Interesting interview ! I was holding out hope for him to say he would release more of his music, but oh well I'm glad he's enjoying success with his musical.
How was the interview done ? In person, phone or e-mail ? I hope you don't mind my asking, I've been meaning to do some interviews too.
Interesting interview ! I was holding out hope for him to say he would release more of his music, but oh well I'm glad he's enjoying success with his musical.
How was the interview done ? In person, phone or e-mail ? I hope you don't mind my asking, I've been meaning to do some interviews too.
I'm impressed by the kindness displayed by Levay here, since you had a LOT of questions (covering basically every single thing he did). I've not heard 75% of the films or soundtracks in question, but interesting to hear him talk about them nonetheless -- not to mention his more general remarks.
If I may come with one suggestion: is it possible to separate the longer answers into more paragraphs? There was one "blocky" answer there, in particular, which was kinda hard to read (the one where he talks about equipment etc.).
I'm impressed by the kindness displayed by Levay here, since you had a LOT of questions (covering basically every single thing he did). I've not heard 75% of the films or soundtracks in question, but interesting to hear him talk about them nonetheless -- not to mention his more general remarks.
If I may come with one suggestion: is it possible to separate the longer answers into more paragraphs? There was one "blocky" answer there, in particular, which was kinda hard to read (the one where he talks about equipment etc.).
Hehe, it's far from everything he did during those 82-94 years. Look out for an "Interview Part 2" sometime in the future...
I got in touch with him in May, and he didn't start working on it until this fall, but when he first started he was full of information.
The longest part has now been separated into three parts.
Excellent interview. Levay has long been one of my favorites, and I'm glad he has found success with his musicals. I actually saw Elisabeth live in Vienna a few years ago. Not really what I want from Levay but a very nice experience. It's interesting how "the synth guys" all had their own sound. You could often tell the composer. Another interesting thing is how these days people have way more advanced technology and access to all this information, but the guys trying to make 100% accurate covers of these past scores still don't really succeed.
An interesting comment of Levay on producing and releasing his own scores. I would imagine there would be all kinds of legal hassles with copyrights that would make it a disaster financially? Perhaps you could also ask him on the equipment he used? Fun fact: he used a Yamaha DX7 card 1 -preset on the main theme of "Something Is Out There" (also used in Transformers).
A final thought... A lot of people see "the synth period" as the dark age of film scores, saying how it's awful and it all sounds the same. Of course, I couldn't disagree more, but when I think about the current "synths as orchestra"-scores that sound the same to me (irritating and boring as hell), I can understand why some people REALLY hate the 80s-90s. If you don't like the sound, it IS bad
The TV-show, so it was probably Rob Walsh's work. It's the Technodrome cue ("Sweep Loop on C" preset on Roland D50 card 1). Levay used it as the "space vessel" cue on Something Is Out There, and also during the end credits (it's not on Youtube but I presume you're familiar with it). He was often composing Frank Lupo's projects, and some cues from SIOT can also be heard on Dark Avenger.
Have you heard his work on the TV-show Hardball? It was a rather unique sound to him, very guitar-driven, almost like a "cleaner" version of Stone Cold. He only composed a few episodes, though. I remember the credit on the episodes he did was "Music by Sylvester Levay and the Garlic Fingers Band".
The TV-show, so it was probably Rob Walsh's work. It's the Technodrome cue ("Sweep Loop on C" preset on Roland D50 card 1). Levay used it as the "space vessel" cue on Something Is Out There, and also during the end credits (it's not on Youtube but I presume you're familiar with it). He was often composing Frank Lupo's projects, and some cues from SIOT can also be heard on Dark Avenger.
Have you heard his work on the TV-show Hardball? It was a rather unique sound to him, very guitar-driven, almost like a "cleaner" version of Stone Cold. He only composed a few episodes, though. I remember the credit on the episodes he did was "Music by Sylvester Levay and the Garlic Fingers Band".
Yes, I have seen SIOT, and I have some themes from it on a CDR somewhere.