Gigi: Which composers do you admire the most and when you write the music, are influenced by anyone in particular?
Gavin: I have a lot of influences in my music, but mostly post modern I guess, because this piece is my first major work and it would naturally have a lot of influences in it. Unless you can find a new way of playing instruments it is not completely innovative in a sense. For me though, I take a bit from everywhere and each movement has its own flavour. It combines classical, a very modern piece which is of a Stravinsky type, the dreamtime is completely primal piece of writing based on 4 different notes, but for me a lot of it is film score as it kind of dramatic.
Gigi: I can see a career path heading your way.
Gavin: (Laughs) Probably.
Gigi: I love the way you use the music in the symphony to take you up and lull you back. That toying with emotions is missing somewhat in modern day composing don't you think.
Gavin: Yes, to me the problematic thing in trying to express something musically and reason I wrote the symphony was I wanted to tell a story. I have taken ideas from everywhere really. I admire Sting and I particularly like what he does using French Choirs in some of his albums. He is a real crossover guy and he writes absolutely fantastic stuff. He uses influences from the classical into the pop medium as well, and I really like that idea of combining orchestras with simple popular sounds.
Gigi: What is your favourite piece of music? What transports you?
Gavin: The greatest piece of music, the one I love the most over any other and that rocks my world is Samuel Barber’s piece called ‘Scenes from Shelley’. It is not that well known and he wrote this piece when he was quite young, but it just the most beautiful piece. I put that number one. Vaughan Williams ‘The Lark Ascending’ as number two. Stravinsky’s ‘Number 5’ and I’ll toss in ‘Can’t you feel the love tonight’ by Elton John. (Laughs)
Gigi: I think it is amazing that you can put your finger so firmly on a couple as you must have so much music flowing through your head. I know your life has constantly revolved around music, did your parents ever have to push you?
Gavin: Definitely, definitely. There is no two ways about it. There was a stage when I was going to give up when I was about 15 or 16 and my mother, god bless her, forced me to keep going. I think she’s enjoying it now and thinks it is quite fun. I think mum was really proud when we rehearsed in the Garrison Church down by the Rocks. And you know, the experience I had when I was reluctantly dragged around singing in Nursing homes on a Saturday afternoon, when I would rather be playing soccer, Mum always said to me “You make a lot of people happy”. So it was a really good thing that she kept pushing me. Unfortunately, sometimes mothers and fathers, at some point become the bad guys and there is no way around it, and she insisted. I am good friends with her now, because now I understand why they persevered and what they did for me when I was younger. I do feel a bit guilty and I think “Gosh, maybe I was a pain’. (Laughs)
Gigi: She could see you had that something special! You spend a lot of time overseas now, how do you cope with that? Do you find you become homesick?
Gavin: Yes, I really do because I just love being here in Australia. I live in England at the moment and I have been living out of a suitcase for yonks. I am a real home body though.
Gigi: Have you got the personality traits of drive and ambition?
Gavin: I think so. But in the creation of this symphony, my friend, Michael Crouch who is like a mentor to me in many ways and a good friend, has so much energy that he prevents any laziness that might get a hold. He encourages me every step of the way. Michael said we will get the Sydney Symphony Orchestra to play I thought he had rocks in his head. I am a singer and I hadn’t studied composition and I thought there would be no way they would agree and of course they did. I have a great team around me. I have a great manager and my producer used to run the Australian Opera. Once the piece was written conceptually, my energy was flagging after writing for such a long time, everyone else’s energy was picking up which carried me along.
Gigi: Because they could see it was a winner.
Gavin: They couldn’t know exactly what it would be like though as no-one, only the composer can really tell. But even the composer can’t imagine exactly how it is going to come out until the first time the orchestra plays it. You plan it as an architectural thing, but you don’t really know. It’s like putting a choir together with a whole bunch of singers who you think will work together, but will they! The thing that got everyone excited was the concept of telling Australian history in a musical way.
Gigi: Did you get goose bumps when you heard it the first time?
Gavin: Yes, to a certain degree, not because of my work though. There is aboriginal song at the end of the second movement and I didn’t know what they were going to sing. I just wanted them to sing something that would have been sung around 1788, a tribal song. There were 4 of them against 86 members of the SSO and they were singing at the top of their lungs and that moment was really a spinal tingling moment. It was them expressing their own thing and it took on a life of its own. The people who participate just make things so different. They express things in ways you never thought of and when it turns out I indirectly take the credit for it! A lot of terrific extra things happen on top of what you have actually written.
Gigi: Do you think you have been lucky, have you been in the right place at the right time or has it been grim determination and hard work?
Gavin: I have my own theory about my own self. A couple of years ago I had very bad RSI and I couldn’t play the piano well at all. I couldn’t do anything and I was physically stuffed. I came back from Germany pretty much thinking that nothing was going to work out for me. I had a sort of prayer thing at St Andrews Cathedral and everything changed after that, and I don’t know why. I now consider my life literally blessed. I think I call it a ‘grace’ thing because despite everything, and it’s a bit of a corny line, there is “wind beneath your wings”. You can’t see it of course but something just lifted you up, and you don’t know where it comes from.
Gigi: What is your goal for the future? If someone said you could do anything or step into anyone’s shoes what would you choose?
Gavin: To compose an expression of faith. I know what that is musically and I know how long it will take, but I know that is what I would like to do as the main thing in my life. It all comes back to that defining moment. There is a lot to be done but I really believe that unity among people is a musical expression for me.
Gigi: I think you are doing a great thing creating music for all the right reasons and who knows where it will lead you. I believe the universe is conspiring to help you to, Gavin. The idea of the beautiful book recording the journey and the history chosen to create the music and the inclusion of the CD makes 'Symphony of Australia' makes a fabulous purchase. I wish you every success and look forward to joining you on Tuesday night.
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