Sadist’s Andrea Nasso: “Six-strings? I’m still afraid of them”

Andrea Nasso of Italian heavy metal heroes Sadist casts the bass spell.

“Sadist have been together since 1991, with eight full-length records behind them – the most recent one is called Spellbound and is a concept album about Alfred Hitchcock’s movies. 

“My story as a bassist is a classic one: I was finishing middle school and a friend of mine suggested that we play some songs by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He already had a guitar, so I picked bass completely out of the blue. 

"From that moment on I’ve paid attention to bass-lines, which are easy to identify on every RHCP record. I was lucky enough to met a friend and guru, Gianni Serino, who showed me how many things you could do with a bass guitar, and so I was hooked.

Leave the zone

“My advice is to play as many different genres of music as possible, keep practising, and always push yourself out of your comfort zone. For example, slap bass is one of the most fun techniques out there. 

"The greatest bass player that ever lived was probably Jaco Pastorius, he just thrust bass into a new orbit. His work, whether as a sideman or solo, is simply stunning. What a great composer he was.

“I will soon start recording a solo project as a singer-songwriter; it’s something that I’ve been working on for the last couple of years. 

"It’s going to be very different from metal. I’m also going to be working on the soundtrack for a theatre script with two dancers and a singer - hopefully that project will be ready to go on the road by next winter.”

Gear

“My first bass guitar was a very cheap Yamaha, maybe 100 or 150 euros, but I don’t remember the series. I still have it in my wardrobe though. 

"I currently play five- string basses for a wider range: the low B string is very helpful in many situations, and it helps me to enlarge my chord vocabulary. 

"Six-strings? I’m still afraid of them – I can’t wrap my head around them, even though I know it is only one more string. We’ll see what the future brings.”

• Basses: Warwick Fortress, Spector ReBop 4 DLX 
• Effects: EarthQuaker Devices Afterneath and Bit Commander, Mantic Vitriol, MXR Bass Octave Deluxe and Bass compressor M148, Tech 21 NYC SansAmp Bass Driver DI, EP Booster by Xotic, TC Electronic Polytune 2, Digitech Whammy V, Recovery Effects Bad Comrade, Death By Audio Waveformer Destroyer, Boss RC-30 
• Amps: Markbass Little Mark Tube 800