Try-out

I invited a twenty-one-year old bass player from Yorshire, UK to join me and K for a couple of hours in the studio last night. It was the first time K and I had played with a bass player in about a year. The guy, named Jon, is a riff-hungry player who doesn't hear his lines so much as he feels them. And he likes to play them hard and driving all the time. It's exactly the sort of thing K listens to. Something approaching heavy metal. It's exactly not the sort of thing I listen to or write. I showed Jon one part of a bass line, which had chromatic passages; and, although he's a quick learner, he had to admit that he had never played anything like that before. I told him I heard the line in my head and that's why it came out like it did. Jon had a great attitude, but I wonder how far we could go together. He might get impatient with my melodic playing, as I'm sure K does often. Both these guys like to play on pure testosterone. After working with DuBois for a number of months, I found it taxing to have to sing over loud drums, bass, and electric guitar. I sometimes wonder if it's worth the trouble to play at that volume. Studio rental, vocal strain. And Jon's situation in Japan is unclear. I'm not sure what he's doing here. He didn't even bring his bass to Japan with him, so I had to bring mine for him to play. K was understandably ecstatic about Jon's playing, but there is a big layoff in front of us, since I'll return to the States for six weeks, and a number of unanswered questions, chief of which: does Jon even want to return and play with us again?