Interview with Lee Rocker Shawn: What first turned you on to playing the bass? Lee: I just always gravitated towards the lower end of things. I grew up as a little kid playing the cello. My parents are classical musicians, so I played for a couple of years, seven to eleven I guess. About eleven years old I really started listening to rock and roll and hearing stuff on a radio and switched over to bass. You know that, on top of carrying a cello through the snow in New York, not too cool you know. And then I played an electric bass for a couple of years. But the records I zoned in on, what I really loved, was rockabilly and blues and more roots kinds of stuff instead of the stuff on the radio. It was an upright bass on all those records.

March 2003 by Shawn Burrell

Shawn: What was your first doghouse bass?
Lee: It was a Kay, and it was pretty beaten up. So it wasn't anything. I've got a Kay that I love now, one of my favorites is a 1950 Kay with a maple back on it and it's a great one, but this was a beaten old school bass with names carved in it.

Shawn: What bass do you play the most these days?
Lee: I'm using the 1950 Kay I've got in Europe. I keep it there because I got so tired shipping them back and forth or trying to go fly with it in this day and age. It's impossible. So instead of carrying it, I leave that one there. My favorite bass is a King double bass. Jason Burns over there at King, is the guy who runs it, is making a Lee Rocker model bass, so I worked with him on the prototype, and I've got three of them right now. And I love it. It's got the EMG pick up, steel strings, which I always prefer. It feels like they ring more true, I find, especially on the E string, on the lower strings, I find for the volume that I play and the kind of stuff I do I get much better fundamental notes out of them. I played some gut basses that have worked really well, but the for me the steel is it. It's part of my sound at this point. And it's got EMG pickups, but the new ones are four separate holes that are in the fingerboard. So you can get the balance right Also there's the transducer under the top of the fingerboard, and I try to put that as high up as possible. I've moved them around. Right now the King bass is set up so you can move that and get the different sounds. I find it a better, high end sound the further up I can get it. If it's too low it's a little mid rangy for me. It's really exciting to have my own line of bass out there. A lot of players are using these basses now I think.

Shawn: I guess they're pretty good for the road?
Lee: They definitely are. The necks are steel reinforced, there's a rod down the neck, and they're a good bass. They're great. It's replaced my other stuff.

Shawn: Do you think you'll do another instructional video?
Lee: Yeah. I'm hoping to. I've really thought about what I wanted to cover, and just go into a bit more of detail on things. I need to speak to a company whether it would be Homespun or a different one about going in there for volume two. I'm happy with everything on that tape except for my haircut. Musically, I put a lot of thought into it and really wanted to do something helpful, you know. Hopefully I did. It's done well. I'm surprised by how many that have actually sold out there.

Shawn: Do you know how many have sold?
Lee: Thousands. I'm going to guess that there's been at least 5000 sold.

Shawn: They're always on eBay. More people are getting them actually than you're seeing sell, I'm sure.
Lee: Somebody must be making copies and selling them or digesting what's on there and then moving on and doing something else with it. That's okay too. When you do one of those tapes you understand that that's going to happen. That whole part of copying stuff is a little rough out there, you know.

Shawn: How do you feel about your new CD?
Lee: I'm really happy with this one. I feel like this is the best CD that I've put out on my own since The Stray Cats. I'm happy with the the material, and the band is there. I feel like for the first time since The Stray Cats that I have a band with the same kind of spark. And some of the guys have been with me for a long time. Brophy Dale, has been with me now, I think, for about four years. The drummer, Jimmy Sage, has been with me longer than that, and Tara Novick has been about two years. He's the new guy. The band's got a spark now, and it has chemistry and magic that I haven't felt since The Stray Cats. I know we're connecting with people live. And it's great to feel that again.

Shawn: Where was it recorded?
Lee: Some of it was recorded at Tara Novick's studio. The guitar player has a studio at his house that he calls Mama Chicken Studios. We recorded a lot of stuff there, which was kind of nice, and it was recorded over a long period of time. I didn't say, "We're going to take the month of August and do a record". We recorded a for a week, went and did gigs, came back and recorded for three day, left for a month, and it dragged on over probably a year and a half time period. And then I went into a studio called Golden Track in San Diego that I'd used a lot over the years and worked on vocals and mixing, but most of it was cut in a garage more or less. You can't beat a garage once a while I got to say.

Shawn: Was most of it was recorded live? Were you all in the same room?
Lee: Oh yes, definitely.

Shawn: Did you use only a mic to record your bass?
Lee: Yes. No amplifier on the entire record, a microphone between the bridge and the F hole. Tube mics, and that was it which was kind of nice. On a certain level, this record is a little more organic, than a lot of them. On the guitars, I don't remember what they used exactly, just little old amplifiers, you know what I mean, like something with 112 or 110 maybe deluxe or an older Fender amp, just little gear, and as simple as possible. There's really very little bullshit on there, you know what I mean? Obviously it's a studio record. Some of the vocals were done separately, although there's a couple of songs I just used as a guide vocal and I kept it. Bulletproof is a guide vocal. The day we cut it, I sang into a mike, and we left it. I know there's a couple of others in there as well, but that one jumps out at me. I remember going okay, well, I'll sing this one today put it away and mix it, but the one I did that day while playing bass was the best.

Shawn: All right. Just have a couple more. What strings do you use?
Lee: Jauger.

Shawn: Jauger?
Lee: J-A-U-G-E-R. Danish steel strings. I like the medium gage. I haven't changed that. When I can't find that I'll use a Thomastik sometimes, but I usually manage to keep enough Jaugers around. I mean Thomastik are good strings, I just prefer the brightness on the Jauger. I'm a creature of habit at this point, and I'm really into them. On stage I'm using an ampeg SVT channel one and 8x10 cabinet that I've been using since 1984. Actually Peavey sent me some equipment just about a week ago, and I've got a tour coming up in the Mid West, but I haven't had enough time to work with it. A great sounding amplifier, really surprised me, there's a pro bass 500 made by Peavey and an 8x10 cabinet that sound great. There's also a smaller modelling amplifier they make. Believe it or not, it's a bit of a computer for me to work with, but when I do a lower volume kind of thing, it sounds fantastic as, so that's been kind of cool. I wish I had more time to really work with these Peaveys and get to know them well enough to take them on tour. The tour after this I might be running Peavey.

Shawn: Do you use any compression?
Lee: None. The pickups are done. Probably the most out of the ordinary thing I do is run the EMG pickup into one channel of the amplifier and then the transducer, the stock pickup, into another channel, and the stereo set up in a way that I can control volume and tone on both parts of that. King bass has just sent a bass to me with with a blender box on the bass so you can use it with one channel. And that's what I've been using through the Peavey. It adds volume and tone to the slap pickup. So you can go crazy, put a little slap or a lot of slap and adjust the tone. We're working with that, and it's a great setup. The only thing holding me back from just diving in and using it every night, is that I'm just a creature of habit, and I've got to really get used to my settings and where I want the amp adjusted and buttons and knobs and things. I've used it some nights and I'm happy to try it but to commit to it takes me a little while. I've got to be really comfortable, with my eyes closed turn the knobs on the amp and adjust the bass and have it right. The newer King bass with the blender box I'm still adjusting to.

Shawn: Are you planning an extensive tour this time?
Lee: We've got 12 shows in the Mid West coming up starting March 12th, and we have 12 shows in 12 days on that run. And in April we'll be doing about the same in the East Coast, and in May about the same in the South, June is West Coast, and July and August is Europe. This is the year that I'm doing about 150 shows. I'm happy. With Bulletproof being out, this is time for the whole touring cycle again, going out and getting everywhere.

Shawn: I saw on your messageboard you got up and played with Brian Setzer a couple of nights ago? How are things between you two?
Lee: Oh, that was a while ago. I mean a year ago or something. I did one of his trio shows. We just talked about a week ago. We're all pretty cool together. We've been through a lot. We're all fine with each other. 25 years of knowing each other or more, you know, sometimes you're pissed off and sometimes you're not.

Shawn: That's all the questions that I have right now. Thanks for your time.
Lee: All right. Thanks so much.

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