The golden era of the session bassist may be in the past, when uber-creative A teams filled major studios on both coasts to cut records on a daily basis. But that doesn’t mean the art itself hasn’t progressed. Witness Tim Lefebvre. The Massachsetts-born groovemeister cut his teeth in New York City handling everything from straightahead jazz gigs on upright to rock, R&B, and smooth jazz gigs on electric, including Saturday Night Live. He was also the cornerstone of three cutting-edge ensembles destined for cult status: Rudder, the Wayne Krantz Trio, and Donny McCaslin’s quartet, which would record David Bowie’s final record, Blackstar [Columbia, 2016]. In those bands Lefebvre earned his doctorate in improvisation and effects pedals, while sharpening his skills as a producer and composer. Heading west, he added live or studio stints with Tedeschi Trucks Band, The Black Crowes, Bryan Adams, Toto, and Knower to his resume. Now firmly established in Los Angeles, Lefevbre brings all of those tools to record dates, perhaps best exemplified by his performance on the sophomore effort by Cryptic Cadet, Terminus [Blue Canoe Records, 2025].

Comprised of core members Mark Owen on keyboards and Cam Tyler on drums (both of whom have been part of a Cirque du Soleil band in Las Vegas), plus Lefebvre, the three studio experimentalists summoned such stellar guests as guitarists Michael Landau and Lyle Workman, and vocalists Will Champlin and Lucy Woodward. Together they spin a heady, hook-heavy blend of synth pop, proggresive rock, Steely Dan-edged R&B, and jazz. On the bottom Tim brings his full bag, utilizing various basses and pedals tailored to each track’s sonic profile, while issuing deep, funk-infused grooves, hard rocking ostinatos, song-enhancing fills, and bursts of spontaneous improv. We asked Tim to talk through the tracks, to better understand the methods of his calling-card performance.

How did you meet Mark and Cam, and form Cryptic Cadet?

I met Mark on a cruise ship gig way back and we became great friends. Cam I knew from doing gigs together in L.A., including a band that became Dirty Honey, before he moved to Las Vegas. But I didn’t know that they knew each other until Mark contacted me during COVID to do their first record [Disconnected, 2021], which I love.

How did Terminus come together?

I was living with Mark in Las Vegas at the time so I became the third wheel as he worked on the record at home. I provided all of the bass, and added some guitar and a bit of keyboard stuff, served as a co-producer, and helped write some tunes, ranging from giving them whole sections of songs to providing ideas that they wrote songs around. Following the pre-production we all did, we cut bass and drums live at Cam’s studio. I had charts to read because the music was too difficult to memorize. Those guys wanted me to stretch wherever I felt it. It wasn’t like, play a lot of notes, but they wanted me to be active.

The opener, “Undetected” alternates between your pounding, syncopated low D part and a contrasting, synth bass-like chorus with some ear-grabbing fills.

That tune starts with a sequence I made on my Erika Synths Bassline [DB-01] that I had sent the guys as an idea, and they wrote a song around it. It reminds me of the Genesis song “Just a Job to Do” [Genesis, Virgin, 1983]. The verse bass part came from a sequenced bass line Mark had and I made it my own. I played my Callowhill OBS5 short-scale 5-string fingerstyle through a Jad Freer Capo preamp. For the chorus it was about contrast from the pounding verse, so I broke down my part a bit, even though the drum groove is basically the same throughout. Some of my part is chopped up and filtered through a plug-in to get a glitchy sound. For the bridge I suggested we go to a halftime feel and I played some keyboard bass. That felt like the place to try some fills on my Callowhill because we were sitting on the chords for a bit. I favored my back pickup and I was thinking of Pino on “Give Blood,” from Pete Townshend’s album White City: A Novel [Atco, 1985]. Then Lyle Workman takes an insane guitar solo going out.

“I Want/Don’t Want I” has some synthy and dirty tones, and a wide pocket.

The original demo was pretty different but when we started recording it I was hearing a Nine Inch Nails vibe, which we discussed and went for. I played my Callowhill “Asshole Bass.” The late Tim Cloonan called it that because he meant for it to be a 5-string and he somehow screwed it up and it became a 4-string. I’ve since sold it but it was a red bass with P/J pickups and a soapbar pickup under the pickguard, so you could get a real subby sound. I used a Dunlop .60mm pick and I sent the bass through a Microcosm Electronics Hologram, which digitizes the sound and has an arpeggiator that rearranges the notes you play; you can hear that in the verses. In the choruses I was trying to play my best John Paul Jones stuff. I added some fuzz from the [Jad Freer] Capo; if you turn up the gain it wiil give you some nice overdrive and fuzz. In the C section for contrast we went to a janky double time feel, and Michael Landau takes a sick solo going out.

“Revelate” is a pretty serious bass track, from your verse subhook to your motion in the chorus to your upward slide in the breakdown.
That’s Mark’s song top to bottom and I love it; great melodies and changes, clever arrangement. As soon as I heard the demo I knew what I was going to play. In fact, Mark sent me a demo of the verse and I grabbed my Moollon P Classic [4-string], put on a lot of compression, plucked hard, and let loose. So the verses were pre-recorded and he chose the portions he liked. Then he wrote the chorus and I heard the low C’s, so I switched to my Callowhill 5-string and I did some muting with my hands. Whenever I teach students I emphasize how important note durations are. It’s makes a huge difference how long and short you play each note and it can really affect the bass line. As for the slide at the end of the first chorus, I played the F on the third fret of the D string and just continued up through the chord tones of Fm9, applying some vibrato, without re-attacking the string—sort of Meshell Ndegeocello-style.

Ex. 1 shows the intro groove of “Revelate,” which is similar to the verses. The subhook-laden part pivots around the Ab to F motif heard at the end of measures 1, 3 and 8. Lefebvre bends the string subtly on the Ab’s to add expression. In bar 8, the vocal drops out and Tim takes advantage of the space by bringing the motif up an octave and hammering a greasy trill between the Ab and an A natural. To further up the funk quotient, he plays a nasty fill across the bar line of measures 5 and 6, ending with a Paul Jackson-like side-to-side vibrato on the Ab on beat two (touching on the A natural on the next fret up). Listen for Lefebvre’s equally sassy chorus part, which ends with his aforementioned slide up through an Fm11 chord.

“Siren Song” rides a modern take on a retro groove, with just the right amount of swing.

That’s kind of a Rudder groove, to be honest, like on the song “3H Club” [Matorning, Nineteen Eight Records, 2009]. So I’m borrowing from myself [laughs]! Cam gets twisty with the drums, while we lock in on where the hump is when it comes to how much we swing it. Then in the choruses I go to straight-eighths with some melodic motion, but the groove is still swinging, like on Sting’s “If I Ever Lose My Faith in You.” At the end we do kind of a stoner one-chord jam where I play a Sly Stone-style lick. I doubled that on a rubber bridge guitar I got at Old Style Guitar Shop in L.A., which has humbucking pickups. The bass on the whole track is my ’90s DeArmond Starfire bass. It has reallly old flatwound strings, and I found a vintage Guild Starfire pickup that I put in the neck position.

“The Ring” has odd meters and cool changes, and it boasts your upright bass.

That’s my American Standard 7/8, which I’ve had since high school. It has Evah Pirazzi strings and we recorded it acoustically, with a Shure 47 mic. The verses are in 7/4 and the chorus is in 6/8, and harmonically there’s so much meat on the bones. For Mark’s piano solo at the end, we’re both huge fans of the classic piano trios with Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, so we got a chance to go there for a bit.

“The Walk” has a straight up rock vibe from the jump followed by a rhythmically twisty verse, a halftime chorus, and a bass solo in the breakdown.

At the top I was going for a straight-8ths Coldplay-type rock vibe. The verses have shifting accents on the vocal phrases that led me to break up the line a bit, but it’s still 4/4 underneath. The solo is just me trying to play something melodic in the open space. That’s what we did on Bowie’s Blackstar record; you would start scrapping around with something and then hone it in to make the idea complete. I played my Callowhill 5-string fingerstyle, direct into the Capo. We didn’t mic any bass amps on the record, it was all into the Capo and then in the mix Mark probably rounded off the top end a bit and warmed it up with some compression.

“Coming Back” and “Mine Over Matters” both have a Steely Dan flavor, with you playing nicely in the cracks.

“Coming Back” is definitely a Steely Dan nod with the complex harmonies, the Donald Fagen-like lead and background vocals, and particularly the bridge. The meter is 7/4 but it’s not as noticeble because of the halftime feel. I used my Callowhill 5-string fingerstyle and played some connecting lines as I felt them. “Mine Over Matters” is more uptempo and I probably had Anthony Jackson in mind in the verses. In fact listening to it, it sounds like Mark edited the part together from different takes because I don’t remember playing that many notes, so he was trying to mine some gold there. In the chorus I’m following the keyboard accents pretty closely to make it sound like one big unit. I’m on the Callowhill again. What’s interesting is that at the end of both songs Mark takes cool, quirky piano solos that remind me of the late, great Jim Beard.

“All of My Answers” is back to radio-ready rock.

This is one of my tunes, I was trying to write a big, hooky rock song. I’m a fan of the English singer-songwriter Fink and I had bought his Signatures guitar samples from Spitfire Audio. I used that in programming the intro and verses. I played my Moollon P Classic with a pick. For the bridge I kicked on my 3 Leaf Audio Octabvre pedal and went a little wild, sort of referencing Tony Levin with Peter Gabriel. I also played my 1959 nylon string Gibson guitar that was a gift from Derek Trucks. I play a lot of guitar these days on production stuff.

“Headstone” is a cool halftime shuffle with your probing bass in the intro.

I was trying some melodic fills in the intro but then in the first verse and chorus I mainly played footballs [whole notes] because there’s so much going on with the drums and percussion that it seemed like the way to go. I play a little more in the second verse and chorus, and then there’s a tricky 12/8 written part in the bridge that has a Wayne Krantz vibe. In the breakdown after that I come back with the Octabvre pedal even though I’m playing the Callowhill 5-string—just to get a little Tony Levin vibe in there. Michael Landau blows over the written bridge line going out, and I stretch a bit there, too. Michael’s like the record’s secret weapon.

The record-closing “Linger” features nice sonics and a great verse and chorus.
I’m a co-writer on it, I wrote the chorus and used the Fink samples throughout. I remember making a demo of the chorus part during COVID. Mark wrote the verses and plays beautiful piano on it, and I played my Callowhill 5-string fingerstyle. And I have to mention our lead vocalist Will Champlin, who is the son of Bill Champlin from Chicago fame. He does an amazing job throughout the album. By the way, the sonics, which are present here and at the end of all of the tracks are meant as kind of a cinematic soundscape we thought would make for good transitions between songs. Overall, because it’s such a studio-based record it would be challenging to perform live, but hopefully we’ll get an opportunity to do a few shows.

What are some other recent projects you’ve done and what is coming up?
I got to play on some cool records this year, including Without the Pain [Snakefarm] by Mark Morton from Lamb of God; Three Black Boltz [Sub Pop] by Tunde Adimbempe; Living Ghosts [ACT Music] by the Michael Wollny Trio; and Lyle Workman’s Fight for Freedom. And I produced and played on Liz Vice’s The Call and Donny McCaslin’s upcoming record Lullybye for the Lost [Edition Records]. Live, I did some Michael Landau gigs in L.A. and an improvisational trio with Nate Smith and Jason Linder in New York, and I’ll be going out with Melissa Etheridge, the Wollny Trio, and Donny McCaslin this year. I’m just keeping my head down and staying busy.

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