JW interview by the Philadelphia Orchestra

[Fabulin 3,510]

 

[JohnnyD 1,221]

This is an awesome interview! I love the Maestro's delightfully detailed insights; I would love to have a conversation or open discussion with him, but this is the next best thing.

[Thor 7,478]

Thank you, Fabulin. I always love to hear Williams speak (about anything), but the interviewer was bad. Which makes sense, because he isn't really a journalist in the first place. At this point in time, I doubt we're going to see another Williams interview with a good interviewer. He (and his team) seems to prefer standard questions from mainstream media or other music people.

[Marian Schedenig 8,179]

1 hour ago, JohnnyD said:

This is an awesome interview!

 

It is. Which is all the more fascinating because it's down to Williams's ability to give relevant, insightful elaborations in reply to what is essentially an endless barrage of mainly mundane fanboy gushing.

[Fabulin 3,510]

.

[Thor 7,478]

21 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

I think Williams looks to be in a good shape, and speaks very fast and with a lot of energy, when compared to some other recent interviews, whether on camera or voice-only.

 

THAT, we can agree on. Amazing energy for someone who's close to 90 years old. I'm convinced he'll live to 100.

[MikeH 768]

22 minutes ago, Fabulin said:

Time for some more fanboy gushing:

 

I think Williams looks to be in a good shape, and speaks very fast and with a lot of energy, when compared to some other recent interviews, whether on camera or voice-only.

This is from around four years ago, that so that would probably explain it a bit. This is the portion that originally came out in 2016:

 

The interviewer is Conductor Stéphane Denève.

 

 

[Thor 7,478]

A-ha. At least it's post-pacemaker.

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

What the erotic cue he is talking about that was so explicit that they cut it?

 

Is it Love Scene or Love Scene extended? Or is it Night Journeys?

[Holko 9,499]

7 hours ago, TheUlyssesian said:

What the erotic cue he is talking about that was so explicit that they cut it?

 

Is it Love Scene or Love Scene extended? Or is it Night Journeys?

Night Journeys is the original cue as written. It was rewritten as Love Scene to be more romantic and to fit the newly cut down Maurice Binder sequence. The film used only that middle portion for the Binder sequence, the rest is the more menacing Night Journeys. JW cut the opening off of Love Scene for the LP, Varese's (extended) is just the original actual full recording before that LP-only cut.

 

looks at the Bond openings So it's entirely possible the longer Binder sequence had stuff in it that was deemed a bit too explicit, was cut down, rescored, bit of the previous version of the cue used anyway because of the mood.

[Chewy 2,382]

I LOVED watching this interview, John looks and sounds great! Unlike @Thor, I think the interviewer was pretty good (not saying that because he's french ), the questions were interesting and John gave detailed answers and even some details that I think he never mentioned in the past. I really enjoyed that.

[Jediwashington 59]

17 hours ago, Thor said:

Thank you, Fabulin. I always love to hear Williams speak (about anything), but the interviewer was bad. Which makes sense, because he isn't really a journalist in the first place. At this point in time, I doubt we're going to see another Williams interview with a good interviewer. He (and his team) seems to prefer standard questions from mainstream media or other music people.

 

I disagree. While there is certainly some gushing in there, there were some subtle variations to his standard set of questions that gave us some more insight; for instance I don't think Williams really answered the question well when he asked about what he listens to when he is trying to capture a different culture. He alluded to needing professional modern chromatic flutes to make a sound like Asian flutes - which I suspect is just be a bad cut, but when pressed a little he did mention that he needed to listen to more when working on Geisha for instance. He also asked about his composition process, but he knocked him off the normal script of "I don't read scripts/pencil paper" and he talked a little more about the melody refinement specifically in ET, which I hadn't heard him talk much about.

 

If anything, I think this is a badly cut/edited interview. He talks most openly and honestly to other musicians, composers, and conductors. His media interviews are always dull and repetitive. When someone can knock him off script, that's when we get great insights, but he has clearly been well trained by the marketing folks during his time with the Boston Pops to not get too technical or in the weeds for fear of losing people and he seems very aware of that in interviews. His own agent might be coaching that as well, but he's at an age that I really wish they would just let him talk or sit him down with some conductors/musicians and just record conversations for prosperity. He's way too humble to agree to that though!

[crumbs 14,305]

I was really interested to hear what medium he listens to music on (CD? vinyl?) and he totally avoided that question. Shame we didn't get any clarity there.

 

Like, does Williams have a massive vinyl collection and he pulls out discs and puts them in his record player? Does he just play CDs?

[Thor 7,478]

2 hours ago, Chewy said:

I LOVED watching this interview, John looks and sounds great! Unlike @Thor, I think the interviewer was pretty good (not saying that because he's french ), the questions were interesting and John gave detailed answers and even some details that I think he never mentioned in the past. I really enjoyed that.

 

So did I, but only because Williams is good at taking a bad question and turn it into something meaningful and interesting. It's fully and wholly Williams' credit, not the interviewer's. Which makes it tantalizing to think what a Williams interview with a proper interviewer would be.

[TheUlyssesian 2,473]

8 hours ago, Holko said:

Night Journeys is the original cue as written. It was rewritten as Love Scene to be more romantic and to fit the newly cut down Maurice Binder sequence. The film used only that middle portion for the Binder sequence, the rest is the more menacing Night Journeys. JW cut the opening off of Love Scene for the LP, Varese's (extended) is just the original actual full recording before that LP-only cut.

 

looks at the Bond openings So it's entirely possible the longer Binder sequence had stuff in it that was deemed a bit too explicit, was cut down, rescored, bit of the previous version of the cue used anyway because of the mood.

 

It looks to me that he's saying the music was too explicit, not the images. And that is why they changed the music.

[MikeH 768]

2 hours ago, Jediwashington said:

He talks most openly and honestly to other musicians, composers, and conductors. His media interviews are always dull and repetitive. When someone can knock him off script, that's when we get great insights, but he has clearly been well trained by the marketing folks during his time with the Boston Pops to not get too technical or in the weeds for fear of losing people and he seems very aware of that in interviews. His own agent might be coaching that as well, but he's at an age that I really wish they would just let him talk or sit him down with some conductors/musicians and just record conversations for prosperity. He's way too humble to agree to that though!

I agree. JW was definitely more introspective and opinionated in interviews during the 70’s and 80’s. Maybe he just got tired of it and decided to focus on the music after a certain point. You have to admit that the PR has been super polished and well-prepared since the 90’s.
 

A part of me is bummed we’ll probably never get the same type of openness and honest opinions from him like we got from other composers like Goldsmith, Herrmann, Barry, Rosenman, and Horner.

[Thor 7,478]

3 hours ago, MikeH said:

I agree. JW was definitely more introspective and opinionated in interviews during the 70’s and 80’s. Maybe he just got tired of it and decided to focus on the music after a certain point. You have to admit that the PR has been super polished and well-prepared since the 90’s.

 

Indeed. I love reading JW's earlier interviews, where he's more direct and honest. Like his "riff" on Herrmann's PSYCHO.

[Joni Wiljami 1,206]

I love these interviews by the composers and musicians. Because they know what it is to conduct/perform JW's brilliant music. It easily slips to the fanboy category. Like this and the  ones Dudamel done, it is also a case of skills in english language. They are so honest!!  I would definitely not wanted to a Zimmer interview like " hey what computer or software you use to compose those unavailing tunes to our otherwise beautiful world. ?"