Martin Motnik

Martin Motnik (born 10 November 1972) is a German bassist and studio musician, best known as the bassist for the heavy metal band Accept.

He has also played in Darkseed, Eisbrecher.

Motnik has made two solo albums that include instrumental songs varying in styles from melodic rock, jazz, and classical music.

Motnik was born in Ludwigshafen, Germany on 10 November 1972.

At the age of six, he started playing the flute but was not particularly interested in it.

His parents agreed to buy him an acoustic guitar a couple of years later.

At the age of ten, he switched to playing the electric guitar, and at the age of 13, encouraged by his older brother Frank, the bass guitar.

After getting a bass guitar, he got inspired to play, and started practicing daily by studying bass players such as John Entwistle (The Who), Billy Sheehan (David Lee Roth band), Geddy Lee (Rush).

Motnik has named them his biggest influences and role models.

At the age of 16, Motnik started playing in bands, and in the following years, he played in several bands in the Mannheim-Heidelberg area.

At this point, he was not yet ready to commit fully to a musical career.

First, he worked in a bank, and afterward, he completed an MBA at university.

Motnik started playing as a studio musician already in the 1990s.

He plays on Dan Lucas's album News, among others.

After moving to Las Vegas, he started a site that makes it easy to work with other musicians worldwide.

Motnik has worked as a studio musician with several artists playing many different styles, such as The Wrecking Crew's Hal Blaine (drums) and Don Rand (piano), Gregg Bissonette, Phil Campbell, Paul Sabu and Bruce Kulick, and Ralf Scheepers.

Motnik has said that he enjoys as much working in the studio as in live concerts:

"My best days are when I have spent the day working in the studio, and at night I am playing a gig. That's when both my desires are being fulfilled, my passion to record and my love to play out live and interact with other musicians and the audience."

He continues as a studio musician after joining Accept.

After graduating in 2003, he decided to pursue music full-time.

Motnik moved to Munich for better opportunities to focus professionally on a musical career.

After moving to Munich, Motnik joined the German goth metal band Darkseed in 2003.

He plays on the band's 2005 album Ultimate Darkness.

In 2005 Motnik joined the hard rock band The Roxx.

Darkseed announced in August 2006 that singer Stefan Hertrich and bassist Motnik would leave the band and focus on their other projects.

In the same year, both participated in the Atargatis band's album "Wasteland" recording.

He plays on the band's Unleash Your Demon, released in 2007, and on the live recording The Roxx Unleash The Demon.

At the same time, he was also a member of the German Neue Deutsche Härte band Eisbrecher and played bass on the band's tours.

In 2008 Motnik moved to Los Angeles, US.

Ecotonic was the first band Motnik joined there.

Later, in 2009 and 2012, Motnik played again with Uli Jon Roth on his North American tours.

The band toured in Southern California and made the album When Sparks Fly with Motnik in 2010.

Only shortly after moving to the US, Motnik joined Uli Jon Roth's (Scorpions) North American tour as a bassist.

This encouraged him to continue his career in the US.

In 2010 Motnik moved to Las Vegas and played as a professional musician in casinos.

He worked for Carnival Cruise Lines from 2014 to 2018, first as a bassist and later on as musical director.

As a session musician, the playlist often featured various theme nights from Motown to country music, rhythm and blues, disco, jazz and Latin American music, which expanded Motnik's musical repertoire.

In February 2019, shortly after Peter Baltes had left Accept, Motnik moved to Nashville.

He contacted the band, and after a while, he got an answer from Wolf Hoffmann, who invited him to a jam session.

In April 2019, Accept announced that Martin Motnik had replaced Baltes as bassist.