A really good poem is full of music.

With vocal and choral music, first and foremost, it's the text. Not only do I need to serve the text, but the text - when I'm doing it right - acts as the perfect 'blueprint', and all the architecture is there. The poet has done the heavy lifting, so my job is to find the soul of the poem and then somehow translate that into music.

I write music that sounds complex but isn't. I frankly never think in terms of theory.

As a composer, I know that all sorts of sounds I hear are making their way into my brain and soul and later sneak into my music.

I'm a self-confessed geek, and my whole concept of music at first was entirely electronic. In many ways, it turned out to be an advantage. I was so green, so utterly naive about the nature of classical music, that I did things that made me look totally, deliberately unorthodox.

I can't write music unless I'm deeply connected to it and that connection almost always comes from some experience that I have had or am having.