PRIMUS' Influence On Me

I got into PRIMUS in the early 90's when Pork Soda was out. I was in school orchestra, playing string bass at the time. I was flipping through the channels one night and a freaky amazingly weird video came on MTV. It was the song "Mr. Krinkle". Les Claypool was dressed like a fat pig, bowing a string bass and dancing around while crazy things such as guys on stilts and people on fire pranced around behind him. The sound coming out of that upright bass was distored and heavy, I had never heard sounds like that coming out of a bowed bass. I was immediately enthralled. I bought the CD Pork Soda soon after. I really liked all the songs on that CD. I thought all of them would have bowed bass, but I was not disapointed. The other instrument (the electric bass) he played was awesome. I learned the electric bass guitar had the same string tunings as an upright and I bought one and learned how to play it. Primus got me into "modern rock" music. They led me to appreciate other bands such as Tool, Korn, Rage Against The Machine, Nuclear Rabbit, and many more. I have played bass in some bands such as Styramex. My style is directly influenced by Les Claypool.

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