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An Interview with
Graeme Currie |
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How long have you been playing, Graeme? Electric bass for 26 years and Upright bass for 12 years. How did you get started.? Listening to Golden Earring’s Radar Love, my friend, a guitarist, and I, decided to form a band. For my 18th birthday I bought a Yamaha bass for R58 new and a used Fender Bassman amp for R300. We both used to plug into and jam Rock’n’Roll at my parents’ parties. What’s your favourite band / solo artist? No preference. I like a lot of the continual new music on MTV. So much catches my ear from Country to Jazz to R&B to Rock to Dance. My all time favourites are Miles Davis, Peter Gabriel, Deep Purple & Megadeath. What are the instruments you currently use? Fender ‘Roscoe Beck’ Jazz 5 string and a Kay 5 string Upright. What amps? Ampeg classic 4 BH all tube head with 4 x 10” extended range cabinet. Ampeg 150 Watt 2 x 8” combo amp. Fender Bassman ‘Blackface’ with 2 x 12” cabinet. Modified 100-Watt Roland Cube for the Upright. What instruments would you like to have if money were no object? A 1965 (pre CBS) Fender Jazz bass that “cooks” and a Modulus Graphite Quantum 5 to replace my current model. What have you been doing for the last five years or so? Teaching bass and contemporary composition at Allenby Campus School of contemporary music. Playing shows such as Cats, Annie, Roll over Beethoven. Rodriguez SA tour. Writing original pop songs, getting them recorded and selling them with a bit of luck!! Also, playing all sorts of sessions and gigs – business as usual!! What recordings that you’ve played on would you recommend for listening? A Blues album by Joe Blue – “Get Your Mojo Workin” Denny played for Zenzi Lee (2 tracks) Concord also played on the same album. Cats SA recording. Blues Brothers SA recording. Rodriguez – Live Fact. What’s been the low point in your career so far? None! Each experience has been full of reward. I love playing and striving for professionalism and this has helped forge the reputation I am so honoured to have. And what has been the high point? Being told that I was a “legend” in the local music industry. That humbled me so much and made all the years of never giving up, seem so worthwhile. Also, headlining with The Mamas & Papas on the televised Fox Network ’87 Spring Break beach party in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. There were all the stars of the 60’s on the bill and an audience of 15,000+. It was my first big break in the USA. What are your goals currently? To get my BMus Honours at the end of 2002 then masters and continue to write and record my compositions. |
