Korn bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu will release his long-awaited jazz fusion album titled “Bassically” on November 17. The seventeen-track disc was produced by Fieldy’s writing partner Anthony “Q” Quiles” and mixed by Chris Collier. The record features guest appearances by three of Fieldy‘s bandmates: drummer Ray Luzier plays drums, bongos, shaker, tambourine and djembe on the songs ‘Bass O Rama’, ‘Step Right Up’, ‘Basque K Cinco’, ‘Zibba Zibop’ and ‘Mr. Bassmen’; guitarist Brian “Head” Welch plays on ‘I Wuv Bass Mon’; and singer Jonathan Davis does some beatboxing on ‘JD Fresh’.
“This is a bass album that encompasses the last nine years of my life on the road recording with a variety of special and unique basses,” Fieldy said. “This project features recordings of mine from dressing rooms, tour buses, hotel rooms and other unique locations playing on basses just as obscure as the locations. It’s a blend of funk, fusion, and rock. I can’t wait to share it with you.”
Asked what his inspirations were when writing “Bassically”, Fieldy told Weld For Birmingham in a 2016 interview: “To write it, my inspiration was probably my wife Dena. She was, like, ‘You should put a bass album out.’ And then I really thought about it. And if you go back in time to my inspiration in my early days, I listened to a lot of Stanley Clarke. And then from there on, I got into a lot of Flea. And I started really listening to some of these great bands — if you’re not listening for it, you don’t really know how great a lot of those bass players are unless you listen. For example, a lot of classic rock bands I listened to as a kid — now, I was like, ‘Wait, I just found the Eagles on the bass, rippin’! Or Led Zeppelin! Led Zeppelin gets to rippin’ on bass! You hear these great tones that as a kid, I’d never really listened to. And now, I’m like starting to listen and trip out on it.”
Luzier told ABC News Radio back in 2013 that he found some inventive ways to create drum tracks for “Basically”. “I did some made-up percussion stuff, like we’d literally have a cup full of, like, change and seashells and I’d shake it,” he said. “And then… backstage [at a Korn show], we recorded a drum track, I pulled a floor tom off my kit and a snare and a hi-hat and it’s come out way better than we thought.”
Track listing:
01. Bass O Rama
02. Charlie Brown
03. Step Right Up
04. Buck of Funk
05. Basque K Cinco
06. 15 String Exodus
07. JD Fresh
08. Zibba Zibop
09. Check This Out
10. Bass Invaders
11. I Wuv Bass Mon
12. 5 String Graffiti
13. Dance Your Bass Off
14. Give Me 5
15. You Can Do It
16. Mr. Bassmen
17. Bass Age
“Bassically” is available for preorder via PledgeMusic, where you can sample the songs ‘Bucket Of Funk’, ‘Bass O Rama’ and ‘Zibba Zibop’.