Adam Ben Ezra
Double Bass Virtuoso & Composer

Cleaned Podcast Transcript

Sandeep Kulkarni (00:02.022)

Today's guest is Adam Ben Ezra, a double bass phenomenon, composer, and multi-instrumentalist known for pushing the instrument far beyond its traditional role.

Suraaj Parab (00:14.413)

Welcome, Adam, to Artist Conversation.

Adam Ben Ezra (00:16.942)

Thank you. Thank you for the invitation.

Suraaj Parab (00:20.175)

Yeah.

Sandeep Kulkarni (00:22.330)

Yeah, we are so happy to have you. The pleasure is all ours. Adam, starting with your origins and finding the instrument, when I was researching, reading a lot about you, and watching your videos—which, by the way, were amazing to watch, simply amazing, I can't describe it any other way—you started violin at five, then guitar, and eventually found the double bass at 16. What was it about the bass that felt life-changing the moment you picked it up?

Adam Ben Ezra (00:57.646)

Well, yeah, I was a guitar player when I was a kid. Then I felt like the role of a guitar in a band didn't really fit my personality. I was really drawn into the gluing, supportive role of the bass. At the beginning, it was an electric bass. I was playing in all kinds of rock and pop bands. At the age of 16, I discovered jazz and fell in love with the genre. That's why I moved to the double bass, which I play to this day.

Sandeep Kulkarni (01:45.756)

Awesome.

Suraaj Parab (01:47.284)

That's wonderful. For me, I started my journey the same way. I started from guitar, then went into electric guitar and learned flamenco, and then I was looking for what I really liked and chose bass as my instrument. I also have that NS electric upright bass with me. For you, having played the violin, did you feel like the violin was a little bit too small for you? What did it feel like going to the bass? I have watched your videos, and they don't show a typical upright bass style. You created your own unique style. What was the inspiration from inside to create something unique of your own?

Adam Ben Ezra (02:17.238)

What's the question?

Adam Ben Ezra (02:40.718)

Yes. So, because I was moving through all kinds of instruments, I adopted all kinds of techniques, and I also loved all kinds of styles of music. I was listening to classical music, rock, jazz, funk, Arabic music, Indian music, and electronic music. I really liked all these colors and sounds, and I liked to combine them to create something new. I think music is a language, and language evolves from experiences and environments. That's what I'm trying to do. I play my bass as a guitar, I play my bass as a drum, and I play my bass as a tabla. I try to use all the sounds I can get, and luckily, the bass has it all.

Suraaj Parab (03:51.855)

Yeah, totally. Eight years ago, when I first saw your video, it reminded me of a very interesting guitar player named Andy McKee. He first made that percussive guitar playing style famous around the 2008 era. When I first saw your video, I was like, okay, he's the next Andy McKee of the double bass.

Adam Ben Ezra (04:17.805)

There's so much wood in the bass; you need to use it somehow. Come again? Yeah, I listen a lot to flamenco and also to this kind of fingerstyle guitar playing, and it really inspired me. Before that, Stanley Clarke did some kind of slapping on his bass, and you have all of these rockabilly players that also slap on the bass in some way. So it was very, very inspiring.

Suraaj Parab (05:08.537)

That's amazing. Yeah, go ahead, Sandeep.

Sandeep Kulkarni (05:10.748)

I just wanted to say you described it nicely—it's like a percussive style of playing. That's what I felt too when I was watching your stuff, Adam. It's so original and amazing. I was glued to your videos, going from one video after another. I don't know how many I watched.

Adam Ben Ezra (05:33.656)

Well, thank you so much.

Suraaj Parab (05:36.179)

Adam, you have taught yourself so many instruments, from guitar and violin to the double bass. Do you think that curiosity came from discipline, instinct, or simply falling in love with the sound itself?

Adam Ben Ezra (05:53.270)

Some of my journey was self-taught, but I also had some teachers. With the double bass, I had maybe two years of private teachers. I was curious and very determined. I also practiced a lot, spending many hours with the bass. So it takes a lot of self-discipline, for sure. In anything you do, if you want to reach an amazing level, you must be disciplined and work. Be curious, try to be inspired, and the key is to look for your own sound. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to discover my own voice on the double bass.

Sandeep Kulkarni (07:14.712)

That's really interesting. The things you described there—discipline and being inspired—are so important for anything we do in life, not only in music. Otherwise, it's not going to come to you. You say you are still trying to get your sound, but I think you already have such an amazing style and sound. You are just being humble about it.

Adam Ben Ezra (07:39.022)

Yes. Art is like sculpture; you always have another angle, another thing to reveal with your art. For me, it's about finding my voice and also expanding my voice. How long can I do the same thing over and over again? So I'm trying to make everything new.

Sandeep Kulkarni (08:18.064)

That's very good, amazing. Continuing on the craft and redefining the bass, a lot of people still think of the double bass as something that sits in the background. When did you realize you wanted to pull it out of the shadows and make it the center of the story?

Adam Ben Ezra (08:40.098)

I think it was when I was 24 or something like that. I was playing with a singer in Israel back then who is a very famous and prestigious actor and singer. He had a show of Frank Sinatra songs and stories, and I was the bass player. When we did the rehearsal, he was very generous and said, "In my show, I want the bass player and the drummer to have a solo." After two or three shows of just playing a standard jazz solo, I thought to myself, "Okay, I've been asked to do a solo, let's make a real solo."

That resulted in the arrangement I did for Black Orpheus. I think it's the first video I uploaded on YouTube. If you go back, you can see it. I played that solo during the show, and from that point on, it opened my eyes that I could make the bass something more interesting. It was a personal journey for me as well, coming from the shadows into the front of the stage. We did this journey together, me and the bass. It's a matter of expression; I wanted to express more and more, and the only way I could do it was to go to the front of the stage.

Suraaj Parab (10:38.279)

I actually used to consider bass players like the Batman of the stage. We work in the shadows to serve the light, making everyone dance on the floor.

Adam Ben Ezra (11:03.758)

Yeah, it's a nice metaphor.

Suraaj Parab (11:08.719)

Moving on, your music brings together jazz, funk, Latin, Mediterranean sounds, and more. How do you know when all those influences are serving the music instead of competing with each other?

Adam Ben Ezra (11:38.030)

For me, making music is very intuitive. When I compose, I improvise for a long time until I stumble upon an interesting source, whether it's a phrase, a group of chords, or a rhythm. Then I try to make a story out of it. The melody is king, so I try not to enforce anything. I just want it to be a coherent story. The styles and techniques are just serving the melody.

Sandeep Kulkarni (12:41.788)

That's so nice. Is there a favorite among these different styles you describe, like jazz, funk, or Latin?

Adam Ben Ezra (13:03.156)

It's really hard to choose. Jazz has become such a wide term; it's a home for free music, so I would pick that because it contains so many flavors, like funk and world music. But every style moves something unique in me. With classical music, I feel it in my brain because it's so uplifting. Arabic music goes straight into your heart with deep emotion. Then you have Latin music, which goes into your pelvis and makes you start to dance. Every style moves something.

Suraaj Parab (14:20.687)

Is there any specific music for you that goes straight to the head?

Adam Ben Ezra (014:25.262)

Yeah, the head is classical because it's the brain.

Suraaj Parab (14:29.583)

Same thought, but I wanted to hear it from you.

Sandeep Kulkarni (14:34.812)

That is so true. Now I'll think of different styles that way—Arabic to the heart, classical to the head, and Latin to the pelvis. That is so funny.

Suraaj Parab (14:56.345)

Actually, we can add the progressive metal genre to the head category as well. I remember Sandeep telling me he watched a Dream Theater show live. The music is cool, but when you listen to it nonstop, your mind starts to get fatigued from all those complex notes.

Sandeep Kulkarni (15:28.336)

They are one of the greatest bands with the greatest members, but after a while, it feels like I'm in a math class trying to count time signatures, and I've lost count already. Moving on, I was watching your YouTube videos and live performances. Your live shows often build into something that feels almost orchestral in real time. What do loops, pedals, or electronics allow you to express that the bass alone cannot?

Adam Ben Ezra (16:18.552)

When I started playing solo, I used very simple devices. I worked with a loop station—the RC-300 looper—and a multi-effect pedal. For the last six or seven years, I've been working with a computer, using Ableton Live to loop myself alongside a plugin called THU for bass effects. I use a foot controller to manage everything inside Ableton Live, and I also have a MIDI keyboard. The software is amazing because it's unlimited compared to a hardware loop station; you can have as many loops as you want. Everything is already mixed and almost EQed when I send the output to the sound engineer, so he just needs to adjust it to the room. It makes life much easier.

Suraaj Parab (18:20.843)

When I started my bass journey around 2010, I used hardware like the VT Bass DI, MXR compressors, and Boss pedals for tone shaping. Since then, a big battle has been going on in the musician community regarding analog versus digital. Back then, digital wasn't as strong and created latency, but nowadays, technology has advanced significantly. What is your take on digital versus analog?

Adam Ben Ezra (19:29.174)

I think everything is digitized today, and you can get an incredibly nice sound through digital devices. It feels like an old discussion because the world is moving forward so fast. Today, the discussion is shifting toward whether you should play the music yourself or generate it with AI.

Sandeep Kulkarni (20:12.319)

What do you think about that whole AI thing? It's all over the place now, especially in music. As a composer, what are your thoughts?

Adam Ben Ezra (20:25.822)

I think it can be an amazing tool. Many musicians are already using it for inspiration. In one of my recent social media reels featuring flamenco playing, I sent the audio to Suno, and it generated a percussion playback. I used it as a tool for a short video, though I probably wouldn't use it on an album. Humanity is famous for destroying things with great tools, so it all depends on how we use AI.

I don't think there is any replacement for live shows. This shift requires us as artists to truly define our inner voice and personal sound. AI music is great at replicating mainstream music, but it won't be as successful at copying highly defined, unique artists.

Suraaj Parab (22:17.647)

On this same topic, I read an interesting theory by a professor who noted that if you look at the 12 standard notes mathematically, the different permutations and combinations for an average two-minute song have largely been depleted over human history. That's why when new songs come out, we often feel like we've heard them before. What do you think about this, and what does it mean for the future of upcoming musicians alongside AI?

Adam Ben Ezra (23:32.172)

I think music is bigger than just 12 notes because you also have rhythm, expression, articulation, and tone. If you put all those aspects into the equation, you get endless choices. In the end, making music is a personal journey where the artist creates what interests them, and hopefully, the audience connects with it. I don't think too much about how it will sound to other people first; the story has to be interesting to me so I don't get bored. The audience will follow.

Suraaj Parab (24:58.071)

That's amazing, Adam. Moving ahead, you have built a massive online audience on YouTube and Instagram, but you've also played hundreds of live shows around the world. How different is the energy of reaching people through a screen versus an auditorium or a room?

Adam Ben Ezra (25:26.304)

When you are in a room, it's real. On a screen, it just looks real, but it isn't. I try to keep social media in perspective; it's a great tool, but it's just a tool for connecting to real people. In live shows, you genuinely feel that pure communication, and I love meeting people after the show.

Sandeep Kulkarni (26:23.558)

It's amazing where your double bass has taken you around the world. People often describe your performances as both virtuosic and deeply engaging. When you step on stage, are you thinking more about precision, spontaneity, or connection?

Adam Ben Ezra (26:58.126)

I am trying to connect with people. Music is a language meant for communication, and that's what drives me.

I try to just be the music. I try to enter a state of meditation because you need to embody what you play without getting distracted or slipping into autopilot, which can easily happen when you've practiced the songs so many times. I try to mean every note I play, like an actor telling a story who knows the text but must feel it in the moment. You have to be present, aware of the room, and ready to react to whatever happens.

Sandeep Kulkarni (29:05.390)

Being aware of the room is so important. Some musicians get completely lost in their own world, but keeping eye contact and reading the crowd's reaction makes a huge difference.

Adam Ben Ezra (29:39.736)

Yes, it's a show, and music is the most significant part of it, but people come to see a performance. Other aspects are vital for the show to succeed and for your music to hit home.

Suraaj Parab (30:08.885)

I love the emphasis on storytelling. Every art form is about what you want to tell the audience. Nowadays, some genres omit the story in favor of showing off technical skills, like how fast someone can shred. It's like a car mechanic showing you a thousand different spanners instead of actually repairing the car.

Adam Ben Ezra (31:04.142)

The question is, can it drive at the end? I'm a big fan of simplicity. I know what I do looks very virtuosic, but my melodies and harmonies are fundamentally simple. I play the rhythmic and melodic parts simultaneously, which makes it seem complex, but if you take it apart, my music is quite simple.

Suraaj Parab (33:12.491)

Exactly. I was once in a fusion band where the other members wanted to overcomplicate the chords just for the sake of it, rather than serving the emotion of the song.

Sandeep Kulkarni (33:50.620)

When musicians don't act as a unit for a common goal and just try to show off individually, it becomes boring. It's vital to serve the piece and remember that technical skills are just tools.

Suraaj Parab (34:37.987)

It reminds me of a legendary bass player, Leland Sklar. During a festival performance featuring soloists like Marcus Miller and Victor Wooten, Leland just sat back by the bass drum and held down the groove. When asked why he wasn't soloing, he said, "These guys are soloists. I'm just a bass player; I know how to play bass." Even Victor Wooten has said that if everyone tries to be a soloist, they will starve. You have to be a foundational bass player first.

Adam Ben Ezra (36:48.258)

That's right. There is a fine line between trying to be someone else and being inspired by them.

Suraaj Parab (37:00.419)

Your 2025 album, Heavy Drops with Michael Oliveira, feels like a bold duo statement between bass and drums, full of movement and color. What drew you to that stripped-down format, and what did it unlock creatively?

Adam Ben Ezra (37:25.718)

This album and show came after more than ten years of performing entirely solo. I wanted to try something new and put the spotlight strictly on the collaboration between bass and drums. Because my solo shows rely on looped parts, having a live drummer makes the rhythmic foundation much more dynamic and powerful. Michael and I met for a few days to build the arrangements and spent three days recording the core tracking. Afterward, I added a few layers of extra bass and synths, but the heart of the album remains the raw communication between the bass and drums. I'm very proud of it.

Sandeep Kulkarni (39:21.836)

After years of reimagining what the double bass can be, what do you hope younger musicians take away from your work?

Adam Ben Ezra (39:46.446)

I hope they are inspired by the freedom of music and by looking at things differently. I looked at the bass from a non-traditional angle, and I hope younger players try new sounds and techniques on their own instruments. They don't need to imitate my exact technique; they just need to be inspired to expand their own boundaries and tell a good story.

Suraaj Parab (40:41.519)

Adam, thank you so much for spending this time with us. We really appreciate the imagination, discipline, and sense of possibility you bring to your music and to the double bass.

Adam Ben Ezra (40:59.126)

It was my pleasure. Thank you so much.

Sandeep Kulkarni (41:03.536)

It was amazing to chat with you. Every conversation like this is a reminder that innovation doesn't always mean inventing something brand new. Sometimes it means breathing new life into something that was always right there.

Adam Ben Ezra (41:22.122)

Exactly. Thank you, and keep up the good work.

Suraaj Parab (41:22.711)

To everyone listening, thank you for being here with us. Make sure to head over to Adam's YouTube channel and Instagram to check out his incredible videos and subscribe. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with a friend, and we will see you in the next episode of the Artist Conversation.