Bass Musician Magazine - SPECIAL August 2014 Female Bassist Issue | Page 72

understand exactly what I was listening to but
he really sparked something inside me. Then I
discovered Ray Brown, Niels-Henning Ørsted
Pedersen, Willie Dixon, Pops Foster… all at
the same time. (I spent all my life in between
bass and double bass!) When I heard Jaco’s
self-titled debut recording, it was like a shock!
Then The Police, Leland Sklar, Patitucci, Carol
Kaye… Even today, I never stop being inspired
from musicians from all around the world.
In an industry dominated by male
musicians, do you find that this hinders
or helps your opportunities?
You cannot even imagine how many
opportunities I missed just because I was a
girl! I happened to play for an audition and the
producer said to me, “You play great, but we
can’t have a girl in the band, too many troubles
to deal with women!” For me, I never thought
that music had a ‘sex’ to it; I believed that
musicians were like angels and it was a really
sad discovery because I couldn’t do anything
to change the facts!
What is your opinion of the image
of female bassists in today’s music
industry?
Sometimes females think they need to act too
much like men in order to be accepted in a
male world. I would like to affirm that we don’t
have to act like a man in order to play bass.
When I get started, I tried to demonstrate just
how strong I was by denying any help and
carrying my upright by myself, trying to behave
like a man. Today I strongly recommend that
we not forget about our femininity. Being a
female bass player is difficult only because
we are at the beginning of the history! Even
though I’m a bassist, I’m still a woman, and

p
‘m

T
i
e
a

W
c
T

W
a
I
f
F
w
t
h
f
m
b
i
t
s
a
o

T
a
I
c
b
r

W
I
w
j
T