The Tone Mob Podcast

Sal Mignano has never been particularly interested in making the bass behave itself. As a founding member of The Sleeping and one-third of the thunderous new project Held, Sal writes riffs from the bottom up, stacks distortion pedals into increasingly hostile little ecosystems, and believes the bass should do considerably more than quietly hold everyone’s coat. Sal joins Blake to tell the wonderfully accidental origin story of Held, including free studio time, a last-minute guitarist cancellation, and Douglas Robinson being gently shoved toward the six-string. They also dig into Sal’s long musical history, from funk bands and Skycamefalling to The Sleeping, along with the lessons he learned from the late John “Beatz” Holohan of Bayside. Naturally, there is gear. A lot of gear. Sal walks through his collection of gloriously battered Gibson Grabbers, vintage Rickenbackers, Fender basses, obscure pedals, enormous Gallien-Krueger touring rigs, and the wonderfully inconvenient magic that still keeps real amplif