"Steve DiGiorgio is not a household name-but he's becoming a God of Heavy metal loyalists, particularly those who pledge allegiance to the sub-genres of death, speed and thrash metal. Still, DiGiorgio says matter of factly, "When I got a call from Bassplayer, I thought there was a problem with my subscription."
DiGiorgio is probably best known as a member of Death, the groundbraking Florida-based death-metal outfit. He's also the bassist/ songwriter for Sadus, which formed in his hometown of Antioch, CA, in 1984 while its members were still in high school. Then there's DarkHall, DiGiorgio's chops-intensive instrumental band featuring longtime partner, woodwind Flamp Sorvari. In addition, Steve has worked with underground bands Disincarnate and Autopsy. While many metal bassists favor detuning and doubling the rhythm guitars down an octave, DiGiorgio opts for a different approach. "In the real world, " he explains, "the bass and drum are the rhythm section; they hold down the foundation of the song while the melodic instruments embellish that. We've kind of reversed the roles-the guitars form the base, establish the riff, and create that hardcore wall of sound, giving the bass and drums room to do what we do. We play that way because of the musicians we are, not because anyone ordered us to do it."
A listen to Steve's favorite Death album 'Individual Thought Patterns' reveals a jigsaw of hyperspeed tempos, stop-on-a-dime breaks, frantic unison lines, intricate contrapuntal parts and relentless intensity. No one could cost thtough the music. DiGiorgio frequently breaks free from the riff to play elaborate runs, only to bottom out and make the sound even heavier. One of Steve's trademarks in his elaborate and authoritative fretless playing, practically unheard of in metal.
Sadus was the first musical vehicle that garnered DiGiorgio recognition outside Antioch. Two years after forming, the band was using the undergrond network to advertise and distribute its debut recording, D.T.P. "Underground has evolved into a title rather than a desciption," figures Steve. "Fanzies would expose these bands and make their addresses available to everybody, and bands traded tapes among eachtoher. Sweden was a close to california as Germany, Florida, Japan or Brasil. It didn't matter where you were from-you could get a tape from anyone." The members of sadus recorded, pressed and sold their first album themselves. "We became kind of our own recordcompany. We advertised the album, packaged it, and worked out deals with distributors all through the underground. We put stamps on fliers to every contact address we had."
The underground buzz continued to grow, and by 1988 Sadus was signed to Roadrunner, a leading-edge metal label. "Roadrunner was on kind of a signing binge at the time. They set up a huge tour for us; everything was rolling along pretty good, but they had so many damn bands they had to start cleaning house." Bottom-line but not before they released three albums, out of print: Illusions, Swallowed in Vision of misery. The Dutch indie label has compiled the best of these on Chronicles Chaos and released brand new Sadus Elements of Anger. [Ed. Note: As Mascot did not yet have U.S. distribution, discs are available through management at 1107, Antioch, CA 94509. ]
A quartet for ten years, Sadus is now a trio, with original members Darren Travis on vocals and guitar and Jon Allen on drums. DiGiorgio says, "These days we're not playing fast, and we're not super techno-weenies anymore-we're just into the metal vibe, and we want a powerful sound. We're going for more of a listener point of view."
Around the time Sadus fell out with Roadrunner, DiGiorgio was falling in with Death. In '86 the band's founder, guitarist/vocalist/ composer Chuck Schuldiner, left the original
Death he had formed in Florida to check out the red-hot metal scene in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Schuldiner hooked up with a drummer and landed in Antioch, where he and DiGiorgio jammed together while Death and Sadus were sharing a rehearsal space. Schuldiner returned to Florida to carry on with Death, and for the band's
fourth CD, 1991's Human, he called DiGiorgio. "Chuck decided to hand-pick musicians and do
more of a session-type deal," recalls Steve. "He flew me to Florida, and I did the tracks-that's
about it. I wasn't able to do any touring for that album because I was busy with Sadus. It was
always a balance thing."
In '93, Schuldiner again called DiGiorgio and
asked him to play on what became Death's most accomplished album to date, Individual Thought
Patterns. Following the sessions, Schuldiner offered a short European festival tour to the players, and
this time Steve packed his bags. By then Death had amassed a serious following, and DiGiorgio was
impressed by the tour. "We sold out huge venues weeks in advance. It was amazing-a different
level of touring I hadn't been on-so I was hooked. I ended up doing all the tours for that album. I
was hardly home that whole year."
Soon DiGiorgio was in demand for a variety of projects, such as Autopsy, with whom he recorded Severed Survival and Fiend for Blood. He's also on board for a new Death album, The Sound of Perseverance, currently being tracked. "It's definitely an honor. I love playing; when people give me a call to play, they don't even have to ask-they just have to tell me when. But I've got a family, so it's not easy to jump on a plane on a whim. I'm trying real hard to make it work." In the meantime Steve works in the maintenance department of the Antioch School District. Still, jamming is a lot more fun. "If Death were a full-time job I'd be doing pretty well. People come to the shows, they suck up the albums, they buy the merchandise, and the fan mail pours in. It's more than just a gig."
Like many metal players, DiGiorgio was initially attracted to Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, and Rush, three war-horses with innovative bassmen. But Steve had been a musician for years, starting with piano in grade school. Later he began playing brass in the nationally renowned Concord Drum and Bugle Corps. "I played an instrument called the contrabass bugle. Ifs a gigantic two-valve, tuba- like thing you heft on your shoulder." DiGiorgio also played baritone horn, bass trombone, and tuba. "I've been thinking about trying to find a bass trombone again; I enjoyed that. There's a good connection between trombone and fretless bass. You've got a slide, so you've got to watch your intonation."
DiGiorgio started plucking an upright around age 15. "when I eventually wanted to move over from the fretted electric to fretless, I wasn't afraid of it I didn't have to relearn the bass or anything. But I'm definitely stiff not a master of intonation on that damn thing. I don't know if I'll ever be." When pressed to compare Death's raging thrash with Dark Hall's high-energy, fusion-inspired improvisations, DiGiorgio gets restless. "The drum- mer Steve Smith once said that all the music of the world is just one tree, and the different styles are just branches. That's how I view it. I'm not a jazz guy, I'm not a metal guy, and this guys not a rock guy and this guy's not a country guy. Ifs all music, and I'm like a sponge-I soak it all in. "
"The thing I like about playing speed metal, thrash, death-whatever you want to call it-is you need endurance. it's very energetic, you need to focus, and you need to be in shape. That probably relates back to my drum-corps days. We had to march, we worked out, and we practiced yoga. The physical and mental aspects are tied into one." How does he keep up with metal's lightning-fast double-kick rifts? "There are different approaches. You can alternate two fingers to match the bass pedals-or you can throw in the third finger and do a 1-2-3-2 pattern to keep it in an even four and avoid that 'gallop' sound. But there's no easy way to reach a point where you can play fast. The best thing to do is to get a metronome, drum machine, or even a drummer, and just play at a comfortable speed; then every so often kick it up a notch and challenge yourself to keep it even."
DiGiorgio has three Rickenbacker 400 is: a '75, an '81, and a custom-made '85. "That bass
has been on every recording I've done. But for Individual Thought Patterns I played a fretless
4-string I put together myself; it has a Fender Jazz neck. That's also the bass I play a lot with Dark
Hall. "
In '96 Steve bought a Carvin BB75F fretless 5, which he used on the latest Sadus album. The Carvin's 5th string is a high C, not a low B, although all of his basses are equipped with Hipshot Bass X-Tenders for detuning the E string to D. "B strings are kind of foreign to me, and I
don't know if I could ever adapt to them. I wanted to get the C string because a lot of the Dark Hall
parts require a higher range, and I do more soloing in Dark Hall." The Carvin is DiGiorgio's only active bass
The "Fender wannabe," meanwhile, has passive Bartolini pickups. "With active pickups
you hear the sound of the electronics, but with passive pickups you can hear the wood," . he
comments.
He strings everything with
Rotosound 66LDs, and yes, they tear up his fretless fingerboards. "But if you keep the action
and neck relief just right, a ground-up finger- board gives you a nice sound. I'm into that
smeary, buzzy fretless growl." DiGiorgio uses a classic Ampeg SVT head driving either an
8xlo cab or a 1x15 and 2x10 + tweeter combination. He favors DOD pedals: a flanger, EQ, chorus, and octaver, sometimes' also adding a
compression pedal for the Ricks.
DiGiorgio accepts being lumped in with1 death-metal crowd, although he doesn't embrace it. "I'm not going to preach, but I hate being associated with death metal, because that's not my trip. You can be brutal and aggressive without venturing into the dark side-666 or an upsides down cross or any of that crap. I hate categories I can't really say I was attracted to death meld just kind of ended up in it. Death metal, speed metal, power metal-ifs all just music, really."
BASS PLAYER JULY 1998
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