Dr SoloBassSteve

@solobasssteve

'Britain's most innovative bassist, no contest': Bass Guitar Mag. 🎯 Bass person. Bike person. Lymphoma-remission person. PhD in artist-audience communities and their impact on the music. www.stevelawson.net he/him/doctor

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Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· 21d

So at first I thought I was making two albums, then three... then the third one made it clear that it wanted to be two separate albums, so I now have four 🤪 Evidence of the most productive two weeks of my recording life. Manifesto is out publicly on Aug 3rd. The other three are subscriber exclusive.

screen shot of the artwork to 4 new albums by Steve Lawson, named Manifesto, How We Got From There To Here, Inner Cinema and We Make The Road By Walking

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· 25d

Three albums coming soon... Manifesto is the public release, but will be accompanied by two subscriber only albums - How We Got From There To Here, and Inner Cinema. So excited to get this music out into the world :) subscribe at stevelawson.bandcamp.com/subscribe to get it all x

album artwork for Manifesto by Steve Lawson - the picture is of a canal tunnel, with the neck of a bass guitar blended in in an abstract manner.

album artwork for How We Got From There To Here by Steve Lawson - the photo is a heavily vignetted picture of Steve from 1991, holding a bass and wearing glasses

The album artwork for Inner Cinema by Steve Lawson - the artwork is a magical realist looking photo of a forest, with a person in a red shirt bent over in the middle picking something up off the forest floor.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 25

I love this time of year. Spring is hopeful, signs of new life are everywhere & people who've struggled through winter feel like the world is opening up again. So I'm planning adventures. Gigs, bike rides, fun with friends & family. Stay committed to hope & as close to gratitude as you can. 🙏

Steve Lawson in a cap and scarf looking into the camera with a contented look on his face.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 21

So apparently the median income in the 'creative industries' is £42K. And here I am, 53 with a PhD, a 27-year internationally celebrated solo career, a 3-decade teaching career, struggling to imagine a world in which I made that much without doing absolutely heinous work. 😩🤷🏽🙄🤪

image of text from an Instagram Post that reads "New research from Cambridge University found that young people from lower-income backgrounds are routinely steered away from creative careers at school as they are told they’re too risky.

42% of 14-year-olds enjoy creative subjects. Just 1 in 25 ends up working in a creative career.

For girls from lower-income backgrounds, the researchers have a phrase for it: double disadvantage.

Meanwhile, median pay in the creative industries is £42,399, which is above the UK average. The sector employs 2.4 million people and is one of the government’s eight identified growth industries.

What advice were you given around creative careers at school and how did it impact your career journey? "

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Mar 5

Two days away from my house concert in Birmingham with the brilliant Millie Turner. Would love to see you there - deets/tix on Bandcamp: stevelawson.bandcamp.com/merch

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Jan 8

Let's see if I can actually manage to post a video here 🤷🏽 Lil' bit of a reharm of Marry You by Bruno Mars, along with his slowed down and pitch-shifted original vocal :) Telling new stories with existing songs...

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Dec 31

HNY, friends. 2025 has been a complex year of a few highs coupled with a whole lot of soul searching & uncertainty. Here's hoping that some of those things find their joyful resolution in 2026, alongside a whole lot of music, teaching, writing & PhD related shenanigans 🧑‍🎓

Selfie of Steve Lawson looking to the camera, sat on a couch with a half smile and sleepy eyes.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Dec 24

found this from 10 years ago on Facebook. Fascinated by the phrase, "Authenticity is a luxury of the unknown" - that's some pretty heavy cultural theory there, 10-years-ago-me. Will have to unpack that...

screenshot of a facebook post from 24 december 2015, that reads
"Loving* all the people trying to show how savvy they are by calling Bieber's NHS tweet a publicity stunt. Dude has 71 million followers. Every single tweet he will ever send is a publicity stunt. Authenticity is a luxury of the unknown. I'm still grateful that he chose to do that given the various other publicity stunts he could've chosen.
(*not actually loving, more rolling my eyes at)"

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Dec 20

I spend an awful lot of time thinking about this moment in the history of King Crimson and it's transformative implications for our understanding of authorship. There's a straight line from here to me seeing my audience as co-creators of my work.

Screenshot of the following text from Wikipedia
"Bruford spent the entirety of "Trio" with his drumsticks crossed over his chest, waiting for the right moment to join in, but eventually realized that the piece was progressing better without him. His decision not to add any percussion was seen by the rest of the band as a crucial choice, and so he received co-writing credit.[8] "Trio" was later included on the 1975 compilation album A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson, the performance credits of which cite Bruford's contribution to the piece as "admirable restraint."[9]"

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Dec 13

Closing in on 50 years since the start of my media career. I was a mascot for Wimbledon a whole load of times in the late 70s. This is from a picture book called "Let's Go To The Soccer Match" which came out in 77/78. #silkyskills

Photo of a page in a children's picture book about football. The photo on the page features a 4 year old running onto a football pitch in front of the adult male captain of the team. The caption on the page reads "the captains lead their teams onto the pitch. This team has a lucky mascot"

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Dec 4

Listening to Trevor Noah's memoir on Audible. It's absolutely incredible. Exquisite story telling, history, humanity, self awareness. Can't recommend it highly enough.

Screenshot of the cover of Trevor Noah's autobiography on Audible, entitled Born A Crime. The picture is a painting of Trevor smiling

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Sep 30

Birmingham! Come one, come all…Well, not all. Probably 20 at most. Sat Oct 18th, house concert in Stirchley. Feat me & the rather brilliant @bassdbler.bsky.social Tix at stevelawson.bandcamp.com/merch/birmin... 🏡 Tix are, obviously, v limited - early booking is advised. Can't wait to play for you.

Photo of Steve Lawson on a stage lit in blue and purple, sat down playing bass, with the words "Birmingham House Concert, October 18th,tix via Bandcamp" overlaid.

Picture of a living room, with three soft chairs and a door plus various house plants and a bass guitar, with the text overlay "a house, similar to that where you might see a gig (bass for scale)"

A mock up of a concert ticket that says "Steve lawson and Bass DBLer, October 18th, 2025, 7pm, £10 or more"

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Sep 24

Deeply, deeply sad about the death of Danny Thompson. I met him just as I was starting out playing solo and he was unbelievably encouraging. He gave me a press quote for my first album that I've used ever since, and got me the biggest tour of my life... (1/*)

a photo of Steve Lawson and Danny Thompson, backstage at the Cropredy festival. Steve is smiling a lot and Danny is wearing a hat and shades.

A photo of Danny Thompson playfully kissing Steve Lawson on the cheek backstage at the Cropredy festival. The photo is slightly blurry indicating the surprise nature of Danny's friendly, funny gesture.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Sep 22

Today: bike ride followed by releasing my new album! That's not all - I've scheduled a Bandcamp listening party for tomorrow night for the new album, AND put tickets on sale for the Birmingham House Concert on Oct 18th with @bassdbler.bsky.social. stevelawson.bandcamp.com has everything...

A selfie of Steve Lawson in cycling attire with earlswood lakes in the background and a bike leaning on a fence.

Screenshot of the Bandcamp page for Steve Lawson's album Amsterdam

Screenshot of the Bandcamp page for the listening party for Steve Lawson's album Amsterdam

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Sep 14

Hey Bluesky, October is the month of my 2025 World Tour of England, visiting (count 'em!) THREE cities! How exciting! OK it exactly a tour but still would be lovely to see you at one of these. Deets at stevelawson.net/upcoming_gigs

Photo of Steve lawson on stage with a text overlay with gig dates in October:
12th in Newcastle at The Globe
17th in Peckham, London at Ron's Coffee Shop
18th at a house concert in Birmingham.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Sep 8

...and not to look like I've just crawled out of hibernation or anything but I've got a new album out tomorrow, called Amsterdam. Here's the artwork - and all but one of the tracks was recorded in Amsterdam over the summer. Out for subscribers tomorrow, and publicly later in the month... xx

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 11

Talking of childhood musical heroes, I found an acapella vocal of Tasmin Archer's Sleeping Satellite and reharmonised it 😊 (this is the first video I've uploaded here, let's see if it works)

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 11

oh hi Bluesky. Apologies for ignoring y'all. Just busy, 'tis all. Anyway, what's been happening? I got to hang out with Joan Armatrading this week, so that's a massive win. #hero

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Mar 7

Happy Bandcamp Friday to all who celebrate. To mark the occasion, my Bandcamp sub drops from £30 to £25/year for the weekend. Will go back up on Sunday night. So get yourself over 100 albums of delicous goodness including these two released in the last week! stevelawson.bandcamp.com/subscribe

screen shot of two album covers from Steve Lawson's Bandcamp page - the albums are Show And Tell and Great Expectations and above each one is the label 'exclusive' denoting their status as subscriber-only recordings.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Feb 25

New Bandcamp subscriber album just released - 'Great Expectations' recorded last Friday at Ron's Coffee Shop in Peckham :) enjoy! stevelawson.bandcamp.com/subscribe

the artwork for Steve Lawson's album Great Expectations - the cover a photograph of the steering wheel and dashboard of a burned out car, with the artist and album name faintly visible.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Feb 24

10 years ago today with the oh-so-lovely and brilliant @joannechocolat.bsky.social in London. 💜

photograph of Steve Lawson and Joanne Harris, both smiling into the camera.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Dec 15

Kids, today is the 25th Anniversary of my first solo gig. Eff me, a quarter of a century sounds like a long ole time to be doing this. But the gig feels like yesterday, and I still feel like in so many ways I'm just getting started... The whole gig is on Bandcamp for Subscribers...

a screen shot of the bandcamp page for Steve Lawson's album 'And Nothing But The Bass @ 20 - The First Concert" featuring the album artwork, the track list and part of the sleevenotes.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Nov 16

This last couple of days was spent at Rouleur Live, the bike show in London. Was an amazing opportunity to hear interviews with some truly inspiring people and then to meet some of them too! Lachlan Morton has been an inspiration for many years so it was a absolute joy to get some time with him!

Selfie style photo of Steve Lawson and Lachlan Morton, both are wearing hats and smiling, Steve has glasses,Lachlan has a beard. In the background are people and bike helmets at the Rouleur cycling show.

Selfie style photo of Steve Lawson and Emily Chappell. Steve is smiling, Emily is wearing a scarf.

Photo of a smiling Steve Lawson next to legendary cyclist Sean Kelly.

Photo of Steve Lawson with bike racer and entrepreneur Alec Briggs. Both have gentle smiles and look happy to be there.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Oct 11

Submitted my PhD this morning. After NINE YEARS. I mean, it was 5 years of study, but a 2 year suspension during COVID and another for cancer, turned it into quite the epic journey. But it's done and I'm very, very proud of this. Viva still to come, then Dr Steve 😁

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Sep 28

Bluesky now has over 10 million users, and I was #1,541,740! (pretty sure that's utterly meaningless, but hey 🤷🏽). It's like when Strava tells me I'm in the top 40% for a given segment... whoopty-doo!! 😂

A virtual certificate with text "Celebrating 10M users on Bluesky, #1,541,740, SoloBassSteve ‪@solobasssteve.bsky.social‬, joined on Oct 16, 2023"

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 29

I wrote this 8 years ago. Still stands. Do the work ❤️

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 29

everything I've released since Jan 2023. That's a lot of music. Most of it subscriber-only. All of it made possible by the Bandcamp subscription. I just added a new track to the latest release, cos I can and it made musical sense. :) head to stevelawson.bandcamp.com/subscribe for more x

a screen shot of 16 Steve Lawson albums, from Bandcamp, that represents all the music released by him since January 2023

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 5

hey lovely people, I've got a new album out today. It's called In Need Of Friends, and was recorded live in Birmingham in Feb. It's lovely and you should hear it :) Today is Bandcamp Friday, which means your money goes even further in supporting artists x stevelawson.bandcamp.com/album/in-nee...

the cover art for Steve Lawson's album In Need Of Friends, it's a photo of Steve holding a bass guitar and looking into the camera with the title overlaid.

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Apr 1

April the 1st isn't a good day for saying anything online cos, everyone's assumes you're joking, but Bluesky feels way more 2010 Twitter-like than Threads, which is the same overly curated BS as Insta and at least Insta is pretty. Maybe I should spend more time here...

Steve Lawson taking a selfie at the spot in Richmond where Ted Lasso was filmed .

Dr SoloBassSteve@solobasssteve· Mar 20

just put one of the tracks from the new album up on YouTube - the cover of Anti Hero (which is actually half a track on the album, cos it starts 8 minutes or so into the first track :) ) but anyway, you can hear it here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=myh2...