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By Steve Perrett
Dave Bell is a guitarist who specializes in producing original guitar instrumentals in the blues and latin rock genres.
He has spent many years doing the circuit in various bands, but is now concentrating on producing his own original music. Dave has developed an individual style that is smooth and polished, and could be described as 'Albert King meets Carlos Santana'.
Dave has also produced two CDs which are up for sale on CD baby. http://www.cdbaby.com/all/blueattitude
The first is;
"Feeling Blue"
Which is guitar based blues instrumentals, incorporating various styles from slow, minor key blues to jazzy, uptempo shuffles. Well worth a listen.
The second is;
"Evening in Brazil"
Which is Latin flavored Rock/Pop Guitar instrumentals in the style of Santana. This is a must have!
Daves Songstuff page can be reached here;
Daves Home page can be reached here;
The Questions
1/ How long have you been playing / writing Music?
Off and on for about 30 years or so. I first started playing in the 70's, but there have been many times during that period when I would go for a couple of years and not play a note. Bad marriage, insane day job, single guy raising a daughter etc. But the older I get the more stable life becomes and I spend more and more time with music. Now it is pretty much a full time thing.
2/ Which is your primary guitar?
The Fender Strat is the guitar for me! I have played/owned just about everything over the years but always come back to the strat, they just feel right to me. I own three, a 1974 hardtail strat that was my main guitar for eons, and now is setup for playing slide, a 1994 American Standard, and a brand new 2004 Special Edition that I'm just breaking in.All of them except the new one have been modified, different frets, different pickups, different bridges. I also have a PRS CE22 that I use whenever I need that Gibson "humbucking" sound. I can get close to it without having to actually play a Gibson. The PRS is similar in body shape and neck to the strat so it is comfortable for me to play. I use a Godin A6 for the acoustic tracks that I feature on some of my Latin tunes.
3/ Do you record in a studio? Or do you use a home-based setup? Or both?
All of my tracks are recorded in my home studio. I used to use reel-to-reel recorders when I first started in music, then switched to 4 track cassette recorders, and now it's all done using a PC. PC's are the best thing that has ever happened for home recording in my opinion. I can get very close to studio quality with the setup I have now.
4/ Tell us about you the songwriter...do you write alone, with others etc.
I mostly write alone, however I have started to collaborate with other musicians over the last year or so, people I have met via the internet, and will be doing more of that in the future.
5/ Do you still play live? Or is your music for recording only?
My last live gig was around 1995 or so. I have been getting the itch to get into a live situation again though, and plan to look into that before the end of the year.
6/ Do you start with a finished product in mind or just let it morph as you go?
I usually have some idea of what the finished product will be, but that often changes as I start laying down the tracks. Some ideas end up not working so I scrap them, and new ideas come to mind as the tune starts to come together.
7/ Where does your inspiration come from?
Man! That is a hard question. Sometimes hearing what other people do will give me an idea for a tune. Other times when I'm just messing around I'll come up with a cool melody line that I'll develop into a full blown tune.
8/ Which artist has most influenced you over the years?
Another hard question, there has been so many! I guess Santana has always been a favourite; I love almost everything he has ever done. Stevie Ray got me back into playing blues; blues was pretty much dead until he came on the scene. He was not a musical influence because his blues roots were pretty much the same as mine and I already pretty much had my style together when I first heard him. But he was so important to blues, getting a new generation into it. The guy I most wanted to be like when I first started playing was Johnny Winter, and the first real blues guy I ever heard that really got me into it was Albert King.
9/ You are primarily a blues musician, but I see you have ventured intosome Latin American. Do you plan on any other sidesteps?
For the new CD I plan on having a couple of blues cuts with Latin type rhythms, sort of a mix between the two styles. I also love Celtic music, not all of it, but the tunes that have strong melody lines. I've thought of experimenting with using electric instruments over that sort of groove. The purists will hate it of course, but I think it might be interesting....
10/ Where do you see yourself in 5 years time?
More of the same! Hopefully more collaborations with musicians I have met over the internet, that has been a great experience. Maybe a live gig as well. I would also like to get into producing other artists.
11/ What is your ultimate goal with your music?
Originally I always thought the ultimate would be if someone like Santana picked up one of my Latin tunes and recorded it [Tongue] But since I have started posting tunes on the internet I have started to develop a fan base of my own which was unexpected, but very nice!The fact that there are people out there that like my material enough to lay down cold hard cash to buy a CD makes me want to make each new CD better than the previous one.
12/ Got any funny gig stories?
We played a gig once in this pool hall that had a really tough crowd, mostly bikers. There was this really tough looking woman, totally drunk, that kept yelling out that she wanted to see some naked guitar players :O We played three sets of material and no one danced, no one clapped. We figured they thought we sucked until we announced that we were playing the last tune of the night, and then everyone was up on the floor dancing and they kept banging beer bottles of the tables for us to keep playing. They wouldn't let us stop! We ended up playing for another 45 minutes. Not really a funny story ... kinda scary really. I was glad when it was over!
13/ What other gear do you use?
Just the PC with lots of different software. I process the guitar tracks using a Johnson J-Station amp simulator.
~Dave
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About Steve Perrett
A Songstuff staff member for sveral years, Steve plays guitar, writes songs and records his own material.
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