Zack Christie-Keane

About

Bass — sessions, function bands and theatre pits. Reads well, learns fast.

I have been playing bass since 2018, and most of what I know came from having to learn something quickly and get it right the first time.

That started with function bands — long sets, short notice, no room for approximation. It is unglamorous work and it makes you good. You learn to hear a song once and know where the bass needs to sit, and you learn that reliability is worth more than flash.

Original projects are where the other half of it lives. Writing a line that defines a song is a different skill from supporting one, and knowing which the song needs is most of the job. I have done both, and I would rather be the player who knows when to stay out of the way.

Reading

BIMM sharpened the reading. I came out with first-class honours in Popular Music Performance, and it is the reading that has opened the most doors since — theatre pit work especially, where you are handed a chart and expected to play it properly the first time through.

These days it is sessions, live dates with Vintage Voltage, and teaching.

Career highlights

  1. 2018

    Started playing

    First gigs on the Essex circuit.

  2. BIMM

    First-class honours, Popular Music Performance

    The reading is the part that has paid off most since.

  3. Ongoing

    Function and covers work

    Long sets learned to performance standard at short notice.

  4. Ongoing

    Theatre pit bands

    Reading work — charts played properly first time through.

  5. Ongoing

    International dates

    Gigs outside the UK alongside the domestic diary.

  6. Current

    Vintage Voltage

    Live tribute act — the regular band commitment.

Bands and projects

Biography, ready to use

Three lengths. Copy whichever fits the space you're filling.

Short

45 words

Zack Christie-Keane is a bassist working across rock, pop, funk and jazz. Playing since 2018, with first-class honours in Popular Music Performance from BIMM and a reading habit that takes him from function sets to theatre pits. Electric and fretless, live or in the studio.

Medium

112 words

Zack Christie-Keane is a bassist whose playing spans rock, pop, funk and jazz. He graduated from BIMM with first-class honours in Popular Music Performance, and has since worked across original projects, function bands, theatre pit work and international dates. In original bands he writes the grooves and melodies that define a song, and knows when to step back and let the music carry itself. Function work has made him fast: long sets learned to performance standard in days rather than weeks. He is a confident reader, comfortable in a pit with a chart he saw that morning. He plays electric and fretless bass, records remotely for sessions, and teaches privately from Southend-on-Sea.

Press photos and full one-sheet