TRNSMT: What does the bassist actually do?

Find out what the guitarist you can’t hear is really up to with grassroots Glasgow band member Joe McGlone

Glasgow will be chock-full of music fans from home and away excited to see their favourite acts like Calvin Harris and Gerry Cinnamon take the stage at TRNSMT this July.

From Liam Gallagher to Rick Astley, near enough every act will be supported by a bassist, and as prolific or as praised as they are, the questions remains, what are they actually doing?

Joe McGlone is the bassist for The Invaines, a bold indie band from right here in the dear green place.

Despite his prowess though, Joe wasn’t always on the bass.

In the early days of the Invaines, there was simply too many guitarists and Joe took it upon himself to take up the bass, growing his ability and love for the instrument, taking initial influence from someone very close to him.

“Our front man, Cameron is very multi-talented; he had actually written the bass lines for Forever is Fading and Void [the band’s first two singles] and I don’t know if I added anything to it but I picked up my own way of playing from that.”

So, the big question is what does he actually do and why can’t I hear it?

Well, Joe believes more in the power of the instrument than in the hands playing it: “it just gives every other instrument that bottom layer to kind of oomph the sound. If there’s bass underneath it, it has the lower frequencies that other instruments don’t really get so it just makes everything sound a bit more full.

“A lot of people aren’t gonna hear the bass because they aren’t familiar with it; they’re not tuned to hear it in a song, one of my friends said that to me recently.

“I think its about having the knowledge of how it sounds and then you’d hear it better in the song.”

A unique entry point allowed Joe some time to craft a style that is more akin to another sect of musicians rather than history’s top shelf bassists.

Having started on guitar, Joe’s influences came mainly from exactly that, guitarists.

And now that he’s taken full control of the basslines in The Invaines’ music, he’s letting that influence take the wheel.

“There’s one I wrote recently that, the tone I’ve got on the bass, you wouldn’t be able to tell -unless you have a good ear for it- that it isn’t a lead guitar.

“That might change in the studio, it might sound more bass, but in the demo I’ve written at least it sounds more like a guitar kind of the way Mike Kerr does in Royal Blood.”

But when the time comes for Joe to take the stage, what goes into making his instrument as impactful as it needs to be?

Mark De Nays from westside distribution, one of the southside’s biggest musical instrument suppliers said: “A ‘good’ bass – which is subjective- with good tone is a combination of a number of factors.

“Despite the instrument being electric and the signal being generated by a metal string moving in front of a magnet, the wood that the guitar is made of plays a huge part in its final tone. Traditionally maple has been used for necks as it is rigid and stable.

“The body can be made of a multitude of woods from ash and alder, often used by Fender, to hardwoods such as mahogany, walnut, zebrawood and korina to name but a few.

“The pickup is also critical to the sound of the bass. Number of windings, type of magnets used and the quality of all other components in the signal path – potentiometers, capacitors, jack sockets, wiring and any active circuitry all affect tone.”

That’s the technical side, but even if Joe were to take the stage with the greatest of instruments known to man, he’d still have a shift to put in.

Mark added: “A good bass player drives most forms of music. Combing with the drummer, the ‘rhythm section’ provide the backbone & the foundation of the music, allowing the often more flamboyant or showy lead guitar player the space to do their thing without the sound space suddenly becoming empty.”

“If you have ever been at a gig when the bass amp has gone down or the bass player has broken a string you’ll know how essential the bass is to the ‘complete’ sound of any band!”

So there’s plenty that goes into making sure the bass builds up the bands you’re seeing, and while you’re out seeing them on stage this summer, Joe will be in the crowd with you, but his head might be turned in a different direction: “I’ve been to TRNSMT every year since 2019. I’m really excited to see Wunderhorse, they’ve, over the last year, quickly grown into one of my favourite bands.

“They have one album out. Every single they’d released before that made the album so it’s an easy listen if you’re trying to get into them; phenomenal album front to back.”

Now you know the passion that goes into the crucial craft of the bass as it hoists up every band you see, and if you have any trouble hearing his cohorts on stage now, Joe has a simple solution: “Just blame it on the sound guy.”

Kevin Maguire