Jon Sass – Sassified

Again, someone I discovered in my teens. My teacher, Andy Grappy, put me onto this album. Jon Sass’ sound is something that I love. Its sound is very influential on me. And some sounds that I tried to emulate quite a bit when I was younger to find my own sound on the instrument. But what I love about this album is I’d never heard anyone layer the tuba like that before, to make it seem like a universe in itself. Using all ranges of the instrument. And the compositions are so harmonically juicy as well. We've spoken. We haven't actually played together yet, but I think it's gonna happen. It was a direct influence on my last album Intra – I, because that's an album that followed kind of the same thought process, I reckon, of trying to make the tuba this expansive instrument that could cover so much ground, but I guess my interpretation was to add a bit more current or contemporary production. But in terms of the concept, it was very much influenced by this album.

I have a band show and I have a solo show. In my solo show I get into the live looping and layering and actually created using the tuba as a backdrop really, that was something that I was exposed to quite early by checking this album. He's one of those people that I clicked onto quite early as an inspiration.