Bass techniques?

Nolly from Periphery teaches heavy bass players to pick hard, use light strings, and use a proper bass preamp pedal such as a Darkglass B7K. This video should help out a lot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wynNo-v62gw&ab_channel=DingwallGuitars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkwcS_hJa3I

Hope this helps.

While Nolly's style applies more to the genre of modern metal, it also works for punk and pop rock as well. You want the picking to be hard but controlled, and make sure you learn to mute strings you don't use. Unmuted strings flying away don't sound professional at all, whether it be studio or live.

Punk? When I was a young thug with a twinkle in my eye and a warrant to appear before a judge on charges of vehicular manslaughter in a magical decade called the 90s we had a little technique called drink some vodka, turn it the hell up and play with a fender extra heavy as sloppy as you can! Which is pretty sloppy after a couple of screwdrivers.

Don't listen to anything or anyone. That's not punk rock, duder. Especially don't listen to a prog metal guy... that's minus 100 masterclass punk points. Although good luck cashing in your punk points because there's no bank of punk rock... look, I hope you're getting the joke here. If you ask about punk you're not punk. The first rule of punk rock is you can't explain punk rock. The second rule of punk rock is I'm going to head butt you if you intellectualize punk rock.

I also play bass and lead vocals in my band! It's a good question, as the options are endless if you want to stand out.

My own way is using short scale hollow basses with flatwound strings, giving a low sort of thumping sound (veering towards an upright bass sound). The main bass I use is fretless, and my playing style is sort of walking or melodic bass, so that adds more to the upright sound (which is unusual, considering we do mostly hard rock, but somehow it fits).

Not suggesting you do the same of course, it probably wouldn't fit as well in your music, but try and find your own unique style. The first step, before buying any new gear (if needed), is trying out different playing styles (at home, maybe have some chords loop in the background, and improvise bass lines over those). Also try different combinations with the volume/tone knobs, and if you like, pedals too.

Next is gear: this step only comes if you're looking for a specific sound in mind and can't get it with the gear you have. This can mean anything, even changing the strings can make a huge difference (of course, before you buy any gear, do research into it, as even bass strings tend to be pretty expensive).

Finally, keep practicing, you'll become more versatile with playing different styles!