Keep It In the Family- YouTube Bass Player Patrick Hunter
In the Keep It In the Family series I’ll be talking with some of the bass players we share the YouTube airwaves with. A grooving bassline moves all feet, and it’s important to us at The Bass Channel that our readers and viewers know who else is out there doing The Ged’s work.
Patrick Hunter is a popular bass YouTuber with nearly 37,000 subscribers. With content that ranges from equipment reviews and tests to covers to the hugely popular Show Me What You Bass series, Patrick is a true bass believer and I got to dig in with him about his video-making process, his history with the instrument and one YouTube video that he’s been keeping underwraps.*
Thank you to Patrick for taking the time to talk with me.
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Doug Robertson- You’re known online as a bass YouTuber, so we’re gonna split that apart and take them first as two pieces. Since this is The Bass Channel we’ll start with bass stuff. How did you get your start on the low end of the band? First bass, did you take lessons, what inspired you to pick it up in the first place.
Patrick Hunter- I grew up in a house with a bunch of guitars and had always just played around with them, but when my brother was 12 and I was seven he got a bass and I seriously thought it was the COOLEST thing ever. But I didn’t really start playing until I was maybe 11 or so. And didn’t really start taking it seriously until I was probably 16. And [I] just basically taught myself by ear ever since then. But one day I would love to legitimately and properly learn to read and write music as well.
DR- When you started playing bass what was your Big Goal? Did you want to take over the world in a loud band? Or did you have more modest goals? Or did you know you wanted to be a famous bass YouTuber (I’m asking this assuming part of your first answer takes place long before YouTube existed.)
PH- Hahaha, my “big goal” was just to play music on stage with my friends. My senior year of high school, my friends Marcos (guitar) and Kevin (drums) and I started a “band” of sorts and just made a lot of noise and hell, we had even won a Battle Of The Bands with us only being together for a few months by that point. So that was a lot of fun and that was the first of a few bands before I had even considered making a YouTube channel.
DR- You have a wonderful series running right now called “Show Me What You Bass.” So show us what you bass. What’s your Number One and why is it a Fender P-Bass?
credit- Patrick Hunter
PH- My absolute #1, take it to the grave bass is an early 00’s MIM Fender Jazz Bass in Sage Green that has a P-Bass neck, Seymour Duncan SJB3 pickups and a Badass II bridge. Super simple set-up and is by no means an expensive or perfect bass at all; but it feels, plays and sounds exactly how I always want it to. It’s been through the ringer a number of times, with plenty of bruises and scars from top to bottom, but this bass has never let me down.
DR- Has your SMWYB series inspired you to buy something new, or make modifications to basses you already own? You have mentioned sticker bombing a bass a few times.
PH- Man the SMWYB series has really been a trip in general, not just because of how awesome of a response I’ve had from my audience but from all of the different makes, models, and mods of basses I’ve seen from so many people!
I for sure do want to sticker bomb one of my basses just because I feel that it’s something that a lot of players do or have done and I had never done before, so now I definitely feel I need to do it just as a right of passage by this point! Another big thing I want to do is try out Delano pickups because I had heard so many great things about them before, but seeing so many entries with their basses modded with Delanos just makes me want to try them more!
DR- Assuming the world wasn’t ending and we could go out, would we be able to see you play live anywhere?
PH- So I was in a band for a few years, Pseudo Future, but we each sort of went our own ways and there’s no bad blood or anything between us or anything. I just focus all my extra time on YouTube now and I’ve loved every bit of it! So no go on seeing me on stage anytime soon but you never know what the future holds!
DR- As a follow-up (and I swear this isn’t trying to be a gotcha kind of question, I’m just curious), do you see a difference between players who play only on YouTube vs players going out on stage? There’s no way to make this question sound like I’m not being a dick but I’m not judging at all. Is this a conversation in the music YouTube community, or a concern for people like yourself?
PH- I personally do see a difference between someone ONLY playing on YouTube and someone who both plays on YouTube AND on stage. It’s just two completely different settings and worlds in my opinion. But honestly as fun as YouTube is, there’s nothing that compares to playing on stage with a band you’re well rehearsed with.
DR- Moving fully over to YouTube- How did the channel come about?
PH- When I really started getting serious about playing bass and became interested in pedals and effects in general, I would scour the internet for videos on them and YouTube was the place for that. But the main thing I noticed was someone talking about the pedal for 10 minutes and then playing a boring slap line for 20 seconds to then finally end the video with, “Thanks for watching, bye!” And this absolutely infuriated me. Essentially out of spite, I started making demo videos that were just super straightforward and were more focused on the bass, amp, effect, ect and the sounds they could make. Since then it’s just expanded to more and more and it’s been one hell of a journey!
DR-What have you learned from your channel that you don’t think you ever would have learned without it?
PH- Time management and multitasking, mainly. Being a “YouTube bassist” is truly something else because you want to push yourself but you’re more than just a bass player; you’re also the sound engineer, the videographer, the editor, and the social media manager. There’s just so much that goes into this if you’re a one man crew and it can become very overwhelming at times, but it’s so rewarding in many ways.
DR- What video surprised you the most?
PH- About five years ago I did a cover of “The Handler” by Muse and it absolutely blew up. Hell, I think it’s still the most viewed video on my channel. And I think that was one of my first, “Oh this is what it feels like to have a video blow up” and it gave me so much drive to make each video to the same, if not better quality from then on out!
DR- What topics are on your List that you haven’t been able to do because of money or time or something else?
PH- I have one really big video that’s under wraps that I’ve been working on in between my weekly videos for a while now and let me just say, I REALLY wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. I’m really hoping to have the particular video out before the end of 2020, and I think you’ll recognize it when it comes out just from the sheer number of songs it’ll involve.
DR- As a person who is new to the world of music YouTube, I’m just now learning the ropes of how companies send things out. I’m curious what that was like when it started happening to you. And how did it happen? Were you aggressive, “Hey Music Man, bass me.” Did they come to you? Did you buy all those strings?
PH- When I first started, it was 100% all with my own gear and then once I started to get the hang of everything I just went ahead and reached out to Fuzzrocious pedals because I had heard so many great things about their stuff. Ryan from Fuzzrocious got back to me and said he would love to work together and we’ve had a great relationship since. Just sending companies with a simple “Hey this is me, this is what I do, here’s my work, let’s work together” cold email can lead to a lot of opportunities and you NEVER know what’s in store. Hell, my early Fuzzrocious videos are what turned Darkglass Electronics’ media manager onto me. They reached out to me to work together and I’ve had an absolutely incredible relationship with them for years now too.
As for the string video, I had been planning that out for a while and decided to buy all of those over time and not have any companies involved with it just for the sake of bias. So while I have been very fortunate over the years to have a relationship with a lot of wonderful companies from all over the world, there’s still plenty of videos that I still just go in by myself and myself only.
DR- How long does it take to produce a video? What’s your process?
PH- I do my absolute best to get a video out once a week, but working 40-55 hours a week at my normal job, trying to be a decent boyfriend and dog dad, time can really get the best of me. I can easily be working on a video from Saturday to late Thursday night to then have it out the very next day. That’s honestly how it normally goes, very down to the wire timing.
My process starts with understanding and getting a good feel for whatever gear I’m covering and seeing what sounds the product inspires me with from there. Then I record the audio for the bass playthroughs, record the video parts, then record my commentary parts for them, video the b-roll footage and then edit it all together. So I usually do it in chunks at a time and do my absolute best to make an entertaining and polished video week after week.
DR- Is tonewood a real thing?
PH- Yes but once you go through X amount of pedals and X amount of different compressors, amps, etc, there’s not a HUGE difference between woods. To me, tone is more in the player’s fingers than the wood of the instrument.
DR- Who is the greatest band of all time, and why isn’t that band’s bassist then the greatest bassist of all time?
PH- That’s certainly a loaded question, (Ed. Note- It’s a super unfair, loaded question, but that’s why it’s fun) but I honestly think Muse and Chris Wolstenholme are the biggest influences in my playing and riff/song-making! I am VERY biased though because they’ve been such a big part of my musical journey, from first discovering them when I was in 6th grade to my first concert being Muse in 8th grade.
DR- How was your experience with our Five Bass Players One Song video you recently were a part of?
PH- It was seriously awesome, especially when I got to hear everyone else’s interpretations of the songs. It’s so crazy hearing what naturally came to me for a part be something completely different for another bassist. That is so fascinating to me and I love seeing the different takes and nuances individual musicians have.
DR- What are your The Clouds Part And Angels Sing dream bass/amp/head/pedal(s)?
PH- For amps and pedals, I feel I’m set but of course because of GAS, I end up always wanting to try this or that specific gear hahaha. But as for basses, right now I really really want a Serek Lincoln, a vintage Fender Mustang short scale bass, and a Wal Mk2.
DR- How has the pandemic impacted you as a player and a YouTuber?
PH- I am very fortunate that I have not been personally affected by all this craziness, but I have countless friends that are still out of work since everything has started and it is absolutely devastating to me to see our industry suffer so much. And, of course, with everything STILL going on, who knows if or when things will be back to the way they were before. I feel we’re going to lose a lot of local smaller venues and jobs permanently and it’s simply horrible. I really am hoping for the best for everyone out there.
DR- How can our readers support you right now?
PH- Go ahead and subscribe to my channel, http://www.youtube.com/patrickhunter, and follow me on Instagram! http://instagram.com/patrickhunter
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So many thanks to Patrick for taking the time to answer my questions. If you aren’t already subscribed to his channel please head over there and, as the YouTubers say, pound that subscribe button and ring that bell. If you are already a fan of Patrick’s, leave a note in the comments with the video that brought you to him, or your favorite of his videos. And if you have an idea for someone who would be perfect for a Keep It In the Family feature, let me know.
*Hey, I didn’t say he told me what it was.
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.
