@MarkMichell

Mark Michell

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You are obviously a very skilled bassist with a great sense of melody and technique to die for. Do you consider yourself to be a total badass bass player?

Well, thanks, and I appreciate that. I don't really spend time thinking about stuff like that, and quit worrying about "trying to be good" years ago. I just focus on having fun doing what I love, making great music, and never being satisfied with my craft - always room to improve.
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Just bought a pair of books from Scale the Summit. Just wondering, how long does the international shipping take? I live over seas in Sweden. Keep up the nice work! Looking forward to your new album! =)

Thanks for the support! It usually takes 7-10 business days to make it over there, but can vary. Hope you enjoy the books!

What's the showering situation when you guys tour? Do you just not bathe for weeks on end or do you have some kind of method worked out?

Of course we regularly shower. We go to a gym daily (LA Fitness or Gold's Gym) and shower there, if not there, many venues have showers and if not there, hotels.

Do you have any advice for holding notes for their full duration? In recordings, I notice that some of my notes end up sounding staccato-esque because I move to the next note too quickly in order to hit it on time. I'm assuming probably just slowing down the tune and working on holding notes?

There are many different names for this technique/approach, but I like to call it "Don't-Move-It-Until-You-Need-It" - basically a headspace to be in when analyzing your left-hand technique. Nine times out of ten, choppy-sounding playing is caused by wasted motion in the left hand, specifically when your fingers move away from the fingerboard when they don't need to. When that happens, you have to cover that much more distance to get them back to the strings when it's needed next, and it starts a domino effect from there. Let's say you're playing frets 5-6-7-8 ascending up each string. So you play fret 5 with your index, fret 6 with your middle, fret 7 with your ring, and fret 8 with your pinky. So after you use each finger to fret a note, why should it come back off the string and go anywhere else? Keep it fretted! Even though you may be on frets 7-8, the fingers on frets 5-6 should just stay fretted because they aren't needed. When you get to frets 5-6 again on the next string, they'll already be right there in the area ready to go, not 2 inches off your fretboard for no reason. Hope that helps!

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Liked by: Yaresh-Bartholomeus Soekhlal Ahmet Saraçoğlu Yağmur Deniz Robert Percy

What do you consider a good amp head for versatile metal style of music? Something punchy but still good for smooth parts.

I've used GK amps exclusively for 5+ years and it's served every role I've needed it to for any gig. Metal especially. Recently moved to Warwick amps, and I find them to be just as incredible sounding! Used a Warwick LWA1000 for the entire last tour and thought it was extremely clean and punchy sounding.

How do you incorporate slap bass into music and jams? Ive been working on it for six months but can't ever figure out how to use it in a musical context?

I don't really consider myself good at slapping. It's a technique I got into late in the game and don't really find myself using it much in the music I play. I wish I were more creative with it. Your guess is as good as mine : )
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Liked by: Courtney Riley

When it comes to Warwicks, I've always preferred Corvettes over the Thumbs. Is there anything specific about the Thumb that you prefer, or is it just more aesthetically pleasing to you??

It's kind of Warwick's "flagship" model, and just always liked the aesthetics and smaller body. Sits on me just right. When I went to the Warwick HQ recently I tried out tons of models I've never had the chance to play before and fell in love with tons of them!
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What strings are best for some mid sound, that provide nice tapping sound and harmonics? I've been using DR Lo-Riders for quite a while now, but I need a change. Can you give me some ideas please? Thanks!

I 100% promise I'm not saying this because I just got on board with Dunlop recently, but the new Super Bright series strings they have (nickel version) I've really fallen in love with. They're like normal nickels but a nice cut through. Just brighter overall, which is great for helping tapping cut through and make harmonics really jump out. I used Ernie Balls for the last 10 years of my playing honestly so I only have two brands to recommend, and these would work for what you're looking for.

What has been your proudest musical moment?

I think Victory Records inviting my older band Tetrafusion to Chicago to audition for their label was pretty killer, that was our first taste of any sort of music industry honestly. Although it never came to fruition, I remember being elated simply from the opportunity. The obvious answer here is joining Scale the Summit though, and mainly so because I was a huge fan of the band before I joined, so that's always very rare (and cool) for someone to do. Opening for YES at two separate events is also awesome, and going to this Warwick Bass Camp last month was extremely surreal. Those are a few that come to mind.
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Liked by: Yaresh-Bartholomeus Soekhlal

How big are your hands? Your style and taste in gear seems to suggest you have or at least play like someone with smaller hands. (Well perhaps not small, just not huge!)

I seem to have hands on the larger end, fingers on the shorter end, and have trouble stretching fluidly from frets 1 to 4 on a 35" scale bass. I tend to only play 34" scales, and it seems to be JUST enough to get the stretch.

Hey Mark, I have a small hand and I use a low action combined with non-forced playing. Do you recommend me .45 or .40 ernie ball strings... I am at store right now, hoping for your answer hehe.

Definitely the 40's then. Less tension.

Have you stopped playing your Custom Warwick? You seem to be playing your 'normal' NT Thumb much more. Or is it just one of those "depends how I'm feeling" things? :)

I brought the custom shop Thumb to the Warwick HQ when I went for the camp and had a few tweaks done on it, changed the finish texture of the neck, and had a minor repair done for something that happened to it on our last tour. So just been waiting to get her back in! Actually got an email this morning saying it shipped so can't wait to get it back!
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Not to be creepy, but you have a really nice voice. Have you ever considered voice over/narration as a side thing? I'm a guitarist and I watch your videos just to hear you talk about whatever.

10/10 pretty creepy, kidding, but thanks, I've always hated my voice honestly, but glad you enjoy my videos! I never have considered voice overs or narration, but that sounds like it'd be fun to do.

How did you meet Chris?

Back when my project Tetrafusion was instrumental, we were looking for other instrumental bands in the regional area, and I found Scale the Summit on MySpace, listened to their music, enjoyed it, messaged the page and told them so, and Chris wrote back pretty quick and the rest is history!
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Liked by: Jesse miller

I'm a guitarist who has to perform 2 bass pieces for music at high school and was wondering if you had any recommendations? I've been playing guitar for 7 years and have been mucking round on my 5 string bass for a few years so I have a reasonable ability

I'd say Bach's Suite No. 1 in G for Cello is cliche, but difficult to play with finesse and well (and is technically challenging, also fun). Good one. Not a lot of "bass only" pieces out there, try arranging a song for bass, I enjoy that a lot and that's what I'd do for one of them personally.
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What's your opinions on the relation between drums and Bass? How important is it, how should it effect writing the bass line or drums, do the drum parts effect STS's bass a lot or vice versa?

It's different for everyone, but for the last album I wrote the bass parts before the drums but after the guitars, so any drum/bass parts that sync are due to Pat writing his parts to me, but I wrote a lot of mine to guitar.
Outside of that example, I feel the bass guitar has THE most freedom in the composition. I tell my students this a lot; the bass can be viewed as either a guitar that's an octave lower, or a drumset that can play pitched notes. I basically mean that you can play exactly what the guitar is playing and have the song sound great, play exactly along with the drums (and ignore the guitar riff completely) and have it sound great, you can ignore both and play your own melody and have it sound great, etc. So the bass comes in last can glues everything together. So I'd say less of a relation to the drums and more of a relation to everything else in the song since we're the glue!

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Liked by: TheInsurgent

what made you change from Ernie Ball bass strings to Dunlop strings, I saw you tagged them in a video you released with you playing bass. Do they just feel better for you or is there a sound difference?

Dunlop has a wider variety of string options to choose from that I'm excited about, not to mention everything else they have to offer way beyond strings. They have a much more active playing field with promotion and artist involvement, so it's obviously a move out of best interest. Very excited to work with them!
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Liked by: Kabloogadie Yaresh-Bartholomeus Soekhlal Clay Lindstrom

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