My Interview with Keith Stone.
The Creature from Outa Bass.
Keith Stone (aka The Creature from Outer Bass)
), ABC’s Countdown (with Margaret Urlich)
, many national and local radio performances, rave reviews in American Guitar Player magazine, and the Melbourne live scene. During early 2020, Keith Stone began concentrating on the self production of his music from writing through to performance and arrangement of all music parts, recording and the production of accompanying music videos. He returned to the stage in late 2023 as a solo act under the performance name ‘The Creature from outer Bass’ to rave reviews. Born in Wales, Keith immigrated to Australia with his family and settled in Melbourne in the 60’s. Keith became interested in playing guitar when his brother (Michael) brought home a late 1950s Gibson Les Paul; a guitar which Keith promptly commandeered, deciding to study electric and classical guitar simultaneously. During early high school he met a local drummer Peter Best. Together, they formed the band TARDIS with Peter Dadswell (circa 1974). TARDIS’s music concentrated on Keith’s self composed guitar based instrumental progressive rock compositions and were active for approximately three years touring around rural Victoria and New South Wales gigging the pub scene. After leaving TARDIS, Keith fell in love with fretless bass guitar after being introduced to Jaco Pastorius’s music at a friend’s house. He immediately traded in his Gibson SG (and cash) for a Maton JB4 fretless bass, the first one he had ever seen. This investment led him to founding the fusion group ‘The Banned’ with guitarist Wayne Monger and drummer Bill Wall during 1985. The Banned concentrated on instrumental fusion written by Stone and Monger. Keith and Bill appeared on the popular television show ‘Hey, Hey it’s Saturday’ in 1986 under the name ‘The Banned minus one’ on the popular gong segment ‘Red Faces’. The appearance went exceptionally well and their audience grew exponentially afterwards. Keith also appeared on Hey, Hey it’s Saturday as an instrumental solo bass guitar performer, once again winning the popular segment. Popular radio station 3MMM began including The Banned’s instrumental track ‘Technological Dyslexia’, produced and distributed by The Wheatley organisation, on their playlist. Keith was also featured in American Guitar Player Magazine in the ‘Spotlight on New Talent’ column by Mike Varney as ‘outstanding’ Australian talent. The Banned went through numerous lineup changes after Bill Wall left in 1987 and The Banned disbanded in 1989. Keith began a solo writing career after the split writing, producing, and self-distributing his first solo album ‘The Creature from Outer Bass’ in 1991 to rave reviews locally and internationally. Now well known for virtuosity with fretted and fretless basses, Keith began getting session work in advertising and performed in many bands including performing with Margaret Urlich on Countdown, mixed session work, and was in demand by international touring artists representative of the Armenian and Greek communities, tribute bands (The Rolling Stones, Eurythmics), and many cover bands playing genres from rock to waltz. During 2001, Keith joined the new age music group ‘Ascension’ with founding member and Golden Fiddle award winning violinist Mykl Lozin for one album ‘To Truth a Dance’. Keith decided to shift gear during 2011 and began studying for psychological qualifications, gaining his bachelor’s degree and post graduate diplomas in psychology by 2019. After such a gruelling study regimen, and missing music, 2020 brought Keith back to his love of music and began self-produced recording of his own compositions. Keith also began producing music videos as a way of embracing the internet’s ‘self-publishing’ do-it-yourself era with music videos now available at his YouTube channel.
N0v5k&list=PL1R63k5fMM1QLPoensArVCZHpClkPrVDz&index=6 By 2023, Keith’s passion for performing live music had returned with a vengeance, but with no band, he began doing his ‘One man, one bass shows’ around inner Melbourne playing original songs and instrumentals using his bass guitar as the only backing instrument. Around this time, Keith began experimenting with effect pedals and loops of his own bass playing as further backdrops for expanding his songs and improvisational soloing during these performances. These shows were aimed at exposing the electric bass guitar to audiences as a serious solo singer/songwriter instrument. During this period, Keith developed his current live music project ‘The Creature from Outer Bass; the Prog-Rock, Sci-Fi Musical’. Amazingly, Keith has managed to combine his love for all genres of music, virtuosity, narrative, performance art, science fiction, comedy, and psychology into the exciting, narrative-based performance art his shows have become known as. Excitingly, Keith has recently been joined on stage by his son Daniel Stone, a gifted drummer. Daniel Stone (The son of The Creature from Outer Bass) has added percussive excellence on a spectacular level to the show. Fittingly, The Creature from Outer Bass; the Prog-Rock, Sci-Fi. Musical is set to launch the duo into Australian independent music history.
Interview
Pat : Hey Keith, Hows things?
Keith : Great Pat, thanks for your interest.
Pat : I just watched your countdown appearance with Margeret Ulrich, can you tell us how that came about?
Keith : Yeah, that’s a great song. A fun day. I was called at work at the music shop I worked at and asked to do it by Yamaha who supplied the instruments for the shoot. Except I insisted I use my custom fretless. They knew I could play the material, but it was a mimed gig of course!
Pat : yeah right that’s how they did it back then, the only thing I remember from countdown was AC/DC,
Keith : It was a good show for a while. It featured Australian acts that went on to become much bigger. Free to air promotion like that for your gigs does not exist in the current television climate at the moment.
Pat : Which is a shame, rage and countdown here in Australia were great, So you were born in Wales and came to Australia in the 60s ,,how did that transition influence your early sense of music and culture?
Keith : Well, I’ve been playing for many years. I began on guitar but I’m probably best known for my bass playing. I’ve played most genres of music in some way. I also taught music for many years. Played in my own bands, cover bands, tribute bands, sessions etc... At the moment, I’m engrossed with my current live project ‘The Creature from Outer Bass; The prog-Rock, Sci-Fi Music’ a narrative-based duet performance with my son Daniel on drums. Yeah, Rage shows music video. It would be great for the ABC to put ‘live’ local bands back on the air. I was really young when my family arrived here. But there was a lot of BBC television in the household along with ABC stuff so I did experience a dualistic kind of culture thing. Especially at the time when Australia’s cultural cringe was being exposed as I identify much more as an Australian. My son is playing drums in this current project but he is also an amzing guitarist!
Pat : Yeah, my parents moved here from Manchester England right before i was born, how does your music nowadays differ from your first band Tardis?
Keith : I brought the sci-fi narrative into it to be more entertaining and to justify some of the vocal sound effects and bass guitar effects I produce during our show. Oh wow, in TARDIS I was a very young and totally naive guitarist that thought I was right about everything! When I switched to bass guitar, I learned to support the band rather than be Jimmy Page.
Pat : Tell us about your appearance on Hey Hey it’s Saturday, for those that don’t know this show was huge in Australia in the 80s.
Keith : I loved my appearances on Hey Hey. My Jazz/fusion band The Banned were playing around Melbourne. We had about 4 people in the audience one night when I said “we need to do something about this” I asked the other members to join me on Hey, Hey it’s Saturday but the guitarist refused saying it would hurt our careers. The drummer Bill Wal and I laughed (because of the attendance) and went on as The Banned minus one. It went really well and the next gig had a line of people out the front! over 500 I think... great gig. TV advertising really works! Might be the first ever drum/bass solo on live TV! Red gave us 10! I went on again solo a few years later but I’ve lost that performance recording. It was a good way to promote your gigs..
Pat : bmwahah that’s awesome, you have always been known for your bass tone, can you tell us about your set up these days.
Keith : Well, some time ago I decided to throw every musical trick of the trade I’ve learned into my current act. I’m still using my customised 5 string Ibanez with a wammy bar. It can do anything. I tune it E,A,D,G,B so it basically a baritone guitar. I run that into an anolog octaver then a distortion pedal then into a volume pedal. That then runs into a Boss multi effects unit which runs into a looper. I’ve got aN Ashdown head and 4 x 10 cab. I’m also using another larger looper with my own bass playing as another aspect to my show! I still love a straight ahead bass tone but... as a an essentially solo bass player I wanted to add as much excitement as possible. I also love producing sounds that don’t seem right coming from a bass guitar. Also, I felt inspired by The White Stripes. Jack White fills up a space with such exciting noise!
Pat : Yeah, just him and a drummer and it seems produce incredible sounds, sounds killer, you were featured in Guitar Player magazine what did that kind of recognition mean for you at the time?
Keith : I was very surprised that occured but it seemed to give me some credibility. Billy purnell from 3MMM at the time asked for me to contact him during his show. I wasn’t listeng so I got a florry of calls that I found hard to believe. Anyway, I contacted him which led to a one-song contract with The Wheatley Organisation for an up and comming artists album called 3MMM Home grown tapes. We got a free recoeding session, promotion, etc. It was great for us at the time but it may have been a tax dodge as Glen got done for tax evasion shortly afterwards and the project wasted away. That was when I was in The Banned. Have you seen the movie ‘The Producers” by Mel Brooks?
Pat : No, I don’t think I have?
Keith : A good lesson in how to make money from a flop. The original movie is very funny, I recommend it! I’m also using a vocal effects unit too these days. I use it to voice the ‘alien’ presence in my show.
Pat : On a voice live 3 TC helicon?
Keith : No, just a Boss VE-20 processor. I have to manually change sounds while I’m playing and singing. But all that movement provides for the ‘live’ nature I’m doing. I have the most anolog digital set up ever!
Pat : What’s your process like now when you’re recording and writing and producing everything yourself?
Keith : I have been really enjoying the vocal aspect of performing as I began as an instrumentalist. I’ve been singing for about a decade now. Inspired in part by Les Claypool who shows that you don’t need to be Maria Carey.
Pat : Yeah, I do instrumental type music, I can’t sing at all, something like this might be an option for me, you create not just music but visuals how do you see those two art forms working together in your projects?
Keith : I usually begin with some kind of bass line or philosophy. my wife recently bought me a beautiful Cole Clarke acoustic guitar, so I’ve been incorporating that into some of my studio tracks with my fretless. Since I’ve been writing my own lyrics and singing, sometimes that’s where the hook comes from. I’m trying to be open to a ‘hook’ whether that’s from an instrument or a quirky comment. I’ve still play guitar so I can be my own session player. I’m not a great drum programmer so I’m rapt that my son Daniel is an amazing drummer. Since Daniel has joined the show the sound has been elevated a very exciting level. So I want our live show to be the next seriously recorded ‘Concept Album’
Pat : Nice one, I look forward to see what you guys come up with. So when your not making music what do you get up to?
Keith : After doing my psych qualifications I came back to music realising that it was possible to provide to self-publish imagery with your music. I’m old enough to still be amazed at the internet! I started by just seeing if I could do it and ended up learning a few of the cheaper programs that have green screen etc. It’s amazingly simple really, you just need time. I’m told I overwork my poor business computer, but it still gets results. Sometimes I have to let it render my stuff overnight, Currently, I’m working as a tertiary psychology lecturer which keeps me entertained. I feel that lecturing has helped greatly with my public performance as an artist. So, I’m still teaching since my earlier career as a music teacher/tutor.
Pat : That’s awesome,, love your clip with the dinosaurs, you have lived an interesting life Keith, want to tell us about what you have coming on the horizon, any plugs you want to make or announce any upcoming gigs.
Keith : Well, finding performance spaces for such wiered ideas is hard but it does happen! Our next gig is a Sooki Lounge, Belgrave, Vic on 18/01/26. But I’m trying to organise something before 2025 ends also. So stay tuned.
Pat : Awesome man, anything else you want to say? we could wrap it up now,,all id need after this is your links to socials etc.
Keith : That’s probably enough for people to read! I really appreciate your time and interest in my project. Thank you. I enjoyed your music and animals’ article also.
Pat : Cheers Keith!
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572510933476
https://www.instagram.com/stonekeith132/
https://keithstonethecreaturefromouterbass.bandcamp.com/
https://www.abc.net.au/triplejunearthed/artist/keith-stone-0/
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Patrick Mill.