Big Country bassist on how Mark King and Jaco changed his perspective

Exclusive video interview with FBPO’s Jon Liebman
November 12, 2018

By David Sands

Big Country’s innovative bassman Scott Whitley is particularly known as a guru of the short-scale. He teaches and blogs about it and has even created his own signature short scale bass, the SWB-1 with Chowny.

A professional musician since the age of 15, Whitley studied music at Nelson & Colne College in northwest England. In addition to playing with Big Country, he’s also been the Animals’ bassist and worked with artists like Eric Bell of Thin Lizzy, the Boomtown Rats, the Ric Lee Blues Project and Clive Bunker of Jethro Tull. Whitley also leads his own band, the Scott Whitley Quartet, for which he plays piccolo bass, and has been a bass tutor with Blackburn College in the U.K. for many years.

FBPO’s Jon Liebman sat down with Whitney during this year’s NAMM show in Anaheim, California for an engaging discussion about his influences, what strings work best for him on short-scale basses and why he likes to go “big” with his bands.

Watch our interview with Scott!