Bassist

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: An original song from July 2023' that I see someone like a Taylor Swift singing one future day. Though' its center section interlude is way up in the Kate Bush operatic realm'. I don't know if Swift goes that high.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: I'm attacking my own original songs going all the way back to my beginnings, as well as' new songs: Writing lyrics and reprioritizing what I put on the back-burner of my life' for too long. There's a famous song by Supertramp' where it says: (When you look through the years and see what you could've been, what you might've been, if you would've had more time'). I heard this song on the radio many times, but hearing it again' while driving trucks across the midwest, delivering products to destinations, collecting a subsistence paycheck... one looks up into the sky.

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Not yet.

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: In the writing phase' analog I suppose. Though I'm thankful for the conveniences of digital. I have a combination tape-cassette player/CD burner to record old tapes into wav files for clients. It has a pitch control that helps in learning old songs that are permanently out of tune' from 40 years ago...

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: Can you add more parts to what I'm giving you to work on ?... I record bass into what-you-do. I try hard at making my bass contribution to what you've already done (sound better).

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What style of bass playing (mood) do you sense should be in your musical idea ? If you're unsure, this will impact the revisions a bassist generates for you'.

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: You should already have your musical idea, even if its just a simple intro and verse transition.

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: MIDI keyboard, my PC, microphone, bass guitar and monitors.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: In my view, it doesn't begin when you first start playing your instrument. It begins when (you alone') write or build your first (whatever you do). For myself, that early song was March 1983.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: Ambient, soundtrack and Indie pop-rock, though I conform to requests from others.

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Be mindful of multiple low octave instruments sharing the same sonic space. All types of basses, kick drums, sub booms, timpani, etc. It definitely impacts mastering, even if it sounds good initially.

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: All types. Some time ago' I challenged myself to do uncomfortable music. I knew that I'd learn something from attempting it. I chose to recreate a bunch of famous songs, a few of which' had no connection to my favorite music, just to improve myself... and yeah' to see if I could do it. They're up on my Soundcloud profile.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Answering this question would truly be biased; Are you good at xyz ? No I'm not. Or, yes I'm am. Embellishing me (by me) to inform other people. So I'll default to the response of Instrument selection. I think I'm strong at choice of instruments' to use in music.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I believe I bring a maturity of what not to add into a song. For instance, if it's dark and somber, I should add elements that lend themselves to it' within the context of that established mood. Same rule applies if it's punchy and pop sounding. I'd insert elements that augment what's already there. Kate Bush did a song called All the love' where no (normal bass guitar part) would work in a conventional rhythm section sense. Her song is disjointed and seemingly broken into pieces, though has an implied tempo that her piano is doing. Identifiers like verse, bridge, chorus do not really enter ones' thoughts when hearing this All the love' song... none of those differentiators matter in it; There's no ground in it to stand on. Her bassist Del Palmer played a fretless bass on it that became its own animating spirit; traveling inside of her piano starts and stops... like a man humming a sad melody to it. When she arrives at (what' I'd call a bridge) in this song, the bass embellished her emptiness mood by vanishing away, then after her voice sets up the next melancholy section, she adds a low fundamental groaning bass note underneath her voice, much like a Fairlight sampler/synth would be good at doing'. This created a musical example of sound inhaling and exhaling. Imperfect speed of a person breathing.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Typing down every thought that comes to my attention as a new song is playing to me for the first time. I've noticed that the people I've worked with (after hearing my first revision of their work) tend to kinda tell me to do whatever you want' to it. That's not what I expect to hear all the time, but it has been more common than not.

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: As it pertains to recording bass, I have five or six other Rickenbacker bass guitars (modeled and sampled). I favor Acoustic, Sunn and Marshall bass amps and cabinets. I have two controller keyboards, but I only need the one on top which talks to everything in my rig. I have 7 TB's of musical instruments.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: I'll give it my full attention. The more details you convey, the more I'll be able to do what's asked of me.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: How each morning brings new energy to think up or work on more. It's inexhaustible.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: If they have a misconception they don't share it aloud to me.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: A female with a high octave voice.

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: Paul McCartney, Chris Squire or Yes, Geddy Lee of Rush, Claude Debussy, Vangelis.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: Before joining SoundBetter, it's been recording what other musicians want into their own track; be that bass, guitar, keyboard, anything really.