Kickstarting Lunar Satan- The Bass Parts
Technology has made it easier than ever for personal music projects to become realities and find an audience. Such as it is with Lunar Satan, the brain child of Metal Up Your Podcast host Clint Wells. “It all started as an off the cuff joke on my all Metallica podcast (Metal Up Your Podcast) about a heavy metal satanic concept album. Well, I took it upon myself to write and record that album in all it's insane glory…” Wells writes on the Kickstarter launched back in early November. The Bass Channel head honcho Chris Caccamise joined the project through a personal connection with Wells, the how and why of which is covered in the interview below. I talked to Chris about becoming a part of the Lunar Satan family, how it was writing bass parts remotely for someone else’s project, and if we should be worshiping Satan, the moon, or both when we support the Kickstarter and get our copy of the album.
Doug Robertson- How did you come to be a part of the Lunar Satan writing and recording process? (Would it be fair to call you part of the band? Is there a “band”?)
Chris Caccamise- I discovered Metal Up Your Podcast right at the tail end of 2017. I quickly became a fan and Patron (anyone who knows me knows that I’m an intensely huge Metallica fan). I’m sure Clint will discuss this more [Ed. Note- Be on the look out for an interview with Clint Wells soon] but the Lunar Satan project was born on that show while discussing the lyrics to the Mercyful Fate medley and before long, the first song was recorded, then the second, then the third. Eventually, I reached out to Clint to ask him if I could use one of the songs on The Bass Channel for the “In the Mix” series of videos we were doing at the time and he agreed. He sent me the song without bass, the isolated bass track, and a video. The problem was that the bass track was the produced track with all the EQ and compression, etc., not the raw track, so I wasn’t able to feed it into the pedal which basically forced me to learn and record the part myself. Luckily, I had his video, so learning the part wasn’t very difficult. After that, I guested on the show a couple times. Then in June of 2019, he reached out asking me if I wanted to record bass on the newest song at the time, “The Charioting/Voices”.
I was in Germany at the time with TGU19 when I got the song and I admit, I was really nervous about doing it. Learning the other song with the help of the video was no problem but bass is my newest instrument and learning a song by ear combined with writing an actual bass part wasn’t something I’d ever done. After about a week or so, I’d come up with something I liked and, fortunately, Clint liked it as well, which led to getting invited to do each song as they were written.
DR- How involved were you in the writing process for the songs on the album? Were they given to you complete except for bass parts, or were they still in process and you were able to add or change things?
CC- As far as overall composition, I had no input. Clint is an accomplished songwriter so there really wasn’t any need for it. Other than for a couple minor tweaks, the demos I received were pretty much the final versions as you hear them now. Save for “Blood Unto Blood” which was originally going to be a metal cover of Hulk Hogan’s song, “Hulkster in Heaven” (seriously, look it up).
DR- What was it like to be given the responsibility of coming up with bass parts for someone else’s album?
CC- Like I mentioned earlier. this was my first experience writing actual bass parts and needless to say, I was quite nervous about it. Especially considering that I just run a YouTube channel and now I’m working with actual professional musicians.
I’d written plenty of songs before but they were all written on guitar so any real bass writing I had done was basic rhythms that followed the guitar verbatim.
My involvement in Lunar Satan not only helped increase my ability and confidence in writing, recording, and playing bass, but also served as the catalyst for the “5 Bass Players, 1 Song” series. Like I mentioned before, I was listening to the first song I received in a hotel room in Germany with Nick and Will, asking them what they would do in various parts, hoping to gain some insight and inspiration.
DR- What was your approach to writing the parts? The songs have a pretty deep groove for the most part. Did you want to take the Newstead route of stay with the guitars, occasionally do your own thing, or did you want to be more adventurous with your playing?
CC- Obviously, every song was a little different. The song where I really found my footing was “Evoko Serpentum”. I started by learning the guitar riff note for note, then the idea of locking in with the drums came in, which was fitting since this song has plenty of groove on tap. It took a few minutes to wrap my head around it after learning the guitar part but it was so satisfying to find that rhythm and lock into it.
I then expanded upon that concept for “Blood Unto Blood”. My rule was if the kick is not doing anything, I’m not doing anything. So every bass note mirrors the kick rhythm while playing the same guitar notes. There are a couple instances where I opted for playing the lower octaves but nothing fancy in terms of playing any minor thirds or fifths or anything. Generally speaking, I’m not a fan of bass doing harmonies in heavy rock.
“We Ride the Skies” may have the most “adventurous” part (if you could call it that) in that during the verses, the bass is kind of doing its own thing in terms of rhythm and notes. I talked about it in more detail in the first “5 Bass Players, 1 Song” episode.
DR- Is there a reason Clint brought you in to lay bass down instead of doing it himself like he did for vocals, guitar, and drums? How much freedom did he give you? Were there parts you brought to him that he nixed for one reason or another?
CC- I think he originally brought me on as a way to include Patrons of the show who were also musicians. The first song I did, “The Charioting/Voices” also featured Brian King from Reality Suite on drums. I chose to do a Steve Harris gallop (albeit with a pick) in the verses with a slightly more melodic approach in the choruses. I think it’s safe to say that he liked what I did because I kept getting invited back to do more parts. He recorded the bass parts to the first 3 demos (“We Ride the Skies,” “Set the Witch on Fire,” and “Come Dark Sun”) but since he’s more of a guitar player, he wanted to source these out to a “real bass player”, (enter “Imposter Syndrome”).
Actually, “Come Dark Sun” was originally going to feature Scott Pingel, the bass player from the San Francisco Symphony (and Metallica’s S&M2), but something or other happened resulting in that not becoming a reality, which led to another “Oh, shit” moment when that invite came back to me.
I had a surprising amount of freedom out of the gate. I’d say about 60% of my parts had some production notes that primarily consisted of “play simpler” or something like, “Can you try this feel in the bridge?”. “Play simpler” was usually the main note, though. Again, my bass experience is limited to the channel and players therein, and since the bass is usually the only instrument in the demo videos, it’s typically advantageous to play a bit more on the busy side to keep the video interesting.
DR- Being the head honcho for The Bass Channel, you have access to a pretty wide range of basses, pedals, and amps. Did you do a lot of shuffling gear depending on the song, or did you stick with a basic rig and only change some things?
CC- I have quite a bit of gear from which I can choose but I ultimately used the Darkglass Microtubes X Ultra on every track. Each song has slightly different EQ and Drive settings but the same general vibe. Once I really figured that pedal out, it kind of became “my tone”. Basically, Low Comp set to max, Low Level set somewhere around 3 or 4 o’ clock, High Level set around 2 o’ clock, and High Drive around 11 o’ clock. Low Crossover at about 11 o’ clock, High Crossover anywhere between noon and 3 o’ clock. Slight boost on the Low Shelf, slight boost at 3kHz, and slight boost on the Treble Shelf. Again, minor tweaks between songs. I also used a boss CEB-3 in “Come Dark Sun”
As far as basses, I used a Schecter Stiletto Custom 5 on “The Charitiong” and “Voices”, a Gibson Thunderbird on “We Ride the Skies”, a Warwick Rockbass Adam Clayton Signature (essentially a P Bass) on “Set the Witch on Fire (Again)”, a passive GPS Warwick Corvette Standard Bubinga on “Evoko Serpentum”, “Blood Unto Blood”, and “Come Dark Sun”, and a GPS Warwick Corvette $$ on “Disapyramid”, “Mirage”, and “Pigfuck”.
DR- Do you have a favorite bass part on the album? Something you’re proud of that you hope either pops out to listeners or listeners should pay attention to?
CC- There are a few cool moments that come to mind:
At the end of “Pigfuck”, I played a weird, minor 2nd harmonic thing that I learned from Will (5th fret on G, 4th fret on D) that creates this wonderful dissonance that I think really adds to the chaos of that section. I thought they might cut it out or at least mix it low, but it’s the loudest thing in that section.
In “Mirage”, I locked into that second guitar run going into the chorus, which took a few takes to land cleanly.
Also, in “Come Dark Sun” I played this little passage way up high on the neck that I thought sounded pretty cool.
DR- Was this done completely through the internet, just sending files back and forth, or were you able to work with Clint in person?
CC- All of it was done through the internet. Clint lives in Nashville, TN and I live in Las Vegas, NV. He would send me an email with the bounce, a little road map, and the bpm. Then I’d plug it into Logic, do my part, and send him the solo bass track. We both use Logic Pro X so it was easy in terms of syncing, sample rates, and file types.
DR- Assuming the world stops ending some time in the future, is there a possibility of catching Lunar Satan live?
CC- Assuming we can return to normal in 2021, there’s talk of doing a 2-week run, possibly around the Southeastern part of the country. None of that has been confirmed or finalized but there’s at least some “half-joking” talk about it. “Half-joking” has brought the project this far so I’m definitely looking forward to it. I have no problem dropping what I’m doing if that comes to fruition. Whether we do a tour or a second record or if the project just ends here, I’m forever grateful to be a part of it and of course will continue to be honored to have any future involvement.
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You can still get in on grabbing a copy of Lunar Satan’s album for yourself through the Kickstarter. The Kickstarter itself is over, having performed above and beyond Clint’s expectations. Chris also made a Bass Channel video talking about the project, which you can view below.
Doug Robertson is the editor of The Bass Blog, the blog component of The Bass Channel, your one stop YouTube channel for all things bass. His number one is a Mexican Geddy Lee Signature Jazz and his boomer is a BEAD tuned T-Bird. Find books by Doug here. If you’re interested in contributing to The Bass Blog please reach out to Doug at doug@thebasschannel.net. We would love to hear from you. Hail Satan.
