Reader Spotlight: Dmitry Budko
Meet Dmitry Budko, a bassist and techie from Belarus who is dedicated to his music, and pushing the envelope on his sound. Dmitry is this week’s No Treble reader in the spotlight. Here’s his story…
Bio:
I was born in Minsk in 1987. This is the capital of a country called Belarus (it’s between Poland and Ukraine). I’ve played a lot of gigs, festivals, used a lot of basses and gear. Now I play in an alternative metal band called Weesp (this is a band of my life).
Location:
Minsk/Belarus
Day gig:
I’m a founder of several mobile startups (“Math Helper” and “12 pads”, the last one is music related) and also an operational officer in IT development company called Dashbouquet (where I’m also a founder).
Years experience:
Around 14 years.
Bands & Gigs:
I play a band called Weesp. We play a mix of rock and metal with a lot of electronics, mainly clean vocals, and pretty difficult arrangements. We’ve released a bunch of EP’s and singles and one LP album The Void, which was produced by Wieslawski brothers at well-known Hertz records (Behemoth, Vader, Decapitated). Now we are working to release the next album.
Gear:
Now my main bass is a custom one from Stas Pokotilo. It’s fan fretted bass with 34- to 36.5-inch scale – alder with a walnut top. The neck is set one maple-walnut 5-piece, pickups are Villex passive soap bars. I’m incredibly happy with it.
Now I’m waiting for two other basses built for me to use on the next album (the 3rd one) – a 6-string tuned to low E (low F# dropped down) and an 18 string triple course bass.
I use my SWR Mini-Mo preamp or Eden Navigator preamp in a Crown XLS2500 power amp. I also use a lot of pedals – mainly EBS (chorus, comp, multidrive, octaver), but also EHX and TC Electronic.
Why I play the bass:
I started to write music (some hip-hop stuff for the local scene) when I was 13 or so. Then in few years – at the age of 14 or 15 – I decided to move forward and learn to play a real instrument and some real music (I liked rock). So bought my very first Soviet bass guitar for something like $30.
My bass superpower/claim to fame:
I play really low (G#, F# and lower) and experiment with sounds a lot – different types of overdrive, octavers, envelopes and stuff during one song. And I use only analog gear.
You can check some sounds and me playing Weesp’s song (bass+drums playthrough) in this video or here (here we have some octavers, tubes overdrives and eqings).
I make bass sounds not only from my guitar, but also from my Moog Sub Phatty synthesizer which also runs through my rig. You can check me playing it in this live video. Look at the intro and the part starting at the 3:05 mark.
My influences:
My main influences as a bass player are Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers and Cliff Burton from Metallica. I liked them very much when was just starting. Of course, I love to listen to different bassists – from crazy soloists to simple guys with a P-bass and a pick in a pop-punk band.
My overall taste in influenced by a variety of music from oldest AC/DC and Iron Maiden to the latest mainstream rock and metal bands.
More on the web:
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