Epic bass for rock, pop & film

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: I have a small project studio in Munich's lovely Bogenhausen district. My space is filled with my collection of basses and guitars, effects, outboard gear and midi controllers. For bass recording, I have come up with several strong signal routes including pairing basses with various outboard compressors (Origin Effects, Empress Effects, Warm Audio, MXR), preamps (Mesa, Origin Effects, Tech 21 Sansamp, Audient), amps (Darkglass, EBS and Tech 21) and drive pedals (Darkglass, Okko, Gamechanger Audio etc.). When reverb, delay or modulation effects are needed I have an Eventide H90 and many effect pedals at your service. Additionally, I have 100s of plugins from Soundtoys, Waves, Safari Pedals and more. To keep things incredibly flexible for the mixer, I record everything through a Rupert Neve DI and then re-amp the signal to acquire the processed sound.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Upon receiving a request from a client, it is always helpful to receive a few sound samples for inspiration. I offer an optional, totally non-committal Zoom call to the client to get a better understanding of their needs. Afterwards, I can put together a sound palette of bass sounds to share with the client to see which sound fits. Then I would import the song, or stems, into a session and together with notes regarding BPM, Chord sequence, etc. I would develop some principal ideas of a bass line to share with the client. When everyone is happy, I would record the complete bass line. After 1-2 rounds of revisions, I would record the final bass line and send along both the clean DI track, as well as the re-amped, processed track for the mixer to choose or blend between. If needed, I can also provide additional tracks with various levels of distortion and overdrive, if needed.

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

A: I began writing and recording music in 1994 when I got my first bass for my 14th birthday. However, I studied to be a film director at the School of Visual Arts in NYC and began scoring my own films early on. As I developed my storytelling skills visually, and through music, I began playing more seriously in bands and helping out friends with session bass work. My network in the film business, also led me to providing music for client video projects. This work led me to relationships I now have with several music production libraries for whom I produce music. At the end of 2023, I stepped away from film directing to focus completely on session bass work and producing music for film and television.

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

A: I have an ongoing solo bass project called Titan Agronomist Project that I produce together with other musician friends which is an instrumental concept album about my grandfather's life and work. This project has been featured on Bandcamp's "New and Notable" section, received a 4.5 out of 5 star review in Germany's Guitar Magazine and awarded me Bassist of the Year in 2021 at The Prog Mind.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Several releases featuring my bass playing are coming out on Sonoton (Grunge album) and Warner Chappell (Americana Christmas album) in late 2024 and more in the beginning of 2025. I am currently developing new album ideas with these labels, as well as recording bass and playing live in rock power trio, Tanertill.

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

A: I'm a big fan of Joe Calderone's bass playing and overall vibe. Plus, I own his terrific bass plugin, QuadBass!

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Both. We live in a hybrid world now and I have had lots of success combining analog and digital tools into my workflow. I love the freedom and limitless possibilities that digital offers. I equally love the spongey, organic sound of analog gear. For bass and guitar, I tend to do as much broad-strokes processing as I can outside of the box and then utilize send channels in the box to add unique effects, space or parallel processing. Ultimately, whatever serves the song or the mix is the right choice.

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

A: I promise to listen to the clients wishes for their song and promise to execute those wishes to the best of my ability on the bass. I promise to communicate frequently and openly about my intentions and my expectations for the timeline of the work. I promise to send the files in the sample and bit rate they asked for.

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: My favorite thing about my job is meeting and working with other artists, sharing musical experiences, telling stories through music and creating emotions for the listener. My favorite thing about playing bass is elevating a song to it's potential by locking in with the drums, leaving space for the midrange instruments, supporting the singer and general groove and motion of the song.

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

A: Can you make my track sound epic? Yes!

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

A: That a bass is a guitar with less strings.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: Who is the audience for this song? What other song, band, bass line or tone inspires you the most when thinking about your song? What is the BPM? Are there stems available? What is the bit and sample rate that you would like me to deliver?

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

A: My advice would be to know what sound you are looking for and to seek out a bassist who naturally produces that sound, communicates well and connects to your music.

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

A: Easy. My American Fender Jazz V, Tech 21 VT500 bass amp, matching Tech 21 1x12 box, MXR Dynacomp compressor and a pair of Beyerdynamic 990 Pro headphones.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I love a melodic, driving bass line that takes the listener on a journey. A dynamic bass part that attacks hard when needed or grooves softly when more appropriate. I play equally with fingers and pick, depending on what the song calls for. I am not a funk bassist per se, but when percussive sounds are needed I can throw in some strong finger tapping or some solid thumb-through-the-string slap and pop elements. Part of my sound also comes from the choice of compressor, preamp and drive that I use. My most natural setup for a bass sound would be my American Fender Jazz V through an MXR Dynacomp compressor into a Tech 21 VT Bass 500 amp. That sound most defines me as a player, I would say.

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

A: Olivia Rodrigo. Her music is awesome and reminds me of my favorite grunge music from the 90s. Plus, my daughter is a huge fan and she would think I was the coolest if I worked with her =-)

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Take the time to check your levels when recording bass or guitar into your DAW. Many interfaces will have an extra control panel where you can monitor input and output levels. Or you can simply do this in your DAW. I try to get my levels on the bass to hit around -6db going into the interface so that I have a little bit of headroom within the DAW, but also a strong enough signal to avoid adding too much white noise when needing to raise the gain later. Where this is also extremely important is when working with plugins like effects or amp sims within the DAW as overloading can cause clipping within the plugin and having too low of an input signal can cause the amp sim not to react as they are intended, especially when concerning gain and overdrive levels. In other words, sending a low input signal into an overdriven amp sim might sound a little weak or thin, as they often need to be driven by a strong input source to get the most out of how they should sound. Conversely, sending too hot of a signal in can cause unwanted clipping and digital overloading.

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

A: I would say that my main influences since I was kid come from rock music and due to my own band experiences I have been asked to perform bass on rock and metal tracks. Through that lens, however, I perform on a variety of projects and sounds from metal to ambient Americana to film score sound design.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Communication. For me, communication is king. I want to understand the songwriter's intention and wishes for the song, as well as the bass parts. Just as importantly, I like to make sure everyone is on the same page when it comes to the work that's being done, how it's being done and when it's being done. I'd rather take the time to have a deep discussion of the full concept and expectations in the beginning to avoid wasting time recording something the client doesn't really want.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: I bring a love for music, sound design, groove and most importantly, storytelling to my bass lines. Finding the right balance within the arrangement for my bass to sit is both a question of sound and space. Finding the right sound, means creating a tone that doesn't get lost or overpower within the mix, but can seamlessly keep the groove of the song bopping along or pop out of the track, when its time to shine. Knowing when not to play can be just as, or even more important, as knowing when to play.

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

A: I am inspired everyday by bassists like John Myung, Tim Commerford, Justin Chancellor, Dan Briggs and by composers like Philip Glass, Hans Zimmer, Matt Morton, Cliff Martinez and James Horner.

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

A: I am mostly asked to write and record rock, pop and metal bass lines in addition to my work as a producer for music production libraries.