At songwriters event, it's all about that bass

Shelley Pierce didn’t have to think twice when asked to moderate a Songwriters in the Round discussion at this year’s Minnesota Original Music Festival.

“I'd been kicking around the idea of getting bass players together to do something like this, so it just kind of ended up being the perfect opportunity to do that,” said Pierce. “Mostly just because there's such amazing bass players around here. We're just really inundated with them.”

This event, “Songwriters in the Round: Bass Talk,” takes place 8 p.m. today at the Arts Center of Saint Peter, and will include an all-star lineup. In addition to Pierce — who has played bass in a number of Mankato-area bands (not to mention her gig as co-host of the “Shuffle Function” morning show on KMSU) — the roundtable discussion includes:

• Liz Draper, an in-demand bassist who has performed with the likes of Low, Charlie Parr and Iris DeMent.

• Eric Zimmerman, an educator, musician and bandleader who covers a variety of genres jazz, funk, tribute bands, video game soundtracks, musicals, country and educational concerts.

• Craig Matarrese, who plays in a variety of ensembles, is a philosophy professor at Minnesota State University who also teaches electric bass and directs the Jazz Combo for the Music Department.

• Mark Krogmann, who has been awarded the Best Instrumentalist trophy at the Minnesota Original Music Festival 48 Hour Band Challenge the last three years.

Pierce says she doesn’t do much songwriting herself, but in conversations with songwriters she’s gathered that the bass part of any song wasn’t in the forefront of their creative process. That’s why she wanted to assemble bass players who do write music and get them to talk about the art form from their perspective.

“I know from my friends that write music that it's never about the baseline that people think of with music, but yet we're playing the bass. That's what we naturally gravitate toward. People aren't necessarily writing a song and sitting down with their bass and coming up with riff, but just in the little bit of conversation I've had with them, I do know that it's just kind of a different process that’s coming from a different angle,” Pierce said. “It's a different approach to making music, and that's part of why I wanted to do this: to find out what that difference is, and to have them talk about it.”

Draper, a bass player who does write music, agreed that the creative process is a little different when it comes from the foundational section of the band.

“I think many people associate the word ‘songwriter’ with someone who is also a vocalist, or someone who works with words. I love that Thursday's event highlights songwriters who are instrumentalists as well as composers,” she said. “I'm a very situational songwriter and usually find myself writing for a specific band, project, event or physical location or medium.”

Draper said the COVID shutdown, while a huge bummer generally, had a silver lining for some musicians. The time in isolation pushed many to create, or to explore new avenues with their art.

She said she’d spent most of her time as a “side woman” in various bands. The extra COVID time, however, gave her time to explore what she could do alone.

“That opened up a new avenue for me,” she said. “The shutdown presented the time and opportunity to explore composing solo bass compositions and recording them myself. … I will be performing one of my solo compositions that was made possible by a commission I received from FUS Minneapolis. This piece is also on my debut solo vinyl which will be released this coming fall.”

Draper plans to bring a bit of audience participation to the in-the-round event. Bass players are asked to bring their own bass guitars for a group musical experiment.

“I will be bringing in a concept piece for us all to play together. My hope is that it will translate no matter a player's learning style or ability level on their instrument. There will be visual cues and a few variations of parts for people to choose to play in any given section accordingly,” she said. “As long as people keep their ears open, are respectful and listen to each other, we'll have some sonic fun that hopefully morphs into a deep unifying groove. Maybe rumble the roof off the Arts Center.”

This event is part of the MOMF, but the festival’s schedule this year is a bit different. Whereas last year the festival was contained to one week, this year there are festival-related events throughout the summer, including a kickoff event July 13 at Patrick’s on Third in St. Peter.

For a full listing of events, visit mnomf.org.