“I grew up in a musical household”, says Ingrid Michaelson bassist Chris Kuffner, “By the time I was 15 or 16 I was gigging constantly and I haven’t really stopped”.
Chris began playing upright when he was 11 years old but by the time he started gigging in his mid-teens, he was already doubling on both electric and upright basses. After college, Chris established himself in the NYC singer/songwriter scene and is enjoying a long tenure with Michaelson who is currently on the road supporting her latest album, Everybody. To add to his already busy schedule, Chris has also been venturing off into production work for other artists. Chris finds inspiration in separating himself from his instrument, and maintaining a sense of the ‘big picture’ when producing. “There is so much more you can do than just being a bass player. The fruits of your labor, if you are doing it for art’s sake, can be what takes you to the next level”.
Home in NYC for a few days before a second round of touring with Michaelson, Chris sat down at Aguilar HQ to tell us about his early years, transitioning from upright to electric bass and how “geeking out” on simple concepts can create endless possibilities.

You began on upright, how did you gravitate to the electric bass?
Being a high-school kid in the 90’s I was totally obsessed with Victor Wooten and I started leaning more towards the electric when I was 15 or 16 and playing a lot of funk music. I was also playing Jazz on the electric as well as the upright. By the time I got to college I was doubling pretty hard and had already taken classical lessons in high school, so I had both techniques. Nowadays I don’t do as much upright playing.

What did you enjoy about making that transition?
I feel more comfortable on the electric. I like that you can get a lot louder and it doesn’t fight you at all. With the upright the discipline is to play a single note with a really good sound and be in tune whereas with an electric, it’s more about expressing yourself and creating what you want because there’s not so much of a physical task involved.

You have done so much with a fairly small rig.
I’m only using the AG 500SC and two DB 112’s on the road but it sounds huge. I’ve played Madison Square Garden with that rig! No matter how large the stage is, it always sounds real big, round and articulate. I’ve always been a fan of 12’s, and now I don’t really like the sound of a 410 cabinet anymore – the DB 112 has spoiled me! I really like the extra air that those speakers push. I really don’t need anything more that that!

When did you first branch out into the singer/songwriter world?
I went to SUNY Purchase for music and while I was there I got to play with a lot of really amazing Jazz players. It was also the first time that I got to play with some really serious songwriters.  Learning to live in both of those different worlds was a very valuable experience for me. In fact, while I was in school, I played with Regina Spektor for two years and that was exclusively on upright bass while she would play piano and sing. Our playing together over that period became her first record called 11:11, which was pretty much a duo record.

How do you approach new material with the various artists that you work with?
Well, most of my experiences have been with two particular songwriters that both have a similar style of writing where they come in with a lot of ideas. When we learn an Ingrid tune, she comes in with a demo that she did on Garage Band of her playing piano, singing and doing a lot of vocal arrangements as well. From there it goes into a full band rehearsal environment if we are learning it for a tour or if we are running it for a record then we will have the producer sit in. For this latest record, Dan Romer was there for pre-production and we all fleshed out arrangements together.

It’s funny because it really varies depending on which writer you are working with. I’ve played with a lot of songwriters around New York and some of them won’t have as much of a defined way that they would like their song performed. They just have a song and you can go wherever you want with it, which really allows you to express yourself as a player. Then with other people, it’s obvious that you have to play as sparse as possible and not really contribute that much of anything.

How do you maintain a sense of propulsion or drive when the bass part is so sparse?
I’ve found that note duration is the most important thing to pay attention to in that kind of world. When trying to make a song feel a certain way with as few notes as possible, it really matters how long they ring out, whether you cut it off on the e of three or whether you cut it off on two or whether you don’t cut it off. That can really create a sense of either an open, flowing part or a staccato-groove with the same amount of notes. So, duration becomes very, very important - that’s where I ‘geek out’ as a player (laughs)!

How conscious are you of tone are you with this approach?
Lately I’ve been playing the P-Bass all the time and there are so many different spots to vary the sound on that bass even though there’s only one pickup. The angle that you hit the string makes a difference and wherever you play in between the neck to the bridge creates a different vibe. Those qualities really become important. It’s interesting because as a Jazz player, you think about those subtleties but you don’t actually get to explore them because the music goes by so fast.

How often do you play with a pick?
I would say it’s almost 50/50 now. Lately on this tour I’ve been playing with a pick tucked under my middle finger and playing a lot of my finger-style stuff with my index and ring fingers and grabbing the pick when I need to for short passages. Just to have those two options is a big shift in the ‘feeling’ of a part. That’s another thing I’ve been ‘geeking out’ with on this leg of the tour!

How do you do that?
I’ve found that there’s a certain angle that I can leave my middle finger where it will really grip the pick and it won’t move. Then there’s just a flick motion involved that’s easy once you get it - you just tuck it under. Doing it quickly gets hard!

What is something that you find inspiring?
Well, I would say that Paul McCartney and The Beatles are still probably the most important recordings that I’ve ever heard – they will always be timeless and priceless to me. I’m really excited that they’ve been remastered! I’m definitely going to drop some money and get the big box set. [Here we launch into an entire ‘audio geek’ discussion on the merits of the mono versus stereo Beatles boxes. We both opt to get the mono box.]

Can you tell us about something that really pushed you to grow as a musician?
I’ve worked with a couple of producers really closely, mainly Dan Romer who’s a close friend of mine and is an incredible producer. Working with him and contributing other instruments as well as bass has helped me to see the big picture of what makes a recording more so than looking at it from the bass angle. That enriches my bass playing because I’m taking more things into account and leaving space in places where maybe I wouldn’t have earlier in life. There’s something really fun about playing bass and guitar and mandolin...a harmonium or whatever crazy instrument there is that needs to be on a track to make it come to life. Which is why I enjoy producing so much lately and I want to do more of that in the future. So I guess working with producers and seeing different points of view is a big thing.

What’s next for you?
I played on an album called Transmitter Failure by Jenny Owen Youngs. It’s the follow up to her first record and it’s a really fun album on Nettwerk Records. After this tour I’m probably going to make an instrumental, solo bass EP; just four or five songs so that I can get out all the notes that I don’t get to play with Ingrid… or whoever (laughs)! It will be fun to come home and do that!

We look forward to that for sure! Thanks Chris for taking the time to talk to us today.

For more on Chris Kuffner, check out his MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/chriskuffner