Paolo Rossi is the bass player for genre-defining Italian symphonic death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse. He took time out of his schedule to email with me about how the current global situation is impacting musicians, his influences, playing fingerstyle to kickdrums so fast they make metronomes turn in their clickers, performing for a global audience while also to no one at all at the same time, how he is able to rock out while keeping it theatrical and tight, and much more.

Had the world not come to a standstill Fleshgod Apocalypse (sometimes referred to as FA in the interview) would be on tour supporting their latest effort Veleno. They recently livestreamed a blistering 70 minute concert called “Live at Bloom Studio” which we talk about. And if you play metal bass and have always wanted a lesson from a professional, he and the rest of the members of FA are giving Skype lessons for very reasonable prices. More information here. (Full disclosure- My first contact with Paolo was through one of these lessons, and I plan on doing another soon. It’s totally worth it.)

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Doug Robertson- You play a four string but FA's songs are all in very low tunings. Why string a four string BEAD rather than use a possibly more versatile five string?

Paolo Rossi- I used to play a 5 strings back in the day. If I remember well, our first demo and the album Oracles have been recorded with my old LTD 5 strings. When it came to play live, I noticed that I didn’t really need the G string, so I chose to set up a four string with a BEAD standard tuning. It allows me to have a lighter and more comfortable instrument since our live shows are very energetic and I need to move a lot on stage.

DR-Your official FA bass is beautiful. Who makes it and how much input did you have into it? What are the specs? 

PR- My bass is made by Rufini Fine Instruments, a luthier from my hometown. He made our guitars as well. He basically followed my requests: 24 frets, EMG pick ups, active electronics and we designed the body together. I’m really happy about this bass! It has a very powerful sound, and it’s super stable.

DR- Your tone, while being heavy as hell, doesn't have the high gain that some contemporary heavy bass players have. What is in your signal chain and what are your thoughts on overdrive and other high gain bass tones, as well as your tone?

PR- We have a lot of stuff going on on our songs! Due to that, we prefer to use the bass for its lows instead of the highs. Now I’m playing with Overloud software with a little bit of distortion. Overdrive can be useful if you play certain styles of music like thrash metal, in my opinion!

DR- One of the biggest issues with metal bass is it has a tendency to get lost in the mix. With your band playing in such low tunings how do you make sure the bass is still heard and impactful?

PR- Yeah, this is an issue when it comes to metal, especially modern extreme metal. We work a lot on the sounds: the important thing is to have a good balance between bass and guitars, for example reducing the low frequencies from the guitars, favouring the bass presence. Also arrangement is crucial to make the bass more audible. We focus a lot on this!

DR-Bass is the link between the drummer and the guitars, but FA's drums are ridiculously fast. How does that impact how you think of your role in the band's sound? Do you try to keep up?

PR- I used to follow drums as much as possible. Even though I play with my fingers I can keep it up to 300 bpm blast beats with no problems. Anyway, when the kick drum parts are 32 notes I try to follow the snare. The general sound is less messy and the difference is not audible. This is for live performances. When I record I use a pick for super fast parts to have a more precise result.

DR- FA famously combines the symphonic with the brutal better than just about any band in the world. What role do you play in that process, both as a co-writer and as the bass player? Do you think about having to sing the clean vocal parts and change your bass parts accordingly because singing and playing is a tricky thing?

PR- I actually don’t take part in the songwriting. Francesco Paoli and Francesco Ferrini take care of it, while the other members, including me, can put their ideas when we arrange the songs. Of course singing and playing is very tricky so I try to arrange the bass part as easy as possible when I have to sing difficult parts.

DR- Is there a difference between the most fun song to play live and the hardest? What makes a song fun to play for you?

PR- Well, the hardest song that we have in our setlist is “The Fool”*, and I really like to play it even if I can’t move too much along with it. If I need to choose a fun song to play is “The Forsaking”. It’s an easy song, so I can move much more while playing it and I can also have a better interaction with the crowd.

DR- For our readers who want to play this style of music and are fingerstyle players like you are, how long did it take for you to build the speed, endurance, and accuracy to play FA-style music? Do you have any tips for aspiring bass players? 

PR- I always suggest using a metronome, and start playing from very slow tempos. That’s the only way to get a good sound! If you skip learning or practicing at slow tempos you can maybe reach fast ones anyway, but your sound will never be clean and smooth enough. I’m also a bass teacher and another golden rule I’m always telling to my students is to play a lot of covers: by going through those a student can learn why and when a musician is using a technique instead of another. Having fun is very important, so if you choose songs you like you can learn easily!

DR-What's your background? How did you come to bass and to FA?

PR- Me and Francesco Paoli have been playing together since 2005 when I joined his band, T.E.R. (thrash/death metal). After that band split up we founded Fleshgod Apocalypse in 2007. My background is classic, power and metal in general. Of course I love, also extreme metal and other kinds of music, like jazz, rock, post-rock and ambient.

I started playing bass in 2000, because I was amazed by Steve Harris’ playing when I saw Iron Maiden in 1999 (my first metal show ever!)

DR- Who influences you? Could be in your genre or outside it. Are there bass players or recordings that you think every player must at least be aware of?

PR- As I said before, Harris is my favourite ever. Then I also like Markus Grosskopf, John Deacon, Geddy Lee, Cliff Burton, David Ellefson, John Myung, Alex Webster...the best ones!

Anyway, another big influence is Paul McCartney. I really love the Beatles and his bass arrangements.

If I have to speak about records I would suggest every bass player to study these 3 albums:

• “Somewhere in Time” by Iron Maiden

• “2112” by Rush

• “Ride The Lightning” by Metallica

DR- What are you listening to right now?

PR- Last Within Temptation album, Resist, from 2019, and the post rock band If These Trees Could Talk, The Bones Of A Dying World album.

DR- The official music that the band releases on your website, like The Violation bass tab, comes in both score and tab form. When the band is writing are you writing in musical notation or in tab or just by ear? Can you all read music? Is there another official bass score coming soon? Maybe “Monnalisa”?

PR- We are using midi and tabs to write music. It’s much easier and faster than standard music writing that all of us can do but not in a super-good way. “Monnalisa” would be great, it’s one of my favourite songs from Veleno and from us in general, I would love to deliver its tab!

DR- There is a theatrical element to the FA live show. How did that come to be and how has it evolved over time? 

PR- Fleshgod Apocalypse is not just music, it’s entertainment too! We always loved that approach and we tried to incorporate it in the band since its very beginning. Costumes, stage settings, movements on stage are very important for us and we try to study this side of our band in a very meticulous way. The more we go on the more we try to have a visual show along with a music one so the fans can have a full experience!

DR- Is it hard to rock out while playing music this complex this quickly? Does the make-up and costume, which looks both hot and heavy, also impact how you “get into” the music?

PR- Our songs are not easy at all, even the slowest ones are very tricky. “The Day We’ll Be Gone” for example, is one of the most difficult, even if it’s a ballad. So, yeah, playing our songs requires a good musicianship level. But, as you said, we like to complicate things even more, so we added hot and heavy costumes ahahah! Of course it’s much more complicated to play with those on, and sometimes when we play new songs, we do some rehearsals with our costumes to see if some things are still doable, ehehe!

DR- How is the band handling the pandemic right now? You’re keeping busy with the regular live-streams, which are fun to watch. 

PR- The pandemic damaged the band a lot. As you may know, the biggest part of the income of a band in these days comes from the live shows. We’ve been forced to find other ways to go on and survive: Saturday Night Lockdown for example helped us a lot to be in touch with our fanbase and to talk with other bands about this bad situation. Also virtual meet and greets and playthroughs helped us spreading the band name and to make people aware of how we were doing.

DR- Can you talk about how the live stream concert from Bloom Studio came together? The sound quality was out of this world and it was really cool to see all of you in a room in what was probably a more relaxed environment than a normal show would be.  

PR- I really loved that experience! In the beginning I felt weird: playing a live show with no costumes and no audience was a shock! But then I just enjoyed myself cause, yeah, I was playing LIVE after 5 months! I know it’s not the same, but the work and the efforts we put on this project are huge, so I hope everyone liked it and appreciated it. As far as I know, we had a very good reaction, and of course we’re going to do more of those in the future!

DR- How can our readers support you and FA right now during this difficult time? 

PR- Buying merch from our official merchstore is the best way to help us:

Just go to shop.fleshgodapocalypse.com and you’ll find a lot of juicy stuff!

Also buying tickets of our live streams, of booking lessons with one of us (everyone is giving online lessons).

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Many thanks to Paolo for the time and the wonderful answers to my questions. Be sure to check out FA and reach out to Paolo for lessons. You’ll be glad you did.

*that tone though, so tasty

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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.