I started playing bass because I heard Paul Mcartney on the Beatles White Album. It was a great way to shed my classical piano training for something more popular! Ironically I started playing drums first due to the influence of Keith Moon and others. Singing became a natural progression as I learned bass and soon I was emulating others like John Entwistle and Chris Squire. Back and forth in various bands in Germany as a youngster, I learned all the covers I could before starting original writing in the early eighties when I moved to Toronto, Canada.

The new wave scene was alive and well in that Canadian city and soon I was playing clubs in a psychedelic hill-billy punk band called Tulpa.

The rich cultural vibe in Toronto was fertile for my young imagination and I found myself being introduced to reggae, funk, jazz and african music here due to the multi-cultural population. I saw Bob Marley play at Maple Leaf Gardens and that really turned my head and opened my eyes to music other than rock music. with Tulpa, I toured a lot and played CBGB in NYC many times during the 80's.

The bass players who influenced me in this period were, aside from Mcartney and Entwistle; Jaco Pastorius, Aston "Family Man" Barret and Larry Graham.

With bass I like to dig in and play hard when needed and mellow out for the warmer music and all these guys taught me how to play with style and appreciation for the subleties of the instrument. I've been writing in many genres for a while now and Ican honestly sayI love it all! I've had the good fortune to play on some good shows with some great bands like Grupo Fantasma and Living Colour and love travelling and meeting people.

In Austin, Texas I played with members of Cyril Neville's band Ricky Caesar and Jimi Dreams. Music for me is a great way to express myself, whether it's on bass, guitar, drums, percussion or keyboards. I love writing strong hooks on bass and sweet melodies on top within an open format. Much of my music has a "jazz" approach to arrangements in the sense that anything goes within the structure of the song. Live performance reflect this and we have fun with the format of each piece. Playing festivals, clubs, and street performance keep me busy. My band has a wicked horn section and we really stretch out sonically, giving you the listener an aural feast for the ears!

Music

Cerebral Lubrication (2004)
Knotty Bits (2003)

Brainfudge (1995)		Tulpa (1985)

Video

Chris Bottomley Links