If I'm feeling confident, then I write confident, happy, or assured music. I can hear some early electronic sketches I did where I'm clearly not confident and everything's a bit mid-range, nothing really pushes through.

Other friends have said, "I don't understand why you've used this trumpet-style sound rather than a real one when you know you can write for trumpet." But it's most important to get the energy right.

I try to listen to stuff that makes me happy for other reasons, rather than being musically inspiring.

I want to become less and less about the laptop. That's what's lovely about an orchestra - the physicality, the way every gesture relates to something you're hearing.

There's something strange about a laptop, how you can make the tiniest gesture and make the biggest sound. I don't feel I've resolved working a sense of performance into a piece yet.

Performances are so defined by their venues - it'd be nice for the music to dictate more of the reaction.

I'm less interested in uniqueness than in goodness. I see so many concerts where the program notes are more interesting than the music. I remember talking to one composer who went through the most complicated mathematical algorithm to generate some material from scratch. It took weeks and weeks, and he came up with a C major chord. For me, honesty is more interesting than originality.