JamBase Questionnaire: STS9

Welcome to the third installment of JamBase’s weekly feature where we put a baker’s dozen of probing, wide-ranging questions to the bright lights in the jam scene (and beyond) in order to expose juicy tidbits about their musical minds. Last week we heard from Jeff Coffin and upcoming weeks will include insights from Cornmeal, U-Melt, Robert Walter and more!

David Murphy by Casey Flanigan

David Murphy is a touch cooler than most of us will ever be. Defined by sharp lines and possessing one of the more intense stares in the jam scene, the Sound Tribe Sector 9 bassist seems to glide – sonically and otherwise. His role is an interesting one, because there are few precedents for the type of music he and his longtime mates explore. While jazz or rock bassists have myriad models to choose from, Murphy has sailed uncharted waters from the get-go. There’s a mercurial character to his playing that permeates through the skin and into the bloodstream. Oh, he can funk it up like a man who’s studied Prince, but there are also Middle Eastern tonalities, drum-and-bass echoes, psychedelic flairs and more to his style. Put another way, where one feels the flex and pop of muscle in most bass work, Murphy is smooth movement, a chromatic blur running cleanly and efficiently inside the STS9 machine. Over the years he’s also become proficient at laptop manipulation and the like, expanding on his innate sonic curiosity and yen for cool sounds, wherever they might be found. (Dennis Cook)

Here’s what Murph had to say to our inquiries.

1. Great music rarely happens without…
Struggle.

2. The first album I bought was…
Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason.

3. The last song or album to really flip my wig was…
???

4. When I was a kid I wanted to grow up to be…
A professional motorcycle racer (motocross).

5. My favorite sort of gig is…
A paying one.

6. One thing I wish people knew about me is…
I’m pro-gun. Do we really want the government to be the only ones with weapons?!?

7. I love the sound of…
“This is our final approach before landing into…”

8. One day I hope to make an album as fantastic as…
Dark Side of the Moon.

9. The best meal I ever had on tour was at…
Any meal not in a to-go container.

10. I always find the coolest audiences in…
Random rural towns – Tulsa OK, Fayetteville, AR…

11. The worst habit I’ve picked up being on the road all the time is…
I don’t promptly return emails and phone calls.

12. The Beatles or the Stones? Por qué?
The Beatles. There will only ever be one of those experiences on the earth.

13. The craziest thing I ever saw was…
A sold out Red Rocks.

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