11:58 pm

On the road back home from Manchester to London. Herbie Flowers kept me inspired and energized the past two days. Our serendipitous chats keep me fueled more than he may know.

Yesterday Herbie put work in the music industry back into context. It’s not always about the glory of the stage and fame, it’s often times just about getting down to the job, be it in the pit, studio, side of the stage as a string player.. in the end, you are hired for a purpose, and your job is to fulfill this to the best of your ability. At the same time, you can work on building up from this type of work if you are not happy with where you are. You can always grow and find things to learn/work on to propel you to the next level.

Today his parting words were, “Now go write a hit song!” He rescued me from pacing backstage, introduced me to a new set of strings endorsed by him, and showed me how to change my Ibanez strings. Then we heard Simon doing the soundcheck, and he jumped up and led me to the Arena to show me the glory of the stage through his eyes. The song was Bullets by an Irish band named Tunng, and had the kind of bass playing that was “in the pocket” and “the groove”.. the stuff Herbie lives for rather than that slap bass or “virtuostic” playing that takes the role of the instrument out of context. He showed me how simple a song can be to make it to the charts. Composing can be by singing (practice singing in unison when you play your bass) This little drop of excitement made me realize this is only my beginning, not my end, and I see myself so much further from where I am, and this long journey ahead excites me!