M&SR: How do you recreate the sounds live?
Heap: When I’m on stage, I like to use electronic gear. I like to use my drum machine. I like to use this program called Ableton Live. Basically any keyboard I have on stage I can trigger things from Ableton Live. I did spend a lot of time making all these lovely sounds on the record, so I am triggering off samples I’ve already made. I want to bring the sound of the record, because some of them aren’t from an instrument. They’re just something that took me four hours to make, so I can’t recreate that live. It doesn’t exist, that sound, in real life. So I’m triggering off a lot of things, but then I can manipulate them with effects, all through MIDI. The only kind of instrument I actually play live is this mbira thing and the piano. And then everything else is either triggered or played. Like the strings are played because I can’t obviously play a whole string orchestra by myself. So I play that on the keyboard.
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M&SR: Have you ever thought about designing your own instrument?
Heap: I have built, well I got somebody to build for me, this absolutely gorgeous, plexiglass, big baby grand shape. It’s got a lid and everything, and beautiful carved legs out of wood with little golden casters on the bottom of them. Inside of that go all these beautiful lights that correspond to each note I play on the actual keyboard. And then I’ve got my G5 in there, my Apple Mac in there with all my samplers, and all sorts of things. It’s all inside this clear piano. It just looks amazing.
M&SR: A lot of your music has gotten out to people through movies and shows, which is funny because musicians used to be looked at as sellouts for having songs in advertisements, etc. and now it’s the status quo. Do you think this is a good thing for the industry?
Heap: Well yeah, because I remember even as far as commercials…don’t know if it’s the same in the U.S., but in the U.K. commercials have really great music. So many times I’m watching the TV and then on comes a commercial and I’m like, “Oh my god, what’s that song? I’ve got to look it up.” Usually it’s people I really like, like Aphex Twin or Squarepusher. So I get to hear all this cool music. But yeah, in the past it was the worst thing, wasn’t it? Just like cheesy kind of general MIDI, kind of nasty sounds with some awful singing over it or something. Now it’s great. I guess it’s not so great for the people who used to write music for commercials as a living, but for artists like myself who are trying to make it in the music world…I actually couldn’t live without it. I’d be really hard up if I didn’t get my stuff in films, I’ll tell you that.
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