Influences:
Steve Harris-Iron Maiden
Lemmy Kilmister-Motorhead
Dee Dee Ramone-The Ramones
Flea-Chili Peppers
DD Verni-Overkill
Gear:
Bass Guitar-Ibanez SR406 (6 string)
Head-Hartke HA2000
Cabinets-Hartke 115TP/Peavey 115BVX
Effects-None
Currently Listening To:
AC/DC-'74 Jailbreak
Foo Fighters-The Colour And The Shape
Filter-Short Bus
WASP-WASP
Q. What inspired you to play bass?
A. "I would have to say listening to Iron Maiden while in my early teens. Steve Harris, in my opinion, is the most versatile bassist out there today and has been for 20 years. Also, when a bunch of my friends were putting together a cute little cover band, they needed a bass player. I was into the guitar at the time and I didn't know a bass from a tuba at that point but I picked it up pretty fast."
Q. Did you take lessons?
A. "I never took a lesson to learn the bass. At one point I was taking guitar lessons, only then did I realize that all the kids in my neighborhood were taking guitar lessons. I figured that if there were 20 guitar players in my neighborhood, how the hell was I going to get into a band? So, I gave up the guitar lessons and switched to the bass. Plus the 5 bucks an hour for the guitar lessons was killing me. When I was 13 years old, five bucks could last me a week! I pretty much taught myself to play by listening to Maiden and Priest albums and trying pick up the songs by ear."
Q. How did you get involved with Magus Beast?
A. "Our guitar player, John, has been a lifelong friend to me. He was in Agressor (our old band name) at the time with Ron and Steve. We were at a mutual friend's house in the mid 1980's and we started talking about Manowar if I remember correctly. I'm not sure what happened to their old bass player but all I knew is that he wasn't in the band anymore. John asked me if I wanted to try out for Agressor. I said "Sure, what's an Agressor?" Within a few weeks I was at their studio in Jamaica, Queens. The studio was in the old Music Building that has since burned down. I didn't know one of their songs when we played together for the first time. These guys were very patient with me while I learned all the songs for our first gig."
Q. And how did that first show go?
A. "You want to talk about nervous? My stomach was in knots the entire day right up until we hit the stage! If you could call it a stage. We played at Club Nu, which is now probably a sex shop or book store. We were stiff and half drunk when we went on. We "cruised" through our set and we were playing our last song, Assault Attack. Now Assault Attack is probably one of the easier songs to play. But what do I do? I completely fuck it up! I start playing something that had no business being in that song, I guess it was the Budweiser. Hey, you live and learn. We actually had a lot of people at that first show, we got paid too."
Q. How does playing live shows now compare to earlier shows?
A. "It's night and fucking day! We matured so much as a band and as individuals. Back then we would be playing on a Sunday afternoon at a sports bar. These days we open for Overkill, Savatage and Fates Warning at a sold out L'amours in front of 500 people. Today we have fans who know all the words to our songs, back then we would hear things like, "Turn up the TV."
Q. What is your favorite story about playing with Magus Beast?
A. "My all time favorite has to be when we were playing in Jersey about 12 years ago. The MTV awards were on while we were playing. The sound man cuts our power in the middle of our set to tell us that Queensryche is performing live on MTV. That's all it took to set off Ron. There was this huge screen TV on the side of the stage, of course, showing Queensryche. Ron walks over to it and is about to tear it down but decides to let the sound man have it instead. So here is Ron yelling at the top of his lungs, "Oh big fucking deal, Queensryche is on! Look everybody, it's the same fucking band as before!" Mind you that you could hear a pin drop at this point. I think I laughed the entire ride back home to Queens. That's Queens, NY! I know it sucks having something like that happen but we never played again the night that the MTV awards were airing."
Some of Tim's favorite websites:
