The Marais Project largely focuses on viola da gamba music from the French Baroque and particularly, on the music of Marin Marais. We have always engaged in “side projects”, however, including commissioning new Australian works for the viola da gamba. In addition, we love working with young composers and giving them the chance to write for a professional ensemble. Siebe Pogson graduated from Sydney Conservatorium on classical piano in 2014 but is mainly known as an electric bassist and composer. His piece “Dark Dreaming” for bass guitar and electric viola da gamba will be premiered at “Re-Imaginings” on October 26, 2014.
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Siebe Pogson
Philip Pogson: Siebe, what is your musical background and how did you come to start composing?
Siebe Pogson: My childhood musical background was in classical music. 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. We jammed every Saturday afternoon at the drummer’s house. 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 (alongside piano lessons with Gerard Willems). 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”.
Philip: As you say, your first instrument was cello and the second was piano, but you largely work as an electric bassist. 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.
Philip: Your piece “Dark Dreaming” must be 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?
Jenny Eriksson and 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!
Philip: You are also performing in “Re-Imaginings”. Not many early music lovers would know a great deal about the electric bass. What attracts you to the instrument and what do you see as its musical possibilities?
Siebe: In the words of Jaco Pastorius, the “Patron Saint” of the electric bass and an incredible innovator on our instrument, 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 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.
Philip: Finally, what else are you working on at the moment?
Siebe: At the moment I’m working on my band “Funk Engine’s” debut album which will be launched at Foundry 616 on the 26th of November. I’m also the bass player in “Shamanic” and “The Domestic” both of which are beginning to record EPs.
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“Re-Imaginings”
Date: Sunday 26th October, 2014
Time: 3.00pm to 4.15pm; complementary drinks are served
Venue: Sydney Conservatorium, Macquarie St, Sydney
Cost: $35/20; online www.maraisproject.com.au; ph 02 9809 5185
