Found an interview with Chloe on Dutch site "de bassist" (The Bass Player):
www.debassist.nl/artikelen/web-special/5192-chloe-alper-im-all-about-easy-parts-and-trashing-outGoogle translation: Last Thursday the British progressive rock band Pure Reason Revolution played band a try-outshow Bitterzoet the Spuistraat in our capital. Figurehead of the band is Chloe Alper, who sings and provides the bass. The latter is sometimes on keyboards, but usually a little of its distinctive Mustang bass. The bassist said the enthusiastic lady, who from that time until a real bass player is.
Mustang
Chloe started out as a singer of the punk band The Period Pains. The bass came later when she became part of Pure Reason Revolution. While the rest of the band plagued by traffic jams in a record time on the bus and unload the stage building, the lady with the distinctive curly more than willing to answer our questions.
"I've always had great admiration for bass and bass players in music, but it was actually never got to go and play. I once tried a long vertical bass, but that was all too big and too heavy for me. It was based solely on singing. At the beginning of Pure Reason Revolution, we had another bassist. It had a good job, we deserved nothing more with the band, so he opted for a normal working life. You can not tour without bassist and the band members looked at me and said, 'You have your hands empty, "haha! So I bought a short vertical bass and I'm going to practice. I had little faith in myself and I was worried, but this short Fender Mustang was easy to play. It took all the fear away that I still had that one time at a big bass. I thought a short vertical bass bass was not serious, but I could play on it and it sounds good! I've tried it, I'm occurred and the bass and I have a flourishing relationship, ha ha! "
Feel yourself now bassist?
"No, not at all! I am an amateur, ha ha! I've never had lessons, but I just play great. The music we make is more about the soul and energy, rather than how many notes you can play. I'm all about EasyParts and trashing out. I do not virtuosic, but I'd like to learn more. I'm not so sure, but I for one am inspired. "
I congratulate you. You will be interviewed today by a basmagazine, so you're officially bassist.
"Thank you, ha ha! I'll be there tonight to drink champagne. Finally, I was informed through the grapevine that a photograph in front of me was a Spanish bastijdschrift! It was also special. Yes, now I can really call bassist. I will never forget this moment. "
Besides singing and playing a lot of low bass parties on keyboards.
"Yes, I am important in the rhythm section. When I play keys, then of course I do not play bass, but these are always bass and low tones that I play. Using a MIDI keyboard to trigger samples, we like bass. "
Kim Deal
Will you be inspired by other bass players?
"Yes. I'm a fan of Melissa auf der Mauer, and Kim Deal's just painfully cool! She is technically perhaps not top, but she has more than a great stage presence, she is enthusiastic. Those are the things I should have it. Recently we toured with Porcupine Tree. Their bassist Colin is technically very good and beautiful to watch, so I try something stabbing to hear. "
Back to the band. How did you ended PRR?
"I grew up in Reading. You know it might be the festival? Well, that's really a musical city and I was thirteen I was already in a punk band. I knew, singer and guitarist Jon Courtney though, because we played the same circuit. Then you still the same people. Jon started at the University of Westminster to write music for a project, and that first song was also once the first single and the reason why the band was signed. Jon approached me one day asking if I wanted to come in to do some singing. A moment later the bassist and the rest, as they say, is history. "
The songs pretty lean on the bass lines, whether from the bass guitar or synthesizer come. How do you write the songs?
Jon actually comes with most songs. We are not really a band that jamt and write songs together. Most comes from John's pen so. The songs he continued working in his studio and when the time comes, I pass to bass to play and to sing. For the new album a couple of songs produced by Tom Bellamy of The Cooper Temple Clause. The bass parts are often already quite developed by Jon on synths, but of course I play my version of those parties. Live the parties are different. On albums, we often live more layers than we can handle. We do not have enough band members to play everything. So we play everything and anything that is fun. Thus, the band has two faces. The one we will live better, the other on record, they're really two different sounding bands. "
Super Concentrated
How do you prepare a tour for you? That's probably quite some work?
"That really takes a while. We are now ten days to consider the rehearsal sequence shows the intensive exercise. We really see no daylight ten days, we come out white, but we are very well focused. "
Can you give our readers something about the stuff you used?
"I always play live on a Fender Mustang Bass. I have two for different moods. The '70s was an orange (Fiesta Red, CD) and the other is red with a 'go faster' stripes. I'm really a gear lover and I am always on the lookout for new things. When it comes to Mustangs, I even obsessive, ha ha! I want a vintage copy again in Vintage White. Old Mustangs seem a little lighter in weight and that is good if you a half hour on stage. I'm curious how taking a lighter Mustang sounds. Before 1974 they used other wood, so now is my dream.
But I am lucky though. We have a Fender endorsement, they have given me a new Mustang and I get a gift horse in the mouth.
Fender gave me such a mini-Precision. A lovely thing, but not very practical. At home I have a Gibson EB0 '74er. This is very damaged, but so beautiful. It is unfortunately no bass for the band. I took it to a practice session, I plugged it in and the band members shouted in chorus, "Nooo!", Haha! It's just too fat, too muddy bass for our music. But I always practice at home.
In terms of amplification, I have a summit with an Ampeg 6x10. I occasionally use a compressor and a bass distortion, both of Boss. I could not live without my SansAmp DI-able. That makes it sound a tad thicker and stronger. A short vertical bass misses something. Ultimately I think it sounds nicer. "
What, finally, the plans for the near future?
"The album comes out late October. Now we have a lot of try-out shows and the results are encouraging, because people seem to enjoy it. We're a bit nervous because the sound is something different now than before. If the album is we do a small European tour, followed by a tour of Britain finishing in a big show in London in December. Ultimately, it is important that you promote your album with a tour, because people need to hear. We hope to have some tours with bigger bands. In short: The past few months, recording, record, record and now touring, touring touring! "
www.chloealper.com (website with Chloe's art)
www.myspace.com / Pure Reason Revolution
For me it's better than translating the whole article by myself though. This one would take me a couple of hours probably...
