In a recent interview with Jeremy White Podcast, classic Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony talked about the band’s 8th album “OU812” and the effort’s distinct lack of bass.
Here’s what he said:
“I really don’t know. One thing that’s tough is that Eddie’s [Van Halen] tonal range is so broad and Alex’s [Van Halen] drums are so big that a lot of times – and this would carry on to the live show too – a lot of times, it’s kind of difficult to get the bass tucked in where it sounds great and works with everything.
“In the early days, with [producer] Ted Templeman for example, Donn Landee, who was his engineer, I listened to a lot of the stuff that he had done – like Linda Ronstadt, Doobie Brothers, bands like that, where the bass is there but it’s not there.
“You can feel it, you can tell the notes are moving or whatever, but it’s not really a prominent thing. I know on the early records that there was a big focus on Ed and what he was doing, so I just kind of did my thing.
“And it wasn’t really until Andy Johns [who co-produced 1991’s ‘For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge’] that he said, ‘Hey, I want a real meaty, beefy, big bass sound.’ And I just went like, ‘Alright, my man!’
“There’s a lot of songs that we did in the studio where the demos that we did I thought had a little more of an edge to them than how it ended up on the record.
“And whether that’s just the producer’s influence on that part of it, or what, I don’t know.”