Rob, it's good to see you back in Lou Reed's live band. Aside from some low-key collaborations in between, you seem to have a regular role again in Lou Reed's live band since 2006. The last time you toured with Reed was in 1992 during Magic & Loss. How is it to be playing with Reed again? Have things changed since 1992?

I love playing with Lou! He's been a great inspiration for me and a role model both personally and professionally. The only thing that's changed is the tremendous creative output from Lou since Magic and Loss, There's been a lot of new songs to learn.

Working with Lou has always been a great pleasure for me.

You are playing in this band with longtime Reed bass player Fernando Saunders. How is it to play with another bassist? How do you work out who plays what parts?

Fernando is simply one of the best bass players on the planet and also very unselfish both as a person and a player. I think that we compliment each other very well by being conscious of what we're playing.

There is a clear difference between our styles I play electric upright bass and he mainly plays bass guitar,

we stay out of each other's way.

He'll play high-I'll play low-he'll play fast-I'll play slow, sometimes he plays regular guitar or synth. guitar. 

My bass is an octave lower in sound than his basses because of the longer string length, that helps to keep us in different tonal spaces. We also work out parts in rehearsal though they often change onstage. One of the most challenging and fun things I've done was when we did a Trio tour -2 years ago- with Lou on the West Coast: It was simply incredible: 2 basses and 1 guitar!

What made Lou decide to tour with two bassists? Were you sceptical about how it would work when he first suggested it? 

I often play with other bass players when I sit in with other bands, I even had a 2 bass player band called Space Island that I toured with to support a solo album of mine called Space Island. So I was excited about working with Fernando + we've always wanted to do a 2 bass thing together and had talked about it with each other.

Most Lou fans are aware of you since 1988 when you released your "Duets" album on which you collaborated with Lou on Sinatra's "One For My Baby (One More For The Road)". This collaboration was followed with Lou's highly acclaimed New York album and tour. Was that period your first encounter with Lou or did know each other already? When did you first meet?

I first met Lou when I was touring in Europe in the mid 80's with Rickie Lee Jones. He was in the lobby of a hotel we were checking into and I had been thinking about inviting Lou to be on my Duets album, I had one cassette demo of what I had recorded for Duets with me (featuring Aaron Neville-Rickie Lee Jones) I decided to give the tape to Lou and see if he might be interested in being on the project. 

He called me in my room shortly after and said that he loved the music, so I invited him to participate.

While jamming in LA for a video for my Duet with Lou, he invited me to play on his New York album, We've been friends ever since.

Lou has said that he got the idea for the album "Songs For Drella" from your "Duets" album. What did you think of that?

I think that's a great compliment especially coming from such an innovator as Lou!

The reputation of Berlin is well known. When it was released it was regarded as a disappointment by critics and public. Years later it finally got the recognition it deserved and got regarded as a landmark album in Reed's career but also as a rock masterpiece. What has your experience been like working on this music? 

It's been very challenging and lots of fun, there are many challenging set bass parts so it feels to me like being part of a really wonderful and unique orchestra  I'd love to do it again.

How did you go about arranging your parts for this tour? Did you spend much time listening to the original Prakash John and Jack Bruce bass parts

Fernando and I came up with ideas from jamming together and Bob Ezrin, the original music producer of Berlin helped us to develop them.

He wanted the parts to be as true as possible to Berlin.

During this tour there seemed to be a lot of warmness on stage. A group of people who enjoyed playing together this beautiful music. Also Lou was embracing different band members onstage and seemed to be really pleased with the band. How did you feel working with this big group of people sharing the stage and playing this legendary music?

It was an incredible experience where I had to give up playing for anything but the music, but I was in a "core" group that was let loose during the encore, and that was fun also.

Can you tell us something about what equipment you are using at the moment? Your electric upright bass is designed by Ned Steinberger, right?

Actually I didn't use my Steinberger 6 string upright Bass that I co-designed with Ned Steinberger. I chose to play a Messenger Bass for Berlin as it sounds very acoustic and that is what the music needed.

Your playing on the Lou Reed albums always has that distinctive recognizable quality. What is your approach to putting together a bass part? For instance when approaching a song like "Romeo Had Juliette", which is essentially just three chords, how do you go about constructing your bass part around that simple framework?  

That was the first album I worked on with Lou, I had to let go of any preconceptions about "rock" bass parts and just support the song. Once I did that the parts came to me, of course Lou always let me know what worked for him!

How old were you when you decided you were going to be a professional musician? Did you used to be one of those players that practiced for ten hours a day?

I started playing upright acoustic bass professionally at the same time I started music school-around 21 years old. I had gigs every night upstairs from the great bass player Steve Swallow at a lounge in downtown San Francisco. I practiced by playing gigs all the time, I also studied composition with John Adams at the San Francisco Conservatory.

Which bassists have been an inspiration on you or influenced the way you play? Do you have any musical heroes in that respect?

Charles Mingus, he was the first Bass player I heard and by far the most innovative.

Were you surprised when you heard that Lou wanted to revisit an album he wrote over 30 years ago?

No.

Can you share any anecdotes or memorable experiences from this recent Berlin tour?

Great laughs and lots of musical passion...terrific food!!!!

Was there a particular venue or night that seemed to stand out for you?

All of the beautiful Roman Amphitheaters.

What do you think it is about Lou's music that gives him such a huge stature in the history of modern music?

He's totally original and always keeps you challenged as a player.

Among the songs that you and Lou have recorded together, could you name one that you are especially proud of?

One For My Baby-from DUETS.

What can we expect from you as a solo artist in the near future? Any other projects going on or in the vaults? Another collaboration with Lou perhaps...

I'm working on an album using original unpublished words from Woody Guthrie -that his daughter Nora Guthrie is providing me, creating new music for Woody's words from his later New York years, so far Lou Reed, Chris Whitley, Ani D'Franco, Michael Franti, Pete Seeger, Studs Terkel and Nelly MacKay have recorded with me.