Karl began his musical odyssey at the age of 8, on the classical guitar. Having achieved a distinction at grade 8 and a Performer’s Diploma by the age of 16, Karl turned his attention to the bass guitar: ‘I was heavily into soul, funk and fusion as a teenager,’ he states, ‘and I quickly realized that it was the bass guitar that really drove and directed this kind of music.’
Influenced by such virtuoso bass players as Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Marcus Miller, Louis Johnson, Armand Sabal-Lecco and Mark King, Karl developed a distinctive percussive and rhythmic style that quickly established him as an in-demand player for jazz, blues and soul bands whilst still at university in Oxford. Following a period spent living in France, where he played extensively around the clubs of Paris and Nancy and gigged and recorded with such stars of the French music scene as MC Solaar, Manu Dibango and Laurent Voulzy, Karl moved to London, where he spent six years as a session player, songwriter and producer.
Karl is a founder member, songwriter and producer of the UK funk and soul band, Harambe, who have so far recorded and released two commercially-available albums via the Universal label, 2003’s Roots and 2007’s Testify (an expanded version of which was licensed in Japan to the CCRE label in 2008), and co-wrote and produced the eponymous Broken Angel album (2005). Following the release at the end of 2010 of the Reboot EP, Harambe are currently working on new material and periodically touring throughout Europe and Japan.
Karl is now settled in Galway on the west coast of Ireland and is currently working with various top Irish function bands, typically playing around 150 gigs per year throughout Ireland. He is also involved in a number of original projects, including jazz-funk-fusion outfit Earthship, The Siomha Brock Band, Ramshackle and Superfreaks, and is in constant demand as a session player and dep. Recently, he played bass on the charity single, Tiny Dancer, which reached No.1 in 5 countries in 2012/13.
In recent years, Karl has become known for his YouTube channel where he presents his solo bass arrangements of classic pop songs, jazz, funk and fusion tracks and TV and movie soundtracks. Here, he employs a variety of techniques including slap, two-handed tapping and classical guitar-style thumb- and fingerpicking, to combine melody, chords and bassline in a single performance, effectively making his bass guitar a self-accompanying instrument, without the need for other instruments.
More recently, Karl has begun putting many of the techniques that he developed for these solo bass arrangements to the service of his own compositions. He explains: 'I've always written songs and instrumentals and performed them with a variety of different bands over the years. However, in the course of working on my solo bass arrangements of other artists' material, it slowly dawned on me that with all I had learnt in doing that, I could probably write and record using just the bass, and even perform solo - no other instruments needed! I've also always found it beneficial, from a creative point of view, to set restrictions on myself when writing and recording - to limit my options, in effect - as a way of avoiding the paralysis and writer's block that can set in when you have too many choices! So I set myself the goal of writing and recording original tracks every couple of weeks and working them into my YouTube release schedule. My solo albums are effectively a compilation of the best of those original tracks over the last few years.'
Some of the artists Karl has worked with, either on recording sessions or live, over the years include: David McAlmont, Keziah Jones, Manu Dibango, Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies, PJ Harvey, Gary Barlow (Take That), Ronan Keating, John Harrison (producer: Liberty X, Sugababes), Neil Conti (drummer: Scritti Politti, Level 42), Dr John, Fred Wesley & The New JBs, Luke Lockhart, Pete Ray Biggin, Clayton Denwood, MC Solaar, Laurent Voulzy, Soweto Kinch, Zoe Rahman, Moe Loughran, Skazz, Martina Flaherty, Niceol Blue, Paul King and Krishna BlackEagle.
Karl’s publishing interests are handled by Hornall Brothers in the UK.
Karl is also available for teaching, product demonstrations and clinics, and has appeared in this capacity at NAMM in Anaheim, CA, Mannheim Guitar Summit and the Frankfurt Musikmesse on various occasions, for various clients. Karl endorses Bogart Basses, who produce a Karl Clews signature model, The Broadsword.
