ARTIST OF THE MONTH



Nate Query - The Decemberists

David Avenius - Even though the Decemberists are one of my favorite bands it's nearly impossible for me to describe your style of music.  How do you describe it?

Nate Query - That's always a tough question.  Fleetwood Mac meets Robyn Hitchcock meets REM meets Pentangle meets the Smiths?  How about folk-influenced college rock?  I don't know.  I'm proud of the fact that we are difficult to describe, though.  The best and most timeless music always is.  You just have to hear it.  And with the Decemberists, every album is different.  Colin's song-writing has varied through the years, as has the band's approach.

DA - Because of the unique nature of the band you get a lot of room to stretch out with your basslines and instrumentation.  You played electric bass, upright and cello on the new album.  These instruments are related but different but can you tell us something about how your thought process changes when you approach each instrument?

NQ - It's often fairly obvious which instrument(s) I am going to use on any particular song.  Colin's song-writing is pretty vivid, and I am usually drawn right away to either electric or upright.  When the band formed, I only played upright in the band.  It was challenging sometimes to play a song on upright that would normally be played on electric.  So, even now, I mix it up a little.  Everyone in the band plays a lot of instruments, so it's not uncommon for a song to take shape in an unexpected way once we all get in a room together.  The cello is new for me, and I was drawn to it because I hear arco lines in my head that sound better an octave up rather on the bass.  And my thumb position technique sucks.  As far as my approach on each instrument goes, they're obviously pretty different.  With electric, I start trying to find the right sound for the song.  I play everything (live, at least) on a Lakland Jazz, so to get different sounds, I experiment with plucking versus picking, muting, using my thumb, pickup settings, etc.  On upright and cello, I don't vary the tone as much.  It's more about going for the richest sound I can and finding the part that fits.

DA - Have you taken lessons or gone to music school?  What is your training on the instruments that you play?

NQ - As a kid, I played piano for a while, then I played clarinet briefly. When I finally started playing bass at age 13, it really stuck.  I took private lessons and played in lots of bands with friends.  In high school, our music program was so small that I played in the jazz band, the orchestra, even at football games and for musicals.  I convinced the music teacher to let me do half the basketball with a rock trio and skip the other half with the pep band.  Then I studied jazz a little at Wesleyan University, but was mostly playing in rock bands and studying other things. After two years, I dropped out and started playing rock music full time.  I have studied with private teachers off and on, most notably Glen Moore in Portland and Ken Miller in San Francisco.

DA - If someone wanted to start a band like the Decemberists where would you suggest they go to find the necessary members of the band?

NQ - Why would anyone want to start a band like the Decemberists?  I always encourage people to try to be unique.  I do, however, highly recommend experimenting with instrumentation, which is something we have always done. For that, it's really about finding people you have fun with who share your attitude about music and experimentation.  That said, when we started out, we didn't play lots of instruments, but we were a rock band with upright bass, accordion, and acoustic guitar.  The song-writing is what has always set us apart, but the unorthodox (for a rock band) instrumentation has helped, too.

DA - You've been touring with the AG 500, a GS 410, and a GS 212 for a couple ofyears now.  How has the rig treated you on the road?  Any particular comments you've received from other musicians?

NQ - I like Aguilar stuff because I can set it flat and it sounds great.  If you have good instruments, you shouldn't have to tweak the hell out of your bass rig.  It's also pretty loud and cuts well.  No other 500w amp even comes close.  When bassists in opening bands have plugged into, they usually love it right away.  A lot of people, though, are put off by my flat settings, so they crank up the bass to get what they want.  It seems to me that people with better sounding basses like it right away, and others are a little turned off by how true sounding it is.  Garbage in, garbage out.

DA - Are there particular settings that you use for the electric vs. the upright?

NQ - I pay close attention to the gain structure on both basses.  Upright is\ tricky because you can run into problems if you don't match the pickup's impedance correctly.  I use separate DI's for each bass, then combine them with a custom made mixer.  I used to use an AB pedal to mix the signals, but I wanted to simplify my stage setup, so I had a rack-mount mixer made that has 3 inputs, input trim for each channel, and one output to my amp.  I send pure signals to the house and do any EQ after the DI.  Basically, I use the simplest settings possible.  I like the way my basses sound, so I make sure every cable, DI, mixer, amp, pedal, etc. is as clean and good-sounding as possible.  I spend a lot of money in order to have a sonically invisible signal chain.

DA - You also use one of our DB 900's.  How has that affected your tone and stage setup?

NQ - Assuming the house PA is louder than your rig, which is now the case 99% of the time for me, the DI is the second most important piece of equipment after the bass.  I have been experimenting with different DI's for recording and live.  I plan to use the DB900 for the upright this fall.  It has a high impedance input, which many DI's don't, so I can plug right into it.  It's really warm and very simple - no knobs!!

Check out the Decemberist's new Album "The Crane Wife" for an interesting musical journey.  For tour dates in your area visit www.decemberists.com or www.myspace.com/thedecemberists.