Johnny Shankel

Johnny Shankel is a bassist from Southern California. His path to bass guitar started with a pair of drumsticks. Johnny played for 7 years, establishing himself as a focused and proficient drummer. He attended Musicians Institute for drum performance before the pandemic hit and then switched to bass guitar full time in 2021. Being a drummer made him approach the bass in a different light, favoring a more rhythmic than melodic approach. Taking elements of drumming and applying it to the bass guitar, Johnny holds a fixation on slap bass, odd time, and other percussive techniques. This naturally led him to draw inspiration from Les Claypool, Flea, Justin Chancellor and Ryan Martinie. Johnny Shankel currently plays in the band Thredge, a modern metal group that blends various musical influences together creating an exciting and fresh sound in the progressive metal scene. Johnny also plays and does session work with other various artists in the LA area.