Nopony ever remembers the bass player. Do you remember when that was the case? The bass player used to be invisible, not even there. I remember those days well. The days before Blackwing got it huge. It has been a trip in life since then. I have my regrets of course, but show me a pony who doesn't. Show me one pony who went from a nobodies to rock and roll alicorns like we did, and has no regrets. None exist. That is life, it keeps on rolling on.
Perhaps I should introduce myself. My name is Aaron “Gallop” Trotter. I play bass for the Equestria Musician Hall of Fame rock band Blackwing. My nickname is Gallop because apparently I can gallop on bass better than anypony. I don’t think this is true, any bassist in a true metal band can gallop better than I can ever dream of. My Cutie Mark is not anything to do with music. It is nothing to do with drugs or demon worship. (Believe it or not there actually are some parent groups out there who think I am the devil.) My Cutie Mark represents my skill in spells that increase and decrease the mass of objects. Let there be no more speculation. My special talent is to make objects easier (or harder) to lift.
Now that you have an understanding of who I am, I can get into the story of how Blackwing formed. I was working as a roadie at this gig that plays local bands in Ponyville. It was the local music scene at the time. I was a good addition to the roadie team due to my talent. I could make all the heavy equipment no heavier than a pillow. Sure we weren't building any strength, but when a unicorn can make a task easier it is rude to protest.
I remember this one time as a roadie there were these three fillies, blank flanks, who came in and wanted to be roadies. I think they said something about earning a Cutie Mark in being a roadie. It was cute, so I took them onto my crew. I liked my crew to made up of myself and four others, so I also took another new applicant to train. Oh boy was he not happy to be working with fillies. Anyhow so we are assigned to bring in some new equipment, and one of the fillies, a unicorn, was getting cold hooves on the whole roadie thing, so I helped her out a little. All three fillies brought in the equipment while the other pony I had in my crew was in the washroom. The look on his face when he got out was priceless. He just couldn't believe that three little girls could unload all the amps, lights etc. in the three minutes he was taking a dump. It was then I decided to have some fun with him. After the gig was over and we had to load the equipment back up, I did what I always did and used my magic to lighten the load for the fillies. However I increased the load for this other pony. Boy was he swearing! Here are these blank flanks moving equipment like it is nopony’s business and he can barely lift an amp! He quit after this one gig. The only bad part of the story is after we loaded up I was approached by an orange mare claiming to be one of the filly’s sister. She gave me an earful about taking them up being irresponsible, the could have been seriously hurt yaddy yadda. After that day I vowed to never work with children ever again. Too much hassle.
Looking back I have nothing but respect for that mare. She was only looking after her sister after all. She was right, they could have been hurt with all that heavy lifting, and I should have never taken them onto my crew. There was no rule at the time that said I couldn't. Being young I was always in the right, and my thoughts about that mare was that I would not hook up with her ever. My logic was that we were incompatible musically. I deduced at that time that she was into more bluegrass country and would not appreciate some classic rock and roll. I was also able to figure out your musical taste back then. I was young.
I can go on for pages and pages with stories from when I was a roadie, but they are hardly relevant to how I became bassist for Blackwing. It was not uncommon for roadies to play instruments, but that said it is not uncommon for roadies not to play instruments. I wasn't even involved with bass players back then. I set up the drum kit and sometimes got to be a guitar technician. Like everypony else at the time I pretty much ignored bass players. Also, I only dealt with rock bands so my feud that is now famous did not start in my roadie days. It started far before then, but more on that later.
The story of when I decided to play bass is not overly dramatic. I was on break with a few of my work buddies. We were sitting around bullshitting and it somehow came up that we should form a band. There were five of sitting around then. I do not remember who brought it up. Two left the circle shortly after, partially because they were not interested, and partially because they had to get back to work. The three that remained in that room were myself, an earth pony by the name of Ryder Stills, and another unicorn we only knew as Hooks. Ryder already played a little guitar and Hooks was a decent jazz drummer. At first I wasn’t really into the idea. I left that day to go home and the idea seemed to fade away.
I was making supper listening to the radio. This new tune came on and it changed my life forever; it was a bass solo. I had heard a lot of guitar solos and even a few drum solos up until that point, but never a bass solo. It was so deep I remember, so low and mighty. It held tension then released with a fluidity akin to water in a fast flowing river. For the 93 seconds it was playing I was completely engrossed. It did in the end turn out to be a joke however, but that did not matter to me. I needed to learn bass. Fast.
Later that week I purchased a bass guitar at the local music store. I had always heard Ryder say to never spend less than $300 on a guitar. I walked out with a $2100 4-string custom P-Bass with a jazz bridge pickup and another jazz pickup on a 75 degree angle near where the neck meets the body. Back then this bass was literally one of a kind. It was custom made by the owner of the shop, Lester Strat. I only spent $800 on that bass and got the amp for free. I used to date Lester’s daughter Melody. Melody was a singer who sometimes did shows at the club I worked at. We had a clean breakup (thank god, or I would not have laid my hooves on this bass) and we were still friends. Lester liked me and I liked him. I got more than I payed for with that bass. That was the bass I played all the way until that fateful show we did in the Crystal Empire, but more on that later.
I now had the bass, now I needed to learn to play it. I figured it would be easy, the bass player didn’t seem to do much. At first I thought I would teach myself, but soon realized it was futile. I needed lessons. I looked for anypony advertizing bass lessons, but soon found that there are a lot of guitar teachers, but hardly any dedicated bass teachers. Soon I turned to asking bassists after gigs to teach me. I did this for about three months with mixed results. Some would not even give me the time of day while others were overjoyed that somepony was asking the bass player to teach them to play. It was here that I got a taste for what it was actually like for the bass player. I vowed that I would not be that kind of bass player if I could help it.
In that time I got pretty good at faking bass lines. Since most songs don’t have a distinct bass line all the bass player needs to do is the 1, 4, and 5 of the key the song is in and it will fit, most of the time. I spent the next two months playing along to the radio. After that it was time to form a band.
Ryder and Hooks were jamming together to some song, I don’t remember what it was, when I approached them on break. I had brought my bass to work that day. Both were very surprised to see that I have been learning bass. Neither noticed anything different in my behaviour over the last five months. In fact, neither had noticed me much over the last five months. Ryder said I am a true bass player, invisible. We jammed and the idea for forming a band came back to the table.
We formed a band, but we barely played anything. Mostly we did some four chord rock. I was loving it though. Our practices were great. We would jam, make shit up, and then sometimes we would consume some strong grass if ya’ know what I mean. We weren’t actually much for a band. I was the most serious member of that group in playing music. We did one show. It was a charity gig for relief to the Crystal Empire. We practiced hard to get ready for it. I asked Melody to sing for us. We performed the song Sweet Foal of Mine, me faking the bassline. That bassline is not super hard to play at all, but I found and still do find it easier and more fun to fake the bassline to a cover. That is unless the bassline is distinct, then i will learn it. The gig went over alright. There was still talk of the performance two days later, but not much after that. I
My ego and confidence were at an all time high. I wanted to do more; write my own songs and basslines. Life, however had other plans. Ryder quit as a roadie and got a job as a store clerk. He said the pay was better and he didn’t need to work as hard. The only problem was, most of our jamming was done at lunch or on weekends. At first we reduced our jamming to weekends since that was the only time to get together as a band. This went on for about a month then Ryder started working weekends as well. Looking back we kinda broke up as a band right there and then. However at the time we had fooled ourselves into thinking we were still a band. I tried my hoof at a little songwriting, as I was the only one in the group who did not want to remain a cover band. Before anypony gets all excited, there is a special place in hell for those lyrics. They were awful. Looking back I realize that I did not have enough life experience to write anything remotely good. This aside, I was actually proud of those lyrics back then. I was hanging out with Ryder on a Friday night he had off when I showed him the lyrics. The fool actually thought they were alright and we sorta came up with an intro riff and played with various structures and melodies for the song. I went home that night excited to finish the song. The song was to be finished ‘later,’ which translates to it never was completed at all.
The disconnect between Ryder and the other two thirds of the band (me and Hooks) really started to set in two months later. We had not played together as a band since that charity gig, and Ryder hadn’t played guitar since that night he had off. Hooks and I jammed a little, but not always bass/drum combo. I remember at one point we would both play some djembe during break. We would do lots of different stuff. Personally I was starting to experiment with learning different styles of bass based on genre and influential bass players. I tried to learn their styles. It seemed that playing bass in a band was slowing for me, but in truth it was merely a transitional period.
I will never forget the day it happened. I was working this gig one night when the bass player for this band, Ninjas with Ties has a freakout and quits a half hour before the gig. The Ninjas with Ties were a hard rock/semi thrash punk metal band that were gaining some buzz for a few weeks. The bass player apparently was hooked on the chemicals and had finally snapped.
Things could not have been better for me. I had my bass there and I had heard the Ninjas play a few times and sorta knew their songs. Before I go on I would just like to explain why I had my bass at work that day. Ryder said he would show up at lunch, he didn’t and I felt like a total jackass bringing an instrument to work then not playing it. Anywho, I approach the lead singer/rhythm guitarist, a pegasus by the name of Buck Strawberry, and offered my talents. He was overjoyed and immediately took me to the rest of the band. After a brief sound check to see that I could play along it was show time. I played my heart out, but since I had only joined a half hour before it was sloppy. So very sloppy. After the gig I was offered the job as full time bassist, so it must not have been too bad.
I was with the Ninjas for a month. In that month we had become the scene for music in Ponyville. I stopped working as a roadie full time and started part time as I was busy with the band. I wrote three original bass lines for the Ninjas. That was the number of new songs written in that month. They were pretty high energy songs so therefore the bass had to be fast and ecstatic. This allowed me to move around stage to feed of the energy of the songs. I wasn’t an off to the side bass player. I was visible and having fun with you. I also discovered the perks of groupies. Now, I am not wild unless I have a bass in my hoof so the groupies have been an off and on fascination over the years. (I am currently 100% groupie free, being married and all). For a week it was impossible to pull me away from groupies, but after that it was whatever.
You have probably noticed that I haven’t mentioned the names of the other Ninjas. This is because of this story that happened a month after I joined. This happened over the course of three days. To sum up the story in a sentence: In three days I was the only member of the Ninja’s with ties who was left alive. It all started with the drummer. The drummer was the first to go. He died from a drug overdose when he partied all weekend with the old bassist. His marefriend went over to his place on Monday to find them both naked and covered in vomit. That is all I ever found out and all I ever wanted to. The next day Buck fell off a cliff to his death. How a pegasus managed to pull that off is beyond any stretch of the imagination. He was perfectly healthy, not at all depressed, and had nothing in his system. I have only mentioned his name because this is a pretty popular unsolved mystery around Ponyville. My take on it is I have no idea what happened. The next day I am walking along the road to find the lead guitarist lying beaten on the side of the road. He told me he was mugged then left for dead. He was still alive by the time I rushed him to the hospital, but died that night from internal bleeding. I stood alive, alone. I let the band die with well, the band. This is to say I didn't reform it. Another door had opened for me that would ultimately lead to the formation of Blackwing.
It is no secret that I consider the Crystal Empire my second home. Most of the important events in my life happened there. That was the first place Blackwing went both gold and platinum, that show, the list goes on. The Crystal Empire was holding the first Crystal Clear Sound Festival and Ponyville was asked to send some representatives. I do believe they meant the Ninjas with Ties, but with the band literally dead there was a scramble to put together a “supergroup” if you will. I was second choice to be the bassist for the Ponyville Rockers. The first choice declined because he was about to go away to school. He chose higher education over the music. When I was asked they hadn't even fully finished and I said yes. When I met at the barn we were practicing at I was meeting this band for the first time. I was the first to show-up. The second was our drummer, then the lead singer. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the singer was Melody. We had to wait a half hour after the time we were supposed to meet for the lead guitarist to show up. Our lead guitarist, was a griffin by the name of Ian LeClaw. Apparently Ian had just moved into Ponyville and needed to set down some roots. We spent the next three hours jamming as a band and getting a feel for each other. Ian was actually pretty good at the guitar and soon there was no doubt he belonged with the band.
We agreed to meet back there the next day to start working on some songs. We all showed up the next day and Ian was a half hour late again. For the rest of the day we started working on songs to play during our 15 song set. We did not work on one original song, but rather songs that each of us had played before. We played some songs by the Ninjas, some songs by the drummer’s band, and some of Melody’s solo material. Ian had barely anything to contribute aside from guitar solos with no backing. That was the way he wanted to keep it. Eventually we were able to get him to let us back him up in one, but that was it. This was the first sign of his ego. The only song that is well known that we worked on for our set was Sweet Foal of Mine.
We practiced for the next two weeks until our sound was pretty tight. We could have played our set wasted. (We actually did a few times) Every practice we had Ian was always a half hour late. Despite this musically me and him were really connecting. After a while I was able to slightly look past the ego and see the artist behind it. That said he was still an asshole.
We arrived in the Crystal Empire by train the day before the festival began, even though our set was in the second day. I had wanted to see the Crystal Empire and had really convinced the others to join me. The Crystal Empire was beyond anything I could have possibly imagined. The architecture was something in itself and the ponies were great. That night in the bar was one of the best nights of my life. Those ponies knew how to party, but party responsibly. There were no fights or stupid behavior. I remember half way through the night begging one of the ponies there to teach me how to live. I have never partied the same since.
The next day I spent alone walking around the festival enjoying the variety that was all around me. There were kinds of music I didn’t even know existed. I listened to all kinds bands, talked to all kinds of musicians, and ate all kinds of food. Around one that day I actually stopped for a real lunch, and that is when I met Clef Mallet. He sits in the stool next to me and somehow we struck up a conversation. The next thing I knew we were hitting the festival together. He was going to be doing a drum solo on the third and final day of the festival, while I was playing the second day. We hung out for the rest of the day and even up until I needed to do a soundcheck later that night. Clef tagged along with me for that. I was ten minutes late for soundcheck. Ian was on time for the first time since I’ve known him, and flipped out on me for being late!
After soundcheck we as a band went to the party that was being held in honor of the first day of the festival being done. Clef, who was still hanging out with me tagged along. So far I have really painted Clef to be a clinger, but this really wasn’t the case. I just thought I would establish this before he gets mad at me. Anyhow Ian, Clef and I really started shootin the shit and Ian started to like Clef. Clef agreed to come to our performance if we would go to his. Only I agreed to go to his, and he came to ours.
The performance itself went alright. It was the biggest crowd I had ever played for, but to me it was just another show. After the show and we had packed up-wait, I forgot to mention something. This was the first show where we had roadies. Real roadies. Like professional roadies. It was cool.
Anyhow as I was saying after the show Melody was wiped (apparently she met a stallion at the party and the spent the night together) and caught the first train back home. Ian didn't see any reason to stick around and left with her. Our drummer met up with some friends and left the next day. This left me alone in the Crystal Empire with Clef. We met up and spent the rest of the day mingling with other musicians.
I also learned some stuff about Clef. He had grown up on a rock farm and ran away to pursue drumming. A drumming Cutie Mark served no purpose on a rock farm he told me. He had nothing to call his own. Festivals such as this was what was keeping him alive. I told him that after the festival he could come back to Ponyville and live with me. At first he said no, saying he didn't want charity and he barely knew me. I will admit I did feel sorry for Clef and kept telling him he was coming home with me. I promised him a job and that as soon as he could pay rent he would move into his own place. Eventually he agreed.
We got back to Ponyville late the next day. Clef was a little nervous about moving in with someone he just met and the whole train ride he kept quizzing me on myself, Ponyville, anything really. When we got back to my place reality caught up with Clef. He broke down into tears and thanked me a thousand times over. Nopony had ever shown him this kind of kindness before. I got him settled in in the guest bedroom I had and then went to bed myself.
When I went back to working as a roadie I took Clef with me. On my recommendation alone he was hired. He became the drum technician, so I didn't see him a lot at work as I was working the lifting. Within a week Clef was just one of the guys and within two he seemed to be settling nicely. With his first paycheck he bought a drum kit to play on. (I helped him pay for it) I already knew he was good having heard him play in the Crystal Empire, but jamming with him was something else. Playing with Clef helped me learn to stay within the beat while still playing whatever I was playing. Clef was also amazed that I was that good at bass, despite no musical Cutie Mark. He said, “It must be the bass. It has spirit.” And that fillies and colts, is how my first bass was named.
This one day me, Clef, Melody, Ryder, and Hooks are all chillin at Sugarcube Corner when Ian walks in. Nopony had seen him since the Crystal Clear Sound Festival. He comes up to me sits down. He totally ignores the fact that I am with friends and flat out tells me he needs a bass. Apparently he spent some time in Cloudsdale jamming around there. Ponyville was too “lame” for him. Anyhow he was forming a band and needed a bass and a drummer. He already had a rhythm guitar who would also sing. i had not been in a band since the Crystal Empire and was kind anxious to get back into it. I said I would join only if Clef could be the drummer. I had been playing with Clef for so long that I kinda got used to him. Ian agreed, and I was back in a band.
I met the rhythm guitarist/singer three days later. She was a half pegasus half unicorn named Lea Chord. Based on her attitude I could tell Lea put up with a lot of shit growing up. She took after her mother and had wings like a pegasus, but they were featherless. Regardless she she could still fly as they were enchanted. She said that was “the only thing dad ever gave me, a curse!” Lea was not exactly ugly, but no bombshell either. Her inner rage really came out when she would sing. It gave me goosebumps. Still does.
Ian showed up a half hour late. He made it clear from the start that we were his band. We were to make him look good. To make this 200% clear the band name was even chosen to be LeClaw. Looking back I can’t believe we all agreed to play with that egotistical asshole! We did however agree. I sold my soul to a griffin.
Leclaw was around for a year. Ian’s ego was a ticking time bomb. We did however go pretty far in a year. We made two albums, an EP and did three stadium shows in Canterlot. We were always touring, which is probably why we never went gold. Me and Lea had a brief thing, but is dried up. Lea started using the stage name Blackwing. Clef got his own place using tour money.
The bomb went off on the anniversary of our first show we were doing in Ponyville at my off and on place of employment over the past few years. Halfway through the show during one of his solos Ian dropped his pick. He could not play without his pick and we would have had to stop the show if, I hadn't acted fast. I improvised a bass solo to go along with the song. Three quarters of the band thought it was a good idea and went with it. Ian however, was not impressed. His ego could not stand that I took his solo. He cancelled the show and fired me on the spot. Clef also got axed when he tried to defend me.
Kicked out of the band for saving the show, and getting my friend fired with me. This was one of the few times in my life I was truly, beyond pissed off. Immediately I started forming another band. “LeClaw was fairly popular, so my name must have some weight,” I thought. Clef was on board right away. I went to Melody asking her if she could sing for us. While she was sympathetic to our situation she refused to take the role as singer. She was able to set us up with a lead guitarist.
Melody introduced us to Carlos Looper that night when we had him audition. We soon found out that Carlos liked to play his own rhythm part by using the looping effect. At one point during the audition he had three rhythm parts going,and still playing lead and singing. He was hired. We were representing every pony in Equestria. Unicorn on bass, earth pony on drums, and pegasus on guitar and vocals. Now all we needed was a name.
I will never forget that morning when I knew our band name. I had gotten the paper and my heart sank when I spotted the headline. “Musician Dead. Griffin Facing Murder Charges” Ian had beaten Lea to death. My phone rang. It was Clef, who had seen the headline as well. We talked for an hour. We were very upset and both of us were crying. Even though we were not that close to Lea her death disturbed us greatly. It is not often that someone you know dies, and it is never easy. Even when the Ninjas died I didn't cry this much. Lea was closer to me and Clef than we realized. Its fun how much you miss someone when they are gone. After that hour we agreed on a band name. We would be Blackwing, in honor of Lea. We even go Carlos to dye his wings black.
So we were Blackwing. That is the story of how Blackwing was formed. I have no stories about the early days of Blackwing, those belong to Clef. We did a few albums, an EP and Canterlot on more than three occasions. We did better than LeClaw ever did and Ian was found guilty. This is just the start of my life’s story however. There is much more to go. There is love and loss, friends and enemies, great bass-offs, and it all began around the time I met her.
