Creativity Quote by Mike Gordon

A tiny toggle becomes a quiet manifesto: sound isn’t always revolution, sometimes it’s one deliberate, almost invisible choice. Mike Gordon’s line has the unglamorous intimacy of a working musician letting you peek behind the curtain. No mystical “tone is in the fingers” romance, no grand theory of reinvention. Just circuitry, habit, and a decision to break that habit.

The intent is practical - he’s explaining how a “sound change” can be engineered with precision - but the subtext is about agency. Bass players are often framed as the supportive backbone, felt more than heard, and Gordon is talking about reclaiming the shape of that presence. Dropping the boosted mid-range frequency is a way of changing where the bass sits in the band’s conversation: less bark, more body; less “cut,” more glue. It’s a sonic edit that can alter how the whole ensemble reads, especially in a jam-forward context where small EQ moves can redirect a night’s momentum.

The phrasing matters. “Real subtle thing” and “just one switch” undersell the impact while signaling craft: he’s not chasing novelty, he’s refining a system. The kicker is “and that goes out to the sound system, too” - a reminder that the audience’s experience is mediated. He’s not only changing what he hears onstage; he’s negotiating with the PA, the room, the engineer, the collective ear. It’s musicianship as infrastructure: the art of controlling what gets translated, and what gets lost, between intention and impact.