| Matt Freeman | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Roger Matthew Freeman |
| Born | June 14, 1966 |
| Origin | Berkeley, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Punk rock Ska punk Street punk Hardcore punk Psychobilly |
| Occupations | Musician |
| Instruments | Bass, Upright bass, Guitar, Vocals, Mandolin, Trumpet, Trombone |
| Years active | 1985–present |
| Associated acts | Basic
Radio Operation Ivy Downfall MDC Rancid Shaken 69 Devil's Brigade Social Distortion |
Matthew "McCall" Freeman (born Roger Matthew Freeman on June 14, 1966) is an American musician. He is best known for his bass guitar work with the punk rock bands Operation Ivy and Rancid.
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He met Tim Armstrong when they were only five years old. They played in Little League together and attended Albany Middle School and Albany High School together. Matt played the trumpet as a kid, and later learned how to play the trombone and played in a Jazz band. He learned how to play the guitar, and eventually began playing bass. They got into punk when Armstrong got a tape of punk bands from his older brother, and began playing music together. They were in a series of bands, the first of which was Basic Radio, who broke up in late 1986 or early 1987.
Freeman plays a variety of Fender American Precision and Jazz Basses, Most notably his Fender 1977 Precision covered in stickers, hand drawn checkers, a James Bond magazine cut-out, and scratches from years of wear and tear. Matt has used this since his Operation Ivy days. He also plays a and is sponsored by Hill guitars playing a Moto. He plays through an avalon DI box into an Ampeg Svt 5 or 4 Pro into Ampeg 8x10 cabs. In the Fall Back Down video, he uses a Fender 76' P bass.
In 2008, he used a Fender Precision Tony Franklin (fretted, white) signature bass and a Custom Hill Guitars Bass with his name on the fretboard.
In a promotional interview streamed from the Rancid website before the release of Rancid 2000, Freeman talked about learning bass by playing along with The Who records. He typically uses a hard pick but will at times use his fingers. Freeman used fingering on bass much more on "Indestructible" and also uses it on slower tracks such as "Wrongful Suspicion."
Freeman uses scales and arpeggios in his basslines as opposed to "motoring" through a chord progression's root notes as is typical of punk bass playing and often embellishes with chromatic passing tones (most commonly between the 3rd and 5th of a chord). Freeman's solos in the songs "Maxwell Murder," "White Knuckle Ride" and "Axiom" are among his most lauded. During live shows when Rancid plays "Maxwell Murder", guitar player Lars Frederiksen often introduces Freeman as "the greatest fucking bass player in the world!" after his extended bass solo.
Though Armstrong and Frederiksen are the principal singers in Rancid, Freeman has taken the lead vocal duties in a handful of gritty sounding songs through the years, notably debuting on the song "Adina", "Rejected", and "Trenches" from Rancid's first album and "Tenderloin", "Gunshot", and "Black and blue" on the album Let's Go as well as "Black Derby Jacket", "Rigged on a Fix" and "Reconciliation" from Rancid's 2000 Album. On Rancid's latest album ("Let The Dominoes Fall"), Freeman takes lead vocals on the track "L.A River". Let The Dominoes Fall had been delayed several times but was finally released on June 2, 2009.[1]
In May 1987, Freeman and Armstrong formed the band Operation Ivy. After Operation Ivy broke up in May 1989, they formed a new band, Downfall, which included all but one member of Operation Ivy and two additional members. Downfall recorded a 10-song album which has never been released, then broke up. Freeman and Armstrong next formed Generator, who played a number of shows, but are not known to have recorded anything. After that, Freeman played with the political punk band MDC for about a year.
After Operation Ivy, Freeman and Armstong formed the ska band The Dance Hall Crashers, however they left the band shortly after its formation. The band went on to become moderately successful throughout the 90s.
He joined The Gr'ups in 1991. In 1992, Freeman and Armstrong recruited drummer Brett Reed and formed Rancid. Rancid is his most successful band yet. He considered Rancid a side project until Armstrong had proved to him that he had his alcoholism under control. Guitarist Lars Frederiksen joined the band later in 1993. Their partnership has continued with Freeman contributing basslines to selected tracks by the Transplants, one of Armstrong's side projects.
He also plays in Shaken 69, formed in '94/'95 and Auntie Christ formed in '96.
Another one of his side projects is Devil's Brigade which is a psychobilly band similar to Rancid.
Matt Freeman provided backing vocals for the Tiger Army songs "Towards
Destiny" and "Power of Moonlite."
Matt also is a guest vocalist on Los Difuntos' song "Lucy."
During Rancid's 2004 hiatus, Freeman replaced bassist John Maurer in Social Distortion shortly before the release of their then-new album Sex, Love and Rock 'n' Roll. Freeman did not intend to stay in the band permanently and he was replaced by current bassist Brent Harding in late 2004.
Following his departure from Social Distortion, Freeman was diagnosed with lung cancer in May 2005, but was dismissed as abnormal tissue growth and not terminal to his health in June 2005.[1] He had been a smoker for 20 years but had quit, seemingly by coincidence, shortly prior to this. He learned to play the mandolin so he would have something to do with his hands as heard on Lars Frederiksen and the Bastards.
Life Could Be a Dream (1997)
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  | Rancid announce "Let The Dominoes Fall" for June - Punknews.org | Rancid announce "Let The Dominoes Fall" for June |
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