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Interview
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #


Jon Lord





Prologue
Jon Lord
-
Jon Lord
Hello!
- Hello! This is Kseniya from Russian Darkside Internet magazine.
- Hi there! How are you? It’s Jon speaking.
- Hi, I’m fine. How are you there?
- Very good indeed, it’s a beautiful day here.
- It’s not a beautiful day here in Moscow, because it is snowing, it’s very cold, windy…
- Oh, I’m sorry (laughs) Here we have sunshine and thirty degrees, so…
- Oh, I envy you (laughs) OK, shall we start?
- Yes, how can I help you?
- So, first of all, I’m very glad to speak with Jon Lord, with a person who did so much for rock music not only in United Kingdom, but all over the world. The first question is rather banal but still not less actual. What program are you going to bring to Russia and is it going to be much different from what you had in your European tour where you played the whole of “Sarabande”?
- I’m bringing the “Sarabande” to Russia, yeah. The last time I came I played “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” and this time I’m going to play the “Sarabande” suite and also some of my solo songs and some of Deep Purple songs as always with the orchestra, a kind of, I hope, a good mixture.
- I hope so too. Are you going to shoot a DVD with the full show somewhere or is it going to be just live shows without any DVD recorded?
- I would like to, but I haven’t had a chance to do that yet. We did one a couple of years ago, but it wasn’t very good. But I’m hoping to do a live DVD next year, but at the moment there is no DVD, just me alive (laughs).
- And what country would you choose for recording of DVD, which public do you like the most?
- It’s a very good question, because it’s not a question of which country I like most, it’s just that different countries have different reaction. Some are more vocal, some are more polite, some are more, you know…
- Crazy?
- Yeah, some shout it all during the applause. But mostly, what I find is that the audience for my music, at least they all seem to understand what I’m trying to say and what I’m trying to do. So I would make a DVD anywhere from Krasnodar to New York, it doesn’t matter. What matters is the feeling with which I make the music.
- Yeah, I see. And also the reaction of your fans, warmth of the audience…
- Yeah, because in the end it’s the reaction from the audience that I look for. I mean, we don’t make music in a vacuum, we make music to create some effect on people and may be to change what they think about something or give them an emotion that they were not expecting and so on. So, music is an interaction for me. From my heart to your heart and hopefully back from your heart to mine.
- Yeah, of course. And whom are you going to bring as a vocalist this time? And of course a lot of people are interested whether you’re going to perform “Child in Time” during your concerts.
- It’s going to be the same two vocalists I came with last time, Steve Balsamo and Katarzsyna Laska from Poland. These two have been singing with me for three years and I love them, because they sing my songs with the right emotions and right heart and right feeling. And of course I will do “Child in Time”, it’s a very powerful song, this sing has been with me for nearly forty years and of course I will play it, yes.
- An by the way, concerning this exact song, “Child in Time”, don’t you feel offended when sometimes people go to your concerts to hear just two or three songs of Deep Purple and they don’t always understand the material, the works you cre
Jon Lord
ated outside of Deep Purple?
- Well, if it means that I get the chance to play to them something else, then I’m glad at least that they have come to the concert, because maybe they will find that what they hear outside of the Deep Purple tunes is something that also attracts them. And they will go away from the concert maybe surprised to have found something new. You know, I hope that people understand that I’m doing what I do because of my passion, my belief, my genuine, strong belief that what I’m doing is good, is important, is entertaining and has value and that the sound of good rock musicians and good symphony orchestra, the sound we can make together will be one that you will remember for a long time. So, if they come just to hear one or two songs, I think they will go away happy and surprised.
- And does it often happen in Europe during your European concerts that people who came to your show afford to cry something like “Let’s play Deep Purple!”, “Give Deep Purple!”, because, to tell the truth, sometimes I feel really ashamed of my country when I come across such situations?
- I don’t get that very often at all and I certainly didn’t get it when I was in Russia last time. People were very polite, very generous in their spirit, they listened to what I had to play for them with open hearts. I was very impressed to be with the Russian audience last time I was here. I haven’t personally had any major problems at all. I mean, of course sometimes somebody comes to a concert because maybe he or she misunderstands what the concert is actually about. But I can’t blame people for that and it’s something that I wouldn’t do. I mean, if I went to a concert and I was not liking what (I hear) and had found something different to what I understood then I would just quietly leave (laughs) and I’m sure you would do the same.
- The only right decision, as for me.
- Yeah, I mean, but in the end I have this long, long history with Deep Purple, but it would be stupid of me to go and play concerts and play just Deep Purple material, because you still have Deep Purple to do that. If you want to hear just Deep Purple material, then you go and see Deep Purple. What I do is I try to bring my music and my feelings about music and then give you my interpretation of Deep Purple songs that I love. And I hope that people understand what I’m trying to do.
- And an obligatory and essential part of your shows is symphonic orchestra. And the question is how long does it take the people in the orchestra to study and learn your material. How do you communicate with them?
- There are different orchestras. I mean, an orchestra isn’t just one thing. It is 80 people and 80 different ways of thinking and different ways of looking at music and playing it, which is what makes an orchestra such a wonderful thing. It’s a collection of individual feelings, that are put together to make a single sound. It’s a very wonderful machine, an orchestra, and different orchestras take different time to come to terms with what I’ve written. I have to say and I’m very grateful for this - that most, probably 99% of the time I have no problems. The music I’ve written is sometimes quite difficult, but I think it’s also enjoyable to play for the orchestra, so they mostly seem to come to terms with it very quickly and to enjoy it. And we communicate through the language of music and one of the most simple ways of describing what you want in music is to use Italian music terms which are almost universal and understandable. I
Jon Lord
f you want something to go fast, you say “allegro” which is Italian for “fast” and most musicians around the world understand that. And you know, the conductor and I, we managed to have a sort of good communication together. And the conductor I’m working with in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, he is Italian, but he speaks perfect Russian and perfect English. Fabio Mastrangelo, he’s a delightful man and I have no problem communicating with him. So, I mean, musicians always find a way to communicate together.
- To understand each other.
- Yeah, we always find a way, because we have one language in common and that is the music itself which is universal language.
- For every country, yes. And have you ever had cases in your concert activity that an orchestra didn’t live up to your expectations or the results were worse than you expected?
- “Yes” to the first part of your question. Sometimes they didn’t quite live up to my expectations but not very often, but never, I would say, “worse”, only different. You know, like I say, sometimes music for an orchestra is quite difficult to play. I don’t make it easy for people, but I hope I make this interesting, so it requires hard work and sometimes some orchestras who are not used to playing at such an extreme level – I don’t mean the level of volume, but the level of intensity – sometimes they take a little longer to get it where I like it to be, so of course sometimes I’m a little bit disappointed but not very often. And normally, because each concert is so different, because of different orchestra, different conductor, different city, different audience, different day – so many factors…
- Different mood, at least.
- Absolutely! And it makes each concert a different experience which is why I love doing it. It’s not just playing the same thing each night. Music may be the same on paper, but when it gets into the air, into the audience, into the hearts and minds of people, it becomes different. And this is why I love doing it. Of course, sometimes the orchestras take a different view of the same piece and it’s very exiting. Generally speaking though, I’ve been very lucky with my orchestras.
- So, you’re lucky because they understand what you mean by this or that part of your work.
- I think so, and my music is very emotional. It’s not very intellectual music. I don’t write from the head, I write from the heart, because I don’t know how to write intellectual music. I think that’s what communicates with other musicians.
- Last autumn there was some news that you’re going to compose some program for orchestra with kettle-drums. At what stage is the work with this kettle-drum program?
- This piece is actually for the concerto with Hammond organ and timpani, kettle-drums and orchestra. It is going to be performed in about one year’s time on festival in Oslo, in Norway. I’m still at the beginning stage. I have most of the music written but not written yet for the orchestra, so I’m still working on it. I want it to have a piece that I can play on Hammond organ with an orchestra on my own and I’m using the timpani, the kettle-drums as a solo instrument, so I hope it to be an exiting piece, but it’s not finished yet so I can’t tell anything more about it. I just don’t know what it’s going to be yet (laughs).
- OK. Is this program going to be presented somewhere outside Oslo, not only in Oslo but other countries as well?
- You mean Hammond concerto?
- This kettle-drums program.
- Yes, I hope so, I w
Jon Lord
ould like to play it anywhere and to anyone who wants to hear it. It just has to be out (laughs).
- I was always interested in one question. I always ask this question the majority of Englishmen. Why does it happen that musicians from England are first to invent some new elements and incorporate them into the music, in different styles of music? An then, after that, musicians from other countries take these elements, incorporate them into their music and they’re very successful, but the pathfinders are just from England?
- Hm, that’s an interesting thought. Gosh, it’s a very good question! I think… Can I go back to that, say, explosion to the popular music in the 60s. I think, what we had in England at that time was a generation of musicians who were interested… what is the word I want… we were enchanted, we were taken with the enjoyment with the music that was coming in the America, the black blues and American folk music and jazz and so on. And going from 50s into the 60s it had got in our blood and we took these influences from America and changed them around to suit the way we thought. That small island of Great Britain with its industrial cities and the population that was post-war, young people looking to find something in music. I mean, the most obvious example of what happened is probably The Beatles and Rolling Stones. They are the two major examples of what we did with American music.
- Definitely.
- And then of course we sent it out into the world and it traveled into Europe and further and then other countries started to re-invent what they had for their own taste, their own desires and so on and it’s that wonderful thing about music – that it travels, it changes, it mutates between countries, but it retains the heart and the emotion, it speaks the same language. And I think, what Great Britain had at this important time being, 60s and early 70s, what we had was strength and desire and vision for music for young people at the time that was very, very strong vision. It was picked up by a generation of people that really needed to find something in the music. And the interesting thing is, of course, that that generation of musicians (which is my generation) – we’re still here and we’re still playing. And we still feel that this music belongs to us and we’re taking it in different directions and different ways. Some bands have changed from hard rock to softer rock, to blues, went back to blues. I’m still playing blues, tonight I got a concert in Germany with a blues band and then in a few days I will be in your country playing with an orchestra, so we are very blessed generation of musicians, because we grew up in the time when music just exploded around the world and… I’m sorry for a very long answer to your question.
- But it’s very interesting.
- I hope I make some sense for you.
- Of course, of course. Not very long ago you took part in the recording of charitable single with Tony Iommy, Ian Gillan and some others. In what style are these songs and do you still believe that people didn’t forget how to sympathize and not to see in every such enterprise just PR for musicians and desire to earn money?
- Any money earned from this single will go to people in Armenia, I mean, towards music school in Armenia, that’s what the single is for. I think that intentions of Ian Gillan and Tony Iommy in putting this together are extremely honorable, they genuinely wanted to help when that area suffered terrible damage in an earthquake, and I think it’s very
Jon Lord
very honorable, and if journalists occasionally think that there may be another reason, I think they are very often mistaken. Certainly in this case, when I helped, Ian Gillan didn’t get paid, Tony didn’t get paid, I didn’t get paid, nobody got paid. We just did it for the cause and it’s nice to be able to do something for nothing for a good cause. I don’t think that anybody is earning any money from this at all, except, hopefully, if it sells as we hope it does, people back in Armenia will get the benefit. I think it’s the only reason to gain it.
- And it what style are the songs that you recorded?
- The song we were just talking about?
- Yeah.
- It’s a very heavy rock. It’s about the visions/.. the words are about what Ian saw when he visited Armenia. And the guitar riff is very very strong, very typical Tony Iommy riff. It’s a terrific rock song, very powerful, and it sounds like a wonderful combination of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Iron Maiden, and it’s a very good song and I wish it huge success.
- The next question concerns the project Who Cares. Was it a one-time project or does it have any future?
- You mean, would the people involved do anything else together. Well, I haven’t been asked and I haven’t heard yet whether they want to make any more material for the project Who Cares. But if they asked me, of course, I would be happy to play more. I really enjoyed playing. It was the first time I ever played with Tony Iommy and I really liked it. I played with Nico McBrain before and of course I played with Ian Gillan (laughs) but I really enjoyed doing it, it was a terrific recording session. So if asked if I wanted to do more, of course I’d be interested, and I think it probably has the possibility to record may be even an album, who knows.
- Do you differentiate between your song works and symphonic works? Is it a solid piece of music and that’s it or you still differentiate?
- This is really my belief. You know, if I was a preacher, that’s what I would be preaching to you, that my belief is that music is one world. You don’t have to label it differently, really. It’s all about the communication of emotion and bringing together people to hear something that moves them. And I’m happy to be playing in front of the symphony orchestra or in front of a rhythm and blues band, or in front of a rock band. What I now want to do for the rest of my musical life is to try just to make music that makes me happy and I hope makes other people happy. The main move of my thinking is to play in front of the symphony orchestra, it gives me so much joy. I play with a smile on my face, I’m happy, this is a beautiful place for me to be. And if I can make people feel even half of the enjoyment that I feel, then I will be a happy man. I honestly believe that music is just one gigantic world and you can take anything you like from it. You don’t have to separate it and just because I was a Hammond organ player in a rock band that doesn’t mean that I can’t do anything I want to do. If it’s good enough and I know how to do it, which I do I hope (laughs), then I should continue to do it.
- You’re a person who knows pretty well note writing. You like classical music and you took part in a lot of rock projects in which a number of musicians were not so well acquainted with note writing. How did you react? Did you have any conflicts about this?
- No, no. I know how to write music, I know how to read music. Many musicians that I know, many wonderful musicians don’t know
Jon Lord
how to read or write music. But I’m not a snob about this, I have no criticism towards them for having not to know how to read music. I would only say to young musicians who are starting out that I think it’s a great idea to try to learn how to read and write music, ‘cause it is always useful. Not because it’s an intellectual necessity, but only because it will be useful. And when I work with musicians who don’t read or write music, then we learn it together by ear, so I have no problem with it. I’m not a musical snob, I generally don’t care whether people can not read or write music. But I would genuinely say to young musicians I think it’s worthwhile learning.
- Why? Because it’s just easier to…
- Just simply because it’s useful. For example, if I think of a tune in my head in the middle of the night and I wake up with an idea for a tune, I can write it down on a piece of music paper. I don’t have to run looking for recorder to sing it into. I can just write it down, so the next morning or if I’m sitting on a plane and have an idea for a tune, I can write it down, so I find it useful. That’s all. Like I say, it’s not essential, it’s certainly not essential for rock music to know how to read or write music, but it can be helpful, that’s all.
- Did you feel comfortable in Whitesnake? I ask because once you said in one interview that you came into this band just for the sake of doing something, but you recorded six albums with the band and remained with David even when all musicians left him in 1982.
- Yeah, in a way, that’s what I meant – I was doing nothing in 1978 and I didn’t know what I wanted to do really, and David asked me to help him out, and I honestly didn’t expect for staying in the band for more than a year, just to help him move his band forward. And each year went by and we did an album and then we went for tour and I really enjoyed myself. I was not an active member as a decision-maker, I really just played the keyboards and I made what they needed on keyboards. It was a pleasure in making music, that was a good band. And only when it got later on in early 80s, I began to feel a little bit disappointed with the direction of the band and David’s songwriting, so I started looking around for something else and then Ian Gillan called me and asked if I liked to reform Deep Purple and the answer was obvious. But I don’t feel that Whitesnake is my legacy at all, I was just a keyboard player.
- So, Deep Purple is more your music, you’re more at home there.
- Absolutely. It was my baby back in the beginning. When Richie and I first met this was the vision we had and certainly I would say that Deep Purple is a much better legacy for me, something I feel much more strongly about, even not strongly, but I feel passionate about rather than Whitesnake, yes.
- I was always interested when did you first get this idea that a rock band can record something with an orchestra.
- Before I met Richie I’ d heard a piece of music played by a jazz band, Dave Brubeck Quartet. Dave Brubeck was and is an American jazz pianist who was one of my early heroes. And I heard the piece that he did with a symphonic orchestra in mid-60s and I said “Wow, that’s a great idea” and I wondered how it would sound with a rock band instead of a jazz band, so when we started Deep Purple and I realized after one year that we had a terrific band and I said “Let’s try it”. I had this idea for some time and I was writing some ideas down and then in early 1969 I mentioned my ideas to the band and to
Jon Lord
the management and they said “let’s do it” so we had to very quickly hit the market, so I had about four months to write. Idea was in my mind for some time, but we had to write for the rock band but Richie Blackmore, Ian Paice, Ian Gillan, Roger Glover and myself were the right rock band to try it and I’m very glad that we did, because it changed my life.
- “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” and “Gemini Suite” were recorded with the participation of members of Deep Purple. And now, that a lot of time and years have passed, what do you like best? What appeared to be better, “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” or “Gemini Suite”?
- I think, the most successful of the two is “Concerto for Group and Orchestra”. It has the mix of right arguments, if I can put it that way. It’s a young man’s music, it’s me as a young man trying to tell the world what he believes, what he believed then and still believes. And it’s the sound of symphonic orchestra, one of the great sounds of the world, and the sound of a rock band, also one of the great sounds of the world, and they sound wonderful together. And the piece of music involved is the story of the attempt to make that happen. In “Concerto” the first movement is the battle of the two of them, the second is the peace treaty, if you like, and the third is the joy that they sound together. The piece tells the story, it tells it honestly, it tells it with passion and it tells it with some degree of skill. I think it’s the most successful of the two. But then later on when I did “Sarabande” I had learned a lot more, and “Sarabande” is much less intellectual exercise. It’s just about the joy of playing and the joy of writing music for a symphonic orchestra and a rock band, and I’m looking forward to play it to you next two weeks.
- In your last tour you performed “Concerto for Group and Orchestra” in the whole. Has anything changed in your perception of this piece of work during forty years from the moment of its recording?
- Yes, I would say, yes. The change is not within me but in the world of music. When I wrote “Concerto” and we first performed it, the idea of putting a rock band on stage with an orchestra was revolutionary. Now, of course, it is done all the time, but still, people don’t write very much. I mean, special music. They just do rock tunes with an orchestra backing. What I did and still trying to do is to write music specially for the sound of symphonic orchestra and the sound of a rock band. What has changed, I think, is mainly the attitude of the symphonic orchestras towards rock musicians. They understand it a lot better now. When we first did “Cincerto” in 1969, the orchestra didn’t understand at all. They didn’t understand who the hell we were, why we played amplified instruments, they didn’t understand the technique and so on. Now, of course, SO around the world have many more younger players and these younger players have grown up with modern rock and pop music so they understand popular music much more than they did when we first started. So that’s the major change, but in my mind, the only thing that changed for me is that I actually got better, a better player, better writer, I understand the orchestra better, so it’s still a discovery for me but I think the major change is the attitude of the orchestras to the rock musicians and rock musicians in comparison with late 60s and early 70s understand symphony orchestras much more. I think the audience is more open to the idea of something like this than they were 30 or 40 years ago. I think
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attitudes have changed for the better.
- You are a great admirer of Hammond organ, so what is your attitude to ever increasing number of synthesizers and synthetic music nowadays? And why didn’t you used them much, I mean, synths?
- I tried synths in mid-70s and I tried them a little bit again with Whitesnake, but generally speaking I found that I’m much better on the organ and piano and I understand these two instruments better. With a Hammond organ I can make so much different sounds, and piano is such a beautiful and emotional instrument and I didn’t really feel the need to go too strongly into the world of synths. And there are a lot of musicians who are much better in using the synths than I. Keith Emerson for example and Rick Wakeman were both terrific users of synths. I’m happy with what I know, but of course I have no objections to the advance of the technology of synth music. It’s wonderful and now on keyboard you can make so much marvelous sounds and noises and I’m all for that, I love the advance of technology. It’s just I’m happy for myself with Hammond and piano.
- Can you tell us a little bit more about your project with Anna Phoebe, the violinist?
- She’s a new friend. I met her only about a year ago. And we’re going to hopefully put something together, a small band with certain right people, to play I suppose a sort of progressive rock sort of thing. But we haven’t got to writing music yet, and that’s why were keeping together, that’s why I bring her on this tour so she can understand the way I work live with SOs, so she will be playing with us in Russia, in Italy next month and so on. She’s a terrific player, young, beautiful lady and plays marvelous electric violin as well as regular violin, and I’m looking forward to see what we can write together. I can’t really tell you any more at the moment because we haven’t started writing yet. Some time we will start writing and may be this time the next year we’ll know a little bit more a little bit more (laughs).
- So you are at the first stage of cooperation with her. It’s always interesting.
- Yes, you know it’s marvelous when two musicians recognize something in each other and they anticipate the connection that they may be able to make. As I say, we don’t know yet what it would be, but I know that I very respect her as a musician and a player and I know that she feels good about me too, but we will see. It’s very exciting.
- Not long ago there was some information about release of 3-CD version of “Made in Japan” and you also said that you haven’t seen a part of these recordings. How did it happen?
- I don’t know very much about this. I saw something on a web-site and I didn’t know if there was any film at all any more, I thought that everything we had at that time had already been released, and I’m actually very excited to see what it is. I haven’t seen anything yet so I can’t be very help, I’m afraid. I don’t know anything about it (laughs). But seems to me that if they did have some filming of this time, it would be wonderful, because that to me was probably the greatest time for Deep Purple. We were playing so well together in this time of “Made in Japan”. I would love to see some film and I don’t know very much about it at all, I’m afraid. I mean, it’s a surprise to me too.
- OK, we’ll see. But this concert “Made in Japan” is called by a lot of journalists and musicians the best live recording. What magic did you manage to create there in Japan, what special was about this concert that it’s
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still considered to be the best recording?
- I think, everyone in the band was absolutely at the top of their game, you know, everybody was playing really, really well. We had been on the road for months and months and months, so we were playing really, really well together, we understood each other and even though may be there was occasionally some disagreement between members of the band, we still had the same goals, we still wanted the same thing. We still believed in the same thing, every member of the band believed in the same thing that we were playing and you can hear it on the recording. You can hear the tension between five musicians who are individuals, strong individuals, so you can hear the tension because of the love of the music and because of the respect for each other, you can hear how it comes together so well. And I think that’s what makes it such a great recording. Of course, the technical brilliance of the guy who recorded it, Martin Birch who was the producer for the most of that early DP stuff. Of course, it was brilliantly recorded and that the band played incredibly well. I mean, I listen to what I played then and I think “My goodness how I wish I could play like that now” (laughs).
- Now I would like to ask you about the project “Hoochie Coochie Man”. How did it happen that you got into this project and did you like the cooperation?
- Yeah, I was down in Australia in 2003 and there is a guy who is living down there, Bob Daisly, he used to play bass for Richie in Rainbow, and he’s had a little blues band that’s called The Hoochie Coochie Men and I was going to be in Australia for several weeks and he said would I like to come and play with them. We did three shows together and one of them was recorded live in the club called The Basement in Sydney, very famous blues club. And they released it and it was very successful. So they asked me to do another one a couple of years later, a studio album, and I did that, and it was also very successful, so it was just a collaboration of friends rather then anything else. I have no plans to do any more, I’m actually touring now in Europe with my Jon Lord Blues Project. I’m doing about twenty concerts with them because this is the music of my… this is how I started, you know, rhythm and blues, this is what I began to play in my first band before DP. It’s just wonderful to re-visit the music of my youth with people who really understand how to play.
- So, as far as I understood, you’re not going to continue recording some music within this project, just several concerts and that’s it?
- We might even record, we had an offer to record this blues project and we’re thinking about it, because why not? (laughs) It’s wonderful music, it’s great, honest, open, uncomplicated music and unsophisticated even. So I would say nothing against the record, so we’ll probably do that, yeah.
- We’ll be waiting for some results, all right. Another question concerning your solo work: have you ever had any recording, any album, any work in general, that was a little bit ahead of time and because of this fact it was misinterpreted, probably misunderstood by the public?
- I think you can possibly say – this is just my personal opinion – but I think that first three or four albums that I did with an orchestra were probably misinterpreted because I think they were ahead of the time and now, like I was saying a few minutes ago now it’s normal, it’s not that unusual to have a rock band with a SO on the same stage. But when I did this in late 60s and early 70s it was incredibly unusual so I think you could say they were a little bit ahead of their time. And they surely were misinterpreted in that some critics thought that I was trying to be too clever, but I never had to do anything with being clever, I never tried to be clever, because I don’t think of myself as clever, I just think of myself as of one lucky musician who’s enjoyed success and enjoys the process of making music. So I think these were misinterpreted but I feel vindicated, I feel I did the right thing. I’m pleased with what I did and I’m glad I did it. And if I had to go and do it all over again I wouldn’t change anything, I’d do exactly the same.
- And what is your attitude to nowadays music industry with all its mp3s downloading, Internet releases and so on? Don’t you think that mp3 and Internet sometimes kills the spirit of music which was present 30 years ago?
- With a one word answer – yes. I believe something fundamental has happened. What you buy now and you download from the Internet, you don’t buy the quality of sound, you buy mp3 which is not a good sound at all. And if a band, or orchestra, or a group of singers goes into the studio to make a recording, they work really really hard on the sound to make it beautiful, wide and full as possible, and then it is compressed into mp3 and downloaded through a computer and it sounds nothing like what you did in the studio. When we buying and downloading music now, we’re not buying sound, we’re buying content, we’re buying songs and music as a commodity like we’re buying cabbages or chicken and potatoes. It has become a commodity. And it’s a great shame and I do honestly believe that it will swing back somehow, I think that some time in the next few years somebody will invent a way of transmitting music to you in the proper sound and the sound of music will become important again. I think it’s very sad that the record companies are dying, because they became very much… at the best they were on proper roles, they were part of the process, at their worst they were greedy businessmen, but at their best they were very important for the music industry, for the future of music. And it’s a great shame that they have disappeared.
- And to somehow round up this very informative and very interesting interview, could you give some advise to young musicians who just begin their career, just begin composing and writing music? What would you advise them, so that they wouldn’t sell potatoes in their future as you said, and sell music, real sound, emotions, real music spirit to the public?
- You’ve just put it very beautifully yourself (laughs). My advise is only this: you have to be ready, you have to be the best you can be, you have to believe you are the best you can be, in other words, you have to work hard. It doesn’t come easy. Public does not forgive anything that is second-rate. You owe it to your future public to be as good as you can possibly be and that means to work hard and to believe passionately in what you are doing and try to find your own voice (I don’t mean as a singer), I mean your own style, your own sound, your own way of looking at music. Don’t try to…
- Copy?
- We have to copy to begin with, that’s how we all start, we stand on the shoulders of giants when we are young, because we hear these mighty people who become our heroes and we say “Oh I want to be like him”, and it’s only after a while that we realize that it’s not about being like your hero, it’s about being as good as your hero but with your own voice. And then it’s about being better than your hero (laughs). That I think is the most important piece of advice. Be as good as you can be. Be strong, with a self-belief, and don’t be disappointed when you all at first – it doesn’t happen straight away all the time. Sometimes you have to wait, and wait again and again, but if it’s going to happen, it will, and when it does happen you have to be ready.
- Thank you very much for your advise and explanations and this talk. I think it’s one of the most interesting, even really the most interesting interview I had recently with the musicians, honestly. I wish you good luck in all your endeavors and all your works.
- That’s very kind to say that, thank you. I enjoyed talking to you as well. Are you going to come to the concert?
- Yeah, definitely, I will.
- Well, if you get a chance, come and say hello. Well, thanks for the interesting questions and see you soon. Bye!
- Bye!
17 àïð 2011
the End


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