Tony Levin Reflects on “Very Special” Bass He Revisited on New Album, Answers If He’ll Ever Do a Prog Rock Solo Record
According to Tony Levin, there’s one “very special” bass that he brought back into the spotlight for his latest solo album.
Released on September 13, Bringing It Down to the Bass is a new collection of songs that saw Tony collaborate with some exciting names, including King Crimson’s Robert Fripp. Apart from awesome people on it, there’s also a collection of great basses on it.
During our recent interview, Levin highlighted a fretless made by Ned Steinberger.
“On the album, I happily revisited my Steinberger bass, which is the first one that Ned Steinberger made,” Tony offered. “A really special bass, a fretless.”
“I used to play it a lot on the road with Peter Gabriel. But through the years, it turned out I was only playing on one song. There’s not that much fretless playing on this stuff. So I stopped taking it on the road.”
Although Levin didn’t specify, the instrument in question is likely one of the three L2 basses that Ned Steinberger sold back in the late 1970s. Apart from him, Andy West of the Dixie Dregs and John Entwistle of The Who got their hands on two other pieces of it.
Looking at different sources, it’s not clear whether Tony’s is the first or the second one that Ned Steinberger ever made. Whatever may be the case, it’s still an incredibly special instrument. Recalling the song on the new album where he used it, Levin said:
“I pulled it out for a really special-to-me track called ‘Floating in Dark Waters’ with Robert Fripp soundscape going and this kind of bass melody on bass. And that’s one of the few tracks that only has two or three guys on it.”
I also asked Levin about his future plans for solo material. Perhaps a bit impatient of us since the latest record has only come out recently. But we really wanted to know whether there will ever be a full-on progressive rock album under his solo project.
“If life allows, yes, there will,” he replied. “Long way away. I’m busy touring and got plan for at least the next year before I re-enter that.”
“But yes. I forgot that I had written that down somewhere. I had way more material than I wanted for the album, and I wanted to do some fresh, absolutely brand-new material. And in going through it, the things that seem really in a different vein were very good.”
“But for progressive, long track, maybe 10, 12 minutes of instrumental, it does not feature the bass. Nothing wrong with that. But I thought, ‘That’s a really different album. Let me split them up and focus on the album I have and get it right.'”
Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of our interview with Tony.
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
