Player of the Week: Interview with Eric Morgan

This week’s interview is with Eric Morgan. The bassist for the NYC Doom outfit “A Pale Horse Named Death”. Here are some excerpts from the interview:

[Background about Eric in his own words]

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. Been playing bass for 38 years, started right before I turned 10 years old, and have been playing shows/touring since I was 11-1/2 years old.Influences are Geezer Butler, Cliff Burton, Tony Iommi, Lemmy, lots of World, Jazz and non-bassist musicians, and all the great musicians I’ve had the pleasure of playing with over the years.Gear info is:  Warwick Streamer basses. Verellen Meatsmoke 300W all tube head with Earcandy Bassbomb and Ozlo cabs.Lots of effects from Black Arts Toneworks, Idiotbox Effects, Earthbound Audio, RedSunFX, Chicago Iron/Tycobrahe, and more.Spectraflex cables.
Also an avid sidewalk surfing longboarder and Bonsai enthusiast, which brings some unique perspective to my bass playing approach.A Dad, Husband, Artist, Sculptor, Inventor, and all around good egg.  😊
“A Pale Horse Named Death” has our 3rd album coming out this Friday, January 18th, on SPV Steamhammer/Long Branch Records.A UK/Europe tour is already booked for March/April, with US, Canadian, and other territory dates. Thanks for interviewing me. It’s been a pleasure!

What is the model of bass you play?  

Warwick Streamers, and also a fretless Warwick Fortress. Black and Matte Black.  😊

Any customization or gear mods?  

Nothing other than swapping out all the pots for CTS 1 meg pots and Mallory 150 series .022 Metalized Polyester Film Caps, and Neutrik Locking Output jacks.  I love these basses as they are.

What inspired you to get started?  

Hearing Black Sabbath’s Iron Man on the radio for the first time when I was 7 years old.  After that I knew I wanted to be in a band.  At 9 years old I met another kid my age who was already playing drums, so I said “I’ll play guitar.”, he said “I have a guitarist.”, so I said “I’ll play bass!”, and that was that.  Best by-chance decision as I fell in love with it, and realized I was the bridge between rhythm and melody, so I could kind of play drums at the same time by reinforcing the riff by doubling the drum’s rhythm.  An approach I take still to this very day.

Who is your current inspiration?  

That’s a tough one.  I’ve been kind of going back to a lot of older stuff with a new perspective, like Pink Floyd for overall sonics, Peter Gabriel for Tony Levin’s impeccable and tasteful playing, and one of my all-time favorites, Steely Dan, because the songwriting and execution are top-notch.  Steely Dan is all I listened to while we were recording the latest record. I intentionally shied away from any heavy music during that time.

Toughest gig you ever played?  

There was a show we played in Staten Island back in the mid-80’s where we were covering for my friend’s band who’s guitarist broke his arm.  They had hopes of playing this venue in the future so they asked if we could do the gig to offer the venue a replacement act and stay in their good graces.We were a Prog/Thrash band (called First Order) with a lot of nasty breakdowns that were heavy with the China cymbal and half-timing/tricky revolving riffs (think current Meshuggah before there was a Meshuggah).  They had us on a bill with a bunch of hair bands, but we forged ahead and were professional as always, but the club staff were real tools.Sound man was yelling into his talk back mic while we were playing to mock us, and whenever or singer was singing he would yell over him, the lighting guy was turning the lights completely off then all back on…and mind you these were grown men.Our drummer got pretty annoyed so he started whacking the mics on his kit instead of hitting the snare and toms, making some pretty loud popping noises as you can imagine.  They cut the power to the stage and rushed up there basically looking to fight us.  Ultimately cooler heads prevailed, and although we left on poor terms with them, that was a pretty tough gig.
For an overcoming an obstacle type story, I was doing session dates back at NYC’s Music Building and on one session they brought me in, the engineer I was friendly with told me this one was a pretty important gig for me, but couldn’t say who.  The producer came in, plopped some sheet music in front of me and said “Go.”.  Now, I can’t read music…I do everything by ear.So I pretend to study the charts, while I’m internally panicking thinking “How am I going to get through, or out of, this one gracefully?”.I decide to say “This looks good, but it’s giving me some ideas.”.  The producer, kind of annoyed, says “Just play whats on paper, please.”, I ask that he roll the tape and indulge me as I think he’ll dig it.He says “Fine…” with an eye-roll, and the engineer rolls the tape.  I quickly figured out the root motion of the track and did my thing with it.  The producer perked up and said “That’s great!  Yeah, man.  Run with that.” so I did and we all walked away happy.  That session was for Taylor Dane’s first record I ultimately found out months later.
Subsequently I got more call backs for projects this producer was working on and I’d pull the same trick and all was good.  After a while they would just bring me in for what I did on all sorts of sessions sans sheet music.  So over coffee one day I said “You don’t have to sweat getting me sheet music anymore, man.”, to which the producer jokingly replied “Oh, Mister Man here doesn’t want sheet music cramping his style!”.  To which I replied “I can’t read music.”.  Producer says “Yeah, uh-huh.”  The engineer, very amused doing a double-take, goes “Dude…he just said he can’t read music.  He duped you on those first few sessions!”, to which the producer said “You sneaky, ballsy, little bastard.” with a wry smile.  Then said he brings me in for what I do now anyway, so it didn’t matter.
Moral of that story?  Do your homework, spontaneously jam with as many different people as you can…especially people you don’t know so you’re out of your comfort zone.I’m considered a Metal Head by most, but I listen to, and play all sorts of music.  That perspective, and having a well stocked mental “tool box” is what allowed me to make it through those sessions unscathed, and ultimately brought back and very respected for what I brought to the table.  I was able to play on R&B, Jazz, and Funk session, but my Rock/Metal background brought something new to the track.  My varied musical background and tastes gave me the vocabulary to make what I do still be appropriate for the track.

Who’s your biggest fan?  

Now THIS is probably the toughest question I’ve ever been asked.  I feel funny saying these are my biggest fans, as it sounds cocky, and big-headed to me, but…There are a couple of people that are fans of the band that ultimately became people I consider friends of mine that said that I inspired them want to play bass.  That would be Aileen Bean and Linda Quinlan.Those were two major highlights for me musically.  That’s some heavy stuff to lay on me as I take that very seriously, and I was very touched by that.  I actually got a little choked up when they told me.Music is very important to me, so them taking up the bass because of me is probably the best reward/award I could receive as a musician.  I was deeply moved and humbled by their words.

Here’s a video of Eric jamming out…

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