markus setzer

When I was still in High School our school band was looking for a bass player. I really wanted to play keyboards. I was anxious to join the guys and play my heart out.
The days of piano sonatas were over. But when we couldn’t find a bassist, I had to pick it up in order to move the band forward.
Since then I am deeply in love with the instrument.

I started with old Led Zeppelin records and tried to translate the lines on the still somewhat unfamiliar fretboard. Shortly thereafter I transcribed pretty much everything I could get my hands on. Transcribing from recordings was the best training I could possibly get. I slowly incorporated a lot of my idols coolest licks into my own repertoire. In addition to Jaco Pastorius, Marcus Miller, John Patitucci and Geddy Lee my inspirational roots are musicians like Chick Corea, John Scofield, Charlie Parker and many more. Through Steve Vai (who I was a big fan of for a long time) I discovered Stu Hamm, whose rendition of the Moonshine Sonata for solo bass threw me back into the study room of my cigar smoking and ascetics philosophizing piano teacher.
A dream materialized for me: to form a duo with a female singer. Sabine made this dream come true. With her by my side I have the possibility to transform everything, that comes out of me, into music. To accompany her tunes is such a great pleasure and my bass arrangements evolve naturally. In return she blesses my bass compositions with beautiful vocal lines which I could have never dreamed of.