On last week, NME made several interviews to several artists asking them witch artists would they pick for the Ultimate Band. One of them was Brett Anderson from Suede and you can see in the picture is choices. I decided to make the same exercise and choose my super group (I'll only choose one person per band, otherwise we could have many Suede members):
Vocals: Patrick Duff (Strangelove)
With artists like Brett Anderson, Dave Gahan, Morrissey or Jeff Buckley it was really complicated to decide who should be on the band as main vocals. Well, Patrick Duff, during Strangelove, was like an animal in terms of singing. He was a completely passionate guy with a non stop energy. His lyrics are very deep. On his solo career he is more mature and soft but with magical melodies and lyrics. He would be the best option for this place.
Guitars: Richard Oakes (Suede, Artmagic)
Oakes is my guitar hero. For all that he represents. He entered Suede with 17 years old and was, in my opinion, the greatest responsible in Suede biggest come back in 1996 with my all time favourite album Coming Up. Butler left Suede and no one in the press believed that they could come back to the spotlight but, with songs like Beautiful Ones, Trash or Filmstar they did it, and came back even better than they were before. Richard is a natural talented guitarist that can make millions of catchy and beautiful riffs. During last years he was gone but he came back with Artmagic and made an excellent album full of nice guitars and beautiful keyboards.
Bass: Paul McCartney (The Beatles, Wings)
Paul McCartney is a living legend. The work he made on Beatles, Wings and on his solo albums are simply amazing and they are the best tunes ever. The Beatles were and still are the most influential band of all time and McCartney was the big brain behind it. The medley on Abbey Road or the first classic Beatles songs, passing thought his amazing solo album Ram or Band On The Run with the wings are little examples of a complete genius. His way of playing bass was incredible too. Very rhythmic, very enjoyable, very natural. Songs like Come Together or Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da have great bass lines. And of course he could borrow his giant creativity in the other instruments to all of the other band members (as we can see on his first solo album where he plays all the instruments)
Keyboards: Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode)
Martin Gore is the synthesizer master. He was the main brain over Depeche Mode's 80's career and the responsible in their fantastic change of sound during Violator, Songs Of Faith And Devotion and Ultra. Although nowadays he plays more guitar than Keyboards in live gigs he still does it on studio (during last album he had an "obsessions" of buying a lot of keyboards from Ebay and made a huge collection). He is a really creative musician always exploring samples and new songs and, in my opinion is that what I would like to see in a keyboard player. As an example of his abilities in synthesizers I could remember songs like Walking In My Shoes, It's No Good or In Your Room (album version, is a complete climax).
Drums: Paul Thomson (Franz Ferdinand)
There are so much typical drum players that could make this list, like Dave Grohl or several hard rock guys but what I look in drum players is not for them to be protagonists or for them to try to evidence from the band. I look for them to really fit well on the rest of the band and I think Paul Thomson has the perfect style for that. When I listen to Franz Ferdinand, the drum sounds is really characteristic, and it is always in the right position with the right changes between verses and chorus and solos. As for examples, the classic Take Me Out is marvellous or the super great live version of Outsiders is brilliant too. I saw them live 2 times in the last years and was completely amazed by their great liver performance.
Band Name: Strange Sound
