“On Footloose, and Love Will Follow, I also use it. I do my impersonation of a guitarist”: How session veteran Nathan East managed to make his bass sound like a guitar on these Kenny Loggins hits

Nathan East performs on stage at the Yamaha booth during Day 2 of The 2025 NAMM Show at Anaheim Convention Center on January 24, 2025 in Anaheim, California.

With more than 2,000 recordings to his name, Nathan East is one of the most decorated and in-demand bass players in the world – contributing his low-end chops to iconic tracks such as Get Lucky by Daft Punk, Chaka Khan's Through the Fire and Easy Lover by Phil Collins and Philip Bailey, to name just a mere few. And among his many sessions, he was sometimes compelled to ditch his rich bass tone and emulate a guitar.

Love Will Follow from soundtrack juggernaut Kenny Loggins' 1985 album Vox Humana was one such track. “Well, it was basically me, Kenny, Greg Phillinganes [veteran session keyboardist] and the drum machine with the basic tracking section,” East tells Vertex Effects.