Covering Covers with Leo Düzey
Creating and maintaining a bass cover channel is something easier said than done. To keep an audience you’ve got to pick songs people care about but haven’t seen a million times, present them in a way that is entertaining, educational, or both, be able to capture both audio and video of a high quality, keep a regular upload schedule, and have the chops to pull it off. People might tune in to a guitar channel playing AC/DC, but the bass cover of that isn’t going to get many views unless you go full Charles Berthoud on it. Leo Düzey has managed, with Leo Bass Covers, to do all of that and more, including an easy to read and follow tab on all of his videos and choosing from a wide variety of music. I got to talk with Leo about his process and playing the bass on YouTube.
Doug Robertson- You run a popular bass cover YouTube channel. What brought you to creating that kind of content?
Leo Düzey- Well to be honest, it was never really my intention to actually make this kind of content. The initial idea for the channel was to release about ten covers so that I would have some sort of online portfolio which would come in handy later on in life. I just wanted to try to join a band and I thought that some bass covers would help me with that. But this idea faded as soon as my cover of “Sorceress” by Opeth received a lot of attention from other bassists. That’s when I decided to focus on transcribing prog rock/metal songs so that other bassists could learn from it.
DR- I found you through a Steven Wilson cover song that you posted. In fact, I literally learned to play that song 100% because of your cover. Is that your hope for the videos? That they will be educational for other bass players? [Ed. Note- his version/my version]
LD -That is the sole purpose of this YouTube channel so I am happy to hear that. It wasn’t what I was hoping for at first, but I am glad that it has turned into a channel that mainly focuses on helping others. Helping other people is something that I enjoy doing a lot. While it is nice to get a compliment about your own skills, I get more satisfaction and joy from reading that other musicians are actually improving because of me.
DR- You have 14.5K subs on your bass covers YouTube channel. Does that get into your head when you are choosing songs to cover?
LD- Not really. I mainly just try to stick to a pattern that makes everyone happy. I like to keep track of all the requests that I get on YouTube, so I typically pick two songs from the never-ending list of requests- one song from my Patreon list (paid-request) and one song that I want to cover so that it doesn’t feel like I have no control over what I decide to cover. But I wouldn’t say that the subscriber count has any influence on my schedule. It is quite cool to see that the channel is getting bigger and bigger though.
DR- What gear do you use? How many basses do you find you need to get the variety of tones and whatnot that you need?
LD- I can only describe my rig with two words: modern & digital. I always feel a little bit bad about my answers when people ask me how I record and what kind of amp I use. I use an Apollo Twin Duo USB audio interface which is where I plug my bass into. From there, I can use all sorts of amazing plug-ins to shape my bass tone. The plug-ins that I use the most are the Ampeg SVT-VR bass amp simulator and the Ampeg SVT-3PRO bass amp simulator. Then there’s also some other plug-ins that I use for effects like flanger, delay, phaser, etc. So in terms of actual physical gear, it is quite boring to look at. I do own some bass pedals, but I hardly ever use them.
I currently only use two basses for my channel and there’s a good reason for that. The Warwick GPS Corvette 5A Ash 5 string bass is perfect for playing multiple styles of music so that is my go-to bass for the covers. I also use an Ibanez SRF705-BBF fretless bass which is my favourite bass to play on. I think that every bassist should have at least one fretless bass since it teaches you so much about finger positioning and plucking.
DR- You go back and forth between pick and fingerstyle. Are you always trying to emulate the original player’s style? Why?
LD- I typically try to at least use the right techniques for my covers. For example, I would never record a song with a pick while knowing that the original bassist is famous for only using the slapping technique. I want my covers to be accurate, but I wouldn’t say that I am trying to emulate the original player’s style on purpose. When making covers, you have to accept that your track will not sound exactly like the original bass track which is perfectly fine in my opinion. In my case, it’s more about playing the right notes.
DR- What’s your favorite cover on the channel?
LD- I have never even thought about this to be honest. All my videos are pretty similar so it would have to be a song that stands out quite a bit. I’m going with my cover of “Invincible” by Tool. Not only did this video break all the channel records, but I’m also convinced that it is one of my best videos to this day. I am usually a little bit anxious about bass solos and tones, but I feel like I did a great job at replicating the tones in that video, especially the bass solo. It was released on the 25th of December and a lot of people mentioned in their comments that it was “the perfect Christmas gift”. I am not sure about that but it sure is lovely to read.
DR- I’ve always wondered this about people who make covers on the regular on YouTube- How sticky are those covers in your brain and hands? Can you play a song that you covered last month? Three months ago? More? Or once you record the video does it go away?
LD- I think that there was a time when I was able to play every single song my channel, but that was when I had about 50 videos, not 500. I personally start to forget the lines about 2 weeks after recording a song. I learn about three to four songs a week so it’s very easy to forget everything you’ve learned. However, some riffs will stay with you for years. The instrumental intro from “Luminol” by Steven Wilson is one of those riffs. I learned it in 2016 and still play it to this day while I never really listen to this song.
DR- Aside from a few recent videos where you talk about your process, is there a reason you choose to shoot shoulders down exclusively?
LD- Definitely! There are multiple reasons even. The bass is quite a big instrument so it’s quite difficult to get it in shot when you’re shooting in full HD. It is impossible to show your face while trying to get the entire bass in shot. You also have to leave some room for the tabs so there’s a lot to think about when you’re recording. But the real reason why I’m not showing my face is because I have the most neutral face ever while playing haha. Although it is my YouTube channel, I wouldn’t say that this channel is about me.
DR- Can you talk about your process recording covers? From choosing songs to learning them to producing the videos? What is your average turnaround time on a song?
LD- I like to divide the whole process up in three parts- audio, video, and editing. I start off by transcribing the songs and making sure that I am really recording the right notes. I record my bass track on top of the existing song as soon as I’ve learned the song. In an ideal world, I would spend a few days on memorizing the whole song, but I don’t really have time to do that so I prefer to just sight-read my way through a song. After that comes the video part, which is basically just me playing it in front of my camera, acoustically. It is all playback which might be controversial, but you want to find the optimal way to do things as a content creator. [Ed. Note- This is also how we do things on The Bass Channel, which you can read about here.] After filming the songs, it’s time to collect all the material together and turn it into a more polished bass cover which takes quite some time. It usually takes around four to eight hours to finish two covers.
DR- Have you ever heard from the original artist of a song you covered?
LD- Yep! It hasn’t happened in quite some time, but the bass player from Gazpacho reached out to me and told me that he liked my videos which was great since Gazpacho is one of my favourite bands. David Adamiak from Covet also reached out to me after I covered a song of theirs called “Sea Dragon”. Caligula’s Horse also shared my video of “Daughter of the Mountain” at some point which was also pretty cool.
DR- Your YouTube links to a Spotify with one song uploaded. Can we expect more original music from you?
LD- Oh definitely. I am going to release my second single on the 19th of December and my third on the 16th of January. The album will be out in February so there’s definitely more where that came from!
DR- How are you coping during the pandemic- personally, professionally, musically?
LD- I can’t say that a lot has changed for me. I actually quite enjoy going to the supermarket while wearing a mask. I feel like it is the closest I will ever get to feeling like I’m playing in a very grim post-apocalyptic movie. In terms of music, it’s quite funny really. I decided to try to play more live shows on my own in February. I actually got booked for a small festival, along with some open mic sessions, but it never happened due to the pandemic. Other than that, not much has changed for me. I feel like I’ve ordered a lot more pizzas this year though.
DR- I’ve heard a lot of other YouTubers talk about deal with copyright strikes and bands blocking their videos, things of that nature. Do you have any experience with that?
LD- Copyright claims and strikes are always tricky. You really do want to get a copyright claim on your covers since that serves as a little bit of protection. You're typically just not allowed to monetize those videos. So far I've only received one warning, but no actual strikes which is great. I won't name any names but some bands and labels are really strict when it comes down to people using their songs which has resulted in about thirty videos getting a worldwide ban. It's a shame, but there is nothing you can do about it other than just move on and not make the same mistake again. The scary part is the fact that these policies can change overnight. So if there's a band or label out there that decided to strike all YouTube channels that use their music, I could actually suddenly wake up to a terminated YouTube account, which is scary of course. It would feel unfair since I'm only using it to teach other people.
DR- Why bass? What is your story of coming to the instrument?
LD- I found out that I liked playing the bass when I was making a full band cover of a Riverside song back in 2015. I already sang and played guitar at the time so I kind of already had an idea of what a bass should sound like. Truth be told, I was just playing it like a guitar. Once I finished my cover, I noticed that I kept feeling this urge to play bass. I dropped playing guitar a few weeks after that. Although I love to sing, I feel like the bass is the perfect instrument for me. There’s something so relaxing about plucking those heavy strings that really does it for me.
DR- How can our readers support you?
LD- You can simply support me by having a look at my YouTube channel and possibly subscribing to it. Same goes for my Patreon. If you’re interested in my music, you can find me on literally every platform as “Just Leo”- (Instagram/Discord/YouTube Just Leo)
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Huge thanks to Leo for taking the time to do this. Please support a content creator and subscribe to him on all the things. Keep an eye out for the next two singles and his album, which is coming soon and I’ll update this page with those links as they get released. I strongly suggest checking out his stuff if you’re wanting to learn and prog or proggy metal, especially Opeth, Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, or Tool.
Doug Robertson is the editor of The Bass Blog, the blog component of The Bass Channel, your one stop YouTube channel for all things bass. His number one is a Mexican Geddy Lee Signature Jazz and his boomer is a BEAD tuned T-Bird. Find books by Doug here. If you’re interested in contributing to The Bass Blog please reach out to Doug at doug@thebasschannel.net. We would love to hear from you. Hail Satan.
