BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
Siebe Pogson is perhaps one of the most multi-talented young musicians on the scene.
The accompanist/piano teacher/electric bass player/composer grew up classically trained in piano and cello, before exploring rock and jazz in his teens. Now, the Sydney muso performs in five bands and works across genres from heavy metal to jazz fusion.
But he still has time for Mum.
This January 29, his original work centred around electric viola da gamba will be performed by the Marais Project and Elysian Fields, which feature Siebe’s mum Jenny Eriksson on the only instrument of its kind in Australia. Siebe fills us in on his varied background and what it’s like sharing the spotlight with his family.
So – electric bass…you’re a rockstar! Tell us about your classical background as a child and why you decided to turn to rock when you hit high school.
I started learning cello from a very young age. I learnt to read music in pre-school and went through the Suzuki method, which focuses on training the ear. At the age of eight I took up the piano learning from a local teacher in East Ryde. I went through the AMEB exams and she would remain my teacher right up until the end of my HSC. My mother is a musician, so I have memories attending some of her early concerts. My parents also took to a lot of concerts at the Sydney Opera House. Not all of it was classical music, but I remember it all being good music.
Although I was very good at the cello, I really disliked it. It just wasn’t the instrument for me, so the decision to start playing rock correlated with picking up the bass guitar. However, I still continued my classical studies on piano.
You grew up quite well trained: you learnt jazz piano as well as bass, and graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium as a classical pianist. How do you find your training in one genre informs your performance in the next?
Classical training gives you a good foundation from everything to harmony, aural training, and music history. A lot of the common progressions in classical music are found in jazz and sometimes even rock. Jazz is harmonically focused but its main foundation is rhythm. When I started to play jazz, my sense of rhythm improved immensely, which helped with my classical playing. It is also a genre that contains improvising sections, and you have to react to what the other people in the ensemble are doing on the spot which requires intense listening and focus. I believe listening is the most important aspect of music and jazz’s emphasis on listening informs your playing in all genres.
Rock is also a very rhythmic and very high energy. You have to be on the beat all the time, otherwise the groove looses momentum. Sometimes you are playing the same thing for a very long period of time, which teaches you discipline and focus. The energy in rock has taught me to be energetic in all genres.
Why have you decided to make your musical life so varied, rather than follow the path of a single instrument or style?
There are a few reasons. The first one is practical. It is very hard to get work as a musician playing one style of music all the time. Only being able to play one style puts limitations on what gigs you can get. Less styles and less instruments means less work. The second reason is that I have interests in many different genres. I listen to everything. Classical music, jazz, reggae, funk, hip-hop, heavy metal, it’s all great stuff and it’s all stuff that I want to play. Thirdly, different genres focus on different musical skills. I believe being able to play a variety of music improves your overall musicality and makes you a better musician.
The final reason is for innovation. Having your finger in lots of pies improves your chances of creating something new, particularly when composing music. I don’t want to sit back and do what somebody else has already done. I want to innovate.
What are the challenges of slipping between these different areas?
The main challenge is playing within that certain style. Sometimes you may find yourself throwing in a jazz lick in a rock tune when it’s not appropriate, or playing too busy when all you need to do is sit back and groove. The other drawback is that you end up putting on different hats so it becomes hard to develop your own style/sound. My dream would be for someone to be able to hear my playing, and be able to tell it was me no matter what the music is.
When did you start composing?
I started composing when I was 15. Back then, I was into heavy metal so I began composing heavy metal tunes. However, the musicians I knew couldn’t or wouldn’t play them so I gave up on composing. I didn’t start composing again until five years later when I started getting lessons with my former bass teacher Steve Hunter. Steve is a great bass player and composer so he inspired me to start writing again. I started bringing my compositions into our lessons and he gave me advice on my early tunes. After a while, he said to me something like: ‘Man, this is quite good stuff. Why don’t you form your own band?’. At the end of the year, I did and Funk Engine was born.
I had always felt there had been a void in my musical life and I wasn’t quite sure what it was. I soon discovered that it was because I’d been playing in other people’s projects and playing other people’s music, which I didn’t always dig. When I began composing my own music and playing in my own band, I had finally filled that void.
Tell us about your work for electric viola da gamba, performed this week by the Marais Project and Elysian Fields.
I wrote it at the end of 2013. It was originally just going to be a duet with bass and electric viola da gamba, but I added a piano part when it was first performed in a Marais Project concert in 2014. When Elysian Fields was formed the following year, saxophone and drums were added to the original trio – so that means I had to write a soprano sax part as well. The drum part is not written out, we kind of arranged it when we first started to put the work together as a group. So in conclusion, what the audience will hear is not just something that was written in one session, but something that has evolved over a three year period, which has had the input of not just me but the entire ensemble. We play it differently every time so I always look forward to it.
Have you performed much out on the scene with these ensembles’ Jenny Eriksson (aka your mum) before?
I didn’t start performing with Mum til a Marais Project concert in 2014. Although I am a classical pianist and she is a classical musician, I generally don’t like to perform on piano for an audience. I save it for my own personal pleasure. My work as a pianist is primarily as a teacher and accompanist. I couldn’t perform with her on electric bass while she was playing the acoustic viola da gamba either, as the instruments and the styles they are used for just don’t match. It wasn’t til she got the electric version and decided she wanted to play jazz that we could start playing together. Since then, we have done a few gigs; not a substantial amount but momentum is building.
What are you most looking forward to in your upcoming event?
I always look forward to playing with Matt Keegan, Matt McMahon and Finn Ryan. As a young jazz musician, it’s great to play the older, more experienced ones as you always learn so much from them just by being in the same room. I’m also looking forward to be playing at the Independent Theatre. I mostly do gigs in pubs, clubs and bars, which is fun but people are often more interested in talking and drinking than listening to music. It will be great to be in a room with a couple of hundred people where everyone is concentrating and listening to the music. I don’t get that experience often.
See Siebe’s music performed at the Independent Theatre on January 29 in this event with the Marais Project and Elysian Fields. Full details and tickets online.
Image supplied.
