Roberto Sanguigni, on tour with Fulminacci

How did your collaboration with Fulminacci begin until you became a permanent presence in his live shows? Was there a moment when you realized it was going to become an ongoing path?

The collaboration with Fulminacci began in 2019 when I was proposed to be in his band. I accepted with great enthusiasm, since I had heard some of his pieces and was immediately impressed. Over the years, the collaboration has grown stronger and stronger, both with him and with the other musicians. We have become a very close-knit team that has now been playing together for 7 years.

In Fulminacci’s live shows there is a strong emotional dynamic, between intimate and more explosive moments. How do you work on sound and interplay to support these changes in atmosphere without ever being “invasive”?

In live performances, the emotional excursion is very wide, and interplay with other musicians is crucial to building and enriching each song. There are more intimate moments where I try to contribute without overdoing it: a few notes in the right place. On the other hand, when the mood rises, I enrich the bass line both dynamically and with fills and variations, while still trying to remain consistent with the song.

The tour dimension is also made up of small rituals. Do you have one of your own, or related specifically to touring with Fulminacci?

I don’t have a personal ritual. Before concerts we usually get together with the whole band in the dressing room, where, as we prepare, we ease the pre-live tension with some banter. And then a collective hug before taking the stage.

When you return to the classroom after a busy live period, what kind of experience do you bring with you? As a lecturer, do you get to ‘translate’ what happens on stage into something that can be shared with the student?

So much, and it is perhaps one of the most challenging parts of this dual role. After an intensive live period I return to the classroom with a much deeper sense of what it means to ‘make music work’ beyond theory.

You constantly learn things on stage that you don’t find in books: error management, authentic listening, instant adaptation, relating to space and audience. All these experiences I try to ‘translate’ them into something useful for my students.

Another thing I try to convey is the importance of active listening, that is, not just listening to your instrument, but to everything going on around you. Then there is the whole emotional part: making people understand that technique is a tool, not an end. What gets to people is how you use that technique to support an idea.

In a way, I try to bring a “compressed” version of the live experience into the classroom: not to replicate it, but to get a sense of what it really means to be inside the music with others.

Roberto Sanguigni teaches the academic courses in electric bass guitar and pop ensemble music workshops at Saint Louis College of Music in Rome.