Exclusive Interview: Dave Marks on Playing Bass for Hans Zimmer

I caught up with Dave Marks in Chicago and if you’ve seen the World of Hans Zimmer, you already know this isn’t your average gig. It’s massive. Orchestra, band, visuals, the whole thing. And right there in the middle of it is Dave, holding it down on the low end.

His path into the gig is the kind of story that still feels unreal. He got the call to sub in and had just days to prepare.  “Can you be in Bulgaria on Sunday with the whole set learned? The answer is obviously yes.” From there, it was all about survival mode. “My mantra was just don’t mess it up.”

What stands out about Dave is how grounded he is about it. This isn’t about chops for the sake of chops. It’s about the music and the role. He pointed to players like Pino Palladino as a blueprint, musicians who walk into any situation and become exactly what the music needs.   And make no mistake, this gig hits different. “It’s like doing therapy for 10,000 people,” he said. Every night, there’s a moment where the audience connects deeply with the music. You can see it from the stage. Sometimes you feel it just as hard.

We also dug into his setup, which is as dialed as you’d expect. Sandberg basses, EBS gear, and a streamlined Quad Cortex rig that lets him jump from clean orchestral support to massive distorted tones on the fly. On a show like this, the real challenge is the choreography. Switching sounds, instruments, techniques, sometimes in seconds.  At the end of the day, Dave keeps coming back to the same idea. You’re one piece of something much bigger.

Go see this show if you can, Dave is currently touring with The Limitless Orchestra (also a Hans Zimmer production).