Reader Spotlight: Joseph Lacy

Meet Joseph Lacy, a bassist living in “God’s Own Country” who has a great love for bass and a great story of how he found the instrument.

Joseph is No Treble’s reader in the spotlight for the week of December 16, 2013.

Bio:

I’m a pianist turned classical singer and bass guitarist/upright bassist. I jumped into grade 8 bass guitar after about three years playing and passed with merit. I was doing grade 6 upright bass (after just 6 months) before my school work became too much.

Location:

Yorkshire (God’s Own County), UK

Day gig:

Full time student studying Acoustics at Salford University.

Years experience:

Four and a half years

Bands & Gigs:

I’m part of two proper bands at university, a sort of ska band that plays ska, reggae, disco, pop and consisting of bass, guitar, drums, voice, 2x sax and trumpets.

The other band is a more pop/rock oriented group with bass, guitar, drums, voice and occasionally keys.

I also record (bass and vocals) part-time with my family for AudioNetwork, basically a music database for TV, film and radio.

I also play double bass in the Salford Symphony Orchestra, with four concerts each year.

Gear:

• Cort JP5 Signature 5-string electric bass
• Ashbury 4 string fretless acoustic bass
• Stentor 1950 3/4 student double bass
• Squire P-bass with J pickup
• HK 7-string fretless electric bass
• Maestro 7-string fretless acoustic bass
• Line 6 5-string variax bass
• Gear4Music 6 string electric bass
• £20 Strat Copy (works, but it’s a bit rubbish)
• Taylor Baby Acoustc guitar
• Digitech Envelope Filter
• Ashdown Envelope Filter
• Ashdown Distortion pedal
• Ashdown ABM500 Head (500W)
• Ashdown Neo410 1000W cab

Why I play the bass:

I wanted to play guitar because of a girl (not surprising at the age of 15) but I didn’t dare admit it. I was told to try bass because I was bad at guitar, and bass just clicked. Now I view bass as an extension of myself. There’s so much groove, the bass is the coolest and most understated of all the instruments, I can’t put it down.

My bass superpower/claim to fame

Talking myself into a rolling contract working at the Glastonbury Festival (at age 19) which allows me to get on stage with big names such as Chic.

My influences

Everyone… I’ll list some of the big ones though and some of the more obscure ones. In no particular order: Chic, Jamiroquai, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Who, Victor Wooten, Goldfrapp, Alison Krauss, Aretha Franklin, Booker T., Dave Gilmour, Steve Bailey, Bob Marley, Clive Carroll, Jon Gomm, Eden’s Bridge, Hanz Zimmer, Howard Shore, Tchaikovsky, In Flames, Jean Baudin, John 5, Yves Carbonne… It’s impossible to list inspirations because there’s so many, but that’s a bunch of musical ones.

Here’s some you wouldn’t expect, nothing to do with music: Bruce Lee, Dorian Yates, Miyamoto Musashi, Family, Friends, our painter/decorator, my puppy, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and so many more.

More on the web:

• Tiny and The Dckheads (Facebook) – Pop/rock band. Name might be changing at some point
• Audio Network – Business music, free to listen to online