Les Claypool
Les Claypool
Leslie Edward "Les" Claypoolis an American musician, singer, songwriter, composer, author and actor best known as the bassist and lead vocalist of the band Primus. Claypool's playing style on the electric bass mixes tapping, flamenco-like strumming, whammy bar bends, and slapping...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth29 September 1963
CountryUnited States of America
draw figure listened trying
I don't really listen to bassists - not anymore. When I was younger, I listened to those guys and was trying to figure out everything they did. Nowadays, I draw inspiration from everybody.
project solo step successful
For me to do a project - I have a pretty successful solo career, so - for me to even want to do Primus, it had to be a creative step forward.
learn people
Play as much as you can as often as you can with as many people as you can. That's how you learn and grow.
hard
It's always hard to put your finger on what it is that makes Primus Primus.
experience life relationships tend
From my experience, moving through life, things tend to go in eight- to 10-year cycles. Friends, relationships and whatnot.
buddy following high metallica realize school
I didn't realize Metallica was as big as they were. I just thought it was my buddy Kirk's band - we went to high school together. I wasn't really following metal.
american-musician couple nights trying
It got insane. They're trying to get us to come back and play a couple of nights at the arena. I don't ever want to do any of that.
ate bernard cutting dogs effects killer saint thriller time
The first film I made was when I was 13 and it was called 'The Dogs That Ate Detroit.' It starred my Saint Bernard Barney, and it was a killer thriller with oodles of special effects that were cutting edge for the time.
bass draw picked played similar stuff
The bass is just the crayon that I picked out of the box. I'd probably be writing similar stuff if I played guitar or trumpet. The pictures I want to draw I do with this crayon I chose, which is the bass.
beaver desk eager front guy people pretend sticky wants
I had one guy pretend to be me, go to a hotel room, and tell the people at the front desk that it was me, and then he went in and stole all of our luggage. There's always that eager beaver that wants to be a part of the team and comes off as a sticky fly.
clothing experience hairdo maybe musical wearing
You don't go see Primus to see what kind of new clothing I'm wearing or what my new hairdo is. You come to see Primus for the musical experience and the visual experience. I think, anyways. Maybe I'm wrong!
forget home record remember space time
If I'm home and I come up with something, I'll try to record it, but a lot of the time I'll forget to. A lot of things go off into space and never come back 'cause I just don't remember them.
call describing difficult hardware music people run store time
I have a very difficult time describing my music. Because I run into people in the hardware store and they go, 'Oh, you're a musician. So what kind of music do you play?' And I go, 'Uh, I've been doin' this for many years - I don't know what to call it.'
nice san-francisco interesting
San Francisco is an interesting place. It's always been such a nice culturally diverse environment, which it still is, but there's a lot of money there now and a lot of dot com's so it's a little different than it used to be.