Get to know the Soulful Traveling Spaceman Bassman Carter Fox 🔊 WhatsMusic.de

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Get to know the Soulful Traveling Spaceman Bassman Carter Fox

written by Carter Fox and WhatsMusic.de

Get to know the Soulful Traveling Spaceman Bassman Carter Fox

Carter Fox, a Philadelphia-based bassist, producer, and entrepreneur, draws inspiration from his passion for space, physics, and video games. Growing up in a musical household, he began playing the upright bass at age 7 and has since developed his unique ‘chill-fi’ style, blending jazz, rock, and world music elements. Influenced by mentors like Gerald Veasley and bands such as Dragonforce, Carter’s music aims to relax and inspire listeners. He aspires to score music for video games and films, while continuing to grow as a musician and person.

Carter Fox, affectionately known as the Soulful Traveling Spaceman Bassman, has been an active musician, songwriter, producer and artist since the young age of 15. He’s toured with R&B legend Freddie Jackson and worked with Grammy winners like Skrillex, Pablo Batista, Leon Huff, producer David Ivory, Adventure Club, and up and coming artists OddKidOut, Ori Rose, Jay Copes, and more while also releasing original music as a solo artist with international labels and collectives Biblioteka Records, the Acrylic Label, Chill with Taiki, Chill Space/Stellar Rider, Chill Moon Music, Lofi Munk Records, Mad Dragon Music Group, Climax Entertainment, Cold Soda Recordings, and his own Intrepid Fox Music. He recently lent his bass skills to the Lionsgate film release ‘Running On Empty,’ starring Jim Gaffigan, Lucy Hale, Jay Pharoah, and Keir Gilchrist, performing on the score.

His style of ‘chill-fi’ music is inspired by a passion for astronomy and a deep love for video games, combining various genres including jazz, rock, and experimental electronic into his unique style, and has garnered support from major players in the instrumental community including College Music, LoFi Girl, Chill Select, Stereofox and more. Carter’s song ‘Cosmic Sunset’ (Acrylic/Chill with Taiki) reached #1 on Apple Music Easy Listening Charts around the world and his song Eclipse (Biblioteka) has over 2,000,000 streams on Spotify and was featured on the All-Nighter, Chill Instrumental Beats, LoFi Chill, Foco con Energia, and Boost Creativo editorial playlists.

On August 9th, 2024, Carter Fox will unveil his new single “Sunny Daze,” the second official single from his forthcoming album, Physics of the Impossible, set to drop in early 2025. “Sunny Daze” is a chill lofi jazz track that bring good vibes from higher dimensions in a simple sound. The song’s thoughtful piano parts float together in a magical duet that brings calm to the mind, body, and soul.

Aspiring to one day write music for video games and films, Carter Fox ultimately wants to help score the soundtrack to the universe. Additionally, Carter has written articles about the music business, marketing, and being an independent musician that have been featured by industry trade site Hypebot, guest lectured and spoken about music, business, and bass at a variety of forums such as the University of Southern California, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Drexel University, New York University, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Bootcamp, the Philadelphia-based after-school music/education program ‘Rock to the Future,’ and privately. He runs his own marketing consulting firm working with artists, podcasts, businesses, and brands.

Carter recently published a book, Music Business Bassics: How to Effectively Release & Promote Your Music as an Independent Artist, based on his experiences releasing music as an independent artist, working with and at labels, publishers, agencies, and running his own marketing consulting company, and working with other independent, major, and legacy artists to help release and promote their music. It was #1 in newly release Music Business books on Amazon in April 2024. The follow up, The YouTube/Google Ads Rockstar Guide for Musicians, was published on August 2, 2024.

Carter Fox is endorsed by and supports Aguilar Amplification (www.aguilaramps.com), DR Strings (www.drstrings.com), and Moody Leather Guitar Straps (www.moodyleather.com).

Interview with Carter Fox

Tell us about yourself, who are you and where do you come from?

Hello there! My name is Carter Fox hailing from Philadelphia, PA, USA. Lived in New York City for a little bit but have been mainly a Philly guy most of my life and grew up about 30 minutes outside the city in Lansdale, PA. I am a bassist, producer, and entrepreneur with a fun lifestyle and clothing brand called Soulful Traveler and marketing consulting boutique. I write books intended to educate fellow artists about the business side of music, as well as working on fiction and other fun stuff! I hope to get into acting and voice acting more someday, but my inability to not laugh may hold me back. And I love ‘chilling’ on my own and with my friends and family, which is my umbrella term for playing video games, watching anime, comedy and action movies, reading sci-fi books, fishing, golfing. I also have a passion for space and physics and love studying cosmology, astronomy, physics, and related topics in my spare time. It heavily inspires my music.

How was your passion for music born? Who are your idols?

I think it was born the same way I was… from my parents. I always grew up with music. My mom played the saxophone when she was younger and my dad is an avid smooth jazz fan.They’re both true fans of music in general. Always blasting the music they enjoy in car rides or on the big stereo system. I remember my mom playing the Broadway recording to Phantom of the Opera when I was young and that was a big influence. Andrew Lloyd Webber and showtunes. I’m originally a classically trained upright bassist. So I started with the love of popular, classical, and jazz early on. My first CD was a Beach Boys compilation I received for the holidays. That was a real starting point for loving music. Something always was calling me to play, and when I was 7 I picked up the upright bass, and when I was 8 I picked up the trombone. THEN I heard Gerald Veasley’s music. I’ll give him the biggest credit as my mentor, idol, and, over the years, friend. My dad was already a big fan because he played bass for his big time favorite artist – Grover Washington, Jr. And I became obsessed with it. How Gerald created instrumentals of famous songs (Stevie Wonder’s Do I Do). How he LEAD with the bass and his 6 string sound, that literally changed my life! He showed me bass was everything. The low, the high, the inbetween. And then from there my admiration expanded to the legends Victor Wooten, Stanley Clark, Marcus Miller, Jaco, Brian Bromberg, Michael Manring, Adam Nitti. Then my bass teacher, Kjell Benner, got me into Brothers Johnson, Sly and the Family Stone, Jeffrey Osborne. And then I pulled a 180 and dove into Dragonforce, Dream Theatre, Coheed and Cambria. And truly, there’s so much music and every time something hits me right, I’ve been influenced! Even now, I still say that I try to make smooth jazz music, and then I create what I create, which is chill-fi jazz!

What kind of music do you do?

I create what I like to call, and hope others also maybe agree with perhaps, ‘chill-fi’ music. It encompasses elements of jazz, rock, and world music elements with a chill twist that sometimes is more lofi, sometimes more cinematic, sometimes more ambient in nature. It’s inspired by looking up at the stars at night and dreaming what’s out there across the universe. Sometimes it tells stories of cosmic events and sometimes it’s ethereal meditation. Though it can mean whatever it means to the listener.

What is the most important song for you? What message do you want to convey to the listener?

They all have special meaning, which I’m sure is true for most if not all artists. So at this moment in space-time, I will have to go with my song ‘Welcome to the Universe’ as probably the most. It was written for an ex-girlfriend, who helped inspire me in a moment of creative frustration by sending me the Andy Warhol quote about just creating. The original title was actually ‘Andy Warhol’ until it also developed this deeper meaning to my Epoch album, where the optimism of the song, the ‘cresendo’ of the arrangement, is meant to bring an optimism towards the future and comfort to your heart. A ‘light through the dark tunnel’ feeling of hope. It really has this great groove and melody and really feels like the universe is welcoming you home.

Why should a listener who doesn’t know you listen to your music?

If you like space, video games, and being a good person, I think you’ll dig my music! It’s a blend of interesting genres that will help you relax, inspire you to conquer that boss battle, and inspire you to dive deep, and keep going far into the future. It’s groovy, it’s chill, it’s all good vibes! And in all serious, I really hope my music can help get you through the anxieties of life, the moments you can’t seem to calm down, and remember that you can do this, and that you will get through this better and stronger for the experience.

What are your future projects? Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

In 5 years, I hope to see myself scoring more film and video projects and creating music for such cool things. I also hope to be touring more for my solo project, which I’ve been developing very cool live performance aspects for it. Ultimately, I hope to have grown as a person and musician.

Tell our readers a funny episode that happened in your career as an artist.

There are honestly a lot, and I probably have forgotten more than I remember. BUT I will share a recent ‘hilarious’ episode, especially in hindsight. I was performing with R&B legend Freddie Jackson at the St Kitts Music Festival a few months ago, and when flying home, there were some intense weather systems that made it a bit stressful to get back into the country. And once we did (with no delays to the main plan I might add), in Miami, we waited til 11pm and all the flights were cancelled. We were supposed to be home in Philly by then, but now wouldn’t get home until maybe 2 days later with no hotels or anything. So, and much love to my bandmates in JUTAUN who are all superstars, we looked at each other and said ‘we’re renting cars and driving’. And that’s exactly what we did. Rented 2 mid size SUVs, split into 2 groups, and drove 18 hours straight up the east coast home. It was a wonderful bonding experience and a LOT of coffee drinks. But blessed to have family like that on the road!

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