8. November 2006

25. October 2006

20. October 2006

26. September 2006

5. September 2006

Workshop series of Marcus Boeltz at STICKS magazine

Pro drummer Marcus Boeltz was asked to write a workshop series for Germany's biggest drum magazine STICKS. The workshop is entitled "Time & groove" and explains the grooves of different musical styles. All readers also have the possibility to practice the grooves with downloadable audio tracks and a special play along track for each issue. Marcus asked me to play the bass for his play along songs, and I am happy to do so. You can download the song of the first issue on this STICKS web site with the title "Strokin' K.E.I.T.H.". If you're a drummer you may want to practice the exercises too!

August 20th, 2006

Video of the TV performance with Peter Kraus

I uploaded a video of my TV performance with Peter Kraus on German television that you can watch on the video page. Or click on the picture to start the video directly. It's an excerpt of Peter's version of "Johnny B. Goode", including my guitar solo. Have fun... You can also see some more pictures of that event on the photos page.

August 8th, 2006

I need your support! CD Baby annual contest

One of the best order pages for music, www.cdbaby.com, makes an annual contest: THE CD BABY SAMPLER!

What is it? It's a CD sent to customers along with every single order they sell, containing 10 audio tracks and 80-90 mp3 tracks - all on one CD. (meaning: anyone with any CD player can hear the first 10 songs. Then anyone with a cd-rom drive and an MP3 player can hear the other 80-90 songs.) This is a great chance to promote my music also to people that haven't heard of me before! But I need your help!

How can you support me? On September 2nd, CD Baby will tally the 100 best selling albums from August 1-31 They're only going to count how many CDs were shipped as of midnight on August 31st. The #1-10 will be audio tracks, and #11-100 will be MP3 files. Then they make 5000 CDs, and give them to the next 5000 customers in November and December.

My goal is certainly to become one of the top 10 sellers! That sounds very much, but last time they did this, the top #100 seller had only sold 30 CDs! So please, if you ever thought of buying my CD but didn't do it yet, order it now before August 31st! Here's the link:

Also tell all your friends! By the way: CD Baby forwards me every name and email address of every customer, and I will send you a personalized present to thank you for your support!

To read more about it, read some stories here:

http://cdbaby.org/stories/04/09/01/5239913.html
http://cdbaby.org/stories/03/08/01/0940393.html

Thanks a bunch for your support!

Yours,

Martin

July 31st, 2006

On TV with Peter Kraus - August 12th at 8:15 p.m. on ARD

Singer and entertainer Peter Kraus is one of the most famous artists in Germany. Since 50 years, he performs on stages all over Europe and was mainly responsible for the success of rock 'n roll music in Germany. He was now invited to a big TV show to perform a medley of his biggest hits as well as his version of "Johnny B. Goode". I was asked to be a part of the band for this performance, but not as the bass player but the as the lead guitarist! It was great fun playing the Chuck Berry guitar solo, and meeting Peter was a very honorable moment. He is a great person and still professional and down-to-earth after all these years in the business. Really a great guy!

We will now appear at the show "Herzlichen Glückwunsch - Die Michael Schanze Jubiläumsgala" which will be broadcasted on Saturday, August 12th 2006 at 8:15 p.m. on Germany's first TV channel "ARD". Here's a band photo with Peter. More photos and videos will be uploaded soon! Check out my rock'n roll outfit and the original Gibson guitar from the Fifties:

Jamming with Wolfgang Schmid & meeting Marco Minnemann

You may know bassist Wolfgang Schmid from his renowned band "Passport" featuring Klaus Doldinger and Curt Cress. Besides that, he played together with Brian Auger, Pete York, Cozy Powell, Nippy Noya and tons of other musicians. Wolfgang's own band "Kick" plays a great mixture of jazz, funk and soul songs, and the other musicians of "Kick" are Peter Wölpl, Libor Shima und Marco Minnemann! During their gig in Munich, I had the chance to jam with the guys, which ended in a great two-basses-solo of Wolfgang and me. I was honored to be on stage with those fantastic musicians, especially since Wolfgang has been one of my first influences as a bass player. After the gig we had a nice talk about bass and beyond, where I met Wolfgang's great personality and his sense of humour.  Here's a picture of me and him, together with Munich bassist Gunter Stoelting, after the gig (as you can tell...):

June 22nd, 2006

Pictures of the Gallien-Krueger bass workshop at the Thomann summer fest

The Thomann summer fest was a real success. Many well-known musicians and lots of music lovers came together to celebrate the long awaited summer under a beautiful bright blue sky. Despite the high temperatures and the inviting tent with live music and cold German beer, many listeners came into the seminar room in the attic of the music store building to check out the workshops of great musicians and clinicians like Benny Greb, Ralf Jung and Wolfgang Haffner.

So I was very happy about the big audience during my bass workshop, where I played songs from my CD "Bass Invader" and presented the great Gallien-Krueger gear. Sugar on the cake was my guest appearance during the guitar workshop of Ralf Jung where we played the song "Scarified" of Racer X together. 16th note scales in unison at 140 bpm - and we just could practice it once... But it was great! Thanks again to everybody who was there! On the photos page, you can check out some pictures of the event. This link leads you directly to the pictures.

June 6th, 2006

Mai 20th, 2006

Live bass workshop and Gallien-Krueger demo at Europe's biggest music store "Thomann"

Europe's biggest music retailer "Thomann", also the German distributor of Gallien-Krueger equipment, always celebrates a yearly summer fest with renowned bands and artists, great musical acts and interesting workshops. This year I was honored to be invited for making the bass workshop, where I will demonstrate some playing techniques and present the advantages of Gallien-Krueger gear. The summer fest takes place on Sunday, June 11th, 2006 in Burgebrach, Germany. If you can't make it there, I will try to get a video of my performance which I will put online here afterwards. But it'll be great to meet you there, the Thomann store itself is really worth the drive!

Bass tracks on demand

Are you tired of programming boring bass tracks that suck the life of every song? I'm offering you great bass tracks for your songs that even make your drum computer groove! In my bass-specialized recording studio, I'm only using state-of-the-art equipment like Ritter basses (fretted and fretless), SPL preamps, Line 6 Bass PODxt Pro amp modeller, emagic Logic Audio with a resolution up to 24kHz/96 bit etc. Just email me your songs as WAV or AIF files (also MP3, but I don't recommend that), and you'll get a fantastic bass track, played to your taste, for an affordable price and within the shortest amount of time. Please contact me for all details and rates.

Mai 4th, 2006

Playing bass for Jason Sadites

Canadian-born guitarist Jason Sadites received great recognition for his debut CD "Orbit". Lovers of guitar-oriented music know what I'm talking about. Right now, Jason is in his Studio in beautiful Miami, FL, recording the tracks for his second solo CD, and he already finished a song featuring the great Bissonette brothers who delivered a fantastic groove! So I was honored when Jason also asked me to play him some bass, and I already played on two of his songs. If you like great guitar playing with the right touch for melodies, you'll definitely love his songs! I'll keep you updated about the release date of his album!

Jason is a gifted guitarist and has a great personality! He also offers a great service if you're looking for some great guitar tracks: check out his web site www.StudioGuitarTracks.com where he offers his services like guitar tracks, mixing and mobile recording. He's really his money's worth!

"Bass Invader" available on Napster

The tracks of "Bass Invader" are now available on different download stores. One example is Napster where you can download each song for only 0.99 $ or the entire album for only 9.99 $. Click here to get directly to the Napster page. More download stores will add the songs to their catalogue in the near future, like Apple's iTunes. But the guys from Apple seem to be very busy with uploading all the new music, so it may take a little while yet. Once again, I will keep you updated.

April 5th, 2006

Pictures from Musikmesse Frankfurt

This year's Musikmesse Frankfurt was a big spectacle again. Manufacturers, dealers and musicians from all over the world came together, and 10 big halls were filled with overwhelming noise! So it was very impressive, and I had the chance to meet and greet a bunch of old and new friends, and check out new gear, besides showing and explaining the gear of Line 6 at their booth. I took some pictures which you can check out on the photo page, or you may click on this link that leads you directly to the pictures, e.g. of my performances at the booths of  Line 6 and Gallien-Krueger, and together with some well-known fellows.

New category "Video"

My two very good friends and buddies from Darkseed, Tom Gilcher and Maurizio Guolo, recorded one of my shows at the Gallien-Krueger booth with a video camera. That brought me to the idea to add another new category to my web site where you can download some videos. So if you want to check them out, click on "Video" in the navigation bar or click here.

"Ritter Basses" meets "Ritter Beer"!

Sometime last year on a German autobahn, I passed a truck labeled with the name "Ritter Beer". Since I am used to a very high quality of everything that wears the name "Ritter", I got curious how a beer with this name may taste like. Soon after that, I started investigating where this brewery is, and I found it not too far away from Munich (certainly...) in a little town called "Nennslingen". Lo and behold, not only the Ritter basses are known in the whole world, but also Ritter beer has won the World Beer Cup in 2004! The name "Ritter" is indeed a synonym for extraordinary quality!

After a couple of very nice emails from the ladies from of Ritter beer, Mrs. Gloßner and Mrs. Moritz, I visited the brewery last week and got several cradles of different varieties of beer, which we served at the Ritter basses booth in Frankfurt - perfectly fitting to the 10 year anniversary of Jens' appearance at the Musikmesse! Therefore once again thanks a lot to Mr. and Mrs. Gloßner! Here's my strong advise: if you're ever in Bavaria, go check out Ritter Beer - you will love it! And I'm not saying that for the free beer! (Hey, how many of you have got a beer endorsement?)

March 27th, 2006

Meet me at the Frankfurt Musikmesse at the Line 6 booth!

I'll be at the Frankfurt Musikmesse which takes place from March 29th until April 1st, 2006. I'd be happy to meet you in person at the booth of Line 6 where I'll be the whole 4 days. If you want to hear me playing songs from my CD "Bass Invader" live, you should come there on Saturday. Showtime is 5.30 p.m. in hall 4.0, booth C30. Also we have planned 2 shows at the Gallien-Krueger booth on Saturday as well, probably at 12.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!

March 22nd, 2006

Australian radio station PBS FM plays and gives away "Bass Invader"

This one goes to all lovers of guitar music in Australia (but also all over the world). Australia's largest independent radio station, PBS FM, will be playing songs from my CD "Bass Invader" in their show Fretnet that specializes on guitar music. Check it out for music from Brett Garsed, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, my good friend Mattias "IA" Eklundh and lots of guitarists you never heard of before though you should have. The show is on air every Monday at 10 p.m. ADST and broadcasted to the greater Melbourne area on FM 106.7. Mates from anywhere else can listen to it over the Fretnet Webcast. You'll also have the chance to win a copy of "Bass Invader" during the show! So turn up your radio!

March 15th, 2006

CD review on Greek webzine "Metal Realm"

Greek webzine for metal music www.metal-realm.com just published a great review about "Bass Invader". You can read it here. Thanks a lot to Alexis Karampas for this great review!

March 7th, 2006

CD review in UK's "Bass Guitar Magazine"

UK's biggest magazine for bassists, also well known beyond the coasts of their island, has published a great review about "Bass Invader". Please check out their website www.bassguitarmagazine.com, it's really worth reading it!

New equipment update: T² Ritter Bass Stand

Tim Tucker did it again! While I was rehearsing my songs for live performances, I recognized that sometimes I need to play two basses in the same song. So I asked Tim to build me a custom bass stand for one of my Ritter basses. So here it is: made of steel, powder coated in black, and it doesn't only look kick-ass, but it's also very strong, compact and set-up in 2 minutes. And first of all: it plays fantastic! Now I can switch between the tapped intro of "Stages of ages", which I play on the fretted Roya, to the fretless verse melody without any interruption. Check out some photos on the gear page (after clicking the link, scroll down to the bottom of the page).

February 27th, 2006

New category

Ok, if this announcement is really worth a news message might be questionable. But I introduced a new category with the name "Funstuff" where I will store stuff which I find funny (which doesn't mean that it really IS funny). It is not necessarily about music, but I think a web site can also be used to run riot sometimes. Visit on your own risk!

February 22nd, 2006

Interview in German musicians' magazine "tools 4 music"

German musicians' magazine "tools 4 music" made a big interview with me which will be published in their upcoming issue. I'm a talking about "Bass Invader", how to get in touch with guys like Gregg Bissonette and Mattias IA Eklundh and about the life of being a bass player. The magazine will be available on March 1st, 2006. More info here: http://www.tools4music.de

"Bass Invader" now available on Amazon.com

"Bass Invader" is available on Amazon.com. Click here to get directly to the product description: Bass Invader on Amazon.com

February 7th, 2006

Martin Motnik biography page on Guitar Nine Records

Guitar Nine Records has added a biography site about me on their website. Check it out: http://www.guitar9.com/bio/martinmotnik.html.

February 1st, 2006

"Bass Invader" enters #1 position on Guitar Nine Records chart again!

It is unbelievable! After "Bass Invader" entered the top seller charts of Guitar Nine Records directly on pos. #1 one week before Christmas, the CD of Martin Motnik with Gregg Bissonette made #1 again, on the Guitar Nine Records Top Sellers Charts: Rock for the week ending January 21st, 2006!

Thanks a lot to everyone who bought this CD!! And special thanks to IA for giving me the hint!

Newsletter available

I know, there are too many newsletters in the world already, but if you want to stay informed what's going on in my musical world, you can subscribe to my FREE (!) newsletter! Wow! You know, the best things in life are free, and so I'm planning a monthly newsletter to which you can subscribe below the navigation buttons on the left side. And don't worry, I will be careful with your email addresses and I won't sell them to spammers! I already sent out the first newsletter; if you want to read it, click here to enter the newsletter archive.

Slight homepage design improvements

Based on the colors of my CD "Bass Invader", I made some slight design modifications. Nothing real big, but I think the orange looks much more positive than the purple before, doesn't it?

January 30th, 2006

Artist profile on www.line6.com

Innovative amp simulator manufacturers Line 6, from whom I use the fantastic Bass PODxt Pro, added me to their endorser list of their official website. Check out the profile and read a short interview here.

January 24th, 2006

"Bass Invader" mentioned in Brazilian magazine "Rock Brigade"

The Brazilian music magazine "Rock Brigade" has heard of "Bass Invader" and released a press info. It says:

"[23/01] Martin Motnik lança CD para baixistas
23 de janeiro de 2006

Vai se chamar Bass Invader o álbum solo do baixista alemão Martin Motnik, agendado para sair em fevereiro. O disco conta com o contrabaixo como instrumento principal, mas tem participações especiais do baterista Gregg Bissonette (David Lee Roth) e do guitarrista sueco Mattias Eklundh.

Outras informações sobre o baixista, que também lança vídeo-aulas, podem ser acessadas em seu site oficial."

Too bad that I don't speak Portuguese! But thank you very much for that feature and my best wishes to everyone in Brazil!

January 23rd, 2006

New endorsement deal with Elixir strings

I added their logo to my website some time ago, but now I have it in written form: US-American string manufacturers Elixir added me to their endorser list! Elixir strings have a big advantage to other strings, they are coated with a very thin layer of a synthetic material to protect the space between the string windings from dust and sweat, that usually cause ordinary strings to sound dead after some time (the more you play the faster that happens). The patented coating avoids dust, dirt and sweat to enter the space between the windings. The result is a much longer clear and brilliant sound that lasts up to five times longer! I am very proud that Elixir decided that I am worthy to be their new endorser and I honestly recommend every guitarist and bassist to try out Elixir strings. Their little bit higher price pays off very fast by the much longer durability! Here's the link to the Elixir website: www.elixirstrings.com.

1. Bassic.ch bassists meeting at House of Speakers

Last Saturday some members of the bass player forum Bassic.ch came together to the first bassists meeting. It was very funny, especially Charly Bach's (check out my  link list) tribute performance, dedicated to famous German entertainer Mike Krueger, accompanied by Stefan, better known as "rumblebird"! It was a great show and I laughed a lot, since I was a big fan of him when I was a kid! Also thanks a lot for the song "Der Gnubbel", Charly! Besides that we could check out some very good speaker cabinets from House of Speakers (I was probably the only one who didn't know those speakers yet ...). The cabinets have a great, powerful and transparent sound and are very light weighted. If you're looking for some custom handmade cabinets made in Germany, you should check out www.houseofspeakers.de. Hi! again to everybody who was there, Mick-H-Of-S with his girlfriend Anette, awashi, frunky, funkapuss, jag, Vampir and once again to Charly and rumblebird! Hopefully I can show some pictures in the near future here.

January 17th, 2006

New CD review on ADL.at.

Austria's web zine for metal music ADL.at released a fantastic CD review about "Bass Invader". Click here or go to the Press section and check it out. Thanks a lot to Stefan Potesil for this kick-ass review!

January 4th, 2006 - Happy New Year!

BREAKING NEWS: "Bass Invader" reached #1 on the Guitar Nine Records Top Sellers Chart!

The following press info was released by Guitar9.com: "Martin Motnik "Bass Invader" reached #1 on the Guitar Nine Records Top Sellers Chart: Rock for the week ending Saturday, December 24, 2005." That's a great way to end a year! Thank you very much to everybody who bought my CD!!

All CD shops on one page

I made a new section called "Buy CDs", where I collected all online shops that offer "Bas Invader". Just click on "Buy CDs"!