Bass

One thing in particular I noticed about thrash and hardcore music, and one thing in particular I very much liked about the music, was the predominance of the bass guitar. I'm not sure why, but throughout my previous years prior to grade nine I had never really noticed bass in music. I am unclear as to why, but I reckon that the way heavy metal and rock music was mixed, you just didn't hear the bass. I later learned that bass could be felt more so than heard, but going back to old metal, I still don't hear it or feel it, with the exception of Motörhead. I was aware however as to what a bass guitar was but I think I was pretty clueless in the differences between a four string and a six string guitar. 

Now with crossover music I had completely become aware of the bass and how it differed in sound, tone and feel in comparison to the electric guitar. A lot of the songs I was hearing in this new genre I had discovered, had a tendency to start the song off with a bass lick, or there would be a break in the song at some point where just the bass stood alone. I loved the sound and feeling that charged me up whenever this happened, and I wanted to incorporate that into our sound now that we had a band. The only problem was we had no bass player.

Enter Scott. Scott, or "Vans" as we called him (vans being the first four letters of his last name) was a kid I had met in grade six when I started school at Williams Parkway. Vans was a pretty quiet, average looking guy, and Sanjai had started hanging around with him, so naturally he became apart of our circle of friends. I can't remember if he already owned a bass or if he bought one so he could join the band, but none the less he had a bass and we were now a five piece band with a bass player.

"VANS" & I clowning around in toys-R-us

When we first started Anathema we were a three piece, which was inspired by groups such as Motörhead, Venom & Celtic Frost. Now with the discovery of thrash and hardcore, I had noticed most the bands had four or five members. I now felt we were one step closer to becoming the new vision I had for us. With this new line up change came more changes, we decided it was time for a new name for the band. We were all huge fans of the television show "our gang/little rascals" so we decided upon the name "The Little Thrashcals" Although it was somewhat juvenile and silly we liked it, but not for very long...