Freeze!: An Interview with Bryan Beller
Just days before the world locked down in March 2020, The Aristocrats wrapped up their nearly 100-date trek in support of their latest album, You Know What…?, and made their way back to their respective homes. The final leg of the tour included a stretch in Spain that proved to be an especially inspired set of gigs for the trio, which consists of guitarist Guthrie Govan, drummer Marco Minnemann, and bassist Bryan Beller.
Now, the band’s virtuosic playing and playful antics from that period are available in the form of a new album called FREEZE! Live in Europe 2020. The musical snapshot includes exploratory versions of songs from You Know What…? that can only be described as a wild ride. It even caught Beller off guard when he listened back to the tapes.
“[On “Spanish Eddie”], we went through this one little section. It was very Zappa-like where we were taking the piss out of different genres,” he tells us. “There’s one part where Marco is playing a double-time breakbeat, Guthrie is playing the melody from ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’, and I’m playing the bass line from ‘The Chicken.’ I remember listening back and thinking, ‘How the hell did that happen?’”
We got to catch up with Beller via Skype to get the scoop on the new live album, a decade of playing with The Aristocrats, his basses, and recording for Joe Satriani’s upcoming album.
FREEZE! Live in Europe 2020 is available now on CD and as a digital download via Bandcamp, iTunes, and Amazon MP3. (We also suggest you revisit Beller’s 2019 solo album, Scenes From The Flood.)
FREEZE! Live in Europe 2020! Track List:
- D Grade F*ck Movie Jam
- Spanish Eddie
- When We All Come Together
- The Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde
- Get It Like That (Dedicated To Neil Peart)
- Last Orders
