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Marianas Trench Bassist Mike Ayley on Learning to Not Overplay
Canadian Musician recently asked Mike Ayley : “ With this extra time at home during the pandemic , what element of your bass playing have you focused on and how have you gone about improving on it ?” Here ’ s what he had to say …
Normally I find that playing bass is really
just about playing the right notes and not playing too many and what ’ s right for the song . I actually think that ’ s the biggest rule , is just supporting the song without interfering with it and adding excitement without stealing too much of a moment .
So , I ’ ve been focusing on a couple things . One of them is just writing , and writing to support a song . I think that ’ s really important . It ’ s been interesting not being in the normal studio situation and doing it all by myself [ in a home recording space ], and trying to figure out all the parts to work together . When you come back to the instrument you ’ re most proficient on , it ’ s hard to not overplay or try to do too much . So , I usually either leave it until the end or do it right at the beginning when there ’ s nothing there , just to give myself just a skeleton structure .
But then when it comes to practising , Marianas Trench actually did this livestreaming concert and it was weird because we were playing a whole bunch of old songs and some of them we hadn ’ t played in 10 years or more and we couldn ’ t practice together . So , we ’ re not seeing each other until we ’ re performing and you ’ ve got to do all these songs . Three weeks before the performance we had like a 30-song setlist and were still trying to narrow it down . So , I find the key to getting quite good at parts is always repetition . But when you ’ ve got 30 songs , it would take a couple hours just to go through the potential setlist once .
So , in August and September I was just playing all the time . The repetition , I think , is probably one of the most beneficial methods – though not most time efficient – to improving as a player . I think that ’ s because , one , you can become really good at the songs and start listening to it in different ways as you hear it over and over . If you ’ re singing and playing , the independence is so key . One of the parts has got to be automatic by that point . If you ’ re having a rough throat day and you ’ re really focusing on supporting your breathing and singing , then the playing better be automatic . That ’ s the part I usually rely on being my foundation and then the other things that I have to do in the music are what I have to focus on .
So , to bring it back to my initial point , it ’ s funny that when you ’ re first starting out , you ’ re always like , “ What ’ s my part and where do I play ?” and you can ’ t wait to play your part . Now , when I ’ m listening back to the music , I am always focusing on the space between all the parts . I feel like that ’ s where the real musicianship comes in . It ’ s about not playing too early and instead letting the notes be where they ’ re supposed to be and not jumping the gun .
Our first album , Dave Genn was producing it and he would be saying , “ You guys just can ’ t wait to get to the next part – you ’ re all just so excited !” I thought that was a good thing at the time and now I realize that that is a lack of experience and not knowing how to wait and feel it . Over the years , your ears become more and more focused on that .
Even playing live , though it ’ s been in a while other than that streaming concert , the key is to really focus on what Ian [ Casselman ], our drummer , is playing or what the other guys are playing – but usually the drums – and really trying to just lock in with the feel and the click at the same time . I think that that is a quiet art , because it doesn ’ t get you any attention . In fact , the better you do it , the less attention you ’ re going to get . I think it all comes back to that same thing . It ’ s about the right part and performance for the song and letting the song speak .
Mike Ayley has established himself as a bass player , vocalist , and member of platinum-selling band Marianas Trench . The band has released multiple gold and platinum-certified singles and albums and won multiple Juno Awards . Ayley has been playing bass for over 20 years and 2020 marked his first solo project outside of Marianas Trench , a charming holiday duet with his wife Emily called “ The World Needs Christmas .” Find out more at www . marianastrench . net .
Ð CANADIAN MUSICIAN 31