Charles Berthoud Breaks Down Michael Jackson ‘Billie Jean’ and Queen ‘Another One Bites The Dust’

Bass player Charles Berthoud has over 4 million follows on YouTube and often uses the platform to breakdown music to its most basic level. This week Noise11 caught up with Bernth and Charles to break down some songs, explains some artists and find out what they plan to do on their upcoming Australian tour.

Watch the Bernth and Charles Noise11 interview done on 30 July 2025.

Charles explains the bass on Michael Jackson’s ‘Billie Jean’. “It fits the song perfectly. It is insanely catchy which is the most important thing, actually. For average people who just want to enjoy a song, they don’t really care about any of the music theory behind it or how many notes per second you are playing. It is the perfect catchy bass line. It fits underneath everything, and I just took it, and depending on your point of view, embellished it, or butchered it. I added lots of notes to it. I made it a crazy bass solo because that’s my thing. I think it sounds cool. I am sure there are some people who preferred listening to the original bass line. I thought it would be good to reimagine it as a cool, slap-bass solo”.

Another interesting one if Queen’s ‘Another One Bites The Dust’. Charles sayd, “It also works because it is ‘3 on E’. It starts off as “barp, barp, barp, ba barp ba bump a dum”. The first three, that’s such a common think in Funk. It’s the same thing as ‘Good Times’ (Chic). That’s another reason why it works. Because it uses that tried and tested Funk bass line method”.

Bernth + Charles Berthoud will bring Escape The Internet to Australia for ThePhoenix in October and November. The show features Concert, Conversation and Instruction.

Dates are:

31 October, Brisbane, The Tivoli
1 November, Melbourne, Northcote Theatre
2 November, Sydney, The Metro

https://thephoenix.au/escape-the-internet/#about

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Tagged as: Austria, bass, Berth, Charles Berthoud, education, guitar, ThePhoenix, UK