On December 27, 2018, Panic At The Disco’s longtime bass player, Dallon Weekes, announced he was leaving the band to pursue his own musical interests. With a pending tour on the books and a busy year ahead, Panic frontman Brandon Urie knew he had to act fast in finding his next bassist. It was around this time that Nicole Row had been playing with Miley Cyrus on a stretch of performances after gaining notoriety for her work with Fat Joe, Ty Dollar Sign, Dallas Austin, Remy Ma, and Troye Sivan. She received a call from Panic’s manager, who asked her to join. Before she knew it, she was heading over to meet the band — and her Instagram profile began blowing up with a new swarm of followers when the news broke that she landed the chair. With only two weeks to learn a diverse catalogue of music that spanned six albums over a 14-year period, Row immediately got to woodshedding in an effort to master the bass lines and vocal harmonies that she would soon be performing to big audiences all over the world. Her background in jazz and her years of playing electric, upright, and synth bass aided her efforts, and she was soon on the road and infusing herself into Panic’s bold, theatric performances. To aid her sound, Row enlisted Fender’s Custom Shop to create a 30" short-scale Jazz Bass 5-string that would deliver the booming tone she loved, paired with the playability of the smaller fingerboard. Thanks to her experience performing on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, Billboard Music Awards, and other marquee events and big bills, she masterfully took on the task. How did you learn Panic’s challenging catalogue so quickly? I had only a couple of weeks to learn all of the material before jumping on the tour, and I didn’t know specifically which songs we would be playing for the shows, so I sat down and started with all of the hits. I began with the bass parts and then had to work through learning all of the vocal parts, too. I used the album recordings and went with all of the highest harmonies I could [sing], and then I threw the vocals on top of the bass parts. Panic’s music can be really tricky to match the singing with the playing at the same time. Has it always been natural for you to sing and play? I’m not going to say it was ever easy, because that would be a lie. I feel like anybody who starts to sing and play will say that it’s difficult, unless you’re someone like Larry Graham. There were no instruments in my house as a kid, so I started off singing. That was the only thing I knew to do. So thankfully I don’t have to think about how to sing when I’m playing bass. But doing both of those things at once is definitely a challenge. To make it fun for myself. I like to think that it’s like playing drums. You have to separate parts of your body and divide your mind and you have to stack the grooves. It becomes fun when you get it down. Do you feel any pressure to replicate the presence and playing of Dallon Weekes?