Geoff Kresge of Tiger Army Shawn: Hi Geoff, I've read your interview on TigerArmy.com and have a few questions for you. Shawn: What strings do you use? Geoff: I've used a few different types and brands of strings over the last few years. I started out using RotoSound Superbs, which are good strings, I just don't use them much anymore. After I'd been playing for awhile I tried an all-gut set, but I wasn't too happy with the tone I was getting from them. I tried D'Adarrio steel strings, but found that they weren't really suited to the kind of playing I was trying to do at that time, so I ultimately ended up using LaBella Supernils and have been using those for quite a while now.

August 2003     by Shawn Burrell

A lot of players seem to dislike Supernils based on the tonal quality they have, but for what I'm doing they do the job just fine.

Something about Supernils that's great for beginning players is that they're relatively cheap. Considering the cost of buying a bass, getting it set up properly, pickups, etc that's an important thing. You can get good results for a reasonable price.

Shawn: On Power of Moonlite your bass has a real heavy sound, like you used a pickup to record. How did you record your bass?
Geoff: Well, when we made "Power of Moonlite", I was still learning how to actually play the upright bass, so not only was just playing the instrument a challenge, but the engineering involved in recording an upright was completely alien to me. I had helped out with some production on the first couple of Tiger Army recording sessions (which can be heard on the "Early Years EP"), so I knew something about it, but it was still somewhat new to me. I played an early 50s Kay with Rotosound Superbs and an Underwood pickup through a Gallien-Kruger 800RB and a 1x15 cab and 2x10 cab, using the crossover in the 800RB to dial in the tone/slap mix. I didn't have a slap pickup or a mic on the bass. This posed some problems when it came to mixing the record, which is why the bass isn't as pronounced on "Power of Moonlite" as opposed to the first album.

Shawn: What kind of pickup do you use?
Geoff: Like strings, I've experimented with a few different pickups with varied results. I've used Fishman, Underwood and K&K. All of the touring that we did for "Power of Moonlite" was with the K&K Rockabilly system and that's what I am using now while we are doing pre-production for the new album. It's a great system, especially for the music we are doing, because I have so much seperation between the slap and the tone. I recently started messing around with the Quantum Bass Blender and that's pretty cool. I can't believe it took so long for them to introduce something of that nature, with all of the controls on the front of the unit, instead of tucked away inside the box. I know that most players are using the box mounted on the bass somewhere, but I use a long stereo lead and I was gaff-taping the box to the inside of my rack and having to untape it every other night to change the battery or tweak the trimpots which gets old really fast. So far The Quantum is working out great.

Shawn: I heard they are working on a new bass for you at King Doublebass, can you elaborate on it?
Geoff: The new bass that Jason is building for me is basically going to take my current bass a few steps further into custom territory. What I have been playing since late-Summer 2002 is a custom Sparkle King that's stripped down and hot rodded. The new bass is going to have a custom-cast piece on the scroll, kind of along the lines of the skull they came out with awhile back, but creepier. The tuners are gonna be custom laser cut and plated and Jason and I have been talking about different ideas for a new tailpiece and bridge design, which I hope we can get happening to use on the new bass.

Shawn: How is Fred doing?
Geoff: That's a good question. I'm not sure how many people reading this interview are aware of what happened to our drummer, Fred Hell. In March, Fred was the victim of a brutal home-invasion and sustained four gunshot wounds: two in the ass, one in the back which caused his lung to collapse, and one in the head. There's still a bullet in his brain! He was in the hospital for about a week and then got sent home to recover and rebuild his strength. I'm very happy to say that Fred is doing extremely well and has been back on the drums as if nothing ever happened. He spent most of his recovery time watching drum videos and re-learning how to play, almost from scratch. I'm so happy he's even still alive, let alone the fact that I can still be in a band with him!

Shawn: Who does most of the song writing for Tiger Army?
Geoff: The singer/guitarist for Tiger Army, Nick 13, does the songwriting. He brings in songs that are almost entirely finished and then we work on different ideas together, such as various accents and embellishments. I have written my share of music over the years, but I don't really write any songs for Tiger Army. I contributed to a few songs on an album I just produced by a psychobilly band from Seattle called Graveyard Shift, though.

Shawn: How is the new album coming along?
Geoff: So far we have been having a great time working out the new songs. It's definitely hard work, and it's pretty demanding physically to be slapping away for hours on end four or five nights a week! I mean, when we play live, we're doing an hour or less, so two to three hours takes a bit more out of me. I know there are plenty of players that are doing rockabilly or blues or jazz sets that are three hours long, but I'm talking about slapping for the entirety of nearly every song. And most of the stuff we're playing is pretty uptempo. I'm getting into a groove though.

I think this is going to be the best record Tiger Army has done so far. The songs are great and fun to play, the chemistry within the band is great, and everyone wants to make it as good an album as it can possibly be.

Shawn: When are you planning to tour again?
Geoff: We most likely won't be doing any touring until the record has been finished. There have been a few things that would have been fun to do that have come up recently, but we have been playing exclusively new material since we came off the road for "Power of Moonlite" which was over six months ago, and we didn't want to lose the momentum we had going.

Shawn: When is the last time you touched a bass guitar?
Geoff: I actually just played one last night! hahaha I was learning a bass part and didn't have an upright at home, so I picked up and electric and started slapping the hell out of it! I was trying to do a little side-project with some old friends of mine where I was playing electric bass, but it kinda fell apart because everyone lives so far away and I was so busy with Tiger Army. I still like to play electric bass, but it's been so long since I played it exclusively, that my chops aren't quite what they used to be. If I play electric bass nowadays it has to be loud and distorted!

Shawn: How many basses do you have now? What kind?
Geoff: I had three uprights, but I just sold my 50s Kay, so I'm down to two for the time being. I wanna get my hands on one of the new Slap Kings that are just coming out though (Hi Jason and Brad)! I've got a carved Chinese bass that I've been doing some surgery on and the Sparkle King, which is getting repainted as we speak. In the meantime, I've been playing on a Framus that I borrowed from Jason, which is a cool bass. As far as electric basses go, I've got about half a dozen of them kicking around. The one I play at home is a Fernandes P-Bass, but my favorite is a '78 Rickenbacker 4001. I actually used that on the Graveyard Shift record. I would love to have more uprights, but I just don't have the space for them!

Shawn: What was the worst or most embarassing thing that has happened to you during a show?
Geoff: The worst thing that ever happened to me during a show was some kid trying to stage dive and losing his balance as he vaulted onto the stage and smashed down into my Kay. He ended up putting a six-inch crack in the front of it, which I proceeded to compound by putting my foot through it! That bass had so much money sunken into it in repairs that I could have just as easily bought a new one to replace it!

The most embarrassing thing that's happened to me onstage? Well I guess that would have to be the umpteen times my bridge has flown off during a song and I have to lay the bass down and re-install the bridge while the band plays on.

Shawn: What was the best thing that has happened during a show?
Geoff: The best thing that's happened during a show would have to be when we played to over a thousand people that ALL sang along in the group vocal parts in some of our songs: over a thousand people chanting "Never Die!" over and over! It was one of those times when you feel like you know exactly why you were put on this planet... To rock!

Shawn: Thank you for your time and also for being a productive contributor to the Rockabillybass.com message board!
Geoff: Thank you Shawn for the interview and for keeping Rockabillybass.com going strong! And thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read this interview!

Stay sick, Stay psycho, Tiger Army Never Die!

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