What does it actually take to build — and sustain — a career as a professional bass player?
John Garrison has spent 18 years playing bass with James Blunt and has recorded with artists including Lewis Capaldi, Ed Sheeran, Christina Aguilera, Josh Groban, Passenger and Benson Boone. But his route into that world wasn’t built around sight-reading, virtuosity or chasing the spotlight.
In fact, John can’t read music.
Chapters for easy navigation
00:00 Intro
00:17 John Garrison: 18 Years at the Top
03:46 How John Accidentally Became a Bass Player
06:52 The Roadie Who Helped Launch His Career
11:14 From Aspiring Artist to Professional Bass Player
15:38 How John Landed the James Blunt Gig
19:34 What Keeps You Hired for 18 Years?
22:09 Learning to Serve the Artist — Not Your Ego
26:28 Why Major Producers Keep Calling John
31:58 Inside Lewis Capaldi’s “Forget Me”
36:53 Why the Notes Are Only 30% of the Job
42:25 The Extra Skills That Get Bass Players Hired
45:23 What Great Players Get Wrong About Building a Career
51:43 Glastonbury, Jay-Z and Life at the Top
55:06 Peter Gabriel, Kylie Minogue and a Very Surreal Dinner
57:06 The Bass That Ended Up on Arctic Monkeys’ Debut
In this episode of Now That’s Bass, John explains why being able to play is simply the starting point — and why speed, musical judgement, preparation, backing vocals, versatility and being someone other musicians actually want to spend time with can matter just as much.
We get inside the session for Lewis Capaldi’s “Forget Me”, including why John had to re-record the bass part on a different 1970s Precision before discovering it was about to become the first single.
John also reveals how he can turn around major-label bass sessions in less than an hour, why being a songwriter changed the way he approaches bass, and why his younger self had to learn that playing 23 notes a second wasn’t necessarily going to get him hired.
We also talk about the unexpected “beer test” that helped him land the James Blunt gig, the challenge of moving from frontman to sideman, surviving 18 years on the road with the same artist, social-media comparison, ego, work ethic — and the question every aspiring professional musician should ask:
Would the rest of the band actually want to have a coffee with you on the day off?
Plus: playing Glastonbury with James Blunt, getting applauded by Jay-Z, asking Kylie Minogue to pass the HP Sauce, accidentally lending his bass to the Arctic Monkeys — and the two bass lines John believes players should spend some time with.
If you’re trying to turn being a good bass player into actually getting hired, there’s a lot in this one.
Now That’s Bass — honest conversations about bass playing, careers and what it really takes to make a living in music.
#JohnGarrison #JamesBlunt #BassPlayer #BassGuitar #SessionMusician #ProfessionalMusician #MusicCareer #BassPlayers #BassPodcast #NowThatsBass
source
