It’s kind of cool and interesting to have you and Jonathan in a guitar magazine...
...
Hamm: Well, I remember back in the day when Bass PlayerIt’s kind of cool and interesting to have you and Jonathan in a guitar magazine...
Hamm: Well, I remember back in the day when Bass Player magazine was just strictly a 10-page insert in back of Guitar Player, right? That’s where the whole thing started.
Regarding Surfing With the Alien, Joe kind of did all this stuff in the studio with a couple of percussionists and a drummer and drum programming and all that. And then you’re the guy who has to figure out how to bring that record to the masses as far as the bass stuff. Were there any challenges that way? Was Joe particularly specific about things he wanted from you, or did you just interpret the songs the way you thought was best?
Hamm: That original Surfing tour and that band—it was such a different time. I mean, the way that I met Joe was that I invited Cliff Cultreri to come down and see some of my solo bass shows when I was living in Los Angeles and worked with Steve Vai. They came and saw me play I think at my place in Santa Monica. They liked it and they said, “Hey, could you do a record for hardly any money,” and they gave me like a $2,000 budget. And I did my first record, Radio Free Albemuth, and surprisingly, I ran out of money really quickly. So I was out of money and I needed someone to play a couple solos on the record so I called up Cliff and he said, “We just signed this new guy, so how about get ready to play on this record, we’ll pay for him to play on your record.” I never met Joe