I found it liberating of necessity to devise my own style and my own tactics and to look for a voice on the instrument because there weren’t really any that impacted strongly on me.

Producing is a great deal more stressful than playing for me, and for this reason I’ve been doing less of it lately. But it’s a service I like to perform. I certainly see producing as...

I go about composing like a factory worker. I punch in. I believe it’s written somewhere “Steve Swallow has to sit uneasily at the piano for ten hours before receiving his next idea,” so I...

If a commission comes in for tuba and gorilla, she’ll write a piece for tuba and gorilla, and it’ll come out sounding like her. I think the humor in her music is … like her...

Occasionally, when I run into a great bass backstage at a festival I’ll play a few notes on the low E string, just to feel the instrument vibrate against my belly.

The Beatles seem to me to be very much of their time (although I realize they do enjoy a remarkable enduring popularity). But I, and most of my friends with whom I’ve discussed this, associate...

Composing is as important to me as playing. My feeling is that playing and composing support and nourish each other. I’d be a lesser player if I didn’t write, and a lesser writer if I...

I don’t meditate before I play or compose, but I see playing and composing as meditative acts.

As for the Beatles: I was very taken by them during their brief career. I was impressed most by the quality of their songwriting, and by George Martin’s production. But their importance to me faded...