STU BROOKS (Nine Inch Nails, Dominic Fike, Dub Trio) [Bassed. Podcast 40]

Stu Brooks has spent decades making bass sound bigger, stranger, and more cinematic than most players think possible. In this episode, he breaks down how that approach took him from Dub Trio and live dub experiments to Dominic Fike, Nine Inch Nails, Danny Elfman, and the kind of tone-shaping that can turn one player into an entire atmosphere.

Carson Childers and Nick Bernard catch up with Stu Brooks for a deep gear-and-mindset conversation connecting dub, punk, ambient, industrial, and modern arena bass playing. Stu shares how a King Tubby tape changed everything, why he treats sound design as a core part of musicianship, and how years of multitasking on bass, keys, synths, and effects shaped the way he plays today.

In this episode:

How Dub Trio evolved from jungle and drum and bass into live dub, noise, and ambient experimentation

Why flatwounds, P-style basses, gates, compression, and clean gain staging changed Stu’s approach to tone

How he uses the Quad Cortex, amp sims, captures, and stomp mode across sessions and live shows

What it’s like balancing gigs with Dominic Fike, Nine Inch Nails, and Danny Elfman

The unusual gear that keeps him inspired, from the Swarmatron to a deconstructed piano

Carson and Nick also dig into the realities of live bass tone in huge rooms, why some pedals can be tough to capture digitally, and how Stu keeps chasing new sounds without losing the groove.

Stu Brooks is a bassist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist known for his work with Dub Trio, Nine Inch Nails, Dominic Fike, Danny Elfman, and other boundary-pushing artists. His approach blends adventurous sound design with musical feel—and brings dub-informed creativity to modern live performance.

Subscribe to the Bassed. Podcast for more conversations with musicians about their sound, gear, and creative process.