I prefer live musicians whenever possible. And I tailor the ensemble to what is appropriate for the film and the score I'm writing.

It was a natural thing for me to go become a musician, and then to start writing music. I don't even really remember making a decision to go into music, it was just there for me, always. If I weren't making a living at it, I'd still be writing music.

For as long as I can remember, I've been passionate about music. I can't recall a time when I didn't have music playing in my head.

In a recording, your ear believes and accepts the trumpets as part of the ensemble, but you can't do that in a concert hall.

Each culture might lend its own dialect, but above all that is the language of music itself, and it doesn't care about politics or boundaries.

When I'm writing a score, I'm constantly looking for ways to improve on it, even when I think it's working well. I don't give up on things, and am always trying to make incremental improvements, which means I never finish writing a score early!

One of the earliest memories I have of feeling the power of film music was watching Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. That was a really clear epiphany for me, when I realized that each film has its own music, and that there was someone out there who wrote this very specific music for just this one film.