YOu Will Learn to Play the Piano!
Q: Tell me about your background – when did you decide to become a composer/arranger/musician?
A: When I was a kid I was in bands and stuff in Glasgow and then I also learnt how to play the piano when I was about nine years old, a wee boy.
Q: Did your parents get you into that or had you always wanted to do it?
A: My parents forced me to do it, you know, like parents do. ‘You will learn to play the piano!’ I didn’t really enjoy it but I did it and then I got to the point where I got into it and I started to improvise and stuff. It got to the end of school and I didn’t know what to do but I was quite good at the piano at that point so I got into the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Q: Where did the inspiration come from? What music were you listening to as a child?
A: I just listened to anything that was about then, obviously Bowie, and King Crimson who I have done a cover of on this album, early Genesis and those bands Can who were an early electronic band from Germany.
Q: Do you consider yourself primarily a film composer or solo musician? Or do the two work hand in hand?
A: I think they work hand in hand. I’m signed to Massive Attack’s label Melankolic and every few years they ask if I fancy doing a solo record and it’s good to do it. I just see myself as a musician really. I think as long as you keep on learning… I mean, on the solo albums I tend to ask musicians whom I really respect to work with me and you can learn a lot from other people. If you really like somebody else’s music and you meet them and work with them then you learn a lot from them. Solo albums are more like a collaborative thing whereas with the movies it’s different because you’ve got to write a lot of music over a very short time. With the solo albums you get a little more time to perfect it, you know.
Q: How long did it take to make the new album ‘As If To Nothing’?
A: About eight months that was spread out over quite a long period of time because I was working with Baz on Moulin Rouge. On this album I was just trying to do something a wee bit different so some of the tracks are songs while others are instrumental pieces. You can’t just go down the mainstream; you have to do something that is a bit more challenging. I try to do quite personal music that goes against al this pop shit… I mean, there’s nothing wrong with pop music but there has to be room for other music too. I think the good music is there if you just try and find it but unfortunately nobody wants to play it on the radio. I don’t see why there can’t be more show with more interesting stuff, do you know what I mean?
|
About Petrol Records
Armstrong Returns with 'As If To ...
