The original Cowboys from Hell bassist reclaims his spine-rattling position as the band's charging piston, while his guitar brother brings his fleet of Wylde Audio gear and a few tone sweeteners from Dimebag Darrell's private stash.
The ’90s was a very peculiar musical decade. It entered with L.A.’s party-time hair metal and concluded with the rise of Nu metal, boy bands, and the real Slim Shady. In between those bookends saw the maturation of Metallica, a cold front moved in from the Pacific Northwest with dark clouds of morose and menace, gangsta rap from the coasts flooded the heartland and suburbs, and punk went pop with big hitters from Green Day, Offspring, and Blink 182. But Pantera proudly flew the flag of metal. Those Cowboys from Hell were Phil Anselmo (vocals), Darrell “Dimebag” Abbott (guitar), Rex Brown (bass), and Vinnie Paul Abbott (drums). They took chances and took no prisoners all while having the time of their lives.
They were originally a glam metal band fronted by Terry Glaze. That lineup put out three albums and tirelessly worked the Texas club circuit from 1981 to 1986. They replaced Glaze with New Orleans cat Phil Anselmo who continued the falsetto tradition but made the band more Priest than Stryper. They released Power Metal in 1988 with latex-laced riffs before trading the Sunset Strip for the mosh pit when they released 1990’s breakthrough marauding Cowboys from Hell. And things completely clicked for them when they chiseled out their core sound with 1992’s Vulgar Display of Power that unleashed power-groove, annihilation anthems “Mouth for War,” “Walk,” “This Love,” and “Fucking Hostile.” That set the tone for the rest of the decade and everyone else in metal was playing catch up.
When Metallica went Load and Reload, they went fiercer and forceful with 1994’s Far Beyond Driven (earning them a No. 1 record on Billboard 200). While Reznor and Manson explored techno, dissonance, and industrial sounds, the four metalheads went darker and harder with down-tuned guitars and even faster tempos creating 1996’s The Great Southern Trendkill. And as Slayer tried Nu metal with Diabolus in Musica, Pantera said hold my Crown Royal and doubled down on their demolition with 2000’s Reinventing the Steel.
Bands can burn out and friendships can become more grating than gratifying. Anselmo and Brown continued exploring their side gig with Down (started in the mid-’90s in between Pantera albums and tours) and the idle Abbott Brothers started Damageplan. A war of words filled magazine covers and airwaves making the divide wider. Then, on December 8th, 2004, while performing with Damageplan at Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, the unthinkable, agonizing, and gut-wrenching onstage murder of Dimebag occurred. (This horrific date was exactly 24 years after the shocking loss of John Lennon.) And in 2018 his brother Vinnie Paul succumbed to coronary artery disease. The idea of Pantera ever seeing the stage, in any form, seemed impossible.
But remaining members Rex Brown and Phil Anselmo tossed around the idea of finding friends to fill in for the Abbott brothers. There are indications they had a list, but anyone who knew anything about Pantera, and especially Dime, would bet their last dollar that Zakk Wylde was the only right option. And Charlie Benante of Anthrax made so many cameos in Pantera’s collection of Vulgar Videos home movies that he was the prime candidate for Vinnie Paul’s throne.
Brown has gone through so much gear. He’s lost amps and donated basses to charity. He’s fostered many fruitful friendships with companies that’s resulted in signature wares for war. His latest partnership has him riding high on a pair of namesake Thunderbirds dressed in black and gold. He still tours with old Spectors who feel like home (if home was a thunderstorm). He’s got a proper pedalboard and rack gear that’s been routed through a RJM switcher (first time ever). And he and tech Bobby Landgraf (also guitar player in Honky and Down for Down IV – Part II) detail the whole chain of tonal command. Then we have a blast chatting with Zakk Wylde who covers his toolbox of Warhammers and Master 100 heads. He ponders what it must’ve been like to have been Eddie Van Halen or Randy Rhoads who toured with their iconic instruments and not having any backups! And then his longtime tech Stephen Murillo goes over his rack gear that includes three pieces from Dimebag Darrell’s original Pantera rig.
Rattle and Shake
In recent years Rex Brown has partnered up with Gibson and two years ago saw his first signature Thunderbird take flight. It has a mahogany body, a mahogany neck (with set construction), rosewood fretboard, Hipshot Mini-clovers with Drop D Xtender, Graph Tech nut, and Gibson’s Rexbucker Thunderbird humbuckers. His touring models feature a set of EMG X active pickups for more output and attack. This one (and other 4-strings) ride with Ernie Ball 2733 Hybrid Slinky Cobalt Electric Bass strings.
Thunder Buddy
Here’s a thriftier way to rumble like Rex with his Epiphone signature Thunderbird. It has a mahogany body, 9-piece maple-and-walnut neck, Indian laurel fretboard, brass nut, Babicz FCH 3-Point bridge, and a set of Epiphone ProBucker 760 Bass humbuckers that Rex said remind him of the Bicentennial Thunderbird thumpers.
Spector Twins
This pair of ebony and ivory Spectors—one of which has been clobbering concertgoers for over 15 years. The one on the left is a 2008 Euro 4 what Rex calls “Mother Glory,” and it’s the one he always goes back to. It was originally painted white, but he darkened its exterior and brandished it in gold.
The other Spector is 2023 USA NS-5 in black-and-white gloss finish that is his “baby” and he “loves it because he just can’t beat the fucking sound of it. It just won’t go away no matter what.”
Both have EMG X pickups—the Euro 4 has the PJX Ceramic PJ Bass set and the USA NS-5 has the EMG 40DCX.
And the 5-string Spector takes Ernie Ball 5-String Slinky Cobalt Bass Strings (.45–.130).
Slugger ‘n’ Chugger
Brown has plugged into as many heads as you can think, but he’s never been happier than when he’s got a Ampeg SVT-4 Pro supporting him.
The Eich T1000 gives life to the Eich Bass Board. Their primary use was when supporting Metallica and Pantera was forced to have a clean stage, but Rex still wanted to feel the earth shake under his legs. He enjoyed the quake enough to implement on their headline run.
These boxes are tucked into the rack and are always on—an Origin Effects BassRig Super Vintage Bass Preamp, an Origin Effects Cali76 Stacked Edition Dual-stage Compressor, a Darkglass NSG Noise Gate Bass, and a Noble Preamp DI.
Lastly, his rack holds utilitarian items like the Shure AD4D Two-channel Digital Wireless Receiver, Radial JX44 V2 Concert Touring Guitar & Amp Signal Manager, and the RJM Effects Gizmo.
Moving Mesas
Rex has been on the lookout for anybody able to recast the Ampeg “fridge” 8x10. He claims Mesa/Boogie cracked the code with these custom Mesa Boogie 8x10 Traditional Powerhouse Cabinets that have custom-voiced Eminence speakers.
Rex Brown's Pedalboard
This clean configuration is the first time Rex Brown has utilized a switching system. His stage board has a Dunlop JCT95 Justin Chancellor Cry Baby Wah, a 2000s Morley Pro Series II Bass Wah, Origin Effects DCX Bass Tone Shaper & Drive, a MXR M287 Sub Octave Bass Fuzz, and a Peterson StroboStomp HD.
The brain of everything in the rack and onstage is the RJM Mastermind GT.
And to help “move mountains,” Rex has a Moog Taurus III.
Thor's Four
Zakk travels with familiar company when touring with Pantera, Zakk Sabbath or Black Label Society. It’s Wylde Audio all the time. This winter 2024 run saw him exclusively run with his Warhammer models. They’re built with a mahogany body, maple tops, 3-piece maple neck, ebony fretboard, a Floyd Rose locking tremolo, and his signature EMG 81/85 pickups. All these beasts have Dunlop DHCN1048 Heavy Core NPS strings (.010–.048).
St. Dime
Here’s a special Warhammer that approximates the iconic lightning-strike, blue-burst “Dean from Hell” that old pal Dimebag Darrell used through Pantera’s heyday. To nail the paint job, he enlisted Matt “Chewy” Dezynski, who painted Dime’s Washburn guitars in the 1990s.
Wylde and Free
Just like in our 2016 Rig Rundown with Zakk, he’s still plugging into his Wylde Audio Master 100 heads with a stereo configuration. He has another Master 100 and an old Marshall JCM800 on deck. All the heads are routed into his Wylde Audio 4x12s that are all loaded with Z-Dub’s Electro-Voice EVM12L Black Label Zakk Wylde 300W speakers.
Dime's Delights
Dimebag Darrell’s right-hand man and tonal technician Grady Champion was on the tour and brought some of his old friend’s secret sauce. Here you’ll see fixtures in Dime’s live and studio sound that include an Aphex Aural Exciter Type C2 Model 104 with Big Bottom, MXR M126 Flanger/Doubler, and a Rocktron Hush Guitar Silencer.
Zakk Wylde's Pedalboard
Out front Zakk sees nothing but Dunlop bullseyes. His signature arsenal of effects seen here include a MXR Wylde Audio Overdrive, a MXR Wylde Audio Phase, a Wylde Audio Cry Baby wah, and a Dunlop ZW357 Zakk Wylde Signature Rotovibe. The lone box that isn’t branded Wylde is a standard fare MXR Carbon Copy.
His offstage rack is home to a MXR Smart Gate and a MXR Wylde Audio Chorus (that’s always on). Both are powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 3 Plus. Another drawer holds Radial BigShot I/O True-bypass Instrument Selector, Lehle Little Dual II Amp Switcher, and a Radial BigShot EFX Effects Loop Switcher.
Gibson Rex Brown Thunderbird Signature Bass Ebony
Epiphone Rex Brown Thunderbird Bass
Spector Bantam 5 Bass
Spector Euro 4
EMG PJX Set Active Ceramic PJ Bass Pickup Set Black
Ampeg SVT 4-Pro
Dunlop JCT95 Justin Chancellor Cry Baby Wah Pedal
Origin Effects BassRig Super Vintage Bass Preamp Pedal
Origin Effects Cali76 Stacked Edition Dual-stage Compressor Pedal
Darkglass NSG Noise Gate Bass Pedal
Origin Effects DCX Bass Tone Shaper & Drive Pedal
MXR M287 Sub Octave Bass Fuzz Pedal
MXR Carbon Copy
Electro-Voice EVM12L Black Label Zakk Wylde Signature 12-inch 300-watt Guitar Speaker - 8 Ohms
EMG ZW Zakk Wylde Active Signature Humbucker 2-piece Pickup Set - Black
MXR Wylde Audio Overdrive Pedal
MXR Wylde Audio Phase Pedal
MXR Wylde Audio Chorus Pedal
Dunlop DHCN1048 Heavy Core NPS Electric Guitar Strings - .010-.048 Heavy
Lehle Little Dual II Amp Switcher
Radial BigShot I/O True-bypass Instrument Selector
Radial BigShot EFX Effects Loop Switcher
Roland JC-120 Jazz Chorus 2 x 12-inch 120-watt Stereo Combo Amp
MXR M135 Smart Gate Pedal
Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 3 High Current 8-output Isolated Power Supply
Shure AD4D Two-channel Digital Wireless Receiver
Radial JX44 V2 Concert Touring Guitar & Amp Signal Manager
Ernie Ball 2733 Hybrid Slinky Cobalt Electric Bass Guitar Strings - .045-.105
Ernie Ball 5 String Slinky Cobalt Bass Strings
From James Brown to J Dilla, understanding note placement is a key to rhythmic mastery.
There’s so much to discuss when it comes to bass playing. One of the most basic and valuable skills to be explored on bass—or any instrument for that matter—is placement, or where exactly to play relative to the beat. To a certain extent, this can be a cultural question, decided by where one was raised or what one was raised upon. However, some musicians are more intentional about their choice of placement, and thus choose to study feel and the multitude of possibilities within.
Rhythm is one of the most misunderstood subjects in music. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard “he’s got great rhythm,” or “she can play in 7,” I’d be much closer to being rich. In reality, playing in 7—or 23—will never make up for one’s lack of rhythm! As much as rhythm is misunderstood, feel is an infinitely more enigmatic subject. For most, music either feels good or it doesn’t. The why isn’t easy to put into words.
In some cultures, babies learn to instinctively nod their heads to the beat as young as 6 months old, while in others grown adults sit motionless whilst listening to grooves as deep as canyons. Yet, in our modern culture, rhythm, groove, and feel reign supreme. If there’s one thing that’s true of these elements, it’s that inconsistency sucks. A musician who is unable to be intentional about where they place things is about as much use as a brick layer who suffers the same affliction!
Nowhere is that truer than on the bass. Playing a reggae bass line such as Bob Marley’s “Buffalo Soldier” ahead of the beat would be considered a terrible sin. Playing bass way behind the beat on be-bop would be equally as egregious. Some people believe that one is either born with good feel or not. I, however, do not support this view. Great feel, that thing that nobody knows they’re missing until they do, can certainly be improved via osmosis, by spending as much time as possible around those who already have it—if they’ll have you!
The “fat” or “wide beat” may sound like something from a ’90s rap verse, but it’s actually a concept that comes from much older jazz musicians. To such musicians, the beats within a given bar—1-2-3-4, for instance—were not singular fixed entities, but rather ranges. They might intentionally choose to play in front of, right on, behind, or even way … behind the theoretical beat (or grid, as we’ve come to call this in our post-sequencer world). Playing far behind the beat might increase groove and sound relaxed, while playing far in front might sound rushed, urgent, or even uptight.
A musician who is unable to be intentional about where they place things is about as much use as a brick layer who suffers the same affliction!
But the real magic is in the combinations. Even a drummer who seems to be playing right in the pocket—like Clyde Stubblefield on James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” for instance—can intentionally have each drum landing on a different part of the beat: kick a hair early, snare a hair late, hi-hats right down the middle. And then the bass player—Charles Sherrell on “Funky Drummer”—would play relatively behind all of that! To the listener it just sounds funky, but there are multitudes of microscopic timing complexities that make funk or swing what they actually are. These musicians understood that great feel required getting off the grid, or, rather, knowing where things should lie theoretically, but intentionally placing them where they felt good. They’re like time travelers, able to negotiate the past, present, or future at will.
The actual “grid” came decades later, with the invention of sequencers and quantization. As more music became sequenced the result was more uniformity until, by the mid ’80s, lots of pop music sounded as if it had been created by robots. Ironically, what brought feel back to popular music was hip-hop producers sampling old breaks, like “Funky Drummer!”
By the late ’90s, producers like J Dilla lived “off the grid,” which is why their productions (primarily created on drum machines and sequencers) sounded so alive. Rather than using preset quantization maps (Akai, Steinberg, or Emagic’s futile answers to their sequencers’ lack of feel), Dilla created his own, based on what he heard earlier drummers, like Clyde Stubblefield, doing. Dilla’s work with Slum Village and others created a whole generation of hip-hop inspired drummers and bassists who preferred their grooves wonky, and the rest is history!
So, what should all this mean to the modern bassist? We live in a world where time within music is a thing to be mastered. When you next sit down to transcribe Pettiford, Jameson, or Jaco, etc.—because you certainly should—don’t just listen for the notes and rhythms. Also pay attention to placement and feel. These are just as important. Pay attention to what drummers are doing and consider where you intentionally wish to play relative to them. Practice playing ahead, behind, or right on it, so that you can do any of these intentionally at will. Become a time traveler!
On his new album ForEver, the songwriter, player, and conceptualist shows he knows no stylistic bounds.
Joshua Crumbly says that a lot of his musical ideas start out reflectively, like a mantra or meditation, often repeated over and over as he develops them. It’s a Zen-like practice that allows him to access a deeper, more intuitive headspace. “All of the songs that made ForEver, they kind of took my mind and heart somewhere as I played them,” he says of his new album. “And there was so much going on in the world during the pandemic, I just feel like the storylines came to fruition.”
The inventive bassist was born and raised in Los Angeles and attended the prestigious Juilliard School in New York City. When we spoke, he was in Dallas, Texas, co-producing and writing an album for Brandon Marcel. Crumbly and Marcel both tour in R&B singer Leon Bridges’ band. Marcel is one of the background vocalists.
“We were engaged in writing for three or four days last week,” says Crumbly. “And then yesterday we had to do a streaming show with Leon Bridges.” Apparently, the guys in Bridges’ band have been making fun of Crumbly because he’s always bouncing between New York and Los Angeles and can’t decide where to put down some roots. “I keep telling them, ‘I’m finally going to officially move back to L.A. permanently.’ So, they’re like, ‘Yeah, right.’ And now I’ve been in Dallas for a couple of weeks and I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’m loving Dallas.’ I’ll figure it out. The grass is always greener, right?”
Joshua Crumbly - The See (Official Music Video)
Crumbly’s debut 2020 release Rise, embraced that concept wholeheartedly. “I’m initially coming from different jazz settings, and I’ve gotten to play with some brilliant people over the past 11 years or so,” he explains. “But [with jazz] I just got to a point where I was like, ‘Man, we have all these brilliant minds, and everybody’s writing songs with the same exact form, and every song has the same experience for the musicians as well as the audience.’ So I was like, ‘I want to see if there’s a way to create songs that have a different journey to them.’”
This songwriting journey continues on ForEver. Stylistically, like Rise, the tunes on ForEver aren’t necessarily jazz. They run the gamut from indie rock (“THREE”) to ambient (“ForEver”) to the Motown-infused thump of his playing on “C.S.C.” Crumbly mostly eschews the traditional jazz arrangements that primarily defined his formative years as a bass player and sideman. Take a song like “Reflection.” Grounded by a hypnotic bass ostinato, it upends jazz norms by introducing the melody at the end of the tune, as opposed to playing the melody first, then a bunch of solos, and then the melody out, as in a conventional post-bop arrangement. If Crumbly’s ambition was to construct songs in such a way as to give everyone involved a new experience, on ForEver he unequivocally succeeds.
“Shout out to Universal Audio for changing my life. And believe it or not, I use GarageBand.”
Born in 1991, Crumbly began to study music at an early age, at the behest of his father, saxophonist Ronnie Crumbly. He started out playing classical piano before picking up the bass at age 9. He learned to play by ear in church, and then dove into heavy metal at the local music store, where he subsequently took lessons, before binging on the jazz records at home that would become his muse. Though Crumbly studied with such venerable jazz stalwarts as Ron Carter and Reggie Hamilton, there’s a pop element to his songwriting that makes his recordings eminently welcoming for the average listener. His fascination with pop songs, as a writer, can be attributed to what he calls “commercial sentiment.”
“What I think is actually cool about popular music, is the power of a song is still prevalent, and it doesn’t always hinge on a million solos and that sort of thing—just a melody and a vibe, with no solos or anything like that.”French playwright Antonin Artaud once made the provocative assertion, in his seminal 1938 theatrical treatise, The Theatre and Its Double, that the actor is “an athlete of the emotions.” Likewise, Crumbly doesn’t knock you out with chops on ForEver. Instead, he tugs at your heart with an empathic vibe that comes across in his songwriting as well as his bass playing. Instead of rapid-fire slapping or lightning-fast finger tapping, Crumbly’s virtuosity on ForEver lies within his ability to convey qualities like fragility and tenderness. His performances often affirm the age-old adage that it’s not always about what you play, but how you play it.
TIDBIT: Crumbly’s latest release was started at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Recording studio, but he finished the album at home on GarageBand, using hardware and plug-ins from Universal Audio and Arturia.
“I’ll give you some insight to the song ‘Reflection,’” he offers. “I wrote it during the time when the tremendously sad George Floyd incident occurred, and that was coinciding with rising Covid cases. The news would go between speaking about George Floyd and then reporting on all these deaths around the world from Covid. So, I started accompanying the news with the ostinato that the song is based on, and just reflecting on what the feeling of the time was. But then, the more I played it, I started becoming more hopeful. That’s how that song came about—just regarding what I might have been thinking about at the time.”
The catalyst for recording ForEver was an unexpected call from Figure 8 Recording’s Shahzad Ismaily. “I didn’t have his number saved in my phone,” recalls Crumbly, “so I had no idea who it was. And he said, ‘Josh, you need to record a solo bass album.’ And I was like, ‘Uh, okay.’ He generously offered me some time at his beautiful studio, Figure 8, in Brooklyn. I started ‘THREE’ there, and then also ‘We’ll Be (Good).’ But then I just got super busy with putting out Rise, and constantly being on the road, so ForEver had to get shelved. And then, when the pandemic happened, I got a bunch of recording gear and was able to devote time at home to finishing ForEver. So, shout out to Universal Audio for changing my life. And believe it or not, I use GarageBand.”
Joshua Crumbly’s Gear
Crumbly, always in search of unfamiliar sounds, plays flatwounds on his Michael Tobias Design Kingston bass. He also enjoyed “testing the limits of what a P bass could do” while making ForEver.
Photo by Ronnie Crumbly
Basses
- Fender American Special Precision Bass
- Michael Tobias Design Kingston (4-string)
- Moon Guitars J Bass
Amps
- Ampeg SVT (with 4x10, 6x10, or 8x10 SVT cab)
Strings & Picks
- La Bella Deep Talkin’ Bass flatwounds (.049–.105)
- Labella Custom Nickel (.050–.105)
- Fender Classic Celluloid medium picks
Effects
- Aguilar Octamizer
- Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi
- MXR Phase 90 M101
- Universal Audio Golden Reverberator
- Universal Audio Starlight Echo Station Delay
Recording Gear
- Arturia interfaces and plug-ins
- GarageBand for Mac
- Universal Audio hardware and plug-ins
Most of the effects heard on ForEver are delay modulators. “I messed with a lot of the Universal Audio plug-ins, and I’m really happy that they came out with physical renditions of those plug-ins in the form of actual pedals,” admits Crumbly. “I’ve been able to recreate some of the sounds live. I did use some pedals at Shahzad’s studio that I don’t even remember the names of, but I would say 80 percent of it is different delay modulators from UA, and the song ‘To Morrow’ is a combination of modulators and fuzz pedals. That was the one song on the record that I had to work on for a few days. I was searching for this particular sound in my head, for that melody line.”
There’s a cinematic quality to the music on ForEver that Crumbly’s tasteful use of effects enhances, each song characterized by a distinct mood or atmosphere. “When I had an idea, and then found the effects that were speaking to me for that song, I think it definitely took me somewhere, gave me this experience, and brought meaning to the song. It amplified the whole experience.”
As a jazz-based musician, Joshua Crumbly takes a road less traveled, through pop, rock, and ambient music, to get to his signature approach.
Photo by Giraffe Studios
As for instruments, Crumbly says there’s “a lot of 4-string P bass” on ForEver. “I bought a 2012 Fender American Special Precision Bass that I found, all beat up, at Chicago Music Exchange,” he remembers. “When I brought it to soundcheck, everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, it sounds amazing.’ So, I put away all the other 5-string basses that I had. It was fun, testing the limits of what a P bass could do on this record.” On the ambient title track, however, Crumbly went back to what he considers his first real instrument: an MTD Kingston bass. “It’s actually a passive instrument,” he clarifies. “I switched things up a little bit. I hadn’t ever seen anyone using flatwounds on an MTD. So that’s what’s on there now.”
“‘I want to see if there’s a way to create songs that have a different journey to them.”
Songs like “Reflection” and “We’ll Be (Good)” are crafted around chords and double-stops for the central bass line, and Crumbly says his technique for that kind of approach is “the thumb, and then my index and middle finger.” However, he is not a fingerstyle purist, as demonstrated in the video for “The See,” in which he plays an astronaut. “I’m playing with the pick, and I have to shout out a mentor of mine named Reggie Hamilton. I would not be playing upright bass if it weren’t for him, nor would I be playing with the pick. I owe a lot to him for broadening my horizons. People are sleeping on how cool playing with a pick is on the bass, but I’m okay with that. I’ll be like, ‘All right, I’ll be one of the few, I guess.’”
Space is the place: Joshua Crumbly donned an astronaut costume for the video for “The See," from his new album.
Photo by Ronnie Crumbly
As for his time at Juilliard, Crumbly says “keeping a vision” was one of the most important things he learned at the school. “I think keeping a vision helps you get through a lot of things that may be tough at the time,” he explains. “College was a bittersweet experience, because I was juggling being on the road with [trumpeter] Terence Blanchard and being in school full time. And a lot of the administration wasn’t cool with that, but I had a dream job that I couldn’t say no to, and it was a dream for my parents that I went to college and finished. They weren’t so sure that I was able to do both, but when you have a vision, though, you’re looking ahead. It also makes the present moment sweeter at the same time. I also learned how to be more disciplined, studying with Ron Carter, getting to see how on point he is, and what a master he is, and the level that he expects of his students. He just believes in you infinitely. I think we should all believe in ourselves in that way, too.”
Ultimately, Crumbly says that making ForEver was a “crazy adventure” that allowed him to explore the bass in a new way. “I feel like I’m on a path that I can explore infinitely by way of the bass and by way of emotion as well,” he explains. “I just hope that my music is very inviting to whatever people may like. You don’t have to be a jazz head or a rock head or whatever. I just want it to be a super-inviting, welcoming sound.”