How much do the bassists contribute?

[))))((((]

With the fact that the new album features the song writing of the bassists so prominently, it makes me wonder about previous releases. Indeed, the role of the various Melvins bassists over the years.

For instance, this might not be true but i heard somewhere that Mark Deutrom wrote (or helped write?) some of Stoner Witch and Stag. Also the Big Business era seems to include a few tellingly Big Business songs that one might attribute to them. Back to the present and now we are getting a few Steve penned tracks on new releases. It makes me wonder whether Melvins bassists have ALWAYS wrote some Melvins songs. For example, is something on HAT or the trilogy really written by Kevin rather than Buzz!?! In light of these things i would tentatively think he would have wrote something. What do you think?

[meezer]

They contribute a lot. I would say Mark D had the biggest effect on their music in terms of songwriting. You can hear how much they evolved right on the recordings. Before they worked with Mark, there seemed to be two categories of how they constructed a song. There were some that seemed to be based on KISS or other hard rock bands they were influenced by and then there was stuff like Ozma, Eggnog, parts of Bullhead, where they just spit out a bunch of random ass notes and it sounded cool. Maybe you need to understand music theory to understand what I'm getting at, but the different approaches, different ways to construct songs increased exponentially with Mark in the band. 

[))))((((]

Although that is a factor, i was more talking about song written by the bassists rather than influence or how their sound mutated into something else. Although of course it's always hard to separate these things. It's probably not as simple as saying - he wrote this and he wrote that. But i am interested in that. Im sure even on the new album, even though they are most Pinkus written songs, that Buzz still had some say there or molded what was going on in some way.

[John Schuller]

I would guess that Matt, Lorax and Joe contributed very little to writing. Mark D contributed a shit ton to the songs he played on, you can hear how much he contributed based on his album The Silent Treatment.

[(the) Razor]

Yup, the bassists have the biggest influences on their sound.

Guess it helps with not constantly sourcing from the same "well" and why they've been able to keep things fresh for so many decades. MarkD also wrote and played a bunch of solos too like The Bit and a tonne of other guitar parts.

[meezer]

Mark D. The only Melvins bassist Buzz actually traded instruments with nightly on stage. Prove me wrong.   

[))))((((]

Mark D. The only Melvins bassist Buzz actually traded instruments with nightly on stage.

With Jared he just traded sides of the stage! Ha.

[meezer]

Mark D. The only Melvins bassist Buzz actually traded instruments with nightly on stage.

With Jared he just traded sides of the stage! Ha.

Jared's a power top. 

[linoleum blownapart]

Mark D is a guitar player, that played bass.

[meezer]

Mark D is a guitar player, that played bass.

Completely true, yet he rocked the bass and they actually wanted him around for a four album stretch, so I'm gonna trust their judgement.

[DToxico]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Stag in particular gives Mark a lot of specific songwriting credits

[GiveMe45]

You can hear the contributions from Jason Newstead all over ...And Justic For All!

In the small handful of bands I've been in over the years I have mostly played bass.  I didn't contribute a ton in the sense of writing riffs or lyrics but I've always been very active in giving suggestions to the riff writers to play that one a few more times, slow that one down, chop the second half of that off and use it later in the song, let me play that riff slow at the beginning of the song, etc.  I'm decent enough on the drums to tell my drummer how I think this or that part should go.  I've done backing vocals before so I have helped a little with lyrics but a lot with phrasing and patterns and most importantly, telling the main vocalists to shut up once in while so the music can be the focus.  So there are many ways to contribute without being the main creator.