About Me
Nice to Meet You
My name is Samboat, and I’ve been playing bass since 2009. I have a background in classical music, where I’ve sat first chair for my school and regional orchestras. I’ve since pivoted my focus to the electric bass, where I’ve used my skills to teach bassists worldwide via my YouTube channel of 21,000+ Subscribers. I create my own tabs and take pride in my work, focusing on quality over quantity.
I grew up listening to classic rock, but have expanded my musical tastes to include many genres and artists, but still gravitate towards the legendary artists I grew up hearing stories about.
How it Started
Music has always been in my family. My Grandfather was a concert violinist, and I grew up with a story about how he joined the Marines Band on clarinet when his supervisor saw him play a concert the night before he deployed. My mother and her siblings all played violin, but didn’t keep it up. My sister joined the school’s orchestra on violin, but soon dropped it. As a little kid, I liked being different, so I chose the double bass. Nobody picked it, but I also liked the sound. My grandfather helped my parents purchase my first double bass so that I could play in the orchestra. That started my love for the low end that persists to this day. In high school, I was in my school’s top group and also joined the regional orchestra and earned the first chair.
What happened next
Some friends asked me to play Everlong by the Foo Fighters with them for the talent show. I had my mom go out with me to find an electric bass, and I got a cheap pawn shop bass and practice amp as my first setup. The next year I joined an original metal band with some other friends and played the talent show as well. (The outro song on my early videos is one of our originals) We stayed together through the end of high school, where we played the talent show one more time as well as a show at a local rock club. We opened for a “National Act” that I haven’t heard anything about since, but a few big names have played there, like David Ellefson and Puddle of Mudd.
Off to college
In college I joined the infamous MOB. Rice’s marching band’s reputation is often what the school is known for, despite its consistent national rankings for academics. I gained a lot of playing experience during this time, since I started learning songs in my free time as well as making my first cover video. I was active throughout my time in college. My life wouldn’t be the same without it, since I met the love of my life there.
I'm just a traveler
I met my best friend of a few years working at scout camp in the summer. I always brought a bass. He said he played guitar, and we hit it off. His favorite band is AC/DC, so we saw a tribute band that he knew personally one night (The singer auditioned to replace Brian Johnson and they also have their own documentary out). Afterwards, we started a band and called ourselves “The Travelers” because none of us lived close to each other. Our first show was at the same place I played with the other band, and the second was at a park that we booked just to have a fun time. I developed a lot more experience in this time, expanded my repertoire, and started to make more videos for YouTube.