Education
Glen Anderson first picked up a violin during summer school in the third grade. He played in school orchestra ensembles throughout childhood, was first chair in the small Columbia High School orchestra and earned a full scholarship to Mt. Hood Community College (MHCC) from 1982 to 1985, later transferring to the University Of Arizona in Tucson. Five years later, he graduated with a Bachelor's of Fine Arts degree in Music, Radio/TV and Art.
Multiple Musical Talents
Violin was not Glen's only musical talent. He added his baritone voice to the concert choir in high school, and when the stage band needed a bass player, Glen was recruited to drag the old Gibson Ripper out of the band room. He learned to play walking bass lines for the stage band and for the award-winning vocal jazz ensemble at Columbia High (now Reynolds High School). While attending MHCC he also sang in the concert choir and vocal jazz ensembles.
At this time he also became very involved in recording projects. Several schoolmates pooled resources and started a mobile recording studio that successfully produced multiple demos for local artists, and documented music festivals and benefit performances at outdoor venues. Glen's interest in rock music led him to focus mostly on playing electric bass in a series of rock bands instead of spending the hours required to pursue traditional violin pedagogue. By 1987, he rarely played the violin but could be found most weekends blasting Rolling Stones covers and Mike Forkan originals with the Tucson band “Pagan Holiday.”
In 1989, Glen to returned to his home town of Portland, OR. He formed a power trio with Jeff Buck and Michael Hooven called “Persistence of Vision” that lasted for a couple of fun, albeit financially unrewarding years. The pressure to repay student loans (and to eat) resulted in a long, strange detour into the corporate world.
The Red Rubber Band Era
Flash forward to 2006: A local jam band called Red Rubber Band was looking for a regular bass player; their lead guitar player suggested calling his old buddy Glen. Chris Congdon, the singer/songwriter of the group, called and asked him to come over for a Sunday afternoon jam in his studio. During that conversation, Glen revealed that his first instrument was violin. Chris, being a big fan of the Dave Mathews band and of having violin in the band, had a very interesting proposition. At their first meeting, Glen played several songs on bass and Chris quickly said, “Great, you can play bass. But I want you to get out the violin.” What followed was several hours of free-flowing collaboration as the violin sound fit perfectly with Chris' songs.
Glen joined the band to play violin with Mr. E continuing to fill in on bass until Tom Moore took over permanently. with Doug VanBuskirk handling drums, Johnny “conga” Farrell on percussion and the addition of Roger Lee Taylor on saxophone/flute, the new “Red Rubber Band” was born.
During the next three years, Red Rubber Band performed more than 100 shows at indoor and outdoor venues all over Oregon and SW Washington. July 2009 saw the departure of Doug on drums, and Chris started his own construction business. He discovered he just did not have the time to manage the band any longer. At this time there are no plans to revive the project. It may some day rise from the ashes to fly like a phoenix, but for now the Red Rubber Band is no more.
However, it was during the first few performances that the technical challenges of having a violin in a rock band became evident. This started Glen on the path that led him to becoming “The Viper Player”—a nickname he was given after donning the radical solid-body V-shaped Viper electric violin. The Viper Player is looking for new projects that can take advantage of the distinctive sonic creations possible with his artistry.
The Viper Violin and Other Gear
A violin is a marvel of engineering that produces a wide range of tones amplified by the little wooden box that makes up the instrument's body. The design interacts with the room to enhance the natural sounds and harmonics. This is created by the player vibrating the strings and the vibrations returning to the instrument from its surroundings. This property makes it very difficult to amplify the sound of a violin using traditional electronic equipment accompanying a rock band. As the power of the band rises, it quickly overwhelms the sound of the violin. If you try to raise violin's volume, the instrument itself becomes a source of unpleasant feedback noise. It was because of this challenge that it became clear: Glen needed a solid-body instrument that could be incorporated into electronic systems and be amplified as various performances demanded.
After weeks of research, it was determined the best instrument available was the Mark Wood invention: the Viper electric violin. This instrument is made to order by Wood Violins, and comes in several configurations and in virtually unlimited finish options. It is the perfect tool to give the violinist the freedom of expression enjoyed by guitarists for decades.
To take full advantage of the Viper's potential, Glen added a pedal board consisting of a volume pedal, wah-wah and a Boss ME-50 multi-effects processor providing dozens of distortion, phaser, flager, chorus and tone shaping capabilities. This is fed into a rack containing a Lexicon reverb/delay processor, BBE sonic maximizer and powered by an Ampeg SVT3 pro tube amplifier. Glen recently added a Boss RC-50 loop station to his arsenal allowing him to explore solo powered sound on sound layering and compositional exploration.
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