42 BASS MAGAZINE ; ISSUE 4 ; bassmagazine.com
Eva Gardner
called me a few days later saying they’d send
me a few albums of material to learn, to pack
for three months on the road, and we’ll see
you in three days. Before I knew it I was on a
plane to Ireland. It all happened so quickly.
The shows are huge spectacles of music and
performance art, with aerial acrobatics, dancers,
pyrotechnics, and so much going on. What are
they like from your perspective?
Even after all this time, I’m still noticing
things that are going on with the dancers and
screens behind me. When I’m in the show,
I’m in it from my position facing the audi-
ence and I’m totally locked into the music.
When we were doing production rehearsals
for this stadium run in Europe it was more
casual and I would be surprised at what was
on the screens or what the acrobats were do-
ing above me. It’s still exciting and so fresh.
You’re the first-call player for many big
stars. How do you land all of these gigs?
I think part of it is my work ethic and do-
ing what it takes to make it happen. I like to
over-prepare. I want to be ready to jump in
and be able to say yes when the musical di-
rector asks me to try something. I learn all
of the parts on electric, upright, and synth
bass. I make sure I have all of the right pedals
there in case they need a specific sound. That
goes a long way in any band, and it makes
you invaluable as a player. I'm always open
to learning new things and grow and expand
my skillset to be more versatile. I'm not just
on time, I make an effort to get there early
to set up and get comfortable. Being easy to
get along with, adaptable, easy going, com-
passionate, and considerate goes so far. You
spend so much time in buses, on airplanes,
and in tight spaces, and no one wants to be
with doom and gloom all day. Those are all
good principles to getting recommended for
gigs. Every gig I’ve landed came from a rec-
ommendation from someone, and those just
become stepping-stones that lead you down
your path.
How do you dial in your tone for each
individual gig?
I always start with my foundation of a
Fender Precision Bass and an Ampeg rig, andthat gets you pretty far as is. Part of being a
hired gun is providing what the artist needs
and wants of you without being asked. If you
hear a part that is played with a pick with
some fuzz, or a new wave ’80s thing, you do
whatever it takes to get that sound. You have
to be able to listen and use the tools that you
need to mold your sound to fit it.
What about different playing techniques
for different gigs?
I’m comfortable playing with both fin-
gers and a pick when needed. I started with
a pick when I was in high school. All of the
bands I listened to had bass players who used
a pick, so I did that. When I got into my per-
forming arts high school I got thrown right
into the jazz band, which I had no expe-
rience with. On my first day I came in as a
little rock chick and I was holding my elec-
tric bass with a Fender confetti pick, and the
first thing my professor said to me was, “Miss
Eva, put down that pick.” Sure enough, I put
the pick on my amp, and from that point for-
ward I started playing with my fingers. It was
a trial-by-fire thing, but I didn’t argue with
him, I just did it. It was one of the best things
that ever happened to me, because it made
me learn a new skill that I hadn’t known be-
fore. For most of the things that I did after
that, I used my fingers, but recently I’ve tak-
en up a lot of pick work because that’s what
the gig calls for. With Pink right now I use a
pick a few times throughout our set. We cov-
er Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and I
definitely use a pick and crank my tone knob
up because that was the way Krist [Novoselic]
played it. That’s when I finally get to pull out
my confetti pick. Laughs.
The artists you play with have large catalogs
of songs. How do you woodshed for a gig?
The first thing I do is go through each
song and chart it all out note-for-note. Then I
start chipping away at playing through them.
If there’s any research I need to do about
how the parts are played, or which pedals the
songs needs, or if there are any variations in
them live, I’ll watch YouTube videos or get
my hands on live recordings so I can repli-
cate them. Then I put all of the songs together