Reader Spotlight: Kent Beatty

Meet Kent Beatty, a bassist from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and our player in the spotlight for June 28, 2011.

Bio:

Upcoming bassist Kent Beatty has been on his way to the forefront of modern bass playing since he started at age 12. Influenced by such legends as Flea, Les Claypool, Victor Wooten, and Stuart Zender, his style has caused audiences to compare him to his musical heroes. When he’s not touring the world with Hamilton Loomis, he writes and performs solo bass. He performs at various international bass events and competitions, and has even been introduced on stage by Victor Wooten himself. Kent is well known in his hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana as the bassist of the rock band reVibe. He also records with his various rock, jazz, funk, and fusion projects yet to be released.

Location:

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA

Day gig:

Touring musician. Former I.T. admin/small business owner.

Years experience:

18 years

Bands & Gigs:

Currently, I’m the bassist with the Hamilton Loomis band. We play over 150 shows a year in America, the UK, Europe and Australia. Hamilton Loomis is known as a modern funk, soul, rock and blues artist based out of Texas. Taking blues into the future, I like to say. The genre is hard to define, but it’s somewhere in that adult/alternative category of artists like Sheryl Crow, Ben Harper, Dave Matthews Band, Norah Jones and other “crossovers”. I’m always writing solo bass tunes when I have time, and I have my rock band back home called reVibe. reVibe has a nice following in Louisiana, although there’s only time to do a couple of shows a year when I’m home.

Gear:

• Peavey Cirrus basses (endorsed)
• Roscoe Guitars LG basses (endorsed)
• TC Electronic Combo450 (endorsed)
• TC Electronic RS212 (endorsed)
• Elixir strings
• Boss GT-10B
• Mono cases and straps
• Planet Waves accessories
• Misc older gear

Why I play the bass:

I started on viola in elementary school. As I grew up, I wanted to be cool and learn guitar. My brother had a guitar and a bass in his room, and bass was much easier to learn. The pizzicato was the same as on viola, one string at a time. Later I learned the guitar and chords, but the more I played bass, the more I loved it.

When I started out in music, I figured I’d play in a symphony as an adult and had no interest in bass. I never set out to be a bass player, it just happened. It helped that growing up, two of my favorite bands had incredible bass players.

My bass superpower/claim to fame

I guess I’m known for a lot of slapping techniques and melodic solo performances. A “claim to fame” would be getting selected and introduced by Victor Wooten and a panel of pros to perform at the 2006 Bass Extremes International Solo Bass Competition. There was also a time period when David Eden used my burnt up WT-800 amp in their full page magazine ads.

My influences

Bass influences: Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Flea, Stuart Zender, Robert DeLeo, Cliff Burton

All others (important!): My parents and brother, The Smashing Pumpkins, RHCP, Radiohead, Primus, Jamiroquai, Megadeth, Metallica, Pantera, Ween, Foo Fighters, too many others.

More on the web:

• Facebook
• Youtube
• Hamilton Loomis
• Myspace (personal)
• Myspace (reVibe)