Colin Edwin – Player bio, photos, videos, music, and more
Featured photo by Melanie Haack

Fretless Questions: Colin Edwin

Article by Eric Larson, © Copyright 2018 FretlessBass.com

I have recently had the privilege of interviewing the great Colin Edwin. I first discovered Colin’s impressive fretless bass playing while listening to Porcupine Tree’s “Pure Narcotic” and “In Formaldehyde”. His melodic approach to fretless bass on these songs sits perfectly in the music, and immediately caught my attention. But Edwin’s discography and ever-evolving bass style go far beyond Porcupine Tree, spanning nearly three decades with solo releases, various bands and collaborations, and other projects. Exploring his catalogue, one will find plenty of variety in his bass playing that includes sliding, harmonic, rhythm, and vibrato techniques that range from complex yet tasteful to perfectly simple. Just listen to the more recent “Perfect Tool” off of the Twinscapes release with Lorenzo Feliciati, “Pid Yalinoyu” from the Astarta/Edwin project, and Burnt Belief’s “Précis”, or venture back through the years – in all you will discover the deep well of 30+ years playing bass that Edwin draws from. Past to present, there is much to explore.

FB: What inspired you to play fretless bass? How long have you been playing?
Colin Edwin: I started playing bass in the mid 80’s aged about 15, so that’s thirty odd years now.
One of the first things that resonated with me was the music of Mick Karn. I took a chance on an album called “Dalis Car”, which he made post Japan with vocalist Peter Murphy. It’s a really unusual and interesting listen even now. I’d been playing a cheap Japanese Fender Jazz copy fretted bass when a school friend who’d tried learning and given up sold me his fretless bass. I had a band together with some school mates and I played the fretless as much as possible, the expressiveness of it appealed to me a lot more than a fretted.

I never studied formally at college or anything like that, but I did have the benefit of some solid guidance from someone I met very early on, a fantastic bass player called Martin Elliott, who at the time lived just down the road from me. Martin taught me very informally a lot of working skills and also introduced me to a lot of other music along the way. I think he was the first person to play me something with Jaco Pastorius on.

Anyway, I did a lot of practice and then a lot of “on the job training”, which is really still on going, I am still frequently playing in new situations and set-ups, constantly adapting and learning.

FB: Who are your main fretless bass influences or favorite players?
Colin Edwin: For getting my ears around the possibilities of a fretless, Mick Karn was an important early discovery. Percy Jones I discovered very soon after, mainly through the Brian Eno albums but later with Brand X, his approach is mind boggling to me, very original and unique. I also liked Hansford Rowe on the later Gong albums and Kai Eckardt his playing on John McLaughlin’s Live at the Royal Festival Hall is incredible. Bill Laswell came into my aural orbit later, I loved Material in all it’s incarnations. Of course Jaco Pastorius, was essential, especially his performances on the Joni Mitchell albums. Some obscure people really made an impression too: Kev Hopper with the very quirky 80’s band Stump, Gjermund Silset on the early Mari Boine records and more recently Sergei “Grebstel” Kalachev who plays with Russian artist Inna Zhelannaya, I love his sound and groove, he really deserves to be more well known in the West.

FB: Do you play upright, electric, or both?
Colin Edwin: Yes, I am a doubler. I can’t say I prefer one or the other, It’s really a question of making the right sound in the right context.

Certainly playing the upright has been a very valuable experience, it taught me a lot about just making a sound, and practicing with a bow was great for developing my intonation. I still try and play upright as much as possible, as for me it’s quite a hard instrument to keep in shape with, if I have a gig or something without having played for a while it’s really tough to go back to.

FB: What was your very first fretless bass? What other fretless basses have you used live or in studio?
Colin Edwin: I had a Westone Thunder fretless at first, which is long since moved on. My first proper fretless was the Wal I still have. I also have a Rob Allen, a Basslab Soul IV, and a USA Spector NS4. All of which I use regularly both live and studio. I have just bought an old Ovation Magnum which has been converted to fretless, it’s the only one I have with a lined fretboard.

FB: What other equipment do you use live and in studio?
Colin Edwin: I’ve been a long time user of EBS amps and effects. I do like to use a little modulation on fretless so I will add a touch of chorus, but is has to be subtle, the heavy chorus sounds were so overdone in the ’80s! An octaver is a great addition for fretless, as is delay.

I’ve been using a Reidmar head for a while and sometimes a Fafner, especially for recording. The MicroBass II is a great bit of kit and very useful, I use it all the time in the studio and especially for fly in gigs where I am having to use whatever amp is available, I can be confident the out front guy is getting the sound I want him to have if I am having to use an unfamiliar set-up.

I like to experiment with ebow on fretless which is great for textural and ambient sound and I also have a quite a collection of more creative effects too, Earthquaker Devices Afterneath is great on fretless and I like to use an EHX SuperEgo and Ravish Sitar at times too.

I use D’Addario strings, except on my Rob Allen which is designed for Labella Tapewounds.

FB: What bands or projects feature you playing fretless bass?
Colin Edwin: I played fretless exclusively on the early Porcupine Tree material, and pretty much everything else I’ve done since has fretless at times. It really depends on the context I am playing in, if there’s room for a little extra expression, I’ll use it, if not, or if I am trying a different approach, I’ll stick with fretted. Burnt Belief, Ex-Wise Heads, Endless Tapes, Twinscapes and O.R.k. all feature me playing a lot of fretless, but I also use it in selected places with Metallic Taste of Blood and even Obake

Burnt Belief, “Précis” https://soundcloud.com/alchemyrecords-com/03-precis-1

Ex-Wise Heads, “Harmonic Chain” https://soundcloud.com/colin-edwin/harmonic-chain

FB: What are some of your favorite songs you’ve played fretless bass on?
Colin Edwin: I am still really pleased with “Pid Yalinoyu” and “Kalina” which are traditional Ukrainian songs on a collaborative album I made a few years ago with a couple of fantastic singers from Kiev (for anyone interested the album is called “Astarta/Edwin”). For the whole project I basically built the music around the voices singing their amazing Eastern harmonies, so there’s a strong connection between bass and voice which is something I always try to create.

I enjoy playing fretless with Tim Bowness who often encourages me to use it and whose music usually offers a nice space for it, especially the most recent album “Songs from the Ghost Light”.

I am very pleased with the way Twinscapes has developed, as a dual bass project Lorenzo Feliciati and myself are very aware of leaving enough space for each other, we seem to have settled on me playing a fretless and Lorenzo using a 5 String fretted, the track “Perfect Tool” is a good example of how we mesh together, my fretless bassline against his delayed and distorted fretted lines.

Astarta/Edwin,  “Pid Yalinoyu” https://soundcloud.com/colin-edwin/pid_yalinoyu

Twinscapes, “Perfect Tool” https://soundcloud.com/rarenoiserecords/perfect-tool

FB: How would you describe your fretless playing style?
Colin Edwin: I am perhaps too close to say, but wether on I am fretless or fretted, I just try and play appropriately to whatever situation I am in. I tend to think more in terms of dialogue, and sound rather than style, that is to say, I am reacting to the music and people I am playing with rather then consciously thinking about any kind of particular style.

FB: Are you still actively playing fretless bass?
Colin Edwin: Very much so, but it does depend on the material I am playing. For a long time I tried to play fretless on everything, but I came to realise there are situations where it perhaps doesn’t really add anything, or maybe doesn’t really have the right sonic space to fit in.

FB: Do you have any basic advice for bass players looking to take up fretless or those who are new to the instrument?
Colin Edwin: As well as playing upright, it also certainly benefitted me to learn to read music which has given me the opportunity to play things I would never have thought of. Consequently I think that playing a lot of cello studies and melodic things really helped me get a good grounding as regards intonation and so forth. I would also say playing fretless well is something you just need to persevere with so don’t give up, it’s great for your technique to have an instrument that really responds to your touch, it makes you very aware of sound production and the part your fingers have to play in it.

FB: Do you have websites or social media sites you would like to share?
Colin Edwin:
www.colinedwin.co.uk
www.colinedwin.blogspot.co.uk
www.instagram.com/colinedwin/
soundcloud.com/colin-edwin
I am also on twitter @colinedwint
And I have a youtube channel and FB page, you can find them from links on my website.

FB: What do you do for fun when you are not playing bass?
Colin Edwin: I like to travel as much as I can and I’ll combine that with a bit of photography if I can.

From Wikipedia.com (full Wiki link):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHcobAKV4Vc