Do you consider Hardscore a solo project or a band? How big is the input
of the other members in the composition of the music?
I've devoted 6 years of my life to this band. The last two even uniquely. I
really wanted to establish a kind of style which it can't be easily
designated, but which is definitely influenced by rock, Zappa, classical
contemporary music, jazz and I forget some. Yes, I compose every single note
of the songs beforehand, even the drums charts are completely notated. But, for I have chosen musicians who earn their living by playing improvised music, I try to make or conceive holes in the scores in which they can dive and swim more freely. Or I try to persuade them to improvise along the more or less unconventional chord progressions. But it's more to let the piece
breathe than the main purpose of it. It can be played "dry", but it will be definitely less funny...

Which is the concept behind "Surf, Wind and Desire"?
"Surf, wind and desire" is a great suite, thematically organized around
the sea. Not only as a hook for digging up almost forgotten souvenirs of someone
who lived for such a long time in close relationship with the sea (souvenirs
of playing with a kite as a child, the long walks along the shore, the first
kisses on the warm sand during a sunscaped summer...), but as a way to talk
about our past as a specie too. In "Creep from the deep" we are told the
true story of Chuck, a kind of longfish -now long extinct-, which crawled
out from the primeval sea to spawn the new line of creatures which would
evolve one day into the animal reading this website.

Don´t panic... there´s room left for much lighter topics. What would you
think of being the privileged spectator of a rather absurd encounter between
two completely clammed up crabs? (Crab meets crab) And don´t miss the
clash of a diver and a fairy shark, for there´s much more under the sea than the
eye can behold...

Walking along the sea front may confront you with all kind of music which
are carried on a frisky breeze. Buskers living on your charity play duos
with the recorded music coming from the open terraces. There´s even a
guestappearance of Buba the Monkey, well know from Book 2 of Hard Scores. (We
don´t hide the fact that there must be some relationship between Zappa´s
RDNZL and "BSKRZ")

"Gale-force seven" describes the sheer force of the wind. A wind able to
transform bird droppings into dangerous missiles. A wind forcing a plastic
tray with fish and chips to sail on the ground, right in front of you.
In "Cod", a swooning girls loses her heart to a sturdy surfer. In any
case, she´s ready to lose it...
In "Surf, no wind and desire" a totally frustrated guy is looking for an
encounter of the third kind with a sun-bathing human female.

Do you consider Surf, Wind and Desire your best work up to date? Are any other favorites works that you have?
I have finished two days ago Book 6:"Monkey trial". I think and sincerely
hope that this one will be the "one". "Surf" has its great moments, but I
think its initial goal ( the multitude of influences brought together around
the broad subject "sea") combined with the multi layered texture of each
song, might fatigue a listener the first time. There are many things to
discover on this CD, but perhaps some people might not be prepared to dig into it. People prefer mostly simplicity; And "Surf" is almost the opposite of this concept. "Monkey trial" might be better dosed...

How is the process of composition in Hardscore?
Like I already said, I compose everything beforehand.
I was (am) a classical composer gone awry. I tried first to introduce
contemporary elements in my classical scores. But too few people were
prepared to appreciate this.
The only solution was to go "all the way".
Inventing a non-existing band, which produces a never before heard sound and
even conceive a complete new idiom...
You can't ask all this to the playing musician.
Some solitary brain has to come up with something.

Have the other members of the band learned musical theory? How important
is it for your composing and playing?
All my players are classically trained musicians. My music can't be played by anyone else. the thousands pages have to be ingested, digested and then played with the attitude of a rock band. But there aren't even many classical bands who could do it without difficulty.
It's a cray option, I know, but it was the only way I could go after 20
years of classical composing.
The completely written-out charts, featuring the most complicated rythms and
phrasings (not to speak of the semi-demi quaver silences) are performed
almost casually on stage.
Mai´s capricious and adventurous voice might plain above groovy licks,
but is steered sometimes drastically toward more discording corners of the
imagination. But hearing Hardscore means to be tempted into new ways of
listening. Yes, there´s a constant flow of music. Yes, it might be
unrelenting. Yes, the lyrics have a meaning. Yes, one is invited to think
twice and more. Yes, all that is true. But one may not forget the
sensualness of the whole. The enthousiasm of the highly skilled players. The
breaking down of all attempts to become fashionable. The humour. Yes, the
playfulness... Seven little rascals grown into seven big good-for-nothing-but-music adults...

Which are your main musical influences?
Strawinsky, the Police (Stewart Copeland), Zappa, Webern, a bit of Prince,
Mozart and the many things which are blown my way during the proces of
composing...

How was the experience of composing symphonies and that style of music
when compared to Hardscore´s?
Hardscore is (was, for we are struggling to survive; Too few organistions
are prepared to take risks concerning "difficult to pin down bands". Getting
no response after 6 years of hard work is even for the post ardent optimist
too much) a band of friends. Nothing has been more important for them for
many years. We knew each other; We laughed with/at each other. We trusted
each other. We took our time to learn the pieces. Time wasn't money but a
present; To develop our skills as a band was our utmost goal.
Writing for classical bands is to confronted many times with exactly the
opposite. Very well trained plauers, who can play anything within the limits
of time accorded to them by the unions.
And laughing might be for them such a hard feat...

Is it fair to say that Hardscore combines jazz, pop and classical into
its own kind of music?
I hope it's so.
Of course, it would be wonderful if people one day would say: "Oh, this
combination of about everything is one song is soooooooo typical Hardscore!"

How big is the space that you leave in Hardscore for experimentation and
how big is the room you leave for improvisation?
25 years ago I "lived" in some kind of electronic studio, making tape music
with sounds bordering pure noise. My instrumental pieces were heavily
influenced by serialism and the so-called avant-garde. Then, growing older,
I introduced again tonal elements, until the moment I could stand to avoid
composing " grooves" in my music. (grooves were prohibited in serial music)
A piece called "Rastapasta" became for me the watershed.
I joined the postmodern movement and drifted slowly in the far away corner
were I live now.
So experiment has a totally different ring to for.Beforehand I was one complete experiment.
I swimming back, but I know that all the heavy luggage of my past is still
there.
Improvisation is great, but I discovered that I want to be a composer.
Improvising´s playing. Composing might result in playing. But not
necesarily. A player needs the smell of a studio.I need the smell of my room 5 which is paper-scented)

Why do you think that people compares you to Frank Zappa? How big is his
influence for you?
I thank them for the compliment.But there are big differences.
Some Zappa CDs are 60/70% improvisation. Zappa wrote incredibly inviting
tunes, which titillated the inspirational devices of his equally incredible
players. He needed them to be the best. And trying to emulate Varese's noisy
soundworld was his only goal in life.
I try to enhance the musical capacities of my musicians, but when they do
exactly what I've written down, we already might get some interesting
results; I need not to be that choosy about them. The notes can make them
grow. In Zappa's bands, it's the improvisation which makes them even
bigger...
And I don't play the guitar...

Are you trying to find a sounding contrast between your vocals and
Mai´s vocals to enhance Hardscore´s music?
Many people have wondered which I introduce such a "high" voice in the
band... The only one to get a voice through the complex textures is a rather
piercing one. Mai could produce this type of sound easy enough.
We tried even in the early beginnings of the band a real classical trained
voice. (you known the Zappa-teenage-prostitute kind of voice.) But the
combination of too classical and too complex didn't work well. We opted for
a young untrained voice, which was extremely agile. But Mai´s played piano
and cello since she was 3 years old and could read music like an old hand from her 5
years...
When the male voice got introduced in the scores, it was just to add a mad
flavor to the whole.
We are not singers. But the sound of a male backing choir proved to be the
right way to highlight some important or funny ideas of the score.