My relationship with music is different to most people’s. I imagine that for most if there was no music their lives wouldn’t be altered much. These people may find the experience of music pleasurable enough, perhaps the occasional thing might have some special meaning, but beyond that it’s no big deal.

Then there are those for whom music is important. They fall into different categories. I am in one of those categories but it is a small marginal place indeed. It is a place not dependent on partisan or passing fashions. It doesn’t relish contempt for ‘opposing’ tastes. It is not competitive. I don’t use music as a way of identifying myself with the tribe like many who are serious about it seem to do. I am not elitist or snobbish or judgmental with regards to what others choose to like. I don’t consider my choices to represent any kind of of aesthetic superiority. I know plenty people, particularly in the biz, who are guilty of all these things. These types seem to spend more time dwelling on what they don’t like than what they do.

My relationship with music is more universal than all that. Above all I think it’s about sensuality. I like the way music “feels” to my ear. It’s also an attempt to find appreciation, understanding, identification, connection, some kind of sense that the music engenders. I look for this and usually find it in nearly every kind of sound. The older I get the deeper that appreciation becomes. For example, the stuff I liked as a child I can listen to now with almost renewed fascination and interest. Each time I seem to gather a little bit more from it. Even material that didn’t do much for me before I can come back to and appreciate later. I consider this to be an example of a complete success. I wish my attitude to music was mirrored in other aspects of my life. I wish this attitude exemplified the way the world worked - i.e. respectful, open and accepting.

Maybe the central reason for this eclecticism is the job I do. Producing music requires some insight into where the other artists are coming from. Once that insight is achieved it tends to stay with me. Or maybe it is simply the only place I ever get to be the best I can be.

Whatever, I don’t need to wear the clothes, talk the talk, join the cult and hate the infidels in order to have a powerful relation to music. It’s much more immanent for me, more innate, more sensual in that my feeling for music is virtually unmediated and impacts directly on my emotions. No other decision-making authority needs to be consulted. In music I am truly a free man.