Anyone who's heard the music of Ben Harper knows you've got to be able to play well in a number of genres to support the man's songs. JUAN NELSON, Harper's bass player for some time now, is more than able to handle the bottom end of Ben's arrangements, which meld folk, blues and rock into a music that defies categorization.

We interviewed Juan — a longtime SWR supporter — just before the band's recent European tour, in support of Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals' 2-CD opus, Live from Mars.

Can you give us a little idea of why you got interested in playing bass?
I started out playing saxophone, actually, in I guess junior high school. I wasn't really in love with the instrument but I did enjoy playing. And then one day I went to my father's annual end-of-the-year picnic, and they had a band that played at the beach. It was a live band and I got a chance to sit up really close. And the person that moved me the most in the whole band was the bass player; I guess the vibrations from the bass just made me feel good. And I knew right then that I wanted to be a bass player. I guess that helped me make up my mind which route I wanted to go. So by humble means -- y'know, my dad worked hard but we didn't have a lot of money, so I took on a job as a silk-screening, clean-up-shop kind of guy, and I worked long enough to earn money for my first bass, which was a Kay bass. [laughs] $79. Shortly after I got the bass I quit. Because I didn't know you needed an amp, too. I didn't realize that so [chuckles] so you couldn't really hear it, so what I wound up doing was putting it against the wall and then it would vibrate the wall so I could hear the notes. And that's how I started playing bass, until I could afford to get an amp.

What kind of music were you listening to at the time?
At the time I was listening to whatever was current on the radio. They played a lot of soul, R&B, Motown, funk kind of things.

Was this in Los Angeles?
Yeah. I lived in Los Angeles. I was totally into it. I started playing whatever I liked. At that time I was pretty young so I was into Larry Graham and Louis Johnson of the Brothers Johnson. I was into the Motown sound and I was into – funny enough, I got into rock a little bit later on, like Yes and those kind of groups. I started off playing funk and whatever I liked, whatever impressed me as far as bass players go.

And by the time you got into your first real happening band, what kind of gear were you playing?
P-----. It was the most affordable at that time, and the most durable. Y'know, you could slam it around a lot and it'd still work. At least it didn't cost a lot to replace it. And for about two or three years I used P-----, and I guess that was before SWR even came out. When I found out about SWR, the first thing I fell in love with [in] the cabinet was the tweeter, because they were the only ones that gave me the tweeter that kind of captured the high end of the bass, the top sound. So I went with SWR after that and bought my first SWR cabinet. Actually, who helped me was a cat called Ricky Minor. He's a friend of mine. We all grew up together and played in rival bands. He played with Whitney Houston and some other projects. I called him up because I didn't have a lot of money and I was trying to get an SWR cabinet and he helped me out, told the man, "This is a friend of mine," and SWR helped me out.

Is this before you hooked up with Ben Harper?
Oh, yeah, way, way before.

What is it about playing bass that still really gets you going?
Out of all the instruments that are being played, bass is the thing that really ties everything together. It's the most important instrument on the stage. Without a good bass player, you don't have the balance, y'know, because you can have a scratching guitar that plays every now and then, but if the groove's not locked down then what do you have? I actually learned how to play bass with a guitar sitting in my lap, playing the bass notes of the guitar.

Really?
Yeah, because at first, like I said, I had a guitar -- I had a nice Gibson, I don't know, my brother, it was a Les Paul, I mean probably worth a mint today. I couldn't get my hands on a bass, so I would play the low notes on the guitar and one day I got brave enough -- I was a kid, I didn't know any better -- that I took it to a pawn shop, pawned it, and got a bass.

Oh really? How'd your brother feel about that?
Oh, he was so upset! We went back down there and he bought the guitar back. The guy sold us the guitar at full price, almost two or three times as much as I got for it. He took advantage. I didn't know any better. All I knew was I wanted a bass, and I was willing to do anything to get it.

Even sacrifice the love of your brother!
Even that. He wasn't playing; the guitar was sitting there. I was young. All I knew was I wanted to play bass and I had to have one.

How did you get hooked up with Ben Harper?
Well, right after Ben did his first album, I guess they were going out, doing gigs here and there, and I did a recording session with the drummer, his name's Rock Deadrick. And Rock, we hit it off right away, we dug how each other played. And when the opportunity came when they needed a bass player, he called me. And we kind of worked on the stuff on the side. And Ben was out of town, he was in Europe doing press, so when he came back I auditioned for the gig and I got it. We were supposed to have gotten together maybe five days out of that week and we wound up getting together maybe two, and he said, "You got it, man, let's go." So I did the audition and got the gig and I've been with him ever since.

With Ben Harper you get to play a lot of different types of music from your background, don't you?
Right. Which I was ready for anyway because coming up, man, I had to eat, so I had to learn jazz and blues and any other style of music I could to get the gigs, y'know? Whatever was on the radio, whatever people were into, you had to learn how to play it. Right. So I made sure that I had a couple of blues gigs during the week, and I had a straight-ahead jazz gig, besides the R&B and funk stuff, so I was pretty well rounded-off and stuff. Never did get into folk and stuff -- I think Ben turned me on to that the most. And reggae. I never really got into those styles of music until later on. Well, I remember as a kid you didn't really hear any reggae on the radio.

You didn't really, did you?
The closest thing you got was Eric Clapton's version of I Shot the Sheriff. Which wasn't all that close once you actually heard Bob Marley's version that he based it on. So I tried to open myself up to a lot of different styles of music. For a musician, that's what keeps you working.

Sure. I bet that's a lot of the reason why you made the audition for Ben Harper.
Probably so.

You weren't just an R&B guy or a rock guy or a jazz guy -- you could play straight-ahead in one kind or mix any number of them to get what you do on Ben's records.
Yeah. Well, I would hope so. Because I never would want to be categorized as one type of player, ever. Never do I want that to happen. There's too much different music to be labeled like that.

What do you listen to right now?
Well right now I'm just listening to what's up-to-date. I have a son who's a drummer and he's a singer and a rapper, producer, and he's doing well and I'm getting off into his thing, his project, right now. And I'm just listening to a lot of what's out there, trying to be open enough to dig it, y'know? And get what I need from it.

Have you heard anybody sample one of your bass licks yet?
Not really. I haven't really -- I've heard about it, but I haven't heard it myself.

So you know someone has done it?
Oh yeah.

That's cool.
There's a few people. A lot of people in Europe, too, that have sampled the bass lines. As a matter of fact, we were getting a lot of stuff that was like quick shopping commercials and stuff.

What kind of setup are you using right now?
I take two Goliath IIIs. And I use the Big Bertha, the 2x15.

And what kind of bass are you playing?
I play MTD basses.

You've been playing those for a while, haven't you?
A while. I just picked up a Fender though, man. I'm in love with it.

A Jazz bass or a P-bass?
Jazz bass. Because I used to play jazz -- that's what I played for years and years, until I got that Vesta [Williams] gig and I had to play synth bass and a lot of five-string bass, and I had to put that bass down. I had to set it down and go to five strings. I never could get a bass made, a five-string Fender, until now. The custom shop had it made. I'll tell ya, man, the sound of this bass is so sweet with the SWR.

What do you like about the SWR cabinets? What do they do for your sound?
For my sound, it gives me a total round sound. It covers the low end, the B-string low end. It covers the high snaps -- it's just a wide range of sound that I can get, and it's a strong, durable amp. It gives me a lot of wattage when I need it. It's the ultimate versatile amp cabinet. I choose SWR because I've always been with them and their products have been great for me. E--- wanted to give me the whole setup free, man, y'know, and I'm like, "I like what I like, and I don't mind paying for what I like." It's not about money or free; it's just my preference of what I like.

Sure. Well, we're happy that you choose SWR.
Me too. You guys have been there for me. I love it here man.