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hris Bennett, pink bass-playing rocker and new podcaster, works to bring local musicians together By Marvin Lee for inland360.com
The other day while I was wasting time on the internet, I came across a Facebook page for a local podcast called Tales From The Bass. The person running the page and podcast is Chris Bennett, who moved from Boise to Moscow to be closer to his girlfriend. Then he moved to the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley to be even closer to his girlfriend.
I hit up Chris to see if he would like to have me on his podcast, and it only made sense to return the favor and interview him for Inland 360: I guess you could call it “killing two birds with one stone.” Even better, you could call it “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
Marvin Lee: What gave you the idea and drive to do a podcast of local musicians and other players in the Quad Cities scene?
Chris Bennett: I started the podcast mostly for local musicians. I mean, what’s obviously good for one local musician is good for the rest of us. I’m starting to get to know more musicians and help them by broadcasting them, which in turn helps me with my podcast. I guess you could say it’s a help me/help you and vice versa situation.
ML: You’ve done podcasts with Tyler Reincke of Port Of Morrow, Guy Johnston of Beyond Today, local rappers Dak Sudgen and Aron Mallory, Logan Wallace of No Hope, Gabe Johnson and Jesse Faler of Rise and Shine, and Michael Castle of the 3rd Wheel music venue. Out of the people you’ve podcasted thus far, who is your favorite?
CB: I think my favorite podcast so far, and this may sound a little biased because we are in a band together, is Gabe Johnson. His was more of just a friendly conversation and we made a lot of jokes and things like that. I like my podcasts to not be so much of an interview but rather just a conversation about music and where people are at musically. Gabe’s was a real fun one to do.
ML: You play bass in a band called Rise & Shine. Does Rise & Shine have a date for when the album it’s recording will drop down from the sky for all of us to listen to?
CB: No, and I hate to be too final on that because I have said on past podcasts that it will hopefully be done by the summertime, but with the way things are going recently it might not be that soon. We’re workin’ on it, that’s for sure.
ML: Are there any other instruments that you can play?
CB: I’ve played drums in bands before. I’ve been just a vocalist for another band. I’ve played guitar in bands. When I was a young boy, a wee little laddy, I took piano lessons for a few years, so I’ve been kind of all over with instrumentation.
ML: Who is your biggest influence?
CB: My biggest influence of all time is Mark Hoppus of Blink 182. Especially with me playing bass, he has always been the fun, outgoing bass player that I’ve always wanted to be. He started with a pink bass guitar so my bass guitar is pink. He’s a singer, and like with me having my own podcast, he has had his own TV show. He is kind of an entrepreneur of sorts. He is pretty much who I wanna be when I grow up. Ha ha!
ML: Let’s get back to podcast-land. Where do you see your podcast progressing in one year, three years and five years?
CB: In one year, I’d really like to see us do more live podcasts and have people show up for them. A band or my band will set-up and when the doors open people can watch a live performance and interact with the band and hang out on the stage while we record the podcast. In three years, I’d like to see it become more of a local-music-scene-unifying type of thing to where if anyone has a new band that they wanna promote the podcast will have enough reach by then that if you want to be noticed the podcast would be the first outlet to go to promote. In five years, I don’t know … I just hope it keeps building from that. I want it to grow as much as it can to the point that even touring musicians or bigger names that might not give the podcast a chance now will in the future because it is reaching more people.
ML: The color blue or the color red?
CB: I’d have to say red because it’s closer to pink.
ML: How would you like to see the local music scene blossom in and around the Quad Cities?
CB: I would like to see it grow to the point where more people are going out to see the local bands. There are so many people I talk to that don’t even know that certain local bands exist and they are relatively known amongst the musicians. I just wanna see the bands grow to be well-known among everybody.
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That was a fun interview. Chris Bennett is a good boy! “Like” his Facebook page Tales From The Bass and stay up to date with what local musicians and promoters are doing in and around the Quad Cities. Oh, and go check out his sweet band Rise & Shine.
VIVA LA LOCAL MUSIC!
Lee is a musician and aspiring poet who resides in Lewiston. He can be contacted at marvin.lee@live.com.
