Sometimes in films it’s nice to have violins on either side, rather than on one side, so you’ve got more of a stereo picture with the violins. Sometimes it’s good to have the basses in the middle.

It’s really the sound of the voices, the sound of the words, the sound of the sound that we’re interested in.

Obviously in Art of Noise, I’m just part of the group, and when I do film scores, it’s always in collaboration with the director and other people involved.

Usually one or two things happen: Either you have an idea straightaway – the sort of sound that you want or the instrumentation or one particular sound that you want to feature – or you don’t.

You know, nobody eats in England. Three or four pints of English beer a night fills you. I can’t say I’m very impressed with the food in America. it’s all sort of bland. Like turkey sandwiches.

I always think it’s important to choose your initial theme very carefully because you’re going to be married to it for a long time. You might have to generate an hour’s worth of music from a very short, little piece of theme.

The greatest thing you can have when you compose a film score is a bit of time to think before you have to charge straight in and do it.

I prefer to see a rough cut of the film rather than read a script. I find it difficult to get the feeling of the atmosphere of a film from a script.

I like to start at the beginning and make the music develop in line with the drama developing. I've talked to other composers about this, and they don't all do it this way. Some people like to find the emotional center of it and work from the climax and then work backward and work forward, so I'm still experimenting with the actual way of doing it.

I had actually always wanted to be a film composer, but when I was at college there didn't seem to be any easy route into it-or any route into it at all. I found myself in this pop world and arranging things for people and dealing with orchestras and string sections, and I suppose I thought I ought to be doing this myself.