Reader Spotlight: Alex Nikolaeff

Alex Nikolaeff

Meet Alex Nikolaeff, who started playing the bass because no one else in the band wanted to pick it up. He says he’ll play his trusty Fender Jazz bass for the rest of his life.

Alex is this week’s No Treble reader in the spotlight. Here’s his story…

Bio:

I’m a 34-year-old bass player from the furthest hole of the world. I have to work at a metallurgical plant, but (by an absurd accident) play music in the Russian outback. My first band and gig were in 1999. My first studio recording was in 2001. My first fee was in 2006. My first bass was…(let’s not talk about it). I’ve played in many rock, pop, reggae, funk and unclassifiable genre bands. I have not changed my Fender Jazz bass since 2005. I’ll play until I die.

Location:

Ekaterinburg, Russia

Day gig:

Bass player, engeneer, photographer

Years experience:

Since 1999

Bands & Gigs:

Member and co-founder of Funky Bizness Gang, since 2006. Hundreds of gigs, some albums and EP’s. This is the best I’ve done in music to date. Studio session sideman sometimes (when there is time for this).

Gear:

  • Fender Jazz bass “Dan Smith Era” (1983). Very customized
  • Kawai F1b (70s or 80s – no one knows). Just customized
  • NS Wav EUB. Not customized.

Why I play the bass:

It was a “classic” situation, in which no one wanted to play the bass guitar. No one even knew why the band needed a bass guitar.

My bass superpower/claim to fame

I know well what the bass guitar is for: Concrete groove, nuclear sharpness and total control of the harmony. I just do it all. Please leave the soloing in the upper register to the saxophonists.

My influences

Tony Levin. Paul McCartney. Malcolm Young. Stevie Wonder. Bernard Edwards. James Jamerson. Sergei ‘Grebstel’ Kalachov. Joe Dart. Lenny Kravitz. Jerome Preston. Pepe Bao. Sting. Joanna Connor. John Deacon. Stuart Zender. enough for today

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