Hank and Cupcakes are a NYC duo that plays sweaty and groovy indie pop. If Cupcakes (the girl) provides driven drumming and soulful vocals, Hank’s bass is in charge of everything else – a role that the 4 string instrument rarely takes upon itself. You wouldn’t call Hank’s style “minimalistic”: the man can deliver at once melodic riffs and low frequency lines, mastering left hand dexterity, right hand picking authority, and huge array of filters, flangers and followers to make one of the freshest signature sounds I've heard in the bass world. Some bassists will use distortion and call it a signature sound, occasionally turning on a filter for a specific part of a song... Hank seems to dive into filter mode head first for nearly all of his playing, and serve up different shades of filtering.

Have you always played with filters? Or is this something that you and Cupcakes chose to reinforce the sensual, organic, flowingly sexy nature of your overall band sound?

I was never that much into pedals in any of the music I played before H&C, maybe a fuzz or an envelope filter but not the craziness that's going on now... The whole idea of playing with effects came as a solution to the minimal bass and drums combo. When we started playing as H&C, the bass had to fill in a wide spectrum of sound and frequencies that don't exist on the instrument so in order to make the music sound whole, I started experimenting with techniques and effects that make the bass sound bigger and richer.

So the bass players who follow in your footsteps can know what kind of gear choices to make, would mind sharing us the layout of your pedal board? I like trying to figure out what my heroes are playing... I think I've figured out your rig with the exception of two pedals. Please let me know if I'm close!:

Here is the list of what I’m hearing:

H+K PEDAL BOARD
Eventide - Pitch Factor
Moog - Bass MuRF
Digitech - Whammy
EHX - Bass Microsynth
EHX - BassBalls
Sola Sound - Tone Bender (fuzz)
EHX - XO Electric Mistress (Chorus/Flanger)
Boss DD-20 Giga Delay
EHX - Holy Grail (reverb)
Digitech - Jam Man (Sampler/looper, pictured)

So what are those 2 mystery pedals? They both have a slanted profile and for the life of me I can't figure out what they are. There's one in the middle of your board with 3 knobs that looks like it could be some sort of a tone shaper or distortion, and then another on the upper right of your board that has 6 knobs and 2 buttons. I've never seen any of these pedals before. Gear geeks always want to know what the mystery pedals are.... will you indulge us?

The one in the middle is the Sola Sound Tone Bender (pictured), which is a fuzz pedal from the UK and is an amazing pedal which I don't run into that much but I just saw one for sale at Main Drag in Williamsburg! The one on the upper right is an Akai - Headrush, it's a delay/echo/looper pedal which I only use as looper. This one is also a great pedal and has a lot of cool stereo options especially in the echo mode.

I really dig your use of stereo delay. As with all thinks Hank+Cupcakes, it's a very sensual application. In the videos I've seen of H+C, you seem to either be hitting the ground hard out of enthusiasm, or doing a lot of tap-tempo programming on the fly. Which is it? How much tweaking do you normally do during a song, as opposed to in between songs?

I don't do any tweaking at all during the song, the whole pedal board including the delay has to be set before the song begins. That's actually one of the biggest challenges of the live performance... What I do a lot during the song is turn pedals on and off in a certain rhythm to get a feeling of two instruments playing two different parts, for example: in the song "Pleasure Town" I use the bass balls on each last eighth note of every bar.

Your live shows have often left people guessing how so much sound can come from one instrument. By my count you are using at least 4 stereo effects pedals... how many feeds do you send to the house? It looks like you have two D.I.'s on stage... are these stereo D.I.'s? Do you sum all of your effects together, or do some filters go to one D.I. and others to a 2nd D.I. to give that "more than one player" sound?

I think that what creates that sound is first of all the fact that the bass is going to the board both clean and with effects so that every note that goes through the effects even if it's modulated to two octaves higher than the original pitch, it still has the clean non-modulated note beneath it (there are no stereo sends at all!). I also trigger pre-recorded sounds using a Digitech Jam Man pedal so overall, I use one DI for clean bass, another DI for effects bass and a third DI for the Digitech Jam Man. Other than that, every song has a different trick. If I use delay, I can play a root note followed by a third and a fifth and because of the delay repeats, you actually get a whole cord playing simultaneously. Another way is harmonizing pedals like the Digitech Whammy or the Eventide Pitch Factor. Lately I've been experimenting more and more with looping and just got the Boss RC50 pedal that I still need to explore.

Were there any bass options that you tried with H&C before settling on picked fretted bass into filters? In an old trio you had with Cupcakes, I believe you played fretless bass... was that ever an option for H&C? You and Cupcakes are known to jam on a daily basis and sometimes take up to three months to perfect one song. I'm curious to know if there are approaches you tried that ended up being inappropriate for the final product. And are there any effects rigs you would like to try that you haven't gotten to yet? (personally I'd love to see you check out the 'Hot Hand' effect from Source Audio!)

When we started working on H&C, it was very clear that effects were going to be a main thing. The Jazz bass fits amazingly into that concept because the effects react very well to it and also because the clean signal is warm and whole and everything just works nicely together. In a perfect world (or in a studio!) I would use a Fretless bass or a Gibson EB-3 for some of the songs. We sometimes work on a song for months (yes, every day...) and then just dump it, I hate it when that happens... I feel like a fucking failure! but the thing is that these are intense learning experiences that influence other songs that follow and it all helps us develop our musical language and learn some new tricks. I'm always very curious about new pedals or effects and to say the truth any sound making objects. In the near future we want to explore new directions using a Roland SPD-S sampling drum pad, Moog Prodigy synth and as I mentioned a Boss RC50 Looper. I'll also check the Hot Hand (pictured) effect soon!



Only the geekiest of gear people want to know what kind of pick and strings you are using, but I want to know! Can you do your thing with any pick, or do you have a specific brand/gauge/shape? I'm also curious to know if you are using roundwound or flatwound strings. Your aggressive right hand style seems to suggest roundwound strings for their aggressive zing, but your left hand and huge warm sound could make me think flat wounds. What's the secret formula?

For H&C I only use new yellow Dunlop 0.73mm or Nylon 0.73mm picks. I feel that picks are like an instrument that you use to play on your instrument. Every pick, according to the material it's made of, thickness and how used out it is, creates a different playing/groove feeling and a different sound. Sometimes after playing for a while with a pick it gets warm and slightly softer then it is when its cold and I have to change it because it drives me crazy. This is on the verge of becoming an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder... The strings I use are fresh RotoSound 045-105 roundwound strings. The reason for that is that a lot of the pedals that I use react much better when the strings are new and crisp. This is not my general point of view, it's just what works best for H&C, every situation is different.

Are you running any effects on Cupcakes' vocal? From the videos/clips I've seen of your live show, it sounds like there is some very interesting time/envelope effects on her vocals, although those could be done at the house. Knowing what a virtuoso you are with effects however, I wonder if effecting her voice from the stage is something you've considered...

Even though we considered controlling the vocal effects ourselves, the effects on Cupcakes vocals are not controlled by neither me or her, It's just too much... If we're lucky we get to work with a creative sound technician who adds that extra touch (I'm assuming your talking about the Fearless videos). We always encourage the house sound guy to be as creative as he can and experiment and usually the result is great! I would love to have someone working with us from the board in the future, I think that it would open some amazing possibilities.