(Interviewed by Kim Liu Leach, February 2020)
When did you first realise you loved music?
I started playing the piano when I was very little, when I was 5 or 6, and I didn’t really get on with that. I always did lots of singing at school. I started playing the clarinet when I was 7 and that was the first instrument that I really liked. My dad was a conductor so there was lots of influence from my parents. My dad was keen for me to play things which is why he wanted me to start playing the piano so early, and because it’s such a useful thing to be able to play. It’s still a frustration to this day that I can’t play it properly. It would be so much more useful if I could. The coordination of trying to remember to do that and wave at the choir in a helpful way sometimes defeats me.
Who are your musical influences?
It depends on what you’re talking about, because I have done lots of different kinds of music. I’ve spent 20 years being a recording engineer and producer with a classical record label, so I have a classical head and I have inherited a lot of the things my father loved. I was particularly fascinated by Russian 20th century stuff – Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and all sort of opera, especially Italian: Verdi, Puccini … But then when I actually perform, I haven’t played in a classical context for a very long time. I play in jazz bands … when I play saxophone, my jazz influences are the obvious ones like John Coltrane. I’ve played in other types of bands as well: swing music of various different sorts. I also play electric bass and double bass. I have different influences for those, jazz, folk, funk, rock, all sorts.
I’m just like everybody else: I’m influenced by the things that I listened to growing up. I got into pop music in the late seventies – 80s, punk stuff, new wave stuff, and after that the people with the appalling, floppy haircuts…!
First album you bought?
I bought 2 at the same time : ‘Regatta de Blanc’ by the Police and ‘Parallel Lines’ by Blondie
What is your guilty pleasure song?
I’m not very good at having guilty pleasures. There are ones I don’t necessarily tell people about but it doesn’t necessarily mean I feel guilty about them.
At school I went through a phase of being a big Genesis fan. There’s a whole kind of prog-rock thing that I’ve got going on that I’m quite fond of.
Favourite piece of music and why?
There are lots of pieces of music I love, but the one that is consistently important to me, the one that would be the disc that I would save on Desert Island Discs, is Shostakovich’s 7th symphony. It would be a very specific recording – a live recording of it with my dad conducting with the BBC Philharmonic on his 70th birthday. That’s been my favourite piece of classical music since I was very little.
Describe yourself in 3 words
(Long pause)…overthinking, enthusiastic and lucky
How would your wife describe you in 3 words?
It depends what day you ask her. One of them would be ‘Spock’ but I’m not sure what the other two would be…
If you were a superhero, what would your power be?
Flight, it’s quite a cool superpower to have.
Quickfire questions:
Wine or beer?
Beer
Staycation or holiday abroad?
Staycation
Read a book or listen to music?
Read a book
Are you a scroller or a reader ?
Scroller
Starter or dessert?
It’s a tricky one, because a starter can shape the entire meal, so it’s really important. But I do like a pudding.