First composition for electric bass and electric gamba – Elysian Fields Nov 25, 2015

Siebe Pogson graduated from Sydney Conservatorium on classical piano in 2014 but is mainly known as an electric bassist and composer. His initial bass lessons were with Steve Elphick. He then worked jazz educator and teacher Saul Richardson who helped him prepare for the HSC in music performance. He also studied for several years with Steve Hunter who he counts amongst his key influences. In 2014 he spent 3 with weeks at one of Victor Wooten’s bass camps where he met Anthony Wellington who he now works with on-line.

Siebe’s “Dark Dreaming” for bass guitar and electric viola da gamba was premiered in October 2014 and has been re-arranged for Elysian Fields.

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PP: Siebe, what is your musical background and how did you come to start composing?

Siebe Pogson: I learned cello from the age of three till the end of primary school and began formal piano lessons from the age of eight. When I started high school I quit cello and took up electric bass. I fell in love with the instrument and it wasn’t long until I joined a band. When I was fifteen, I started getting into heavy metal and was influenced by bands such as Megadeth, Anthrax, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. I began to write heavy metal tunes, but the musicians I knew couldn’t or wouldn’t play them, so I gave up on composing. I didn’t start writing again until university when I was getting bass lessons with Steve Hunter. I was really getting into jazz then, and for the first time in years I was inspired to write. Steve encouraged me so I continued to compose and eventually formed my own jazz-funk band, “Funk Engine”.  

 PP: Who are your key influences as a musician?

Siebe: My influences are very diverse and include Jaco Pastorious, Frank Zappa, Thelonious Monk and Herbie Hancock. My bass teacher, Steve Hunter, Kevin Hunt (who taught me jazz piano) and Gerard Willems (my classical piano teacher), are also very important to me as people and as musicians.

PP: Your piece “Dark Dreaming” was the first Australian piece for bass guitar and electric viola da gamba.  How would you describe the piece and what was going through your mind in writing for a rare instrument such as the electric gamba?

Siebe: I had wanted to write something for my mother, Jenny Eriksson, for a while. I had this idea of a man trapped in a terrible dream he couldn’t get of, so much so he began to perceive the dream as reality. I was mucking around with some chords on my bass and I heard a melody being played on the gamba.  I am one of those rare people that have been around the sound of the viola da gamba my entire life, so it was not that hard to write for it!

PP: You’ve arranged a Swedish jazz ballad for Elysian Fields as well?

Well mum is ¼ Swedish and I am 1/8^th Swedish. I visited Sweden for the first time this year and met all my second and third cousins. One of mum’s cousins is related to a great Swedish guitarist called Mats Norrefalk. He is an amazing fusion/jazz player, kind of like a Scandinavian John McLaughlin. Anyway, when Mats was doing his Swedish national service years ago in the southern hemisphere he wrote a piece he called “Southern Cross” about being homesick and also seeing the Southern Cross star formation. When this relative played me Southern Cross I knew it would work on the electric gamba. We got in contact with Mats and he sent me the chart. He was on holiday so I did not get to meet him.

PP:  What attracts you to the electric bass?

Siebe: In the words of Jaco Pastorius, the “Patron Saint” of the electric bass, the bass controls the rhythm, the harmony and the melody. These are the foundations of music and no other instrument I can think of uses them all at the same time. This makes its possibilities endless, and we have seen this with the emergence of the modern bass virtuosos like Victor Wooten and Stanley Clarke. More importantly though, the bass is the glue that sticks the rest of the band together. Bassists often have the stereotype of the “quiet one” the most famous example being Jon-Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin. Jones is a fantastic musician of course and my mother’s acoustic ensemble, The Marais Project, has even recorded one of his songs. We bass players are so important to the workings of a band that most people don’t even notice us until we stuff up. I like that. 

PP: Finally, what else are you working on at the moment?

Siebe: Outside Elysian Fields I am gigging quite a bit with my band, “Funk Engine”, whose debut album we launched at Foundry 616 in November 2014. I’m also the bass player in rock band called “Shamanic” and a post metal outfit called “Ironic Maiden”. I am still writing and arranging and hope to do a post graduate composition course overseas in the future.

Elysian Fields

Jenny Eriksson – electric viola da gamba

Matt McMahon – keyboards

Matt Keegan – saxophones

Siebe Pogson – electric bass

Finn Ryan – drums

With guests: Steve Elphick – bass and Sarah Belkner – vocals

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• When: 25 November, 2015, 8.30 to 11.00pm

• Where: Foundry 616, Harris St, Ultimo

• More: foundry616.com.au/

• Tickets: $20/15