NyAirWaves Radio! Exclusive Interview w/ Super Producer Bass Heavy

Roderick "Bass Heavy" Tillman was born in Shreveport, LA to a gospel singing mother who exposed him to music at an early age. Realizing his talent, his mother enrolled him in perfoming arts school at 6th grade concentrating in classical piano. Though he received several medals for classical recitals, he never really had a passion for the classical genre, instead preferring more popular styles of music. Bass found himself right at home in 8th grade when he joined the jazz band. He began learning jazz standards and jazz form. He auditioned and was accepted to the Caddo Magnet High School for the Perfoming Arts as a jazz pianist. However, after attending a jazz band camp that summer, he changed his ambition to being a bass player. He fell in love with the instrument after observing one of the camp counselors sitting in with the students. He was blown away. He spent all of his high school years developing his bass skills in the symphonic and jazz bands. Also, the high school had a rare 16 track studio granting him free access to countless hours of studio time. This is where Bass began to hone his skills by staying after school every evening tracking himself on drums, bass and keys. Following high school, Bass attended the University of New Orleans with dual Jazz Studies and Electrical Engineering majors. Immediately upon arriving in New Orleans he was offered gigs based off of his jazz combo auditions. He continued playing several venues throughout the New Orleans French Quarter. Also during this time, Bass began producing his first projects with equipment bought from the money he earned from gigs. These first projects were mainly demos with his classmates. This prepared him for his first major label opportunity with No Limit Records. He went on to work on eight projects with No Limit Records in the following two years. This sparked many more projects with several other artists from the New Orleans area.