BASS
Patrick Hansen is the bass player in Canadian alt-rock band The Treble. Since 2011, The Treble have been carving out their place in the
Canadian music scene with engaging songs and passionate live shows. Patrick and The Treble have toured Canada extensively and shared
stages with Hedley, The Lumineers, Capital Cities, The Trews, Dear Rouge, Sam Roberts Band, and more. www.thetreblemusic.com
By Patrick Hansen
The Importance
of Influence
M
y first performance was a di-
saster. It ought to have been
warning enough that none of
our parents would let us prac-
tice in their basements, but after weeks of
rehearsing Operation Ivy in the school band
room after hours, we stood up in front of our
middle school and embarrassed ourselves. At
the time, I barely had a capable handle on
the bass. I’m not sure why I thought I’d be
able to tackle singing at the same time for
my first “show,” too. To this day, I’m not certain
what stung more – seeing my friends laugh
or watching the teachers try to stifle theirs.
To make matters worse, the timing was
horrifying. The performance was part of an
end-of-the-year celebration, so that meant I
walked out of school for the summer carrying
the weight of defeat. I remember climbing
into my dad’s car. An accomplished musician
himself, he politely asked how it had gone as
a matter of courtesy. He knew.
That summer ended up becoming the
most important of my musical career. Look-
ing back, I think it would have been much
easier to call it quits – to say that music just
wasn’t for me. But I went and did the oppo-
site. I practiced. Hard. Every day. Prior to that
show, music was about impressing girls and
gaining social value with the guys. Everything
changed from that point on. Where previously
I had stuck to learning stuff I enjoyed, I started
to explore music I didn’t necessarily listen to
for pleasure. I learned to appreciate the subtle-
ties of different styles and players. I became
increasingly aware that a bassist’s approach to
a song is a very personal thing. Distinct styles
started to materialize where I had previously
only heard a progression of notes. In short,
I began to appreciate that a player and his/
W W W. C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N . CO M
her style is what breathes life into a song –
especially on the bass.
Expanding Your Influences
Once high school arrived, I jumped at every
opportunity I could find to play with other
people. One weekend might find me talking
about the importance of good tone in a bad
Pink Floyd wannabe band, and the next would
see me playing Bad Religion-style lines in a
dirty warehouse with guys who were way
too old for me to be playing with. I cannot
stress enough that this was the next impor-
tant part of my musical journey. Collaborating
with others, hearing their stories, and applying
what I could to my own playing allowed me
to improve exponentially compared to my
previous, more isolated experiences.
That’s when I realized precisely why we
had failed only a few short summers prior.
We were all playing our parts, but we weren’t
listening. We hadn’t found our own styles be-
cause we hadn’t been looking for them. We
were bad because our practicing was bad.
Our only influence and feedback came from
ourselves.
So, when I think about how I’ve become
the artist I am today, I remember all of the
hours I spent motivated by an initial failure.
For that reason, I don’t regret playing through
that nightmare; if nothing else, it made me ap-
preciate the importance of finding influence
and seeking feedback far earlier and far more
than I might have otherwise.
Because that’s what bass playing comes
down to for me. It’s about studying those
that came before and borrowing from their
accomplishments and the ground they’ve
broken. Over time, I held onto rhythmic and
melodic ideas from an array of bassists, from
Geddy Lee to Mark Hoppus, mixed them all
together, and came up with who I am as a
member of The Treble.
Always Learning
This desire for feedback and influence still
serves me well to this day. During the re-
cording of our latest release, Modernaires, I
met Rob Wells (Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande),
a Canadian producer I already held in high
regard. Rob asked me to look at playing bass
in an entirely different way. He would skip
through octaves with his lines and ask me to
push slides and glissando into notes in a way
I admittedly would have previously thought
so unorthodox it would be wrong. He loved
the tiny subtleties that would emerge as I ran
from one pass and pushed into another with-
out properly releasing from the fretboard. I
learned to love them, too.
When the bass tracks on Modernaires are
isolated, they have an imperfect quality that,
out of context, almost seems erroneous; how-
ever, when they sit in the mix of the songs,
these nuances help move the tracks in a way
I hadn’t anticipated. Now, I have another tool/
idea to add into my approach to bass playing.
I think the spirit of that experience with
Rob is what is most important about improv-
ing after you’ve reached a certain level of
competence. It comes down to a desire to
seek feedback, and an active search for new
influences as you move forward. In the end,
allowing yourself the freedom to look outside
of your own playing style for new inspirations
is what allows you to grow.
And it might just save you from a sum-
mer of mean MSN Messenger texts from your
friends.
C A N A D I A N M U S I C I A N • 27