When did you start playing with David Fiuczynski?
The first time I played with Fuze was when I called him to play on my album, Mad Science. I started recording towards the middle of 2002 and it finally came out in 2004 but I started getting calls for Fuze’s projects towards the end of 2003.

Did you record with him at that time or was it strictly live work at first?
KiF Express is the first actual recording of one of his projects that I’ve done. We’ve done some live things that were filmed and recorded but the KiF project is actually how I ended up in the Screaming Headless Torsos. Dave knew my playing well from KiF and when Fema Ephron left the band I ended up getting the call for that project as well. This record has been in the works for the past few years and it finally got documented in 2006 and it came out at the end of last year.

How did the recording process go?
The real challenge with this material was trying to get the arrangements concise enough so that every track wasn’t 10 minutes long! We wanted to have shorter tunes, not to necessarily make it more listenable but at least to have a divide between the studio version of this material and what happens live. We didn’t necessarily want it to be the same, so everything was sort of ‘pre-ordained’ as far as how long certain solos were going to be; things of that nature.

Was this material that the band had played before?
Yeah, a lot of these tunes had been reshaped and played a whole bunch before. Phoenix Rising was one the tunes that got played a lot and it had taken on a few different forms. We found a few different things that became part of the actual arrangement over time. Moonring Bacchanal, Shiraz and Sakura – Ying Hua were all songs that we had played previously. Actually there are very interesting titles on this album!

We definitely got to explore these songs over the past couple of years. Some of the newer stuff made a nice contrast from the tunes we had been playing. There’s a tune called Ek Balaam which we hadn’t really played that much so some of the stuff just came off really well depending on the kind of day we were having. We pretty much tracked all the tunes in two days. There are two tunes on there that have Rhodes and saxophone and those were the tunes that we had played the least. That was where we just went for it and they came out really well. I’d say for about half the material, we knew that stuff going in there.

I can see what you were saying about it being concise it feels like you guys are really stretching out on some of the solos but it doesn’t ‘ramble’ at all.
We wanted to keep things almost within the confines of a pop arrangement, not that anything about this is similar to pop music! Live the band is a lot different, there is a lot more stretching in terms of length of solos and such. Even though I get to express myself on a few tunes and get to take some solos, there’s actually a lot of bass stuff going on so it’s more about the parts and making the music work. It’s not just a “players record” and I’m kind of happy about that.

You get a wide variety of tones on the album - what gear did you record with?
I used a combination of my mic’ed AG 500/DB 210 and a direct signal. I’m pretty adamant about using a direct signal mixed with a mic’ed amplifier. I kind of feel like those two things provide a lot to work with sonically. They can really shape the way the bass ‘sits’ in a track. Certain things sound great direct but then, depending on what kind of tone the engineer might be going for, maybe there’s a vision for how the track is supposed to sound but you can get an ‘bolder’ sounds using a mic.

You have been a big fan of the AG 500. One of the things that I love about the AG 500 is the distortion setting. It’s something that I didn’t use a lot initially but once I experimented with it, I was hooked! Why is that? Well, bass distortion is kind of tricky because it depends on what you are trying to go for. If you are looking for a distortion that you use when you’re playing grooves, then you definitely want to have that low-end in there. But I also play a lot of solos so sometimes I will cut some of the lows to get more of those “lead” frequencies. Sometimes I need a little extra gain, maybe not full-on distortion but a tube-ey sort of gain to drive my effects a bit more. But aside from that, it’s pretty simple and easy to use and portable. I get really great results with minimal tweaking with whatever bass I’m using. I don’t find it hard to dial in my sound at all; it’s a really flexible amp. I like that fact that it’s got a lot of power because with some of the bands that I play in, like playing with Vernon Reid, it can get very loud! Trying to compete with that can be pretty daunting sometimes. So what is next for you in 2009? I have been working on my next album in my home studio and I wouldn’t say that it’s more rock oriented but in some ways it is a lot more aggressive and dark. It’s not a logical extension of Mad Science; it’s almost like a completely different thing. Mad Science is a reflection of everything that influenced me about studying certain parts about music. I was very influenced by people like Herbie Hancock in the 70’s (actually all phases of his career), the Headhunters and Weather Report. A lot of my influences are pretty obvious on that album in some ways but I guess after being in New York for a few years and refining certain things and playing with people like Fuze and Vernon, there’s a lot more aggression in the new stuff. It’s hard to explain but a lot of my influences now are the things I’ve always loved; bands Meshugga, Tool, people from the creative music scene like Nels Cline, Wayne Krantz and even Mars Volta. It’s still sort of all over the place but I’m not really trying to suppress the rock side this time around. It’s definitely going to be a New York album for sure!

Is there any time frame for a release date?
I’m hoping to have it completed by the fall. I think with this project I would like to get it out a lot quicker than the last album. I have a bunch of different people who are probably going to be on it but it’s going to be a bit more unified as far as who those people are. I’m not going to have three different drummers this time! I’d like to have a ‘stock’ group of people with one or two extras. The one other element that I think will make it different from Mad Science is that I’m definitely going to embrace the computer as a musical instrument this time around and get more creative with the sonic aspect of things. I want to make it more interesting in terms of the “ear candy” element and I’m excited about exploring that.

Considering that Mad Science was one of our favorites here at Aguilar HQ, we are looking forward to the new album! Thanks Steve for taking the time to share your thoughts behind the creative process with us.

For more information on Steve Jenkins click the following:

Steve Official site: http://stevejenkinsbass.com/

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/stevejenkins/

KiF’s official Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/davidfiuczynskiskif