Q: Bass Race is “the sonic lovechild of couple Steven Mertens and Laura Benack,” how long has Bass Race been around?
BASS RACE: We met in 2011 in Brooklyn when Steven had become Craiglist roommates with one of my college friends. – Laura
Q: You’ve described your music as soft yet rich and yacht yet synth with heavy echoes of jazz, funk, and soul, who have been Bass Race’s influences?
BASS RACE: Our friend Kate Ryan wrote a great line for our bio that we sound like what the Carpenter’s might have sounded like if they had cheated death to make music into the ’80s and ’90s. Our influences include Todd Rundgren, ABBA, Ace of Bass, Kenny Loggins, Steely Dan and all ’70s R&B – Earth, Wind, & Fire, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye!
Q: What was your creative process in making the visualizer video for “Chasing the Sun?”
BASS RACE: The Chasing the Sun visualizer is actually an excerpt from the Chasing the Sun one minute music video. We shot ourselves on a green screen in our home studio and then dropped ourselves into a 3D Sci Fi environment that I made in Blender. The wormhole elements were made in After Effects, and then imported into Blender. – Steven
Q: When did Laura and Steven meet and how did that turn into creating Bass Race?
BASS RACE: When we began dating, Steven had been touring as a professional bass player for 10+ years and was constantly writing new songs. I started to add vocals to some of the songs in progress and we realized we had a lot of fun collaborating. Steven had been giving me bass lessons and we joked that we should start a band of dueling bassists and call it “Bass Race”. The name stuck!
Q: What has been, so far, your favorite song to perform and why?
BASS RACE: One of our favorite songs to perform is House of Spirits. The recorded track features my Dad on sax and my brother on trumpet. We tracked their instruments while at the beach in South Carolina and the song brings really brings great memories back of time relaxing and having fun with family. – Laura
Q: The album that “Chasing the Sun” is on recently came out in May, what’s next on the list for Bass Race?
BASS RACE: It took us quite a long time to get our EP Tender Vittles over the finish line. We both have day jobs and a few of the songs had been in process for years. The quarantine period with Covid gave us the time to finally finish writing and to mix and master everything professionally at one of our friend’s music studios in LA (Palomino Sound). Now that the record is out, we’re excited to put a band together to play some live shows!
Interviewed by Jaye Maverick
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