The following interview was conducted via the Internet by Bruce Atchison (his e-mail address: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca) for the U.K. electronic music magazine Voyager (Issue 13, Spring/Summer 1996)

How did you get your start at the Fiske Planetarium?

The planetarium was being built during my senior year at the University of Colorado, in 1975. I had heard they were putting in a recording studio with a synthesizer in it, so I went over to the construction site. I talked with Jim Sharp, who had designed the facility, and he asked me if I had any music he could hear. Since the planetarium was still under construction, we went out to my car and listened to a cassette of some music I'd recorded on the University's Moog modular system. He told me to come back when they were ready to start show production. I did, and worked on their opening show with Jim, called "Stardeath" (the title music appears on the first GEODESIUM album). I eventually came to be Fiske's "composer-in-residence", creating music for more than a dozen show soundtracks from 1975-1978. It wasn't a paid staff position, but Jim said I could use "all the tape I wanted." And I took advantage of that!

In 1976, Fiske hosted a convention of the International Planetarium Society, and Jim asked me to demonstrate the sound studio to the attendees. A lot of interest was expressed by planetarians from around the world who saw the shelves of reels of tape I'd created, and wanted to know how they could get the music for their shows. That was the impetus to begin marketing my music, and I created the first GEODESIUM album using some of the most popular selections of music from Fiske shows. That's how it started.

"What attracted you to electronic music?"

Keith Emerson's "Lucky Man" solo, and Wendy Carlos' "Switched-on Bach".

"Was Anasazi a difficult album to record since the style was different from your previous recordings?"

I don't see the style as being that much different from my previous work. Certainly some of the instruments -- the distinctive flute sounds and other tonal textures -- weren't used in my previous space music albums. When you're talking "Anasazi", you're not going to use typical "space" synth patches. But, if you listen carefully to Anasazi and in relation to my other work, I think you'll hear a thread of similarity, even though the tunes may be different. It wasn't difficult at all to record "Anasazi"; in fact, it was fun.

"Did any e.m. artists/bands influence you?"

Composers are influenced by many things -- not just other musicians. I can't point to one particular artist or band and say they had an effect on my music. Certainly if I heard a group using a synthesizer sound that I liked, it might influence me to try to find out how they did it and what synth created it. Musically, I'm omnivorous. You'd expect a person with a degree in music education to be conversant in all types and styles of music. I've played guitar since junior high school; I was the jazz ensemble guitarist in all my years in high school and college. I've played in rock bands and bluegrass bands. I currently play tuba in a brass quintet. You can't play that wide a variety of music and not absorb influences -- just as you can't listen to the radio on a daily basis and not be influenced by what you hear.

I listen to other space music artists, of course -- but does that influence my music? I really don't think so. My fingers don't move any better over the keys, or come up with marvelous new melodies on their own, simply because I listen to other artists' music. Sometimes I hear something and think, "I can do better than that." Influence is where you find it.

"What got you interested in astronomy?"

I've been into astronomy since I was a kid. I had a correspondence with H. A. Rey, who wrote "Find The Constellations", a fantastic starter book for children. But by the time that started, I was already interested in stargazing, inspired by the Mercury astronauts. When I was six years old, my family moved to Boulder; I wrote to Scott Carpenter, asking him where he lived, since I knew he was from Boulder. He wrote a personal letter back, giving the address, and telling me what a wonderful place Boulder was. I still have that letter from 1962, on official NASA stationery.

"Why did you pick Loch Ness Productions as your business name?"

It stems from a high school nickname. Besides, you have to call your company something.

"Do you play live with a backing tape or computer, or do you play all the instruments?"

I'm not a keyboard concert artist; I don't do tours, in fact, I haven't done many live performances at all. My music is basically a studio creation. That's where it takes shape, that's where it sounds the best. It's impossible to play all the instruments and tracks in a live performance of a piece that might have taken more than 100 tracks and weeks to achieve in the studio. Then, in a live performance, how is a single musician going to recreate that work with only two hands? And the sound is pumped out a P. A. system that's never as good as the studio monitors -- or even a set of headphones. All this so an audience can watch "the magic" of someone trying to recreate a studio creation?

In the planetarium concerts I've done, we bring the lights down and turn on the planetarium effects and lasers and such anyway. I'm no different from, say, the Tangerine Dream artists. It's rather boring to watch a synthesizer player hidden behind stacks of keyboards. Let the visuals go, let the audiences drift off. At that point, there's no "live" element worth all the hoo-raw anyway.

I've seen criticism of other artists who "play along with a tape" in their concerts -- but that's the way it has to work. I don't know what else people expect.

You ask "do I play all the instruments"? Who do you think does? Sometimes I guess people must think the keyboards play themselves! I use "digital automation" for my recordings: I move the digits at the ends of my hands!

"Which do you like better, analogue or digital synths?"

That's like asking if I like apples better than oranges. Each type of instrument has its strengths and weaknesses. The artistry one brings to one's composition is to meld the strengths of each keyboard with the others to make a pleasing-sounding whole. The tools used should be irrelevant.

That said, I find my old analog synths are a lot easier to work than the current crop of digital synths. Who has the patience to page through menus and submenus, looking for one parameter to tweak? Give me a knob to twist.

"What are my hobbies?"

I like to take long walks. I enjoy electronic communications with intelligent correspondents. I play in a brass quintet, and occasionally play Renaissance instruments such as recorder with my wife, who studied music for a time.

"Is Infinite Light" for sale now?

Not yet. I'm still debating the content I want it to have.

"Where will your music go stylistically in the future?"

Ahead, I hope!

"Any plans for creating CD ROM planetarium shows for sale to the public?"

It's an idea we've discussed. I can't say more at this time.

"Any plans for live concerts in the future?"

Not at this time.

"How will your music be remembered in the future?"

I'd be happy if it's remembered at all. I'm happy when radio station programmers remember it today by playing it. Fortunately, there are tens of thousands of people out there who like my music right now, so I'm not too concerned about the future. Also, it's probably premature to talk about "being remembered" -- it ain't over yet, is it?

"Will e.m. attain the status that classical music has today?"

Beats me. Why should it? Are you holding up either one as somehow superior to the other? Is there a pinnacle to be achieved?

What's the status of classical music? I mean that seriously. Classical music cannot change in and of itself. It's written for orchestras and groups to perform and re-interpret, if necessary. But, those notes written in the past are fixed in the past and the only thing that we see now are endless attempts to "redefine" the music by innovative interpretations and performances. If that's in store for the future of electronic music, then it won't happen. The medium of electronic music is not really live performance, which IS the case for "classical" music.

For one thing, how can someone else perform my music as I have performed it? I don't write a score for publication so that others can perform the music. The recordings I make are one-of-a-kind performances, etched in CD format (or on cassette or LP), and so they are unique. Sure, someone else can attempt to perform my music -- or Tangerine Dream's music or any other electronic artist's music -- but it will be an interpretation, not the original.

E.M. is probably more analogous to jazz recordings by Dizzy Gillespie or Thelonius Monk. Sure, you could play the same tunes, but it wouldn't be Monk or the Diz performing.

To finish off: "classical music" is really a misnomer. "Classical" really refers to a certain period in the mainly Western European musical tradition -- a period that lasted from the late 1700's to the late 1800's, and encompassed such composers as Beethoven, Haydn, etc. There should be a new term to refer to the Western tradition of music that stretches from the last days of the old Roman Empire to the avant-garde and yes, even jazz and electronic. It's just not fair to label the Renaissance music and the late Romantics and the serialism popular in the 20th century under the lump name "classical". And none of it includes the non-European musical traditions that might well be considered "classical" in their own countries.

In any case, it seems somewhat pointless to compare "E. M." to "classical" music -- or "country" or "folk" or "New Age" or "rap". It's music -- enjoy it.

Thanks Mark