U2’s Adam Clayton: “The bass has to either be sexy or aggressive, or it shouldn’t be there as far as I’m concerned”

U2 are arguably the biggest band in the world and have been for a very long time. That also makes them among the most influential too, having inspired all kinds of musicians across the various movements within punk and mainstream pop.

It really doesn’t matter what kind of music you’re into – everyone knows who U2 are and will be aware of at least a handful of their biggest singles, from early fan-favorites like Gloria and Sunday Bloody Sunday to enduring anthems like With Or Without You and I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For right through to contemporary hits Beautiful Day and Vertigo.

This year will be a busy one for the Irish rock institution with the release of Songs of Surrender – a four-part album consisting of 40 re-recorded tracks from across their career, each reinterpreted in a new way to cast their creativity in a different light. It will be supported by a new show titled U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere, which will see the group undertaking a residency at the 17,500 capacity MSG Sphere in Las Vegas.

Another historically significant development comes in the form of bassist Adam Clayton’s new Fender combo – the brand’s first-ever signature bass amp. The ACB 50 boasts two distinctly different channels – a classic Fender sound and a more modern hi-fi, flat EQ tone to cover just about “all the sounds you need in any musical situation” whether you’re in the studio, performing in clubs or lucky enough to be playing arenas.

Designed in collaboration with Clayton, the 50-watt amp features three 12AX7 and one 12AT7 preamp tubes, two 6L6s in the output, a 15” Eminence neodymium speaker and a transformer-coupled XLR out with ground lift.

As it turns out, it was the pandemic lockdown that gave the U2 founding bassist time to assess his live needs and make his new rig vision a reality.

“I guess it all fell into that period where there wasn’t a lot going on because of lockdown and ended up being a real dream come true,” he explains, calling from what he calls a funny old day in England, thanks to the grey and miserable late winter weather.

“I’d been talking to Justin [Norvell, Executive Vice President of Fender Products] and Stan [Cotey, Vice President of Product Innovation] for a while about producing a combo that had a different kind of sound to what their amps usually have, which is usually scooped mids with the bottom and top emphasized, though I’ve always loved their iconic designs...

“One of the things I started doing live is putting together a lot of different combos under the stage to give me a different combination of sounds, especially when using effects and mic placement. So I went to Fender and said, ‘Let’s work on an amp together that will really suit my live situation.’

“It had to be easily transportable – even I can lift this amp and carry it up a flight of stairs if I have to. I wanted this amp to be practical because when I started out it was all about big 100-watt heads and massive speaker cabinets… you just don’t need that anymore! It’s not how you get a great sound.”

You’ve used Aguilar, Ashdown and Ampeg in the past. What’s this new amp like in comparison?

“Yeah, I have used what I call The Three A’s before, which is Ampeg, Aguilar and Ashdown, but I’d already done a couple of custom basses with Fender and we have a great relationship. They are leaders when it comes to product development. [U2 guitarist] the Edge put out his signature Fender amp not too long ago, so it just felt like now was the right time to do it. I’m really pleased with the result. I’m just getting ready for rehearsals with the band for these Las Vegas shows and am excited about seeing how this amplifier performs then.”

As you say, you’ve had your own signature Jazz and P-Bass models, so clearly you’re a Fender man through and through. In the promotional video for the new amp, you talk about midrange being a bass player’s secret weapon and how, at least in the world of punk rock, the bass could often be the star of the band...

“What was really great when I came along as a bass player was that people were looking for a new sound. Everybody was a little brain-dead from blues guitar playing, which is what predated 1976. Well, there were a couple of other movements, but primarily it was the sound of blues that dominated.

“Then along came two or three bass players who took the sound and look of the instrument so much further. I think of Peter Hook, Jean-Jacques Burnel and Paul Simonon. These were all people who said bass is an attitude. It has its own sound and look which can be right up front. It can be the star of the show – it’s not all about guitar players with B.B. King licks in their back pocket!”

Talk us through your current rig – we’d love to know what basses and pedals you’ll be using with the ACB 50…

“You’ve already gotten very technical on my ass there! I tend to play any of the Fenders that I have. I’ve collected a lot of vintage Fenders over the years, both Jazz models and P-basses. I’ll play any particular one when we’re recording – I’ll just grab whatever I think will work well on whatever track it is.

“When we play live, I will usually go out with the latest gear I can find, though it’s my tech who goes out and hunts different things down and brings them in. He actually does all the changes for me live, so there’s a whole other thing going on in between me and the monitor guy. I tend to let them get on with it because I find it’s too much of a distraction if I get stuck in the effects world. I end up thinking a bit like the Edge (laughs)!”

Speaking of instrument collections, it was really nice to see you feature in Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass, partly because people might not have connected you to a progressive rock musician like that…

“I would have to say I’m not a prog rock person. There isn’t a prog rock bone in my body! But I have observed and watched Geddy and Rush over the years. Of course, it’s undeniable how much talent and natural ability he has

“Although it might not be something that interests me musically, I can still admire it. Once you get into all those different time signatures and playing a selection of bass pedals along with a double-neck and whatever else is going on, it’s pretty impressive stuff!

“He’s also a really, really lovely man. From that book, you can tell he’s a complete bass nut and fanatic, because he has one in every color. And it’s not just one in every color, it’s the best one in every color!”

It’s a far cry from prog rock, but Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me ended up sounding more like Guns N’ Roses play than your typical U2 song. How did that come about?

“That was coming from that whole ’70s rock world. I was always a big fan of that kind of rock music back in the day. I loved a lot of glam, bands like Sweet and Slade. Bowie, obviously, was the absolute emperor of glam back then. Even Elton John, who is still going out and doing shows at this stage, had a great run during that period. So that’s where the whole ’70s influence on that track comes from, with that swinging 6/8 time.

“Edge would come up with things like that. The riff is very economic – it’s a classic Edge riff in that sense, there’s no fat on it. The chord sequence has a few quirky little changes in there to wrong-foot everyone! I thought it was a great tune for Batman Forever – I felt like it had a great gothic sense to it. And it’s great that we’re still playing it many years on!”

Vertigo is another heavy one – and you played it on the promotional video for the new amp…

“I did! It’s another one of those Edge songs where it’s a deceptively simple riff. He more or less created the whole song in real time. There’s quite a few changes in there that I would say are Who-type changes. When he breaks from the riff, the power chords are very prevalent and then he comes back again.

“It’s one of those tunes where he played it to me and I thought, ‘You’ve just nailed that guitar riff and pushed it home!’ Larry and myself went into the studio and knew it had to be hard. We were taking no prisoners. It always goes off live and that’s why it’s one of the songs we always love playing.”

While we’re on the subject of The Who, you’ve spoken a lot about your admiration for John Entwistle over the years…

“He was one of those people who you really have to study and almost go to bass university to really know what he was doing, because there was so much feel and balls as its own sonic department.

“It’s interesting when you listen to those Who records, you realize that the bass is taking up most of the space and Pete Townshend’s guitar is really just decorating the bass parts. He was a phenomenal player and I did have the pleasure of meeting him a few times. He’s sorely missed! There are way too many bass players who aren’t with us anymore, but I don’t think anyone comes close to him in terms of being a straight rock player with beautiful feel.”

Who else has influenced you over the years? Naturally, you’ve mentioned James Jamerson in the past – because what bass player doesn’t owe him and Carol Kaye an enormous sense of debt?

“As you say, James cast such a big shadow over everyone. He was a phenomenal musician. Obviously he came from more of a jazz background, but it was his phrasing that gets me every time. Whenever I hear an isolated bass track – and it’s great you can hear these things nowadays – and you notice how he was playing around the beat and the melody, it’s a masterclass in how to play the bass. These parts weren’t worked on a lot – it was usually three or four takes and it was done, so much respect to him in that regard.

“I was always keen on Jean-Jacques’ bass playing, just because of the raw aggressiveness of it. I suppose I come from a fairly simplistic view that if you can’t really hear the bass, if you don’t have an impression of what the bass is doing, then there’s something going wrong. The bass has to either be sexy or aggressive, or it shouldn’t be there as far as I’m concerned. He was certainly the aggression…”

And how much of that did you take into U2?

“Well, he had that outrageous sound, partly because the bass was so loud on those early Stranglers albums. I guess that’s what showed me the P-Bass was the right one for me and a good tool to expand on that midrange. It suited the fact that U2 was a musical three-piece, with the Edge playing very light arpeggio chords – which was similar to what Hugh [Cornwell] was doing in the early days of The Stranglers with those Telecaster riffs. It left a lot of room for the bass.

“That’s when the midrange and distortion began to fill out the sound of the band. I’ve always been a fan of that. I always start with that sound by playing with a plectrum, and if I adapt to fingerstyle that sound will change but I can always come back to the pick.”

You're afforded more space than most bass players – with the Edge playing up high and usually no keyboards or rhythm guitars to contend with…

“There can be a lot of space to fill. I don’t necessarily go down that rabbit hole all the time, because when we’re working on a track, we never really know how it’s going to end up or what overdubs Edge might end up doing – which he might hold on to or let go. We have been adding keyboards over the years, too, so it has changed a lot of the classic bass parts and sounds we’ve had over the years.

“The last two records, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, were rightly back to more rootsy sonics. But again, the album had a huge range of different sonics, from things that were more sparse to heavily overdubbed. I just get on with the job at this point. It’s whatever the song needs and I try not to think about it too much. Around the first five albums, every track had to count in a different way and that was the focus of my attention. Now it’s much more about the songs and body of work in total.”

Bullet the Blue Sky is another great example of how one hypnotic bassline can make for truly powerful music. It’s a very experimental track, in that sense…

“That’s a really interesting song because it’s almost a one-note groove that goes on for six to eight minutes without changing. For some reason, whatever it is about where the beat lands and how it falls or tumbles over itself, it just never wears itself out. Again, it’s one of those things where you can’t really analyze why it works, it just does.

“The idea came from Larry [Mullen Jr.] playing a particular drum part and I will tend to pick a rhythm out of the beat for me to push. I like anything that is eternal, things you can keep listening to in a hypnotic way. A lot of dance music has it, too. And Bullet the Blue Sky has that: you can get into this mantra without getting caught up in too many musical or chordal changes to break that spell. It leaves you in this constant trance.

“Also, because of where the bass is sitting sonically – it’s very much to the front – my bass sound on that track is one of my favorites out of all our records. It’s the kind of sound I like to soundcheck with because I always know where I am with it. Whenever I hear that bass sound in a room, I can tell what the acoustics of that room are.”

Many would say With or Without You is one of the greatest songs ever written. What do you remember about that one coming together?

“We had this vision that we wanted to do something that was so different to what was being played on American radio at that time. In the mid-’80s, it was very much Middle American guitar rock and we were so far from that. The new sounds people had been playing around with were with the bass up front, and Edge found this infinite guitar tone – which had very little chordal information in it. His parts were all atmospherics and sustain. So it was down to the bass to knock out those four chords and all about the sonics of what we had with us.

“I had this little Ibanez bass that we’d been given years ago by Ibanez [most likely a MC888 'Bean' model – Ed]… I’d never played it on anything because it had so much low-end and no mids, which meant it didn’t cut at all. But for that track, we wanted this dull down-in-your-boots kind of bass sound and I ended up using the Ibanez. I’ve been really fond of hearing that track ever since because I can hear that bass.

“It’s the only track I’ve recorded with it, though Edge might have used it on 40 when he played the bass on that. It’s got a real personality to it. People always ask me, ‘How did you get that sound?’ thinking it was off a Fender, but actually it was this weird little Ibanez!”

New Year’s Day is another live favorite that seems to appeal to everyone and speak on an incredibly universal, human level…

“Yeah, and it’s another one where the drums were a big inspiration. Larry started off doing the beat with those double kick drum hits. At the time, I was listening to a lot of pop music. There was a group called Visage who had this Fade to Grey number that I heard on the radio a lot. It was an interesting four-to-the-floor kind of bass part. I always liked the simplicity of those ideas because ultimately I’m a minimalist. I’d always wanted to play something like that.

“Somehow in between Larry’s beat and me wanting to play something that almost felt more like disco, this rhythm emerged and became the basic root of the song. I just moved it around a bit. I think at the time it was an A to a C and then an E [later recorded half a step down]. Those changes just sounded fresh at the time.

“It’s funny, chord sequences come in and out of being used. It had this energy because of Larry’s kick drums, and then Edge put on this great crystalline piano part. That’s how New Year’s Day was born. It’s a track that existed up north in the snow, up in the mountains… it had to be New Year’s Day!”

What exercises and warm-ups would you say have helped build your technique? For example, songs like Where the Streets Have No Name require a fair amount of stamina…

“I think it’s rehearse, rehearse, rehearse! I find that if I’m into a tour, after the first month, everything is happening as it should be and I don’t really have to think about it. Even if we’ve done four or six weeks rehearsal, it still takes time to settle in on the road.

“These days, I’m more interested in moving into that double-time eighths or 16ths kind of feel as the tour goes on. It makes things more interesting for me. That’s just something I’ve noticed from the experience of doing it and doing it. I don’t get up to that speed immediately after a break. It’s not something I find easy after playing along to a drum machine. I like to hear the band and the actual kit. You find those little pockets and sit in them.”

Is there anything technique-wise or stylistically you haven’t explored yet as a bass player – are there any mountains left to climb, so to speak?

“It’s a funny thing. For years and year, I kind of spurned the five-string bass and thought, ‘If you can’t do it on four, then it can’t be done!’ But I’m now at a point where I really enjoy the low-end you can get out of them.

“Of course, they’re still beasts that need to be controlled. It’s definitely an area that’s starting to look more interesting to me, trying to get that bottom B moving and added into the music!”

• For more information on the Adam Clayton ACB 50 bass combo, head to Fender.com.