K&K's Artist of the Month: Jordan Medas (Bass - Carbon Leaf)
August 2004
"I
guess for me it all started when I walked into Southern Pawn Shop in VA
Beach and thought I wanted a guitar. But then, out of the corner of my
eye, there she was...what was soon to be my first bass. I don't know what
it was, but there was no way I was settling for a guitar.
With my first bass and the new set of strings and beginning bass book my parents bought me it was non-stop bass playing for me. Whether it was All-City Jazz Band or various garage bands, I always wanted to be playing. I even played the Oboe in my high school band so I could be in the Jazz Band (I used to play a mean "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel on Oboe...)
While everybody else in high school was hangin' after school, I was busy learning U2 The Joshua Tree, any Rush song I could, Police tunes, and jazz tunes. As high school came to an end, I had to figure out what I was going to do...Luckily, my friend Roland went to audition at James Madison University and told the String Bass Teacher, Sam Cross, about me. Sam got in touch with me and said I couldn't study electric bass and that I'd have to learn Double Bass (Upright Bass) to study there. So for four months I studied with Carroll Bailey and auditioned at James Madison and was accepted.
At JMU I developed my Double Bass technique under Sam's tutelage which only enhanced my electric bass playing. (if anybody's looking for a great legit Double Bass Teacher...Sam's your man!!) I also met a lot of people who taught me a lot about music...the stuff that's not on the page ...While I was there I performed in the JMU Symphony, JMU Jazz Ensemble, JMU Wind Symphony and the JMU Marching Royal Dukes. For anybody who doesn't know about the MRDs...that was a kickin' gig. I got to play electric bass with a 400+ member ensemble in front of thousands of people each weekend with a HUGE amp behind me (wish I had thought about wearing ear plugs...).
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Carbon
Leaf
(left to right): Jordan Medas (bass), Carter Gravatt (guitar, mandolin),
Barry Privett (vocals, tin whistle), Terry Clark (guitar), Scott
Milstead (drums)
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As my 4 years at JMU were winding down, I had no idea what I wanted to do. Luckily a friend of mine who played at Disney the summer before said I should audition. I was like, what have I got to lose? A week later I auditioned for Disney and was offered a spot in the Disney Grammy Collegiate Orchestra on Double Bass and Electric Bass. After spending a summer in Orlando playing with some of the countries best young musicians, I knew that all I wanted to do with my life was play bass.
After my summer in Orlando I came back to Virginia and worked some odd jobs until one day I was surfing the web and found that a band in Richmond [Carbon Leaf] was looking for a bass player...I went to their website, listened to some of their stuff and sent an e-mail to Barry saying I really wanted to audition. The next week I auditioned and I felt like things just clicked between Barry, Terry, Scott, Carter and I. A few days later, Barry called me and offered me the gig...
[Since then,] Carbon Leaf's won an American Music Award, we've toured with fantastic bands like Great Big Sea and Jump Little Children, we've shared the stage with Jason Mraz, Ziggy Marley, Kathleen Edwards, North Mississippi All-Stars, we've played side stage for Dave Matthews, John Mayer, and Counting Crows, we've met great people at KMTT in Seattle, DC101 in DC, WBOS in Boston, and the guys in Nickel Creek, we've released our first live CD 5 ALIVE, and we're getting ready to release the next record. This whole thing known as Carbon Leaf has gone much further than I could've ever wished for. Well, I guess I've always hoped for world musical domination, but being a full-time musician was a little more realistic."
Jordan uses the K&K Golden Trinity Upgrade System with his upright bass: "I tried my new K&K Golden Trinity Mic and Preamp in our hometown of Richmond in front of about 6,000 people and it was AWESOME!! I loved the sound of the mic, I loved the sound of the preamp, I loved the 'tweakability' of the preamp, I loved the compact size of the preamp. I truly enjoyed playing with a mic! We use an in-ear monitor system and having the mic helped me hear a lot of the upper overtones of the notes and even helped with my intonation..."
LISTEN to the first single from Indian Summer, performed live with the Golden Trinity Microphone: Life Less Ordinary (mp3 - 6.7 mb)
