By KYBP Austin Bureau Chief Robert Jenkins “Austin Underground”

 

Thad Stevens. Thad Stevens. Thad! Stevens!

 

Know that name. Know that bass player. Because Thad Stevens is one of the best bassists on the Austin Underground scene right now. He is a dedicated fretless player with a wide range of abilities that allows him to be somewhat of a chameleon in the jungle of bands in Austin.

 

Thad got his start at a relatively young age when he was in middle school. His brother played guitar and when a family friend offered to sell a bass, Thad took a stab at it. With a little background in music from middle school, the interest for Thad to play the bass was immediate, if only diversionary, at first.

 

Coming up during the post – grunge era, Thad was influenced early on by bands like Alice In Chains but was also drawn deeper into bass playing by listening to Steve Harris of Iron Maiden.

 

The music of Pink Floyd got Thad deeply interested in the sound of fretless bass. Listening to Death (and Steve Di Giorgio) helped Thad understand and love melodic bass playing in a metal context.

 

Thad’s bass career really started when he joined local Austin prog metal heavyweights Ethereal Architect. It was with this band that he was able to really showcase his range on the fretless bass in a setting of complex arrangements with broad melodic structure. The regimented style of Ethereal Architect helped Thad to really refine the style of playing fast and in tune on fretless.

 

Thad went on to play with Immortal Guardian and Descendants of Erdrick, continuing to explore his opportunities to add his fretless sound and style to a metal context.

 

Thad currently plays with local Austin hardcore behemoths Böndbreaker. “I really like playing with Böndbreaker because it allows me complete freedom to play my style while engaging in and promoting a message that I feel is important and worthy. It is very fulfilling” says Thad. He also plays with singer/songwriter Amanda Lepre. This provided him with the opportunity to learn to play in a “less is more” style, playing to the song so as not to be overbearing in a lighter musical setting.

 

Thad Stevens really can play just about anything. He is a musical chameleon with the ability to play a wide range of genres with a unique sound and style. You should definitely know this bass player.

 

Thad is an endorser of Clement Basses by Tom Clement of Florida.

 

He plays two Clement Basses: 5-string Wide Joan and 6-string Wide Joan, both fretless. His  5-string is a swamp ash body with a black limba top; white limba neck; black/white ebony finger board; Bartolini Original Bass Dual pickups; Bartolini preamp.

 

Thad plays through a Genz – Benz Shuttle Max 6.0 through Genz – Benz Shuttle 2/10 and 2/12 cabinets.

 

Who are Thad’s influences? There are too many to mention. But he credits Doug Kaiser of Wrathchild, Lars Norberg of Spiral Architect, Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, and Geddy Lee of Rush as being his primary influences.

 

Thad Stevens Sound & Vision…

 

Thad with Ethereal Architect: https://youtu.be/kuVDC9PjU08

 

Thad with Immortal Guardian: https://youtu.be/jRUK6EpLUFI

 

Thad with Amanda Lepre: https://youtu.be/47VK3I4Zo_4

 

Thad with Descendants of Erdrick: https://youtu.be/WSFH2G0nXqM

 

Thad with Böndbreaker (full performance): https://youtu.be/8yWKu0hbjr4

 

By Thomas Semioli

A student at the London College of Printing who started out as a drummer, Scottish born Neil Murray passed on a career as a graphic designer for a rock and roll vocation which has worked out quite nicely – he has anchored several of the most influential artists in hard rock history.

Among the most in-demand bassists on stage and in the studio for three generations and counting, Neil’s “short list” of credits include one of the many underrated versions of Black Sabbath, along with Whitesnake, The Brian May Band, Gary Moore, Graham Bonnet, Cozy Powell, Peter Green, Bernie Marsden, Jon Lord, Micky Moody, Queen and Paul Rodgers, and the Michael Schenker Group to cite a very, very, very select few.

A chameleonic player Neil Murray’s versatility sets him apart from the metal motley – altering his tone and playing style as the situation warrants, drawing from prog-rock, rhythm & blues, pop, jazz fusion, soul and permutations thereof.

 

 

Dig Murray’s Jaco-esque tone and phrasing on the 1980 version of “Fool for Your Loving” https://youtu.be/PWJFjgcAhjQ

Dig Neil working the arena ballad pocket on Black Sabbath’s “Feels Good To Me” https://youtu.be/3xyQBxy5glE

Dig Neil working the pop rock pocket with Brian May “Since You’ve Been Gone” https://youtu.be/T3qqRZhWzDI

Dig Neil with British blues guitar legend Peter Green and Cozy Powell“The Green Manalishi” https://youtu.be/CVBToPOUFW4

Dig Neil with Bernie Marsden, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice “Look at Me Now” https://youtu.be/upn6KBoTvpM

Dig Tony Senatore’s rendition of Neil with Whitesnake “In the Still of the Night” and Neil’s response to Tony https://youtu.be/FgS7iQrjg1k

Neil Murray writes: thanks for doing the track, Tony – don’t blame me for the video! I wanted to check the fast riffs at the beginning, since almost no-one ever gets them 100% right. I realize it’s hard to make out, but I was happy to see that the first one is correct, with the high A note on the G string; however, the second part STARTS with the same A note, so it’s exactly the same as the first riff, just missing off the beginning Bb-B-C. Many people play both riffs the way you’ve played the second part, not playing the high A at all, which is wrong. I’ve been planning to do videos like yours of my own bass parts, though I’m worried about the copyright issues, plus I’d quite like to eventually earn some money from doing them, which seems to be a minefield! Towards the end of the song, I am playing some 16th-note runs all the way through, not just on the first couple of bars, which sadly are virtually inaudible in the mix, so I’ll try to show what I do on that part. I replaced the root & 5 chords as the start of the middle quiet section, with double-tracked fretless slides which gave a bit of Jaco-chorusing, but maybe my tuning was judged to be not perfect enough, so the original fretted version was used. I played a Kubicki ExFactor bass on this track, as far as I can remember. [A pedant writes: no ‘In The”, it’s just “Still Of The Night”].