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Getting You Name Out There : Tips for Up-and-Coming Bassists with Carl Dawkins
Meet Carl Dawkins –
So I hope you all enjoyed the last article, I had a lot of positive feedback from it, and seeing as we have now covered some of the more depressing aspects about the career, we can focus on the more uplifting side of getting ahead in the music industry.
I am currently writing this article from a tour bus in Germany next to my good friend/guitarist Steve Collinson, who I met six months ago when working for his now defunct metal band ‘Breedapart’. Now, the interesting thing is that we are both out here in Germany, playing rock/pop music. (The Chilli Fighters). I got this gig because of the work that we had done previously, which, although it was of a totally different genre (metal), they felt as though I would be right to work with him on this venture. A lot of the work most bass players get will be through recommendation.
Now I know a lot of you will be sitting there reading this saying ‘but how do I get people to mention my name’ – There is no definitive answer, but there are some helpful tips I can give to make sure you start getting your name out there.
The first and most important, is that when you’re starting up, let every person you come into contact with know that you’re a bass player and your looking to work with different bands/are available (even if you’re not currently available). I guarantee you will feel silly the first few times, and your mates may even ask you to shut up if you’re on a night out and mentioning to people about your playing, but it’s imperative you let every person you come into contact know what you do, because you never know who someone might know, or who might over hear a conversation and need a bassist.
To aid this, I advise getting a load of business cards printed up, I have put a photo of mine at the bottom, always take a few with you and hand them out everywhere. This does mean that you should keep your phone number/website the same for a few years, as a couple of years down the line you might get a phone call/email from someone who had your details from a year ago. My number is available all over the internet and in magazines, the local directories ect – this does mean you might get the occasional prank call, but I’ve only had three in the last 2 years, and they have all been rather amusing!
Let your parents, your teachers, your friends parents and even your pets know that you’re looking for work, mention it more than once, be persistent, because then people won’t forget and if it ever gets brought up in conversation you will be remembered.
A very important note to remember, is you never know what may come out of a job, for example I never knew working for a metal band would score me some really good gigs in Germany and across the UK! With every job, you should always give it your all, no matter what level it is. Because impressions are everlasting and if you leave a good mark and do your job properly, then it it’ll rub off and could lead you onto more work. If you put no effort in, and do a bad job, you will just remembered as being an unprofessional player and a bad choice. You have then just lost your chance of them ever forwarding your details on and probably ever being called back to work for them. This term is called ‘burning bridges’ and it does happen, but the idea is to keep these to a minimum – we will cover more on this in the next issue.
Now the above points do take a while to sink in, and for the first 3-8 months, it may feel like it’s all been for nothing, but occasionally you will get a phone call/email with someone saying ‘I got your details from…’ and when that comes, you know all the promotion and constant talking to people has paid off, and believe me, if you keep at it, it will eventually!
In the next article we are going to focus on internet promotion and the different sites you should be signed up to, to maximize visibility in the music industry. We will also cover a bit more on minimizing losing contacts.
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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