Can you start by giving our readers a little background info on yourself?

I started playing the cello when I was nine, and eventually moved to Manchester to study. I didn't start writing and recording music until much later.


Compositionally, who has influenced the way you approach modern classical music? Furthermore, when you compose, do you start, traditionally, from the piano or do you sketch on the cello?

When I started writing music I was trying to get at a certain sound. Especially with the sound of the piano. I remember loving the sound of the piano on a track called 'A Cold & Grey Summer Day' by Vincent Gallo. Do you know it? It's on the Buffalo 66 soundtrack. Also, the piano on the Sonic Youth track 'Providence'. I think the sound of a slightly out-of-tune piano is both desolate and hopeful. These two pieces were at the back of my mind when I wrote 'Hoarfrost' and '1983' from Dusk, which are both fragments of a long improvisation I recorded. I then had my piano tuned and everything was ruined for a while.

I compose both from the piano and from the cello, as well as just writing on manuscript paper. Often I will start by recording an idea on piano then add some cello, and then remove the piano completely.


Boy, now I have to admit a gaping hole in my musical knowledge: I've never heard the Buffalo 66 soundtrack and have never seen the movie. If you'd like to play a horribly out-of-tune piano again, you could come by the bar where I work and tinkle the keys. So, I take it your answer here implies that on Light In August you played the piano parts as well as, obviously, the cello? Who would you have play the piano for you during an ideal live set of these tunes (anybody alive or dead)?

Both the film and soundtrack of Buffalo 66 are amazing. There's a beautiful King Crimson track, 'Moonchild', on there, and Vincent Gallo's dad singing 'Fools Rush In'! The Vincent Gallo LP When (Warp) is one of my favourites - really intimate in its style and execution. As to my piano, it is now happily out-of-tune again. I'm listening to the Goldmund LP The Malady of Elegance right now, so I'd have to say if Keith Kenniff were interested, that would be ideal. His approach to the piano is unique, I think.


Keith Kenniff would be a perfect fit, you guys should get to collaborating. As for projects you've already done, such as The Boats and Library Tapes, do you have any strong urges to move further into the Helios/Murcof world of contemplative electronica?

You know, maybe one day, but at the moment I'm happy making music with traditional instruments.


As for the influence of film soundtracks, what other films would you cite?

Definately the soundtrack to Wim Wenders Wings of Desire. It's perfect. That, and the soundtrack to Hitchcock's Vertigo.

You certainly have a cinematic ear in your approach to and, now we learn, how you are influenced by music. What emotional space do you draw from to complement your cinematic ear?

I find that in order to write music I need very little. Aside from the instruments and the recording equipment I need a 2B pencil, an eraser, manuscript paper, and cigarettes.

The eraser is important because you hope you can have enough restraint to go back and remove anything that isn't essential. I'm not sure that I need to be in any particular emotional space to write music. Often you can sit down to play and not really be in the mood, but you sit down anyway, press record, and hopefully something will happen.


So, when you put together Light In August, did you have any themes or characters from William Faulkner's novel of the same name in mind?

Not anything specific really except the tone that the novel evoked for me. Faulkner's characters are so brilliantly drawn and believable, because they are so multi-dimensional. I'm not sure why, but when I read it it made me think of the Terence Malick film Days Of Heaven, or, rather, I was reading the novel through that filter.

I was talking with my friend Jen about Light In August and we both remarked how much this record sounded as though it were constructed much more like a traditional symphony. The flow creates a definitive larger piece out of the songs. How much of that was by design?

I suppose the first and last pieces are two sides of the same coin, so it kind of comes full circle by the end of the album. These two pieces and the Interlude hopefully divide the album into two halves. Listening to it now I'm struck by the fact that there is a pretty much even tempo to the album.


With all your references to film soundtracks, have you ever given serious consideration to scoring a film? Maybe more suitable would be, have you ever been approached to score a film?

No, I've never been approached to score a film, but it's something I'd really like to do at some point.


I know from some friends in Los Angeles, that one of the few ways to be financially successful from your musical labors is to have a song placed in an advertisement. Has anyone ever tapped you for use of your tunes for a commercial? Do you have any ethical dilemma about that?

Again, I've never been asked. I'd like to think that if it happened I could be like Tom Waits and say no to everything. However, there are several websites and blogs out there that have found it expedient for some reason to upload my music and make it available for free, so maybe if some people doing an ad approached me with an offer to actually pay for using my music, and as long as they weren't politically, morally or ethically suspect, then perhaps I'd do it, given my present financial status. I'm not sure though. Something is invariably lost when musicians go over to that dark side. It's tantamount to saying, 'My music is a product, and it's a product that can serve to sell other products.' Anyway, it's never happened, and nor is it likely to!


You know my language, dude! I get scolded by friends all the time for feeling this way about music, for having some ethical code about art and aesthetics. So, as best as you can describe, how would you ultimately like your music to be thought of in relation to not being a product? I guess what I mean is, what kind of impact would you like the writers of music history to assign to your music?

This is a pretty hard question to answer! Obviously, a physical recording is a product. That is as much as someone can own or rip from the internet. But the music itself can never be owned, because all a recording is is one representation of an idea. I don't really know how to answer how I would like others to think of my music. When I write music I want to make something that I consider beautiful. I'll say that I'm fairly happy with what I've made so far, and I love collaborating with other musicians, and that's enough for me.

The Silent Ballet would like to thank Danny Norbury for the interview.