free to contact me.

My main instrument is bass. I play a Fender Tony Franklin fretless precision bass as my specialty. I also play regular and stand-up, plus guitar, baritone ukulele, and dabble in other stuff. Bass is my main and best instrument, but I'm a fair rhythm guitarist, and my solos are respectable, for a bass player at least.

I am technically a perpetual student. I'm a grad student with well over 215 credits, primarily science, math, biology, chemistry, environmental science, and related courses. I also have a construction job.

Fair warning: I cannot stand pseudoscience / alternative medicine / antivaxxers and will not hesitate to speak my mind on the matters should they come up. So if you're really into homeopathy, refuse to vaccinate your children, or think GMOs are the end of the world, we're probably going to clash. Evidence or STFU. Like I said, I am very straight forward.

I have been primarily an all-originals rock / jazzy rock / metal bass player for a long time. I've gotten fairly good at rhythm guitar and can even do leads as long as they are not real fast (I am NOT an Eddie Van-Halen type guitarist). I use a lot of power chords, almost always preferring to bar a chord rather than use the standard form acoustic guitar chords, and frequently may play an octave higher than the rest of the guitarists in a jam (or at least I'll be doing something different from most). I like both standard tuning and drop-D and my originals are about half and half for each. I play guitar with a pick, bass w/ fingers.

Most rock and metal I can play with either fretted or fretless (if there are a lot of notes above the 12th fret, I prefer a fretted bass, as the margin of error decreases by a lot on a fretless above the 12th fret).

Most any rock jam band I can jump right in without having ever heard the songs before. I play by ear and have a very good ear for jamming. I frequently go to jams where I don't know many (or any) of the tunes. As long as they are not excessively complex, I can usually just fall in with most anything. Obviously if there are a lot of time changes, weird chords, key changes, breaks, and the like ... I'm not a miracle worker but I can jam with most anyone. I like to go to open jams and play either bass or rhythm guitar.

I need a serious band that wants to make money and will do what it takes to meet that goal. I am way past the garage band phase and want to form/join with talented, experienced, motivated musicians. I will jam for fun with just about anyone tho.

The best way for me to learn a song is to have a recording of it on CD so I can listen in my car. Even if it's just a primitive recording, as long as I can listen, I can learn it quickly. An established band with a list of tunes could expect me to be ready to gig within anywhere from a few days to a week or two (unless your songs are real complicated, obviously that would take a bit longer).

I'm an extremely fast learner. A band with fairly easy tunes I might be able to gig within a day, and could certainly sit in and improvise immediately, tho obviously the more preparation the better.

I really do like to improvise. One of my past bands we would play some sort of improvised tune that nobody knew what it was going to be or how it would come out every time we played. When you know your band mates, and you click, it's easy to improvise.

I can sing moderately well but am not very good at singing and playing guitar at the same time. However, reasonable backup vocals would not be a problem.

I would of course like to play all originals all the time, but anything that's badass, awesome, or rocks would do! I like to play more than I like to be snobby about originals, and could even play in an all cover or tribute band if the deal was right. Anybody want to do a Zappa tribute band? That I could get into!

I'm quite open minded so if you're not sure, ask. I'm also very straight forward. What you see is what you get. I can't stand it when people are deceptive. Say what you mean and mean what you say, and say it the first time without having to be prompted for the important parts. It's much easier to deal with people when you do business this way, and that's how I do business.

Screen name:

The Matrix

Member since:

May 29 2015

Active over 1 month ago

Level of commitment:

Very Committed

Years playing music:

30

Gigs played:

Over 100

Tend to practice:

More than 3 times per week

Available to gig:

4-5 nights a week

Most available:

Nights

Influences

All manner of rock and metal, especially rock from about 68 (when the Beatles started doing acid, Sgt Pepper, not that I wanna hold your hand crap) through the seventies and some eighties. The 90's mostly sucked although there were some good things going on in spite of the tragedy of grunge. The 80's were somewhat hit and miss with probably a bit more miss. Below is a very non-comprehensive list of specific bands that I have always loved:

Primus, Metallica, Accept, Motorhead, Mars Volta, Foreigner, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden (especially powerslave and piece of mind), UFO, Dead Kennedys, Suicidal Tendencies, Aerosmith (early stuff, not that sappy poppy newer stuff), Brendon Small and Metalocalypse (plus the awesome solo album Galaktikon), Kid Rock, Lords of Acid, Horse the Band, Mushroom Head, Bad Religion, Kimberly Freeman and One Eyed Doll,, Ghost, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Santana, The Sword, Ozzy, Black Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity, Pat Metheny, Tool, System of a Down, Project/Object, Robin Trower, Simon and Garfunkel, Five Finger Death Punch, Styx, Kansas, Blotted Science, Crosby, Stills and Nash, The Who, Stevie Nicks / Fleetwood Mac, Al Demiola, Various blues, jazz and progressive, many others too many to list.

But by far my biggest influence is Frank Zappa, greatest musician that ever lived (and it's not even close). I like the technical stuff far more than the silly stuff (love Inca Roads/Andy etc). Although I don't have the songs learned, I could easily get into a Zappa cover band should sufficiently weird and dedicated people present themselves, or should Zappa plays Zappa ever need another musician.

Instrument experience:

Bass Guitar:

Advanced

Vocalist:

Moderate

Rhythm Guitar:

Moderate

Acoustic Guitar:

Moderate

Other:

Moderate

Upright bass:

Moderate

EQUIPMENT

Fender Tony Franklin Fretless Bass, Washburn Bass, Washburn electric guitar, baritone ukulele, various other guitars, always looking for something new and interesting!