Features
Interview with Ivan Rougny – Bassist for French Band Mörglbl
This month I have the pleasure of interviewing Ivan Rougny, the Bassist for French Band Mörglbl.
Bass Musician Magazine (BMM): Thank you so much Ivan for making yourself available to talk about your career as a bassist, as well as your upcoming U.S. tour with your band Mörglbl. I look forward to your concert at Reggie’s in Chicago. I’ll start from the beginning by asking you what made you choose to play the bass?
Ivan Rougny (IR): Hi Vuyani, Thank you very much to you and Bass Musician Magazine for your interest. It is a great pleasure to be interviewed by you.
When I was young, I was very interested in the rhythmic side of music. There was always music at home. I listened to a lot of English Pop. My older brother was a drummer and he listened to a lot of jazz-rock from the 70’s. And it was with him that I really discovered the bass.
One day he made me listen to Marcus Miller (with Miles Davis) and Alain Caron (Uzeb), and it was a real revelation for me. I said to myself, “This is great! This instrument is the perfect mix between rhythm and harmony.” Then I begged my parents to buy my first bass. They surprised me with my first bass for Christmas in 1984. That was the beginning!
BMM: What was your music education? Did you attend a music school or are you self-taught?
IR: I started with music when I was nine years old in a small school of classical music. My first instrument was the clarinet, and I have to say that I was very bad! But it allowed me to learn the basics of music theory, and it helped me a lot. I stopped the clarinet when I started bass.
I learned the bass on my own because there were no teachers where I lived. So I began to reproduce by ear the bass lines of everything I listened to. And I had the great opportunity to perform very quickly in a lot of local bands playing a lot of different styles of music. My apprenticeship was done like that. The only lessons I took were lessons to learn harmony at a jazz school in Paris years later.
BMM: In the early years of being a bass player, which bass players were you listening to? In other words, who were your influences?
IR: My first two idols were Mark King from Level 42 and Alain Caron of Uzeb. Mark King was really impressive, and he is still. He had a fantastic groove. He slapped like crazy and while singing in Level 42. I loved that band.
I discovered Alain Caron with the album “Fast Emotion”. He was great! He grooved terribly well, slapped, played fretless bass, and played beautiful solos. In addition, he played the double bass. Amazing bass player! This was my first “shock” as a young bassist!
Then there was a French bassist, Michel Alibo, from the band “ Ixun”. It’s an Afro Jazz band with Paco Sery on drums. He’s probably the bass player I listened to the most and saw the most in concert. I’m an ultra fan of his.
But there are plenty of others. I can’t mention everyone but I loved and still love bass players who have a big sound and a sound identity. These are players who have a real culture of bass and who have the ability to play behind artists to support them and also be in the spotlight. Artists like Tony Levin (King Crimson), Gary Willis (Tribal Tech), Pino Paladino, Anthony Jackson, Francis “Rocco” Prestia, Marcus Miller, Chris Squire, Verdine White, Flea, Less Claypool, John Deacon, etc.
BMM: That is an impressive list of bass players! That explains why you groove so hard. What kinds of music were you listening to as you were developing as a player? Other than your brother, were any of your family members musicians?
IR: As I said at the beginning of this interview, there was a lot of music at home. My father was quite a music lover. He listened to classical music, jazz, Dixieland, etc. He loved Supertramp, Chic, Earth Wind and Fire, and many different things in fact. My mother listened to French singers like Jacques Brel, George Brassens, and Edith Piaf.
My maternal grandfather was a musician. I did not know him, but he played violin and accordion in orchestras in Paris. My brother was playing drums and one of my sisters was playing Saxophone. I am the last of the family, so even before I started bass I was immersed in music.
Then, when I started bass, I immediately listened to many styles of music. And I tried to reproduce everything I could but still trying to play the bass lines my way. It went from Rock to Pop through funk and Hard Rock. I had a very long period of Jazz-Rock, ethnic music, Latin music, etc. I never set limits and I was very curious.
I was listening to the Police, Queen, Level 42, Uzeb, Weather Report, Sixun, Supertramp, The Cure, Bob Marley, The Beatles, James Brown, The Headhunters, Joe Zawinul, Stanley Clarke, Gilberto Gil, Whitesnake, Winger, AC/DC, U2 , YES, Genesis, Prefab SProot, Peter Gabriel..etc. What amused me the most was to be able to do many different styles and mix all that to try to make my way of playing and to create my own sound.
BMM: It sounds like you had a great music education from just listening to a wide variety of music with your family. That prepared you very well to play with Mörglbl, the band you are touring the United States with. How did you become the bass player for Mörglbl and how long have you been in the band?
IR: Christophe Godin, Mörglbl’s guitar player, and I have known each other for almost 28 years. We met in Annecy, Christophe’s hometown, when I settled there. He was already the local “phenomenon” and I regularly went see him in concerts. And he came to see me play too. We quickly wanted to play together.
Our first group together was “Future Primitive”. It was Prog-Rock music, a mix of covers and original compositions. Then Christophe participated in a compilation that brought together many French guitarists, and when we had to do the concert to promote this album, we formed a trio (bass / Guitar / Drums). It was the beginning of Mörglbl. The group celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018.
BMM: Celebrating your 20th Anniversary as a band is incredible! You and the band must be doing all the right things to stay together that long. Congratulations to all of you!
Your band Mörglbl has a U.S. tour coming up. Is this the first tour of the United States with the band? What are you most looking forward to during this tour?
IR: Yes we will be on tour between August 28 and September 13, it will be I think the 7th tour of the United States.
It is always a pleasure to go on tour with Mörglbl. We love it, helping people discover our music around the world. It’s just great. So that’s the purpose of this tour.
Whenever we have been to the United States, we have had a great reception. We are assimilated to the Metal/Prog-Rock scene, and we’ve had the chance to play on several festivals, like Prog Day, Near Fest, Summercamp, and the pre-show for Prog Power. And the audience was fantastic every time. The idea is to make our music known to as many people as possible.
But all of that would not be possible without Julie and Rodney Cord from Blue Mouth Promotions, LLC and Ken Golden from The Laser’s Edge Music record company. It is thanks to them that we were able to come and make all that happen here. 1000 thanks to them.
BMM: Your band has a great support team in those companies. What bass equipment do you use on tour?
IR: For the bass, I use the 5-string Passion model from Vigier. My amps is the Laney Nexus SL head and an N410 cabinet. I have worked with these two brands for many years. I use a lot of effects pedals as well – chorus and other modulations that I generate with two Zoom pedals, two octavers from T-Rex, a Big Muff from Electro-Harmonix and two Delays from Digitech.
BMM: Mörglbl is a great gig for you because it requires you to use a lot of technique and it sounds like you have a lot of creative freedom as a bass player. What is the most important advice you can give to developing bass players?
IR: Yes I have a lot of space in Mörglbl. I do all the sound architecture, and it allows me to use many different techniques in the development of bass lines or in the search for sounds. I give bass lessons in a school in Geneva, Switzerland called ETM. I also teach masters classes, and what I say all the time to my students is to be as versatile as possible, listen to many different styles of music and “feed” on that. Work on the necessary techniques to be able to do as many things as possible, but especially to play as much as possible with bands, and try to develop your own style of play, your own personality. I think the best results are when people recognize you by your sound identity and the way you play.
BMM: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk about your career, your band, and your upcoming U.S. tour. I am sure you will meet many of our readers at your various shows around the United States. Have a successful tour!
Mörglbl U.S. Tour Dates
(Please check with your local venue for show times)
Friday, August 30
Local Motive Brewing
123 North Dargan Street
Florence, SC 29506
lomobrew.com
Saturday, August 31
Living Room Florence
Invitation Only
Sunday, September 1
Prog Day Festival
Storybrook Farm
Chapel Hill, North Carolina
progday.net
Monday, September 2 (Labor Day)
Empty Glass
410 Elizabeth St.
Charleston, West Virginia 25311
emptyglass.com/home
Tuesday, September 3
The Coterie
107 West Sycamore Street
Kokomo, Indiana 46901
www.facebook.com/coteriekokomo/
Wednesday, September 4
Reggie’s – Music Joint
2105 South State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60616
www.reggieslive.com
Friday, September 6
New Jersey Proghouse
At Roxy and Dukes
w/Jimmy Robinson and Ad Astra
745 Boundbrook Road
Dunellen, New Jersey 08812
www.njproghouse.com
Saturday, September 7
Orion Studios
w/Jimmy Robinson
2903 Whittington Avenue
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
www.orionsound.com
Sunday, September 8
The Rail
w/Ethan Meixsell and Ad Astra
281 West Main Street
Smithtown, New York 11787
therailsmithtown.com
Thursday, September 12
Francis Marion University
Artist Series
Florence, South Carolina
Visit online at morglblmusic.com
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Return to Dust is keeping Grunge alive and well! They have a new self-titled album that went out on May 3rd, 2024 and will be super busy promoting this project in the near future.
Graham Stanush is the bass powerhouse driving their sound and adding vocals to the mix. Join me as we hear all about Graham’s musical journey, details about the new album, how he gets his sound and their plans for the future.
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Join us as we hear of his musical journey, how he gets his sound, his ongoing projects, and his plans for the future.
Photo, Bob Forte
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Features
Interview With Audic Empire Bassist James Tobias
Checking in with Bergantino Artist James Tobias
James Tobias, Bassist for psychedelic, Reggae-Rock titans Audic Empire shares his history as a musician and how he came to find Bergantino…
Interview by Holly Bergantino
James Tobias, a multi-talented musician and jack-of-all-trades shares his story of coming up as a musician in Texas, his journey with his band Audic Empire, and his approach to life and music. With a busy tour schedule each year, we were fortunate to catch up with him while he was out and about touring the US.
Where were you born and raised?
I was born in Dallas, Texas and lived in the Dallas area most of my life with the exception of 1 year in Colorado. I moved to the Austin area at age 18.
What makes the bass so special to you particularly, and how did you gravitate to it?
I honestly started playing bass because we needed a bass player and I was the one with access to a bass amp and bass. I played rhythm guitar and sang up until I met Ronnie, who I would later start “Audic Empire” with. He also played rhythm guitar and sang and we didn’t know any bass players, so we had to figure something out. I still write most of my songs on guitar, but I’ve grown to love playing the bass.
How did you learn to play, James?
I took guitar lessons growing up and spent a lot of time just learning tabs or playing by ear and kicked around as a frontman in a handful of bands playing at the local coffee shops or rec centers. Once I transitioned to bass, I really just tried to apply what I knew about guitar and stumbled through it till it sounded right. I’m still learning every time I pick it up, honestly.
You are also a songwriter, recording engineer, and a fantastic singer, did you get formal training for this?
Thank you, that means a lot! I had a couple of voice lessons when I was in my early teens, but didn’t really like the instructor. I did however take a few lessons recently through ACC that I enjoyed and think really helped my technique (Shout out to Adam Roberts!) I was not a naturally gifted singer, which is a nice way of saying I was pretty awful, but I just kept at it.
As far as recording and producing, I just watched a lot of YouTube videos and asked people who know more than me when I had a question. Whenever I feel like I’m not progressing, I just pull up tracks from a couple of years ago, cringe, and feel better about where I’m at but I’ve got a long way to go. Fortunately, we’ve got some amazing producers I can pass everything over to once I get the songs as close to finalized as I can.
Describe your playing style(s), tone, strengths and/or areas that can be improved on the bass.
I honestly don’t know what my style would be considered. We’ve got so many styles that we play and fuse together that I just try to do what works song by song. I don’t have too many tricks in the bag and just keep it simple and focus on what’s going to sound good in the overall mix. I think my strength lies in thinking about the song as a whole and what each instrument is doing, so I can compliment everything else that’s going on. What could be improved is absolutely everything, but that’s the great thing about music (and kind of anything really).
Who were your influencers in terms of other musicians earlier on or now that have made a difference and inspired you?
My dad exposed me to a lot of music early. I was playing a toy guitar while watching a VHS of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble live at SXSW on repeat at 4 years old saying I wanted to “do that” when I grew up. I was the only kid in daycare that had his own CDs that weren’t kid’s songs. I was listening to Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, and The Doors when I could barely talk. I would make up songs and sing them into my Panasonic slimline tape recorder and take it to my preschool to show my friends. As I got older went through a bunch of music phases. Metal, grunge, rock, punk, hip hop, reggae, ska, etc. Whatever I heard that I connected to I’d dive in and learn as much as I could about it. I was always in bands and I think I kept picking up different styles along the way and kept combining my different elements and I think that’s evident in Audic’s diverse sound.
Tell me about Audic Empire and your new release Take Over! Can you share some of the highlights you and the band are most proud of?
Takeover was an interesting one. I basically built that song on keyboard and drum loops and wrote and tracked all my vocals in one long session in my bedroom studio kind of in a stream-of-consciousness type of approach. I kind of thought nothing would come of it and I’d toss it out, but we slowly went back and tracked over everything with instruments and made it our own sound. I got it as far as I could with production and handed it off to Chad Wrong to work his magic and really bring it to life. Once I got Snow Owl Media involved and we started brainstorming about a music video, it quickly turned into a considerably larger production than anything we’ve done before and it was such a cool experience. I’m really excited about the final product, especially considering I initially thought it was a throwaway track.
Describe the music style of Audic Empire for us.
It’s all over the place… we advertise it as “blues, rock, reggae.” Blues because of our lead guitarist, Travis Brown’s playing style, rock because I think at the heart we’re a rock band, and reggae because we flavor everything with a little (or a lot) of reggae or ska.
How did you find Bergantino Audio Systems?
Well, my Ampeg SVT7 caught fire at a show… We were playing Stubbs in Austin and everyone kept saying they smelled something burning, and I looked back in time to see my head, perched on top of its 8×10 cab, begin billowing smoke. We had a tour coming up, so I started researching and pricing everything to try and find a new amp. I was also fronting a metal band at the time, and my bass player’s dad was a big-time country bass player and said he had this really high-end bass amp just sitting in a closet he’d sell me. I was apprehensive since I really didn’t know much about it and “just a little 4×10” probably wasn’t going to cut it compared to my previous setup. He said I could come over and give it a test drive, but he said he knew I was going to buy it. He was right. I immediately fell in love. I couldn’t believe the power it put out compared to this heavy head and cumbersome cab I had been breaking my back hauling all over the country and up countless staircases.
Tell us about your experience with the forte D amp and the AE 410 Speaker cabinet.
It’s been a game-changer in every sense. It’s lightweight and compact. Amazing tone. And LOUD. It’s just a fantastic amp. Not to mention the customer service being top-notch! You’ll be hard-pressed to find another product that, if you have an issue, you can get in touch with the owner, himself. How cool is that?
Tell us about some of your favorite basses.
I was always broke and usually working part-time delivering pizzas, so I just played what I could get my hands on. I went through a few pawn shop basses, swapped in new pickups, and fought with the action on them constantly. I played them through an Ampeg be115 combo amp. All the electronics in it had fried at some point, so I gutted it out and turned it into a cab that I powered with a rusted-up little head I bought off someone for a hundred bucks. My gear was often DIY’d and held together by electrical tape and usually had a few coats of spray paint to attempt to hide the wear and tear. I never really fell in love with any piece of gear I had till I had a supporter of our band give me an Ibanez Premium Series SDGR. I absolutely love that bass and still travel with it. I’ve since gotten another Ibanez Premium Series, but went with the 5-string BTB. It’s a fantastic-sounding bass, my only complaint is it’s pretty heavy.
Love your new video Take Over! Let us know what you’re currently working on (studio, tour, side projects, etc.)
Thank you!! We’ve got a LOT of stuff we’re working on right now actually. Having 2 writers in the band means we never have a shortage of material. It’s more about getting everything tracked and ready for release and all that goes into that. We just got through filming videos for 2 new unreleased tracks with Snow Owl Media, who did the videos for both Love Hate and Pain and Takeover. Both of these songs have surprise features which I’m really excited about since these will be the first singles since our last album we have other artists on. We’ve also got a lot of shows coming up and I’ve also just launched my solo project as well. The debut single, “Raisin’ Hell” is available now everywhere. You can go here to find all the links distrokid.com/hyperfollow/jamestobias/raisin-hell
What else do you do besides music?
For work, I own a handyman service here in Austin doing a lot of drywall, painting, etc. I have a lot of hobbies and side hustles as well. I make custom guitar straps and other leather work. I do a lot of artwork and have done most of our merch designs and a lot of our cover art. I’m really into (and borderline obsessed) with health, fitness, and sober living. I have a hard time sitting still, but fortunately, there’s always a lot to do when you’re self-employed and running a band!
Follow James Tobias:
jamestobiasmusic.com
Facebook.com/james.tobias1
Instagram.com/ru4badfish2
TikTok.com/@jamestobiasmusic
audicempire.com
Bass Videos
Interview With Bassist Edmond Gilmore
Interview With Bassist Edmond Gilmore…
I am always impressed by the few members of our bass family who are equally proficient on upright as well as electric bass… Edmond Gilmore is one of those special individuals.
While he compartmentalizes his upright playing for mostly classical music and his electric for all the rest, Edmond has a diverse musical background and life experiences that have given him a unique perspective.
Join me as we hear about Edmond’s musical journey, how he gets his sound and his plans for the future.
Photo, Sandrice Lee
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