When I make film music, I'm a filmmaker first and foremost. It's about serving the needs of the film. You're telling a story; in a way, you stop becoming a composer and become a storyteller instead. You tell the story with the most appropriate themes. How you approach these things is a very personal matter, but your goal is to tell the story first.

Johann Johannsson

Categorized in : You Way Matter Music

I believe that things can be expressed very powerfully through simplicity.

Johann Johannsson

things i-believe simplicity believe

I'm a huge fan of Philip K. Dick.

Johann Johannsson

huge-fan fan philip huge

One very early influence was reading about John Cage's experience in an anechoic room where the only sound you are left with is the high-pitched drone of your nervous system.

Johann Johannsson

you experience influence reading

I have a Yamaha YC-45D organ in my studio. It's actually Terry Riley's favorite keyboard, so if you find old clips of him on YouTube, he's usually playing one of these.

Johann Johannsson

youtube old find you

'Orphee' is, for me, about changes: about moving to a new city, leaving behind an old life in Copenhagen, and building a new one in Berlin - about the death of old relationships and the birth of new ones.

Johann Johannsson

city me life death

I like to have space between the notes. I like to use silence.

Johann Johannsson

like space silence use

Public speaking is something I fear more than death itself.

Johann Johannsson

more something fear death

Give the composer time to experiment, time to try out ideas. Also, the time to fail. When the composer has very little time, the temptation is to reach for stock ideas - ideas they know will work and have worked in the past.

Johann Johannsson

work time past ideas

I am a trombone player, and that was my first instrument.

Johann Johannsson

instrument i-am first player

I think that the essence of being an artist is to break rules. You have to learn rules, and you have to break them, because if you make art only by the rules, then you make very boring art.

Johann Johannsson

think you boring art

I get restless very easily; I don't like to do the same thing twice.

Johann Johannsson

twice same get like

I think you are always influenced by your surroundings and where you grow up. Your environment is always one of the things that shape you, and the music scene in Iceland was a very important factor in shaping me.

Johann Johannsson

grow me you music

I like the whole Pacific Northwest.

Johann Johannsson

northwest like pacific whole

Always really good audiences in Belgium.

Johann Johannsson

really good always belgium

I don't watch TV that much, but I like to get series on DVD and watch them all back-to-back.

Johann Johannsson

them watch get like

I think melancholy is kind of a misunderstood emotion. I don't think it's necessarily an unpleasant or bad emotion.

Johann Johannsson

bad think misunderstood emotion

Melancholy is a state that I very much enjoy being in, actually. It's not the same as feeling sad. It's a more complex emotion; it derives from a tragic view of the world, a tragic view of art.

Johann Johannsson

sad enjoy world art

I think my music is a way of communicating very directly with people and with people's emotions. I try to make music that doesn't need layers of complexity or obfuscation to speak to people.

Johann Johannsson

think music speak people

Music should resonate with people on an emotional level. That's one of the criterions I use for an idea. Does it speak simply and directly without obfuscation and without being unnecessarily complex or obscure?

Johann Johannsson

emotional music speak people

I'm interested in extremes, in many ways.

Johann Johannsson

ways interested many extremes