Ryan Martinie (born August 6, 1975) is an American musician, best known as the
bassist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...
for
heavy metal band
Mudvayne
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over six million records worldwide, including nearly three millio ...
.
Early life
Ryan Martinie was born on August 6, 1975, in
Peoria, Illinois
Peoria ( ) is the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, United States, and the largest city on the Illinois River. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 113,150. It is the principal city of the Peoria Metropolitan Area in Centr ...
.
Career
Mudvayne
In 1996, Mudvayne was formed. They initially had a different bass player, Shawn Allen (Barclay was a joke name for insiders). In 1997, still with Shawn as their bass player, Mudvayne released their first EP, ''Kill, I Oughta''. The band released five studio albums in their career, and remained active until 2010 when they went on an indefinite hiatus. Mudvayne announced in April 2021 that they were reuniting for their first shows in more than a decade and possibly new music.
Other projects
Martinie was the guest bassist on Kurai, a project created by guitarist and vocalist Scott Von Heldt. The drummer was Abel Vallejo, the drum tech for
Korn
Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream.
Originally formed in 1993 b ...
. The group released their debut EP, ''Breaking the Broken'' on December 17, 2013.
In 2015, Martinie began playing with a
jazz fusion
Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, amplifiers, and key ...
/
progressive rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...
trio Soften the Glare. They recorded their first album ''Making Faces'' which was released on September 1, 2017.
Martinie has a "not yet defined" side project that he intends to materialize, saying "People are going to have to see my ugly mug again whether you want to or not... There is a lot going on it's just whether these things end up being Mudvayne things or other things I'm not going to worry about what ends up being what or where it goes". He said that his playing style will differ from that which was heard in
Mudvayne
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over six million records worldwide, including nearly three millio ...
. On August 2, 2012,
Korn
Korn (stylized as KoЯn, or occasionally KoRn) is an American nu metal band from Bakersfield, California, formed in 1993. The band is notable for pioneering the nu metal genre and bringing it into the mainstream.
Originally formed in 1993 b ...
announced that Ryan Martinie will join them on their European tour that kicked off in Poland, as the band's bassist. Korn bassist
Fieldy and his wife, were expecting a child.
Musical style
Martinie is known for pushing the envelope that most metal bassists limit themselves to. His right hand is one of the major reasons for this, as he pulls from many different techniques and genres. He is known for flicks (found throughout his music) and a flamenco style, notable on "
Dull Boy" and the chorus of "Out To Pasture" in some way. On the chorus of "Out To Pasture", he does a "fast flamenco guitar-picking pattern that's as fast as my hand can possibly play. It's just this
xtremelyfast pattern, and it's a sleeper, because it sounds like I'm playing single-notes almost, or chords, like I'm strumming chords, but really what's going on there is something completely different. It's the only thing you didn't mention, which makes me really proud, because it's supposed to be transparent, which is maybe one of the most important things that has come to me – in playing and in relating to the other instruments and in particular my band."
He has a unique heavy fingering technique from which he gets the percussive tone and the sharper, more extreme attack from his bass. He also uses
slapping and popping
Slapping and popping are ways to produce percussive sounds on a stringed instrument. It is primarily used on the double bass or bass guitar. Slapping on bass guitar involves using the edge of one's knuckle, where it is particularly bony, to ...
techniques on the most of the ''
L.D. 50
In toxicology, the median lethal dose, LD50 (abbreviation for "lethal dose, 50%"), LC50 (lethal concentration, 50%) or LCt50 is a toxic unit that measures the lethal dose of a toxin, radiation, or pathogen. The value of LD50 for a substance is the ...
'' album, most notably on the songs like "
Dig". Martinie has developed his own tapping technique on the neck where he uses his index and middle fingers to tap an octave chord, usually high on the neck, while his left hand moves notes, doublestops or chords. This is very similar to a technique used by
the Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are conside ...
's
John Entwistle
John Alec Entwistle (9 October 194427 June 2002) was an English musician who was the bassist for the rock band The Who. Entwistle's music career spanned over four decades. Nicknamed "The Ox" and "Thunderfingers", he was the band's only membe ...
. On the album ''
Mudvayne
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over six million records worldwide, including nearly three millio ...
'', he also plays complex bass parts in the intros of "Beautiful And Strange" and "I Can't Wait".
Personal life
Not much is known about Martinie's personal life. He resides in
Danville, Virginia
Danville is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States, located in the Southside Virginia region and on the fall line of the Dan River. It was a center of tobacco production and was an area of Confederate activi ...
. Martinie is known as a passionate reader.
Some of his favorite musical artists include
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developm ...
,
John Patitucci
John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer.
Biography
John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. When he was 12, he bought his first bass and decided on his career. He listened to bass parts in R ...
,
Chick Corea
Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz composer, pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba", and " ...
,
King Crimson
King Crimson are a progressive rock band formed in 1968 in London, England. The band draws inspiration from a wide variety of music, incorporating elements of classical, jazz, folk, heavy metal, gamelan, industrial, electronic, experime ...
,
Death
Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...
,
Meshuggah
Meshuggah () is a Swedish extreme metal band formed in Umeå in 1985. Originally, the band's name was Metallien. The band's current lineup consists of lead vocalist Jens Kidman, guitarists Fredrik Thordendal and Mårten Hagström, drummer To ...
, and
Mastodon
A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...
.
Equipment
Basses
* 1x Warwick Thumb NT Fretless Custom Shop Masterbuilt 5-string. He has used this bass with Soften the Glare, and it can be seen in their music video for "March of the Cephalopods".
* 1x Warwick Vampyre 4-string, which he was advertising back in 2003, but he always preferred his
Thumb
The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thu ...
basses, so he was never actually seen with this bass. Ryan used this bass in the music video for "Happy"
[
* In 2021, Ryan teamed up with Fodera Guitars and released a signature model named "Blondie"
]
Amplification
Martinie primarily used Ampeg SVT Pro amplifiers until ''The New Game
''The New Game'' is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Mudvayne. It was released on November 18, 2008, by Epic Records, and its first single, " Do What You Do", began receiving airplay on September 23, 2008. The album debuted an ...
'' was released, at which time he switched to Warwick
Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and W ...
amplification. He currently uses the Warwick Xtreme 10.1 Amp Head and four Warwick WCA 411 Pro cabinets. He is also known for slaving Greg Tribbett's guitar cabinets during live shows.
Discography
Mudvayne
Studio albums
* ''L.D. 50
In toxicology, the median lethal dose, LD50 (abbreviation for "lethal dose, 50%"), LC50 (lethal concentration, 50%) or LCt50 is a toxic unit that measures the lethal dose of a toxin, radiation, or pathogen. The value of LD50 for a substance is the ...
'' (2000)
* ''The End of All Things to Come
''The End of All Things to Come'' is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Mudvayne. Released on November 19, 2002, the album expanded upon the sound of the band's first album, ''L.D. 50'', with a more versatile range of sounds, dy ...
'' (2002)
* ''Lost and Found
A lost and found (American English) or lost property (British English), or lost articles (also Canadian English) is an office in a public building or area where people can go to retrieve lost articles that may have been found by others. Frequen ...
'' (2005)
* ''The New Game
''The New Game'' is the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Mudvayne. It was released on November 18, 2008, by Epic Records, and its first single, " Do What You Do", began receiving airplay on September 23, 2008. The album debuted an ...
'' (2008)
* ''Mudvayne
Mudvayne is an American heavy metal band formed in Peoria, Illinois in 1996. Known for their sonic experimentation, face and body paint, masks and uniforms, the band has sold over six million records worldwide, including nearly three millio ...
'' (2009)
Kurai
* ''Breaking the Broken'' (2013)
Soften the Glare
* ''Making Faces'' (2017)
* ''Glint'' (2020)
References
External links
*http://modernrocklyric.blogspot.com/2009/05/ryan-martinie-with-warwick.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Martinie
American heavy metal bass guitarists
American male bass guitarists
Mudvayne members
1975 births
Musicians from Peoria, Illinois
American people of French descent
Living people
Progressive metal bass guitarists
Guitarists from Illinois
Alternative metal bass guitarists
People from Mebane, North Carolina
21st-century American bass guitarists