David McLeod can bring the “Thunder” to your gig!
David McLeod has been playing the electric bass guitar for over 35 years. He has played, over the last 7 years, in and around Austin with various artists, as well as his own band, Moondog. Local singer songwriter, Christina Cavazos has included David in her band for the last 2 years and he has recently started playing with other singer songwriters, Madi Meeks and Nichole Wagner. In addition, David currently plays shows with local bands, Rival Waves and Marcus Morales. An accomplished harmony singer, David is able to sing high harmony parts in a subtle yet effective manner. He also has been called on as a recording session bass player for Christina Cavazos’ latest record, Mile Marker, released in 2018, and has also recorded two Christmas songs and two, soon to be released singles for 2019, with Christina. David’s current bass rig includes 2×15 Mesa Boogie Cabinets, and a Mesa Boogie Subway 800w head. His current number 1 bass is a Fender P 1950’s reissue with flat wound strings and a close second is his Fender Jazz bass with round wound strings. With a love for playing in the pocket and the ability to read charts, David is available for your upcoming gig. Read more about David’s musical journey with his bass guitar below…..
I started playing the bass at 14 years of age. In the beginning, nobody else wanted to play the instrument, which was fine with me because, deep down, I knew I was meant to play the bass. The bass guitar, by nature, is a supportive instrument, so it fit my personality and playing it came very natural to me.
I’ve always been fascinated with the bottom end sound that those 4 strings can make, and noticed early on in my life, that when a song was playing on the radio or on TV, wherever, I was was always drawn to listening to the bass line. I didn’t even really pay attention to the words of the song, only the rhythm of the drums and bass. I didn’t even really know at the time what I was listening to, or what was making that sound, only that it stood out to me and really seemed to play an important role in the tune I was listening to.
The first song I can recall really noticing the bass line on was a 45 record that my parents had by Otis Redding, (Sittin’ on the) Dock of the Bay. I must have been 7 or 8 years old and I can remember playing that 45 record on a child’s record player over and over again for hours and days on end. There was something about the way it sounded, the bass line in particular and the chromatic nature of how the line was arranged, really clicked with me. I only found out later what all that meant but I was hooked for sure although I had no idea who played that bass line, I figured Otis Redding himself must have played it and would only come to find out much much later that the bass line was, in fact, played by, Donald “Duck” Dunn, a session bass player for Stax records, where the song was recorded. Session players would later become major influences on my style of play…it just took some time, and with the dawn of the internet age, I was finally able to figure out who played on what songs. That was a real eye opener as many of the bass lines of my favorite songs were recorded by only a few players.
Anyway, I stepped right into the role of “bass player” eager to learn and ready to play and haven’t looked back since.
Fast forward 40 plus years and I’m still playing and focused more than ever on my beloved 4 stringed instrument. I’m completely self taught, and play daily, either on my own or with a band. I have bass guitars and amps all over my house, in every room, and usually have a bass in my hands while lounging around.
I play along to whatever I’m listening to at the time, which I highly recommend if you’re wanting to learn to play, and everything on the TV, theme songs, commercials, background music and especially all the kid shows my 3 year old watches. The Wiggles are my favorite, and the bass lines are surprisingly great, they loved The Beatles come to find out, it shows, and the bass lines on their songs are so much fun to play.
I love all kinds of music however have the greatest fondness for Blues, Rock ‘n’ Roll and R&B. I’m just realizing as I write this blog that, R&B, is probably where I’m most comfortable as a player. I always thought of myself of more of a Rock ‘n’ Roll and or Blues player but have come to discover that R&B is really my forte. As I mentioned before, it took me years to discover that most of the hit songs and bass lines I had listened to growing up, were mostly played by a few musicians.
These “session” players, James Jamerson, Donald “Duck” Dunn, Joe Osborne, David Hood, Leland Sklar, Chuck Rainey, Abe Laboriel, Wilton Felder, Willie Weeks and Carol Kaye , among others, literally played on thousands of hit records. All of those bass lines are great and now, especially with the internet, I have been able to learn the subtleties of those players styles and incorporate them into my own playing.
I’ve taught myself to read music, bass clef, and continue to learn new techniques and styles every day. It’s never ending and has become a real joy in my life.
That’s the short version of my story….read on if you’d like to know some of the particulars of my musical journey, more of my influences and the overall steps I took to get me to where I am today as a bass player.
I was raised in a middle class family in South Texas, on the border, in McAllen Texas. My father was born and raised in McAllen, and we ended up moving there in 1972. My parents were musical, although music was not a focus in our household. My mother could read music, she learned as a child to play the piano and sing. My father didn’t play an instrument and had no formal musical training whatsoever but has a natural ear for music, in fact all of his brothers and his sister can sing, which is where I believe my brother and I get our musical aptitude. My father has a beautiful voice but you will only hear it in a church pew at the First Presbyterian Church of McAllen.
We didn’t have any instruments in our home until my Grandmother, on my Mother’s side, passed away in 1976 and left us an upright piano. This was mainly due to the fact that my younger brother, John, would always gravitate towards it when we would visit her in Memphis TN over the years from 1972 up until 1976.
One quick note about Memphis…I was born in Mesa Arizona, my dad was in the military, a Captain in the Air Force during the Vietnam War, and he was stationed in Korea and then Mesa Arizona until late 1967. After his 5 year stint, we moved to my Mother’s hometown of Memphis TN. I was only a few months old when we made the journey and we lived in Memphis for the next 5 years.
I grew up hearing stories about Elvis Presley. He apparently asked my aunt out on a date after she ran into him at a record store one afternoon, although she was so scared, she said no. I also recall my Mother talking about how she and her friends would jump Elvis’ fence and steal blades of grass off of his lawn while Elvis’ mother would run them off. There is also another family story where my aunt and uncle decided to just go to Graceland one evening with some friends and ring the bell at the gate. They were allowed in and ended up shooting pool with Elvis all night.
Anyway, we lived in Memphis for 5 years and it was not until much much later, after discovering one of my influences, Donald Duck Dunn, was probably recording hits at Stax Records just a few miles from where I was living at the time. I know Otis Redding recorded, Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay, in November of 1967 which was right around the time we moved to Memphis from Mesa Arizona. The song was released a few months later in January of 1968.
Music was a bit hard to come by down in the Rio Grande Valley. 90% of the music I heard on the radio was Hispanic music, conjunto, polka, mariachi or music from across the border. I enjoyed that music, even though I couldn’t understand the lyrics, but there was not much else to listen to. There were only a few English speaking stations, a AM station that played soft elevator music and a top 40 station that played the hits of the day. There was no variety at all in the music I was hearing and these were the days before the internet so the only way to find out about any type of different music was through those friends of mine that had records. As soon as I heard albums like, Led Zeppelin II, Rush – Fly by Night, The Who, and Yes records and finally all of The Beatles records, I knew the bass guitar was for me…the bass players in each of those bands, John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee, John Entwistle, Chris Squire and Paul McCartney, would become the first huge influences on my playing. Let’s start back though where my active musical journey begins….middle school!
I joined the band in the 6th grade and decided to play the trumpet, I just thought it was cool, and a few of my friends played it as well so there you go! I started reading treble clef sheet music on day one and played every day for the next 4 years. I did learn some basic music theory and learned how to play in a group environment but gave it up after my freshman year in high school after having to play in the marching band. The sad thing was, I never wanted to stop playing the trumpet, I just didn’t like the marching part of being in the band as our band director was consumed by winning the competitions, etc. and had us outside for months on end in the South Texas heat, 100 degree days, wearing crazy costumes and bumping into each other. The music never mattered much to him so I decided to leave the band, he didn’t seem to care at all. I should have started playing the bass then, because I could have stayed in the band as the bass player usually gets a cool stage to sit and play the bass with his amp, while the other kids are marching. Missed opportunity….darn!
Anyway, I did, in fact, take up the guitar around the same time I left the band although I didn’t own an instrument. A huge problem at 14 years of age, not enough money to buy any gear. Having to come up with hundreds of dollars for an instrument and another few hundred bucks for an amp was an impossible thought. My only income at the time was a paper route, collecting aluminum cans, and maybe mowing a few yards…the most money I remember having saved was $17 in one dollar bills, I kept it in a cheap toy safe. Not even Christmas would save the day, I would drop hints every year asking “Santa” for a guitar and yet, nothing ever appeared under the tree. The only solution to the problem was that some of my friends did have guitars, which were handed down from their fathers, and they weren’t interested in them. I couldn’t believe you could have a guitar laying around the house and not want to play it. My neighbor had an acoustic guitar and he had no interest in it so he let me borrow it for months on end. I played that thing until my fingers bled.
I never took formal lessons for the bass, I just listened to the songs I wanted to play and picked out the parts myself. This was long before the internet, so the only way to learn anything was to figure it out yourself, which was where I was.
Playing came naturally to me though, my younger brother had already been playing the piano for years, and it wasn’t until I discovered the bass, that I realized I had some naturally ability to play the instrument. Even though I had played in the band, that was more of formal way of playing, reading the notes off of the page. Playing the bass allowed me to explore the instrument on my own and play whatever I wanted to play and however I liked to play. A very different scene from the school band.
My best friend, Avrel Seale, who played the guitar, and I started a band in high school band called, The Dudes in 3D. It was a 3 piece The first song I recall learning on the bass for the band was, “South City Midnight Lady” by the Doobie Brothers, and then “China Grove” by the Doobies as well. I actually learned those bass lines on a borrowed 6 string acoustic guitar and just played the lowest strings, I didn’t even own a guitar or bass. Our drummer at the time, a dude in 3D named Rudy, did have an hollow body short scale Gibson Bass that I could play with flat wound strings on it. He would bring it only when we rehearsed though, otherwise I just played bass lines on borrowed 6 string guitars mainly.
I finally purchased my first real bass, after a few years, a Memphis Fender P Bass style, for $80, from another friend who had played it for a bit but lost interest in the bass guitar. I didn’t have an amp though, amps were always a problem, too expensive, so, I would have to borrow one or plug into any amp that had a separate channel. So, Avrel and I usually played out of the same amp, but the bass never sounded that great, it didn’t matter though, we were playing in a band!
Sometimes I could go direct into the PA if we had borrowed one, which was rare. Later on, after I had purchased a cheap guitar, I finally bought an even cheaper 15 watt guitar amp, both for under $100 I think, and would use that amp both for the guitar and bass. I didn’t buy myself a proper bass and bass amp until probably 6 years after starting to play…which I still have, a Yamaha BB1100 and then a Peavey bass head and speaker cabinet with 2×10 and 1×15 speakers.
The band changed a bit over the years, we talked our good buddy Wade into learning how to play the drums, and his folks were nice enough to buy him a kit and let us rehearse at their house. My brother, John, joined us on the keyboard so we could play some cool songs now that we some keys in the band. We had also met this new guy at our school named, Steve, and found out from some other guys that he could sing. So, we invited him over for a jam. Of course we didn’t have a mic, neither did he, or a PA so he used a pair of headphones plugged into a guitar amp which turned those headphones into a mic and we played our first few tunes as a proper band. I think it was a Van Halen tune, maybe, “Ain’t talkin’ bout love” or “Dance the Night Away”. It was quite a riot seeing our new friend, Steve, singing into these headphones, but it worked! For the last few months of my senior year, we played a few parties and one memorable gig at our high school, Jam Night, then we graduated and moved away. We did manage to scrape together $300 on two different occasions and record some original material in a small studio north of McAllen over the next year or so. We submitted that material on tapes to about 20 different record companies, the way you did it in those days, snail mail, and got rejected by them all, that is, the ones that bothered to write back and that was it….our dream was over. There was no internet in those days so getting the word out on our own seemed impossible and since we didn’t have the band with us in Austin things just sort of petered out….Fast forward 4 more years, the college years, where I continued to play the entire time just not in bands. I played mostly guitar and some bass in those days, I would mostly play the bass when Avrel and I would get together and jam.
After college, Avrel and I started up a cover band which we still called, The Plan and became the house band a club called, Pepe’s on the River, It’s Paradise, from 1989 to 1992. We both bought some good equipment, I had purchased my first real bass, a Yamaha BB1100 on layaway and drove to Austin to buy a Peavey bass head and cabinet. I did focus exclusively on the bass during that time, and became a much better player, but after a few years, we all started to get real jobs and just sort of went our separate ways and for about 15 years, focused on careers and family.
Although I never stopped playing bass or guitar during this time, it wasn’t until 2012 that I made a conscious decision to start playing professionally again and decided to focus all of my attention on the bass guitar.
My childhood buddy, Avrel, and I decided to get the “Band” back together, just me and him, and broke out the old setlist and started playing around Austin TX in local coffee shops as a duo.
We billed ourselves as the “Pop Rocks” for a bit and then settled on the name, “Moondog” after John Lennon’s early name for the Beatles, Johnny and the Moondogs, which he had taken from Alan Freed, the so called “Father of Rock ‘n Roll” and organizer of the “Moondog Coronation Ball” in 1952.
Avrel and I played gigs together steadily for about 4 years and I started investing in some better equipment. I finally purchased my second bass guitar, a Fender Jazz bass. I had wanted that bass originally, but Fender did not have a retail outlet in my hometown so I had to settle on the Yamaha, which is not a bad bass, just not the one I wanted. I also purchased a the subway 800 amp from Mesa Boogie along with 15″ subway cabinet for a powerful bass punch.
Another good friend of mine, Ed Cavazos, asked if I would play bass with his daughter, Christina Cavazos, at a few local gigs, which I have done over the years and was invited to record the bass lines on all but one of the tracks on her EP, Mile Marker, released in May of 2018
While playing with Christina, I was asked by a few other bands to step in and sub on bass, Rival Waves, Marcus Morales, Nichole Wagner, and Madi Meeks are other artists I’ve been working with recently.
Anyway, that’s where I’m at currently, subbing for other bass players and playing my own material with my partner, Avrel, in our band, Moondog. I’ve continued to buy some more basses along the way, an Orange Bass, a Epiphone B-00, a Hofner, a Fender P Bass 1950’s reissue, a Fender 6 string, a U Bass, which is a Ukulele Bass that has a surprising punch when you plug it in, and a BerlyBass. I also, rebuilt my first bass, the Memphis, into a fretless. I purchased another 15″ speaker Mesa cabinet to add to my rig and have purchased a variety of pedals to help the effort. My bass education continues on a daily basis..and I’m lucky enough to get to play 8 hours a day at least, if you add it all up. I have basses and amps in every room and they are always on and ready to go…I have a more than a few at arms length so when I work at my desk I can always grab one play for a bit.
I’ve discovered so many great players, my latest favorite is Darryl Jones from the Rolling Stones, I never knew how great he really was. I even saw Darryl with Sting back in 1986 I think but didn’t know it at the time. It took me a while to figure out he was the same guy. Anyway, he’s great and I continue to learn new techniques and just try and soak it all in as fast as I can. I think my playing is getting better and better..I’m discovering a more of an R&B player than anything else. I love the blues and rock and roll of course but R&B just offers such a wide variety of material that I can really apply all of the styles and techniques I’ve learned up to this point.
I’ve been trying to make a few things happen for myself as a player and have some lofty goals…I’d like to play bass in place of Tommy Shannon for the Arc Angels if they ever get back together. If Darryl ever decides to hang it up for the Stones, that wouldn’t be a bad gig either 😉 I’ve learned, as I’ve gotten older, that nothing happens unless you make it happen so I dream big and work hard at my skill. When the phone rings, I’ll be ready!