Sumo Princess
SUMOSTRENGTH RIFFS After holding the bass chair with the Go Go’s, Cher, the Bangles, Beck, and many others, Abby Travis’ new original project Sumo Princess brings her to center stage By Vicky Warwick |
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Photo by John Stapleton
ot many musicians get to say they shared the stage with a major band like Spinal Tap before they had even graduated from music school, but it takes a free spirit with a certain amount of grit, fearlessness, and a fairy costume to wind up in those situations. These traits have helped Abby Travis land gigs with Beck, Elastica, the Go-Go’s, the Bangles, Eagles Of Death Metal, and Cher. Her rock & roll attitude is real, her bass lines solid, and her Ampeg 8x10 loud — and she’d really prefer if you didn’t ask her to
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turn down. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Abby has been playing rock shows since she was a teen. Citing her bass-playing influences as Geezer Butler, Verdine White, John Paul Jones, and Paul McCartney, she’s honed her craft listening to the best. Aside from being a much-called-upon session player, she’s also released four albums of her own material, and is set to unleash her newest project to the world, Sumo Princess. Formed as a knee-jerk reaction to “hearing the same stupid plug-ins and overly quantized, hyper auto-tuned, compressed
BASS MAGAZINE ; ISSUE 2 ; bassmagazine.com