Interview

 

 

So Jonathan, lets start at the beginning.

 

1.      Where were you born? London

 

2.      When were you born? 19th October, 1960

 

3.      Where were your parents born? Mother – Blackpool, Father - London

 

4.      What were your parent’s occupations? Mother Linguist & Teacher, Father Linguist & Importer.

 

5.      How many siblings do you have, order and gender? Sister two years younger and Brother six years younger.

 

6.      Where have you lived, chronologically from birth? Edgware, Middlesex.

 

7.      What sorts of things did you do as a young boy during weekends and holidays, and where did you holiday? I had a few hobbies such as bridge, chess, stamps and coins. Used to go to Blackpool to stay with Mother’s side of the family quite a bit!

 

8.      How did you spend Christmas as a child? Again, often in Blackpool with Mother’s side of the family.

 

9.      What were your favourite toys? Games, usually of the board variety.

 

10.  What are your earliest memories of school? It was competitive.

 

11.  What types of school did you attend? Haberdashers’ Aske’s School for Boys from 7 to 17.

 

12.  How supportive of music were your early schools? Yes, quite supportive.

 

13.  Did you receive private music tuition as a child? Yes. In Piano, Trumpet and Music Theory.

 

14.  Are other members of your family artistic and have any been involved professionally with any of the Arts? Five family members have an Art degree and one other has a Music degree – Two others have English degrees and were interested in acting or writing at one stage.

 

15. What family member or teacher encouraged and nurtured your creative endeavours

the most? None. I have relied on close friends for encouragement. (Nothing further to add!)

 

16.  As a child, what type of music, if any, would be heard about the family home?

Honestly, I can’t remember any apart from my own piano playing. It is possible that some lighter form of pop music would have been played at certain times.

 

 17.  Did you enjoy hearing music as a child, and what was the first record you bought?

Not especially and can’t remember.

 

18.  At what age did you first play a musical instrument, and what was it? Age 4, Piano.

 

19.  At what age did you first acquire a musical instrument of your own, and what was it? There was a family Piano in the house – quite an appalling upright made by Brunger. (Just Googled this and have discovered thatCharles McDougall of Edinburgh made Brunger Pianos!) 

 

20.  At what age did you first purchase your own musical instrument, do you still have it and are you sentimental about any of your instruments? I upgraded Pianos several times and currently drive a Yamaha U3AS which I am trying to sell now and replace with something even better!

 

21.  What good and bad memories do you have of your time spent at school, prior to your time at the Royal Academy of Music in London? Rather not go there, thanks.

 

22.  What subjects beside music were you interested in? At the time, none.

 

23.  What popular music did you listen to in your teens and twenties? None.

 

24.  What television programmes did you watch in your teens and twenties? Vintage BBC2 would have been the favourite.

 

25.  At what age did you become interested in classical music? Very interested around 14.

 

26.  At what age and under what circumstances did you realise an appreciation for the structure of music? 14 to 15 while studying for the old O-level.

 

27.  How, and at what age, did you become interested in jazz? 15 to 16 (not sure ‘how’ though!)

 

28.  Prior to your first composition for a friend whilst still at school, as described in the excellent Maria S. Rice interview, and the seemingly subsequent creative explosion that propelled you on to compose at the Royal Academy, had you had other thoughts regarding your future? Only in as much as I wanted to leave my mark on Society.

 

29. The time spent as a student seemed full and vibrant, with 50 performances of your work and meeting such talented musicians.  Would you impart a few of your favourite memories from your time at the Royal Academy of London, and ways you spent your evenings? Attending any premiere performance of my own composition

would have been a favourite. Evenings were occasionally enjoyably spent attending professional concerts.

 

And so to work…

 

30. At what stage of a score's development do you decide which instruments will be used and is it necessary or helpful to know all the instruments well? Depends on the type of work involved, often though I know of the entire instrumentation in full before I write a single note!

 

31. How like the original sketch or idea is a completed score?

A sketch can be two or three chords or five or six single notes (only) but it would still be recognizable

in the finished product.

 

32.  I may be a little confused, but the response to the third question of the FeBland ‘Live’ Interview described nearly 3 years of tinkering beyond the time the score for Jazz Symphony became available at Sibelius Music, with still another 100 hours at least to completion.  Is the score not affected by the further tinkering?

 Yes, of course the score is affected – hopefully, it is improved with each little minute addition, whether a clash of cymbals an inner clarinet line or a re-orchestration bringing the harp part into clearer focus. Equally, sometimes extra lines were added including a good one with castanets and bassoons (second time with castanets and brass) that has just sprung to mind.

 

33.  What is your experience when you hear a performance of your work, for instance do you listen to and enjoy the music as a whole, the musician’s performances, or do you analyse the work itself, or just thoroughly enjoy the whole experience of having your work performed?  I’d imagine the experience would be quite exhilarating, but possibly tiring too if much analysing goes on, so at what point does mental tinkering cease? I’d really rather not go into detail on this (although it’s an interesting question). Sometimes one needs to be very tactful after a performance when it comes to talking to the musicians! Best of all is to have your music recorded on CD as you can listen to it many times over and come to a much stronger conclusion!! Recently I was in Spain for a premiere of a work for Trio. I was fortunate enough to ‘take’ the final rehearsal and thrash out a few of the finer points required to add polish to the performance.

 

34.  Has your work ever been performed badly and are there instruments or pieces you avoid at particular venues due to acoustics? Yes to part a) and so far, No to part b).

 

35.  How long in advance do you have to ‘book’ venues, orchestras and musicians, and could you describe the process of organising a performance of your work? Ideally I try not to get involved with that side of things at all! I try to get musicians who are already in the process of giving their own concerts to feature my music in those already existing concerts! However, when I do get involved I like to work 12 to 18 months in advance!

 

36.  Bands, at least independent label bands during the ‘80’s, hoped to cover the cost of hiring the venue and sound equipment, travelling etc. with door takings, keeping or sharing any profit, or loss.  ‘Royalties’ were also received from records played or sold.  As a composer organising a performance of your own work, do you in effect have to pay yourself ‘rights’ via the PRS, and how are orchestras and musicians of 1 to 90 plus remunerated? Really, once again, I’d rather not discuss numbers (although thanks for the question). At least of course if I pay myself I know I'll be sure to receive a handsome fee!

 

37. Could you elaborate on this part of a response to a question from Ms Rice’s interview regarding the future of composed music, in which you wrote ‘...time of great achievement in the ‘re-creative’ arts, such as music performance’? Seriously, I think I answered the question in full for Maria! I am just saying that there is a difference between creative arts such as Composition, Painting, Creative Writing and re-creative arts such as Piano Playing, Conducting and Dancing/Ballet etc.

 

38.  You seem very involved with the production of the Piano Colours CD, proofreading and finalizing the text that will appear inside the booklet, as well as being sole composer.  How involved were you with the actual production of the CD for Piano Colours, and what level of involvement did you have with The Clarinet Collection (1995) - Deborah de Graaff & Len Vorster and Chamber Music Discoveries (2007) - Trio B3?

 None with the de Graaff project – I didn’t even find out about the disc until 4 years later!! The B3 project – I was glad to be involved with that but I didn’t sit in on rehearsals (sadly there is one wrongly played chord on the CD !!) Piano Colours, basically I had one rehearsal a month with Louis Alvanis for about 18 months or so prior to the recording date! I was not present at the recording session though (which went on for 3 solid days) – this was by agreement!

 

39. Louis Demetrius Alvanis, who launches the Piano Colours CD at a Piano Recital in January next year at St George's, Bristol, one of Britain's leading concert halls and recording studios, was the musician on the Piano Colours CD.  Presuming you both provided text for the booklet, who are the remaining contributors? The Piano Colours CD is basically a Solo Piano Recital of music composed by myself. Therefore, there are only two musicians involved – the Composer and the Pianist !!

 

40.  Andrew Doyle will be recording your 3 Pieces for Clarinet on a new CD at some point during 2008 and Trio B3 intend to record another of your works in 09.  Will these CD’s include work from other composers, and do you or anyone else intend producing further CD’s of your own work? Yes – the CDs will be ‘mixed recitals’ with other composers represented. Hopefully, there will be many other CDs available of my compositions over the next few years! The main challenge for a Classical Composer is to ‘get published’ this I achieved with flying colours when I signed to one of the biggest companies on the planet, Universal Edition at the end of 1985.

 

41. Next year’s collaboration with Mike Turtle in Switzerland will include your first attempt at writing lyrics.  Although an experienced poet you say lyric-writing is a different ballgame.  In what way does writing lyrics and poetry differ, and are you intending the collaboration to include more songs? This is a very tricky subject to try to answer! Let’s just say there’s a subtle difference between the two, the most noticeable being that a ‘pure’ poem doesn’t need to fit the rhymes, rhythms and metre of music! I think the album will be a mixture of instrumentals and songs – things are not too clear at this stage as all I have done so far is produce 9 sketches – I need to do 20 or so, and we will pick the best 14!

 

42.  Is this the first time you have collaborated with another musician on a CD, and can you foresee any difficulties, for instance in collaborating over such distance? I collaborated with Clifford White on about 16 New Age albums produced in the early 1980’s (we sold over 10,000 mainly on cassette!) Distance is no problem these days with the miracle of the interweb.

 

43.  What would be the likely-hood of a classical or new-age CD a la ‘concept album’ from Jonathan FeBland?

It already exists – at least on Cassette! I won’t start throwing titles at you here as all of this work is now obsolete and impossible to get hold of commercially. Hopefully, I will be able to revive all of the best tracks from the Land-White collaboration at some point in the future.

 

44.  Breaking the Pattern with vocalist Tiffany Vinyard seems evocative of a stage musical and you mentioned in answer to a question on FeBland ‘Live’ Interview with regard to Jazz Symphony you are considering submitting the work to the Royal Opera House with the intention of having it choreographed and danced by the Royal Ballet.  With your interest in music, conceptual art, writing lyrics, poetry, humour etc, could you ever see yourself staging a full FeBland stage musical production? That is possible but unlikely. A lot depends upon whether and how quickly I can get ‘discovered’ and which doors open up opportunity-wise.

 

45.  With reference again to a question from Rice regarding the future of composed music, what of the 99% would put you in the 1%?  The music you’ve made available for all to see and hear via the ‘interweb’ (one of yours?) is typically varied and rewarding to listen to, IMHO good, but how would you rate yourself alongside Internationally acclaimed Composers within both classical and contemporary music? Time is the only judge of such matters!

 

46. With composing, and maintaining web and blog sites dealing with everything from stock markets to everyday life, bridge and betting, as well as humour, music, art and poetry, your life seems pretty full and enjoyable.  What apart from these things could you see yourself doing in the future, or indeed, could a time come when you would need to put these interests aside as your work and reputation as a Composer develops? Honestly, I wouldn’t like to say! I am a very enthusiastic person and I took a “How burned out are you” quiz recently – the answer was I am 0% burned out. I guess in that case there’s quite a bit of life in the old dog yet! http://www.blogthings.com/areyouburnedoutquiz/

 

47. Are your parents and rest of the family proud of your achievements so far, and do they like your work?      I think so, although they are really no more clued up on the situation than most members of the public. The opinions that I take are of International-level musicians such as Alvanis and David Johnstone (Cellist-Composer).

 

48. What is the origin of the FeBland surname? No one knows for sure, although anyone with this surname is almost definitely a relative of mine!

 

49. And finally, what’s your favourite colour? Orange. 

 

Links to other FeBland Websites

 

Contact the webmaster