TikTok Bassist Bret Crow Goes Viral Through Humor and Musicianship – No Treble

You might not recognize Bret Crow’s name, but if you’ve spent any time scrolling TikTok in the last few years, you’ve seen his face, and you’ve heard his bass playing. In fact, with more than 1 million followers and hundreds of millions of views, Crow is now likely one of the most recognizable musicians in the world (a rare feat for us bassists, for whom anonymity is too often the norm). The key to his success was a good sense of humor matched with an impressive command of his instrument.

As a music professor and bass historian, I have watched Crow’s rise with giddy delight. For me, he has come to represent the modern version of a working musician. At a time when success in the music industry seems especially fraught, Crow and his fellow TikTok musicians have adapted to the times and found a way to build a dedicated following all on their own. In so doing, they have added another chapter to the DIY playbook, forging new pathways for future musicians to follow.

I wanted to see if Crow thought about his career the same way I did, so I sat down with him for a long-ranging conversation, covering his musical backstory, how he got into making videos, his advice for young musicians, and more. In the end, I not only got firsthand insights of his process, but I also walked away with a much better appreciation for how online spaces like TikTok have created new and exciting opportunities for musical collaboration.

Why don’t you tell me a little bit about your background before you got into making videos. What’s your history as a musician?

Growing up, I listened to a lot of music but never really played. My dad was an artist, so I was really more into drawing. And then, when I was 14, I got my first bass. All my friends, they were getting guitars. And then my best friend at the time, he got a set of drums, and I thought, “Well, what’s no one doing?” So I just picked up bass because no one was doing that, and I thought, “I’m gonna do that, and I’m gonna get really good at it.” So I went to the local hometown music shop, and got a bass – a short-scale, 19-fret Hondo. All black, really small. At the time, I wanted to play metal because I liked to listen to a lot of really heavy stuff like Pantera, White Zombie, Korn, Tool, and Sepultura. All my friends, that’s all we really listened to. We were all metalheads. Then, in my second bass lesson, my instructor showed me [Primus’s] ‘Sailing the Seas of Cheese.’ He said, “If you want to check out some real cool bass playing here, take this home and listen to it.” And I listened to it and was like, “Whoa.” And I knew then that I wanted to do that. So, I started working on slapping really early. Then I just started playing music all the time. My friends and I would just get together and jam. We weren’t learning songs, really. We were just jamming.

So, even from the beginning, both slap bass and improvisation were a core part of your approach?

Yeah, I would write a riff at home and then take it to them, and we’d jam on it and see where it goes. That kind of thing. And that’s how we wrote just about every song back then.

When did you get more into composing?

What really got me into wanting to be a composer was listening to Frank Zappa. So, I went from Primus to Mr. Bungle and John Zorn stuff, experimental kind of music. When I found Frank Zappa, it really opened my eyes to the avant-garde classical thing. That made me want to learn how to write music, learn music theory, get ear training, and all those things. To this day, he’s still my biggest inspiration.

Did you study music in college?

I went to Alvin Community College to do all my basic music theory, ear training, etc. Then, I went to the University of North Texas and got a composition degree. In the composition courses, we were able to write weird pieces, graphic scores, things like that.

I just saw that you recently posted a graphic score and asked people to interpret it.

Yeah. I just thought, “I’m gonna do this and see what happens.” Because I’ve been wanting to do that stuff, what was really cool about that piece is that, because it was through the internet, it gives people a chance to collaborate and not have to really think so hard about it. Then I ended up piecing the audio of that altogether, and it was great. The magic of the graphic score is that it will line up at points. It doesn’t have to necessarily line up the entire way through. You’re just doing your part. But when I overlayed everybody’s parts, it was just magical how it came together.

When did you start making TikTok videos? Were you doing internet stuff before that?

I had been live-streaming and posting some covers on YouTube. And every open mic performance or live show that I would do, I would livestream on Facebook, once you were able to do that. But it was only through my personal page. So I was doing it for local people, friends, and family if they wanted to check it out. Whoever. Because that was the reach. So I was live streaming on Facebook up until the pandemic hit. And then I downloaded TikTok in January 2020 and spent a year messing around with it, making some videos. And I started to do some music stuff, but it was really spaced out. Then, probably around November/December of 2020, I started to actually sit down and make time to post as many as I could in a day, you know, as much as I wanted. And I started off just doing bass covers, playing things that inspired me. There were no videos that I saw of Primus songs, so I did those riffs. And I would do a couple a day, playing riffs of popular songs that I thought people would dig, like Weezer and Journey. A lot of classic rock stuff. What’s really funny was that the bass cover of “Running with the Devil” by Van Halen went further than a lot of the others.

And it’s just “Bom bom bom.”

Yeah [laughs]. But doing those things really inspired others to duet those and add in the other parts. So, through doing those bass covers, we’ve built songs that people can go and do a karaoke version of, or they can add harmonies, or add whatever, you know?

It’s a long-distance collaboration.

Exactly.

So this all kind of started for you during the pandemic?

Oh yeah. It was just that my time had opened up. You know, that really made it into something I was able to do, and it also became a way to sustain myself too.

Especially at a time when there weren’t live gigs anymore.

Yeah. And to this day, I try to post videos many times throughout the week, as much as possible basically.

And is that how you ended up building a global following?

Yeah. It’s just to keep the eyes on you. I’m just posting stuff because I think it’s cool and fun. If I post a funny video, it’s because I think it’s funny, and I’m just going to get it out there. But the more that you post, the more you’ll be able to be seen and then people can react to your stuff. The comments, likes, and subscribers, all that stuff really helps the algorithm. Also, the more you do it, the better you get at it. I do all the editing in the app. So, the more you just mess with it, you get better, faster, and seen.

Did you need a lot of gear to get up and running?

I did have to upgrade my phone because I was using an iPhone 6S, and it only held 60 gigs. All the videos just added up, so I needed more storage. So, I upgraded to the iPhone 12, and that’s what I’ve been using ever since. The big issue I ran into was latency. To solve that, I ended up getting an iRig Stream, which connects your phone to an RCA input. So I ran an RCA to quarter-inch cable, and I plugged that into my looper so all the sound would just come out of there. It took me some time to home in on the sound, but that’s the basic setup I use.

Do you enjoy making short-form content? I think that is still what most people know you for.

Oh yeah. A bunch of other creators and I’ve met through TikTok, and we’re all making jokes. That’s really where the fun is at because we’ll have a funny idea and just try it. That’s how I had that idea for the video where someone would have a laugh that was really long and then I sing [the Gorillaz’s] “Feel Good Inc” and add the bass line. Or people do a joke, and I do the Seinfeld theme. All that stuff.

Well, and a lot of your videos are funny. Is it almost as much a comedy channel as a music channel?

Humor has always been in everything I make, ever since I was a little kid. When I was ten, my mom introduced me to Weird Al, and I just wanted to do comedy after that. Cartoons and comedy have always been part of what I do. Being able to make people laugh is the greatest joy in the world.

When it comes to making videos, do you have particular strategies you use to get them to go viral?

I mainly go off my own instincts, my own intuition. When it comes to duetting a video, I just see something, listen to it, and then I think to myself, “I’m just gonna put this bass line to it.” Some of them take a very short amount of time to create, and some of them take a little bit longer, but either way, it comes from a place of thinking that I want to do this because I enjoy it, and I think it’s fun. There isn’t really a strategy where I think, “Oh, this one is gonna go viral.” It’s always just a nice surprise. For instance, one of my first videos that ever went really viral was a cover of DuckTales. It was huge in Russia. I had no idea that would happen. But apparently, over there, millennials are called the “DuckTales Generation.” But I didn’t know that. And then the next one that went viral was the riff for [Primus’s] “Jerry Was a Race Car Driver.” I had been recording videos of riffs for months, and that was the one that broke through. Reading through the comments, I saw that people kept talking about Tony Hawk [Pro Skater], so it was a lot of people just having nostalgia for that game. And then another one I did, I was showing how to play [Primus’s] “My Name is Mud,” and I was using my six-string fretless, and everybody was just commenting, “Oh, that bass is cool! What is that?” So it varies a lot.

But I also assume, having done it for so long now, you have a sense of the kind of videos people are into now.

Oh yeah, for sure.

I’m interested in your process. Can you walk me through what a typical day looks like for you as a content creator?

Well, in my spare time, I’m always checking out what everybody else is doing, too. So, I’m going and saving videos that I want to duet or stitch. I’ll just keep scrolling and find stuff that makes me think, “Oh, yeah. I can add something to this.” And now, people tag me in the videos they want me to duet. I also have a bunch of people sending me stuff all the time. And it’ll be something like a mechanical thing or a cat meowing in rhythm.

So, it’s not another musician. It’s just a random person who thought it would be funny for you to add something to it.

Yeah, just people who have been following me for a long time or people who have seen my other stuff and know what I do. And then they see a washing machine video, where it has a distinctive rhythm, or an industrial machine going tick-tick-tick-tick-tick. And they say, “You should put music to that.” Or other people will find drummers doing a beat and say, “You should jam to this.” So I’ll add stuff to that. And I don’t limit myself to what kind of things I’ll play. There have been some things that are really super metal, but then I’ve also been doing soloing over DJs posting their beats.

Are you mostly improvising, or are you sitting down and really working out parts?

I improvise a few takes until I get one that I like. I don’t think about it too hard or anything.

So, how long does it take you to make, say, a 15-second short form silly video?

That just depends on how the takes are and if the timing is right.

How do you judge a good and bad take?

I just know when I nail it. You know, it’s a feeling. It’s instinct. If everything lines up, and I listen to it, and I don’t feel like I have to do it again, and it’s making me laugh, then I think that’s good and move on. But also, sometimes, I end up doing 50 takes on something before I think, “This is it. I’ve done it.” It just depends. It can be all over the place, but you just have to persevere.

And you’re just guided by your own gut as to what you think works?

Yeah. There are times that I will get into a perfectionist mindset, but that’s because I want to get it right, and I know it’s not good enough. Because people can sense bullshit. You can’t just do anything and pretend it’s good when it’s not. People can tell if you didn’t put any effort into it.

Because you are invested in a sense of quality.

Oh, absolutely. There’s no other way to be. You have to strive to be the best that you can be. You don’t want to half-ass it because you’ll get half ass results, right?

And that’s also part of how you built an audience. Because even if it is a silly seven-second duet, you’re still taking it seriously. And that’s a key part of your success?

It’s like Monty Python: seriously silly.

Is making videos a 9-to-5 job for you?

Well, at the beginning of last year, I was posting on TikTok seven videos a day, nine a day. So I would sit down, post those, go do TikTok videos, and do some other work. And then I’d have to go outside because I’ve been staring at a screen for too long. That’s why I’ve been gardening and finding things to do between making videos, spending some time with my family, going outside, watching a little bit of TV, you know. Hang out and practice. But now, I’ll just schedule them out for the month. So I have more time open, and the channel is kind of running itself. I don’t have to do any of the posting. I have a backlog of videos, so as I’m adding new videos to it, I’m building this stockpile that I can then release at a later date.

I often consider you a good example of a modern-day working musician. Someone making gigs happen wherever they can, someone who has successfully adapted to the current trends and is paying their bills by playing music. Is that how you see yourself?

Sort of. I’m gigging a lot. I have regular gigs that I do that pay well enough for me to sustain myself and pay the bills. For the online stuff, it took a long time to acquire the required watch hours and subscriber count to be able to get the ad revenue. So, I have been doing that for long enough that it has now become a revenue stream. But I also had to invest in doing the work or creating and posting and getting those watch hours up. It didn’t happen overnight. I also have live streams, which is sort of like online busking.

What advice do you have for young musicians today who might want to follow in your footsteps?

Well, if you are making content online, I think you need to make sure you are having fun and enjoying what you’re doing, or else it won’t work. In general, though, I would say that they should go out and find any paying gig that they could possibly find. I found a tribute band that just did 80s music and played with them for a while. Through them, I met a lot of the musicians that I now play with in the Live Band Karaoke I run. And just by getting to know people in the area, I’ve gotten to play corporate gigs, too. So, getting out there is really important. The more that other musicians see you and they know that you give a shit and that you can play, all those things will help you land more gigs. That’s what happened to me.

Does that kind of networking also work online?

Oh, yeah. You can put yourself out there and let people know what your skill set is. That you can do session work, that you can do mixing, mastering, recording, etc. That you can flesh out someone’s music or write their stuff out. For example, there are people out there that don’t know how to write music and need someone to help them out, so let me write your string quartet that you did in Midi out for you. There are lots of things you can do. But it still all has to be a labor of love. I think you still need to do it because it’s fun. That’s got to be the main goal, that you love what you do and you’re having fun doing it. Because if you’re just slogging through, it’s going to be a pain in the ass. And you have to do it consistently every day. It can’t just be something you do on the weekends or just whenever you feel like it.

For you personally, has your online following translated into your local gigs? Do those people show up in person?

They go to [my Primus tribute band] Primish gigs now. I’ve had a lot of people who follow me show up to those gigs and sometimes my solo stuff, too. But a lot of the people who follow me aren’t in the area, so that’s why I livestream. Every show that I do, every performance that I’m playing, any time that I’m on stage, I’m live streaming. No matter what.

So, does it feel like you have two different musical careers: the TikTok funny video/live-streaming thing and the in-person local gigs?

I’m trying to make them all one thing! [Laughs]

Has having this big established online following helped fuel your other creative projects?

For sure. Take the second Time Knife album, Half and Half. I started recording that at the beginning of last year, around March 2023, just doing all the basic tracks. I did the drum programming for almost everything. Then I did guitars, bass, singing, etc. As I was working on the songs, I was reaching out to friends that I’d met on TikTok who are musicians. So I’d send them the basic track, and they would write their own parts, record them, and send them back to me. And I ended up collaborating with over 20 people I met just through TikTok. Then I sent the tracks over to another friend I met on TikTok, and he did all the mixing and mastering, and it became the album that is out right now. And that’s all through internet collaboration. Just asking friends, “Would you add on to this?” And it made an amazing album that I’m really proud of.

So, does this sense of collaboration exist not just in your duetting videos but in your actual musical practice now?

Yeah. And I’ve done the same thing, too, where someone will ask me to play on something, and I’d record a bass part and send it to them. I’ve done that with several artists now, and I’m gonna keep doing that. But, again, that comes from putting yourself out there and letting people know what you can do.