- It isn’t easy to put your music into a genre, how would you describe your music?
It’s funny, I know that if you can be pigeon holed into a specific genre it’s supposed to make things easier for the listener to find what they’re looking for. But in reality I think it puts them in a kind of straight jacket listening experience. I mean how can anyone in this day and age really consider themselves a devotee of any one genre. The idea seems very outdated to me. Im my current work I have been finding myself increasingly interested in the emotive side of things. The machinations I use to get there really are as about as interesting to me as a hammer must be to a carpenter. I mean the tool is wonderful, indispensable even maybe; and the more tools you have the more chance you have of injecting variety into your work. But, above all it’s the emotive goal that I have to stay clear on so I don’t get myself lost in a mass of whirring and buzzing which has nothing to do with the end I desire.
- Do you have a specific direction to take your music in or are just happy to leave everything to chance?
There was a time when I was just content to explore and experiment. I wrote electroacoustic stuff, quasi serial works after Webern, Boulez, Messiaen and Bartok; I went through periods where I modeled stuff after the likes of people like Charlie Parker and Monk then later Miles and Trane. The minimalists too had a big influence. Glass’s ability to chanel his minimal technique in the direction of an emotive experience still influences me. Floyd, Yes, Radiohead and Bjork are also people I admire in this regard. Bach’s contrapuntal genius I adore and still turn to, particularly when I’m in rhythmic difficulty; Beethoven who still teaches me to never take the phrase for granted and Brahms whose phrase I still fail to really appreciate and Schubert’s who I can fall in love with and be bored to tears by all in the same sitting. What I’d like to think is that all of these musical encounters combine together to contribute to those fortuitous moments in a piece – I won’t call them chance- that conspire together for the realization of the goal at the moment.
- Have you got any new projects on the go at the moment?
I just recently completed my first cd. I’m fortunate in that I spend the bulk of my time composing now. Because of this little bit of good fortune I’ve got quite a backlog of projects I can pull from. But, again, I am really trying to keep the emotive goal on the front burner and because of this I very often feel the need to put works on hold, not so much because I’m dissatisfied with them, but more because my head just isn’t in the right space to bring this out to the best of my ability. If all goes well I’d like to have a second cd out by spring but we’ll have to see what the winter months bring.
- Which track do you think best represents your ‘art’?
Right now I’d have to go with “remember mickey.” it seems to be where my head, or more accurately my heart is lately. But really this is just a snap shot of how I’m feeling. A couple of months ago I kept getting lost in the gradual momentum of “the bones.” Before that there was a single movement sonata for cello and piano -the piano part of which I was really enjoying playing- that I haven’t made available yet, and very recently “karuna,” which was originally intended as a piece for a submission I was working on, has been catching my intention. I’ve found that the best way to keep from losing sleep over this whole business of “art” is simply to live and travel with the works with as few preconceived notions of what they “are” as possible. Judging the stuff comes from some intellectually conceived notion of right and wrong that likes to fix things in time. I can’t see how this could ever positively affirm the creative process.
- Where do you get your inspiration from?
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