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Your name suggests Ireland
Aislinn, are you Irish?
My father, Sean O'Neill, was born in
England but his father was Irish
and came over in 1932 to play football for various clubs in England.
Aislinn, as you probably know, means vision or dream. I'm generous,
passionate, obstinate, hot-headed and my sister has the reddest hair so I
guess it's a case of 'You can take the girl out of Ireland but not Ireland
out of the girl'.
Where are you based?
Cambridge, England
At what age did you first take a bass in your hands? 17
What attracted you to playing bass?
My sisters picked guitar and drums
and bass was the only instrument left!
Did you play any other instrument before you started playing bass?
Acoustic guitar.
Do you come from a musical family?
My sisters all play. My father and his
brother played guitar. My grandmother played piano and my
great-grandfather and his wife performed musically on the stage in London
at the turn of the century.
Can you remember the first piece you ever learned on bass?
Yes. It was a
song by us and I still perform it!
Tell us about your current band?
Emerald Sky, my first-ever band, is a 3 piece rock group,
bass, drums and guitar. We play only original songs. We played local gigs
before making the transition down to London and we're just starting to get
radio play.
How did you come to start this band?
I was born into the line-up.
They're my sisters. No, seriously, Siobhan, my eldest sister took some
computer-produced songs down to Chrysalis. They loved the music and said
they wanted to see us live. Siobhan blagged it and said sure. She asked us
if we wanted to form a band. Siobhan could play guitar so naturally she
ended up playing drums. I played guitar so naturally I ended up playing
bass. Ceara who couldn't play anything let alone guitar ended up playing
guitar. Go figure.
What's your main bass?
Ernie Ball Musicman Stingray 4
string.
Do you think that the wood affects the tone/sound/sustain of your bass?
Definitely. But not just the wood also the age of the instrument and the
age of the pickups will affect the sound. Older woods are dryer and older
pickups mellow.
Have you a preference for active or passive electronics? I prefer active.
Both my Stingray and my Ibanez are active basses. I find it helps cut
through the mix.
What type or brand of strings to you like best?
Rotosound Swing Bass 66
How often would you change your strings?
10 days before a gig or recording
session so it has time for the brightness to wear off a bit.
What is your backline bass amp
setup?
Ashdown ABM EVO II 900 head and 2
410 cabs. For general practice I use an Ashdown MAG 300.
Fingers, plectrum or both?
Fingers. I prefer the sound, flexibility
of use and speed as opposed to a plectrum.
Who do you listen to when you're not playing?
Thin Lizzy, Queen, AC/DC,
Hard Fi, Rolling Stones and U2.
Who did you listen to as a young teenager? Still only 17
but I guess I
would have to answer Thin Lizzy, Thin Lizzy and Thin Lizzy.
Tell us about any CDs you may have recorded/released? On November 1st our
debut album Rock & Roll Icon is due to be pressed. Around mid to late
November it will be available to buy on our website www.emerald-sky.com
What was your best gig/venue ever? Supporting Girlschool at Milton Keynes
and Huntingdon Festival.
What was your worst moment onstage?
So far I've been lucky. Touch wood.
Has anything funny happened with a fan or fans? We have a fan called Cass
who is a loveable, walking riot. When we were gigging down in London a bus
of our fans had to wait an hour in the early hours while she got some
chips.
Do you have a day-job outside of the band? No. The band is a full time
commitment for us all.
Tell us about any magazine you have
been featured in or on the cover?
As sisters we have been on TV twice and in numerous newspapers both in
England and in France. But not for music. Siobhan was British U10 chess
champion at the age of 6.
You played tennis as a
semi-pro, tell us about it?
Both I and my two sisters played and
still play tennis. Ceara was No 1 in Great Britain for her age group.
Siobhan and I won various tournaments over here and I won an U14
tournament in Denmark. We decided to emigrate so that we might have more
opportunities in tennis and all 3 of us played for le Club de Tennis de
Bressuire in France. All of the teams won their divisions and we were paid
for our service. The French called us 'les trois Anglaises' and ironically
selected Ceara and myself to represent France in an U16 tournament in
Lille. So I've played for France but never England! After that we left
France, intending to emigrate to the US again for the tennis and went down
to Spain for 2 weeks just to see what the tennis was like there. We ended
up staying over a year in La Manga and played in various $10,000
tournaments in the Iberian peninsula. Siobhan and I played together in
doubles and won some money at that which we accepted making us officially
tennis professionals. Ceara also won some money in doubles, partnering a
Brazilian girl. We still train as hard as ever at tennis and still love it
but now all our time, energy and money is devoted to music.
Do you play/own any other instruments?
Yamaha piano. I played all the
keyboards on the album.
What other instrument would you most like to play? I love playing acoustic
guitar finger-picking style. I would like to introduce some of that on our
next album. Live though it's just a nightmare with the acoustic guitar's
tendency to feedback.
What was the best concert you were ever at?
I'm looking
forward to seeing Motorhead and Girlschool in Cambridge.
Do you sing? I'm lead vocalist for Emerald
Sky.
Do you write/compose? Both - on all our songs.
If forming your ideal live band,
what instruments would you have with you onstage? Drums, bass and guitar but only if Siob and Ceara were playing
the other instruments.
Do you see the bass as a solo instrument?
Only when we have arguments.
Seriously, yes. From the start I've tried to work in different sounds with synths and overdrives. These days with midi and electronics the bass could
potentially sound like any instrument. I wish I had the cash to explore
all this.
Have you ever been to Ireland? Invite us. As soon as
we get some cash together we'll come over.
Will you release your album in
Ireland? If any label in Ireland
wanted to offer us a licensing contract we would be interested.
If you could be taken to a concert anywhere on earth tonight, who would
you want to see live? Queen with Freddie. Or U2.
What CD are you listening to most these days?
Surfing the Alien - Joe Satriani.
Do you have a pet?
Yes, Ceara my younger sister! The guitarist and also the red-haired little
terror that I've just mentioned.
Give one piece of advice to someone who has just bought their
first bass?
Go with your natural style and don't listen to advice.
(Hmmm - a psychologist too Aislinn! - Ed.)
Where would you most like your band to play/visit? Galway. USA. In that
order. (Once is enough to beg for an invitation! - Ed.)
What's your opinion on basses with more than 4 strings?
Nothing against
them but I find they can be a bit heavy. We tend to put a lot of energy into
our act and after some gigs I have to ice my shoulder as it is. Talk about
suffering for your art.
What do you feel is the bass-players function in a band? To shine. To glue
in with the drums and provide the groove initially. But there is so much
more scope with the sound with modern age technology that is still to be
explored.
Did you ever have a famous person in your audience?
Girlschool
watched our set and we thought that was cool. We've become friends since.
What are your ambitions, musically and personally?
To expand our fan-base
and audience. We love playing live - that's where we get our buzz. The
bigger the audience the bigger the buzz.
Have you any "bassist" jokes to share?
A man goes to an exotic tropical
island for a vacation. As the boat nears the island he notices the
constant sound of drumming coming from the island. As he gets off the boat
he asks the first native he sees how long the drumming will go on. The
native looks about nervously and says, 'Very bad when the drumming stops.'
At the end of the day the drumming is still going and is starting to get
on his nerves. So he asks another native when the drumming will stop. The
native looks as if he has been reminded of something very unpleasant.
'Very bad when drumming stops,' he says and hurries off.
After a couple of days with little sleep, our traveller is finally fed up,
grabs the nearest native, slams him against a tree and shouts, 'What
happens when the drumming stops?!!'
'Bass solo.'
Thanks Aislinn. See our Links page for
Emerald Sky website - Ed.
thanks to Aislinn for being part of BassGirls.Com
text and images are copyright
of Aislinn O'Neill and
BassGirls.Com
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