Interview

Many thanks to Steve for letting me reproduce this & asking me the questions !!

Do you work hard on tracks or does it come quite naturally ?

It varies, some idea;s come very quickly & the track can be written & mixed in a day, others take time, they have to be squeezed out of the ether & some sadly die on the vine.The longest a track has stayed on my hard drive & been completed is around 18 months.

What attracts you so much with electronics & synths ?

If you are a visual artist you have essentially five basic colours Red, Blue,Yellow, Black,White. From these come all those shades & choices in between. With digital software & Synths, the palette colours is infinite.Sometimes this can be a problem as you have too much choice & have to set boundaries to limit decisions, to focus creativity but having that palette opens up so many options.

And what is the biggest difficulty to work this kind of material ?

I touched on it in the last answer, it is choice, too many decisions about how a piece is going to sound, what effects to use etc. You find yourself managing production rather than writing music. The other is the software & hardware, too much time spent at the wrong kind of keyboard.

Are you interested in any kind of music ? What is your last discovery in music ?

I listen to an awful lot of music, ranging through latest Independent releases, Jazz, Classical & Experimental I will listen to most things once. Current favourites are The Hundred Days,some old early Seventies singles, Weather Reports " Domino Theory " amongst others, but they will change by tomorrow.

How does the lack of commercial success make you feel?

When I was younger it was everything to me to be commercially recognised, these days I am resigned to obscurity & don't mind it at all, the creative process has always been the most important thing for me.

Out of all the people you have worked with or collaborated with, which has been the most memorable or rewarding?

So many, writing with Sharp Practice was very productive & I am proud of the work that DT & Myself did with songs for the band. The 2 sessions I have had writing with Lindon both in Leeds & Melbourne were great, so that covers the last 25 years or so !

How do you actually compose your music; do you start with a melody and put the lyrics to it? Do you start with the lyrics and put the music to it?

Chicken & Egg time !! The real answer is both. Some tracks start out as a lyrical idea, others as a Title some as a melody or rhythm all of them are equally valid ways of starting the process. Within the studio you cannot make mistakes & the only thing that restricts you is a lack of imagination !