42 | OCTOBER 24 • 2024 

good music and I love playing with 
good players — really good players. 
So that’s it for me, and I’m as happy 
doing it now as I was when I was 10 
years old, learning how to do it.
How did you discover the kind 
of bass player you wanted to be 
and what role you wanted to play 
when working with others?
Levin: I didn’t develop it 
consciously. Like a lot of players, I 
don’t think about what I’m doing. 
I process the music. I listen to it 
with the music part of my brain, not 
the part that does interviews. After 
years and years of doing interviews, 
I had to go back and analyze myself 
and think, “What the heck was it I 
did when I play?” because I don’t 
think about it when I’m playing. 
The best part of the story is I don’t 
bring to new music any idea of, 
“OK, here’s a riff I’ve been playing 
and here’s a bass sound I really like 
that I’ve been working on.” I don’t 
bring that at all. I listen to the piece 
of music and, in some deep part 
of my brain that I’m hardly aware 
of, I fashion a sound. It could be a 
thumping sound or maybe singing, 
but it’s based on what I’m hearing in 
that piece of music, not on what I’ve 
been doing or what I can do or what 
instrument I have in my hand. And 
then I go about trying to find the 
right bass and the right technique to 
enact that idea. The bass player in 
my deep innards becomes a fan of 
the piece of music that I’m hearing 
and tries to contribute to it what I 
can. 
Can that process drive you crazy 
sometimes, trying to find the 
perfect part?
Levin: I don’t know if there’s 
ever a perfect part; to me, if it’s a 
valid bass part and a really good 
piece of music, it can go different 
places and doesn’t need to always be 
exactly the same. If I ever get that 
part perfect, I’ll stick with it, but I 
haven’t gotten it perfect yet. If it’s a 
Peter Gabriel album, let’s say, there’s 
plenty of time, and it could be that 
first idea just doesn’t work, and then 

I’ll try another idea. Or it could be 
that the artist, the guy who wrote 
the song, likes it or doesn’t like it, 
and so that’s the beginning of the 
process. And often it is the end of 
the process, and that’s a happy day 
for me.
Because you cover such a wide 
range of styles on Bringing It Down 
to the Bass, and because some of 
the songs make direct reference 
to your career, does it feel like it’s 
kind of an aural memoir to you?
Levin: It is somewhat 
biographical. That wasn’t an 
intentional decision. I had more 
pieces than that done, but I chose 
14 that revisit drummers I’ve played 
with throughout the years and 
rhythm sections and a few styles 
of music, so that’s what I kind of 
realized the album was after I did it. 
But it’s not what I “set out” to do.

You play a different bass on each 
song. What was the most unusual 
or interesting one you pulled out 
for this?
Levin: I could talk all day about 
this; the album isn’t just about the 
bass, musically, but I insisted that 
there be a 16-page booklet inside 
with my portraits and stories of each 

bass because I really feel a kinship 
with each of my instruments — we 
all do as bass players and guitar 
players, and I wanted to express that 
in more ways than just using a dif-
ferent bass on each track. 
It’s hard to pick one, but I dusted 
off my Steinberger bass, the first 
one that Ned Steinberger made, 
which is such a great instrument — 
ergonomically very special and so 
distinctive sounding. It belongs in 
a museum somewhere. I specially 
designed a duet with Robert Fripp, 
where he’s playing very spacious and 
dark soundscapes and I thought, 
“Well, this leaves room for me to 
make up hopefully a good melody 
and just take up the space with this 
distinctive-sounding bass.” I played 
it a lot when it first came out, but 
not as much recently.
Meanwhile, you’re back playing 
King Crimson music with Beat. 
What does it mean to you to revisit 
that part of your catalog?
Levin: It’s really 
cool. It’s really valid 
music, and I did a lot 
of things back then I 
haven’t done since that 
I like. We did it very 
well in the ’80s, but, 
even then, I was trying 
to stretch my parts into 
other areas, and now I 
can see where it can go 
with really high-class, 
top-flight players who 
are really on top of 
their game and are also 
fans of what this music 
was in the ’80s. 
I’ve been playing 
with Adrian [Belew] 
all the time; that’s fan-
tastic, and I’ll never downplay that, 
’cause it’s special and I’m lucky to do 
it. But to have Steve Vai’s interpreta-
tions — and they are interpretations 
of Robert Fripp’s part — and to have 
Danny Carey going wild on the 
drums, to me that’s what makes my 
mouth water about this tour. That’s 
why I signed on without hesitation, 

ARTS&LIFE
MUSIC

continued from page 41

Tony 
Levin

COURTESY OF FLATIRON

