Reprinted with the permission of Bass Frontiers magazine. November 1996

Mick Mahan - Pat Benatar's Bassist: In His Own Words.

by Christopher Buttner

I was recommended to the Pat Benatar band by a few different drummers, as well as another friend of guitarist, Neil Geraldo. Neil and drummer Myron Grambacher and myself just went in and played trio, and we just clicked. A bunch of guys from the streets of Ohio. It was great. The groove and everything was just great. They wanted me to come back and play with Pat a few days later, but I came down with a horrendous case of laryngitis - Absolutely no voice at all. There was no way I was going to call 'em up and say, 'I can't come to audition because I can't speak', so I went down to play anyway. I sung all of the parts and I sounded like Kermit the Frog. They all laughed and just said, 'Hey, you're in the band'. At least from what little bit I could sing, everyone in the group could figure out I could sing to pitch.

Prior to getting the gig with the Pat Benatar band, I played around LA for Seventeen years. I toured with Toni Childs for a while on the House of Hope Tour and did some playing with Ambrosia. I've been around, it's always been the hired gun kinda' thing. I've locked into a few bands that were always close to getting a deal, but I have always stayed with the song writing. TV, film, and so on, instead of being at the mercy of the "boss". It's nice to have a steady paycheck.

I have two Tobias five string basses, and a six string and a five string acoustic Vantage and a four string fretless acoustic Vantage. I came across the Vantage basses at the Bass Center. The owner of the Bass Center, Alan, suggested I check out the Vantage instruments. I found the Vantage bass to be very nice. I asked Alan to speak with the Vantage people and ask if I could take it home and check it out because I was very interested in using it for the tour. The next day I spoke with the Vantage artist endorsement director, Mike Plunkett. I explained to Mike, I was not interested in a free instrument, I wanted a bass that I would love to play. That was the case with the Vantage price range, they are unbeatable. There are some very expensive instruments that are out there that play very well, too. I don't want to slight anyone, but I think for what you will pay for a Vantage instrument, you will not find anything better.

I'm playing a Krossroad amp and the stuff is great. It has a very rich, warm encompassing sound, which is what I want. I want you to feel the bass, but the sound also has to have some focus. There are a lot of great amps out there, but so many of them have a great bottom and a terrific high-end, but they are totally lacking in the mids. No matter what you do, they'll always sound thin. I hate thin sounding bass amps. To me, it's about getting a warm sound with great focus, which is what the Krossroads amps deliver. And it's a true 500 watt amp. I barely have the volume set above #2. The cabinet configuration is two ten inch drivers with a horn on top and a 15 inch on the bottom.

I've been playing 27 years now. Like most other bassists, I started out playing guitar, there were three guys in the band and one of us had to play bass. I said, yeah, I'll do it. I always liked the instrument anyway. Even way before that, the thing that really got me into music was when I heard Del Shannon do "Runaway" I knew I was going to be a musician. Soon after that, I really got into the Beatles. I was eleven years old when I got my first guitar and got into my first band, and then it was two or three years when I started playing bass. That was it... I found my instrument.

I have a considerable amount of formal training. When I was a kid, I had no training at all. John Paul Jones taught me how to play bass from Led Zeppelin One. That's what I put most of my effort into. I had a talent for the "ear thing", but I couldn't read music and I had no theory at all. When I moved to LA, if I was going to compete, I realized I would have to get my act together. I went to back school and went through all of the classes in arranging, reading music, everything at the Dick Grove's School of Music! It was funny. I was already working at the school when I started to take lessons. I was playing in the faculty fusion band, and every now and again I would get asked to "sub" for a bass class. I would "teach" the classes to help my friends who were the teachers, but I just didn't have the knowledge to do it. It always wound up that I would just "sit-in" on the classes. Eventually, Dick offered to pay my way, and I said, Sure! It was a great school back in the early 80's, but unfortunately, it's no longer in existence.

I love creating and playing music. I don't really go over the top when it comes to gear. Ask any musician, what got them into music? What was the first song that really just kicked their ass? Remember the emotion? It's the emotional thing for me that keeps me playing. I haven't really wavered from the emotion and I have been doing this for a long time.

I always had a smooth approach to playing the bass. Many people have told me I look very at ease with the instrument. I strive to do that, but I don't know how that developed. I get into a place in my mind where it's easy and relaxed. The groove is better when you're relaxed. If you're trying to force it, you'll have a harder time trying to find the middle of the beat. That's my approach - just aim for the middle of the beat. Keep it loose, but tight. I have played a lot of styles of music, everything from jazz to be-bop to slap to funk, but with Pat's music, there are no fills or solos. It's not what Pat's music is all about. So in this situation, I don't play fills, I don't play solos, but on other gigs, I do.

I don't get bored just playing in the pocket, as you might imagine. Some of the finest bassists in the world are the most impressive when they are playing in the pocket. Take Nathan East for example. That guy can make a quarter note groove! There is an art to that. Take Jeff Berlin for another example. Since Jaco died, no one can solo better! I appreciate that very much, as well. When a bassist has true expertise, that's great. It doesn't matter if it's fast, articulate licks or just a groove. It's all art, it's all emotion.

Touring with Pat Benatar is the best. Pat is one of the best singers in the world. Every now and again, we say, "I wish I knew you way back in 1979!" and that would have been great to have been with the band for all of that time. As soon as I met these guys, everything just fell right into place, friendship and music-wise. The band is really like a family. The wives come along, the kids come along and it's a big family unit. I think that's what makes the band so strong. Another thing is you never have to look at someone out of the corner of your eye, on-stage. We all just know. Everything has fallen into it's place.

It's great being in Pat's band, because this is also a change for them. They have never had a real bass player in the band. They always had friends that played bass, or singers who's duty it was to play bass, but this time, they wanted a real bass player - a foundation. And with the new record we're recording in early 1996, I believe they want the bass to have a little bit more of a voice. Kind of like Neil's guitar playing; it's very unique, as is Myron's drumming. They want that trio thing to have a big voice. We hope to have the album out in the first part of 1996. It'll be big. I think I found a home here. I have no intentions of changing! Judging by how long Myron has been with the band... As long as Pat wants to do it and as long as neil wants to keep doing it, I'm up for it.

During the tour, my wife had our first child and I made it home in time for the birth. The whole thing was perfect! We didn't have to stop the tour - my baby cooperated right from the start. We pulled into a hotel in Washington, DC at 9:30 in the morning, I was informed my wife was in the hospital, caught a plane was in LA at 3:30 in the afternoon and by 5:30, after two hours of doing the "breathing thing" with my wife, I was a father. I was totally convinced I was going to make it to see the birth.

As far as my kid getting into music, I'm not going to force him to do it. If he wants to, great. It's not the kind of thing I'm going to force on him. Not everybody is meant to do this. Think about all of the kids you grew up with that played music. Now, years later, they went onto so many other things. When a person first makes that separation from playing music after high school or whenever to "move on", they usually experience a feeling of "giving up". After a while, people feel, it's not really a feeling of giving up as it is a feeling of moving on. Giving up is not what it's about it's about, it's about finding yourself. I love music and I never wanted to give it up or move on. I knew very early on music was what I was going to do with my life and I was stubborn enough to make a living at it. Hey, I'm Irish and Sicilian. You can't get anymore stubborn than that - Potato Parmigana - I knew, eventually, If I just kept at it, I would make it.