“You can be a shredder all you want and play a thousand notes a minute, but it won’t mean anything if you can’t play the foundational role, too. As musicians and artists we should be always be thinking outside of the box and breaking rules, but we definitely have a responsibility to serve the song and the people we’re playing with.” Those wise words are easy for Julie Slick to say, as she has clearly mastered both of those skill sets and proven so with her time playing with the Adrian Belew Power Trio, Crimson Project, and her bass duo EchoTest. Holding down the foundation is a principal concept for us bass players, but when we say that Slick can shred, we mean that Slick can really shred — even to the degree that she didn’t bat an eye in taking on the intense bass work of legends like Tony Levin and Les Claypool in trading licks with Belew, or locking in alongside drummer Danny Carey of Tool during select live trio shows. Julie has always been a highly competitive person