Greg Rice offers the following as a defining quote:
"All of us are great admirers of reggae music, and we all agreed that, you know, that they all had this great throbbing, pounding bass. It made the finest stereo equipment sound broken. That's how great these bass parts were. So we just put as much bass as we could in this one, hopefully too much."
-
David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap, on bass line in "Big Bottom".
A native of the Washington Metro area, Greg Rice grew up in a musical family. Greg recollects, "My first musical experience was at the age of three when my brother, sister and I, introduced a ball peen hammer to a good portion of the white keys on our grandmother's upright piano. The ivories were eminently easier to chip."
Thus began a life-long affinity for music and hammers, as Greg also has a great deal of skill at building and woodworking.
"Our whole family was involved with music, singing in church, playing guitars, violins and piano, but it was considered something to do for fun."
Greg's inspiration to play the bass came when he heard Fernando Saunders playing the fretless bass on Lou Reed's "New Sensations" through the dashboard radio of an early model AMC Gremlin.
" I want the principles of a timeless muse
I want to eradicate my negative views
And get rid of those people who are always on a down"
According to Greg, "What really reached out and grabbed me was the bass line. It gave the song the simultaneous feeling of being upbeat and laidback."
After that it was off to the music store for an electric bass. Greg has since performed in a number of reggae, rock and blues groups. Ted adds, "Since hanging around with me for the last 10 years, Greg has gotten more into jazz. One of the key elements in the group sound is the beautiful tone Greg gets on his
Alembic
bass. He is our youngest member and his energy is infectious. I'll tell you a little secret, most musicians act nuts but bass players ARE nuts. It must be those low frequencies. Someone should do a study on that. |
