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How do you write music? You know, you

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can write music by sitting in front of a

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piano and your fingers will run across

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the keys.

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And usually what happens is they fall

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into certain patterns of ma muscle

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memory. So the way I write is I turn up

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in my room in the morning and if I don't

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know what the tune is. I do it like

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this. I sit on my hands until I have an

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idea and I don't let them straight to

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the keyboard because I know what's going

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to happen. It's just going to be muscle

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memory. It's just going to be the thing

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I did last week or whatever. So the most

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impossible part is not to touch the

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keyboard because it's so tempting to go

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and touch the keyboard and play a load

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of crap.

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Um and you know very often you can play

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a load of crap and people are really

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happy with it but at the end of the day

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um it it there has to be a sense of

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adventure in it for me otherwise you

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know it gets boring so there has to be a

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sense of the new and we've never tried

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this before and if it means uh setting a

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piano on fire or you know uh going to

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Africa and uh going into you know a

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township and working with an African

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choir that, you know, none of us speak

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the same language or um going to

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Slovakia and

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meeting some extraordinary musicians, so

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be it.

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I think writer's block

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comes from from sort of many different

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places, but I think one of them is you

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don't know what you're doing yet. you

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don't know what the story is you want to

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tell or you feel you haven't done your

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research yet. I mean, that's one form of

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writer block. The other one is just

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you've been working too much and you're

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burned out. You're not enjoying it

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anymore. But quite honestly, I I never

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have that because

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I love what I do and I get excited by

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it. But I can't write until I know what

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what I'm writing about. And that isn't

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that's a little harder to explain

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because weirdly it's not in the script

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and it's not on the screen. It's some

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weird strange

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version which is my version of the film.

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My little bit on the you know left hand

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side of the corner of the screen.

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There's something going on that nobody

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pays attention to and it becomes really

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important to me and that's the story I

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want to tell or that's the part I can

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contribute. So once I know what I can

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contribute, I know what to write about.

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And up until that moment, I just sit

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there

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in,

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you know, total panic like a deer in

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front of the headlights

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budgets. Cuz this is what people always

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want to know about. They always think

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the the they always think that we're

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either completely rolling in it and it's

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just like gazillion dollars

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or what every film composer tells you,

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there isn't enough money. And of course,

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none of it is true. At the end of the

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day,

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I've done some of the most fun things on

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movies where I had no budget and

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you know did the most sort of boring

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things where I had sort of a bit too

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much money. Um so budget but you know

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the budget shouldn't affect the creative

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process. The creative process takes uh

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you know takes place in your head and

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every day it becomes easier to figure

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out a way of creating things. Um as long

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as as long as you have ideas are not

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limited by budget. Yeah. Okay. If your

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idea is that it needs the biggest

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symphony orchestra and that's the only

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way you can do it. It's actually not a

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budget problem. It's a it's a you are

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limited by your imagination because you

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didn't figure out that you can probably

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say the same thing with four great

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players or four not so great players

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even but um so you need you need to you

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know you need to have enough to make it

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sound good but there's always enough to

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make it sound good in a funny way I mean

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budget should not affect the creativity

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budget should not really affect the

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outcome at the same time be bold go up

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to them tell them you're going add

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something to their movie that they won't

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get otherwise. And so so don't don't be

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shy about it. You know, music is

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important. Music is worth something. You

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know, it's not it's here's the mistake

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people make. Just because we play music

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and we like the process of playing

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doesn't mean we're giving it away. Um

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and you need there needs to be an

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appropriate budget to do to to

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help fulfill the vision that is not just

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your vision but it's the director's

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vision. So, you know, the two of you of

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you are working together on something.

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And sometimes it's important to remind a

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director that there isn't endless time

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and endless budget and endless amounts

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of recording sessions with very

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expensive orchestras and we might have

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to resort to a rubber band and a

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cardboard box to get this one done. But

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that one works too. Um, rather than

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going for the most expensive score that

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you could possibly do, I was trying to

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figure out to show something where a a

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big budget movie could actually benefit

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from using really modest instrumentation

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and just a bit of quirkiness and a bit

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of inventiveness.

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Because

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here's a lot of what I noticed when

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people come in from music school and

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they come and intern with us, etc.

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Somehow they have this idea because they

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learned about the orchestra and they

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spend a lot of time at university or

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music school or the academy or whatever

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learning about this that their first

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movie they're going to unleash this

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102piece symphony orchestra when really

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what it's going to be is you're going to

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unleash some plugin on an iPad and

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you're going to go and make a great

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score out of it because that is the

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budget they're going to give you. And

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that's all right. And and and what you

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have to do is you just in yourself, you

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just have to imagine how you're going to

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make that sound like that 102piece

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symphony orchestra that you thought

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music school or the academy had promised

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you.

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Start writing. You know, look, at the

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end of the day, a a a cheap piano sound,

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it's all there, right? 88 keys. It's all

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there, you know, and and at the end of

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the day, the job is to go and and figure

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out the notes and figure out all these

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things. And then you can go and put all

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those, you know, simultaneously all

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these colors are going on. I mean, I

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keep

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I keep being in two minds about this

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conversation. I mean, I picked Sherlock

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very much sort of on purpose

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for the purposes of our conversation

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because

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it's a score anybody could do. You could

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do this score one microphone,

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you know, on a laptop, you know. So, and

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I'm not saying I'm not saying that to

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show off. I'm not saying it in any other

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way other than to say I don't accept the

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fact that you can't write create a great

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Hollywood blockbuster or whatever

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whatever the score is uh depending on

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money or depending on resources etc.

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Anybody's got access to something that

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they can go and make a great score with.

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Um, you know, as opposed to us sitting

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here and me showing you the thing that

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took a huge symphony orchestra to do,

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you know, in in in a funny way, the the

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more

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money you have available, the less of a

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achievement it becomes to make an

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impressive sound. I think the I think

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you don't need all the whisbang sounds.

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You you don't need the computer. You

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don't need anything. You can compose in

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your head. You can compose on the piano.

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You can compose on anything. Um,

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actually, I think it might have been on

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Sherlock where

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um, Anmarie Simpson was sending me

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violin tracks that she recorded on her

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iPhone and they sounded great. You know,

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it's like, here's an idea. And and

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there's a quality to it and you can

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either go, oh my god, that's not

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technically correct. or you can go,

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"Wow, that's really interesting." So,

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just, you know, if you just o open

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yourself up to the possibility that that

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could be really interesting and that you

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can manipulate it, it's not a problem.

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It's a huge advantage to to work with a

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the bare minimum of available things,

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you know, one, you know, this is one

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violin, one bass, one timber, and then,

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you know, Yes. And then I went crazy and

217
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I went off to Slovakia and recorded all

218
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the gypsies. But that's a different

219
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thing, you know. It it's the the

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resources exist to go and

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do great things. One of our engineers

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who I think he worked on this, you know,

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he certainly worked on quite a few other

224
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movies. I did a chap called Steve Lipson

225
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and and he was here the other day and he

226
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was working with some amazing artist. I

227
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said, "Oh, this guy's a real genius."

228
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And he said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I worked

229
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with a lot of geniuses in my life." And

230
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he truly has. He said, "They all have

231
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one thing in common. They roll up their

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sleeves. They work until they drop. They

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never go home." And then present it as,

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you know, oh, it was easy. You know,

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you're supposed to make it sound easy,

236
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you know. And Sherlock,

237
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it's easy. If you if you listen to the

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score, it's trivial, you know. It's

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trivial. It's just like, you know, it's

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simple tunes and it's and and you can't

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tell that a lot of work went into it,

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you know. And I'm not saying that in a

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oh dear me, I didn't get any sleep.

244
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Yeah. Oh dear me, I didn't get any

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sleep. That's the truth. But I didn't

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get any sleep because it was fun. It was

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great. It was, you know, we were we were

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at it passionately and everybody is at

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it passionately. I mean those are the

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sort of situations you want to be

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involved in and

252
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it's your job as a composer to help to

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create