Bass & Nadja

Brief but pretty interesting interview with Aidan Baker of Nadja over here. I quite like a lot of his solo stuff and his band work and thus I'm especially interested in how he gets things sounding as he does without an amp. As the interview indicates, his effects are solid choices - not fancy ones.

I think the secret to Nadja's sound is the bass guitar. A DI'd bass tone is not such a stretch, it's pretty standard practice at almost all live shows and it's certainly in the mix on a lot of my solo stuff and with No Anchor. We're all used to hearing it.

And this is the great thing about the bass guitar: it's not such a tone war. Bass can sound warm and full straight in if you record and mix it right. So instantly, before all the drama of effects and antique amps, the bass guitar is already sounding pretty good. I love that about it. I feel like it's an instrument that works with you.

Why doesn't everyone want to play one?