The score I always have on heavy repeat is 'Raiders Of The Lost Ark!'
I recently did a piece for the Boston Pops and John Williams, and I hope that it's as well a composed piece as I've ever done for any other medium or occasion.
Performing the American Music Awards and having Harrison Ford introduce you behind the John Williams orchestra for Star Wars, and then Meghan Trainor is in the front just standing up and like, 'I love you guys!' That was a huge moment.
Because of John Williams, I began collecting all kinds of film scores. I listened to them when I fell asleep, and it was through my obsessive listening that I learned what all the different parts of the orchestra were. I learnt a great deal from him by just simply listening.
John Williams is, without question, talented. He writes very good scores and very good melodies and all that.
The album for Fiddler really took off. I think it was a combination of John Williams and the score. It was a very classy big album.
I wanted to be a film composer because I heard scores that could stand alone, from 'Vertigo' to 'Star Wars' to 'La Dolce Vita,' because this music has so much history. They're weighed with the history of music. They come from somewhere, they have a past.
I think there has never ever been a career like John Williams'. That whole 'Jaws' phenomenon - there's nobody that knows how to use music like Spielberg, and John is just the perfect analog to Spielberg.
Something I grew up with is John Williams, of course, with 'Indiana Jones' and 'Star Wars.'
I think John Williams, him and his team, have been incredible orchestrators. By that, I mean how he chooses which instrument plays which note.
I'd say for a film composer, 'Star Wars' is kind of like the holy grail of film music. It's probably the best film music ever written.
There are occasionally eureka moments - off the top of my head, maybe Darth Vader's theme, you know, the imperial march.
The book that made me cry hardest was 'Stoner,' by John Williams.
There was no saying I could ever step in and do what John does, because it'd be really hard to be John Williams.
The music that they play at White Hart Lane before you walk out is just... I absolutely love it. I think it's from Star Wars.
My education as a film composer, you can't not - if you like the orchestra like I do, if you are a symphonist like I am - you can't not listen to John Williams' work.
Because in both TV and film every story under the sun is being told, and so music shouldn't be restricted to have to follow, like, the John Williams template or something. I love John Williams, but that sound doesn't suit every story.
