'As If To Nothing', the new album by Craig Armstrong, features a brilliant newinterpretation of U2's Stay (Far Away So Close).
'As if To Nothing', released this week, is a second solo album of originalmaterial from Craig Armstrong and features a stellar cast of collaborativemusicians - including Bono, Evan Dando, David McAlmont and AntyeGreie-Fuchs.
Glaswegian Armstrong, 43, is a Royal Academy of Music graduate who passedthrough the ranks of his native city's band culture (membership of Hipsway,Texas and The Big Dish) to become one of the world's most sought-after andrespected composers and arrangers.
In the contemporary field, Madonna, U2, Bjork and Massive Attack are amongthe acts to have benefited from his talents. But he is also an acclaimedwriter for theatre and film, where among his credits are scores for the BazLurhmann hits 'William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet' and 'Moulin Rouge'
Question one:
The reason I called my album 'As If To Nothing' is to do with the fact thatworking a lot with music over the years and becoming aware of the sort ofintangible quality of music. And the fact that in many ways unlike apainting or a novel it actually doesn't exist in a material sense, itactually exists just in terms of sound waves. I felt the title 'As If ToNothing' would be a good way to define and describe this feeling ofetherealness in music.
Question two:
For this album I decided that although there was a lot of instrumentalmusic, quite a lot of the record would contain songs and obviously for thesesongs I needed to find singers and collaborators.
One of the first artists that I decided to work with was David McAlmont, whodid the track 'Snow'. We actually wrote the lyrics together for it and werecorded it in Glasgow.
Bono, is someone who I have done a lot of work for over the years in termsof string arrangements for U2. I said to Bono I would pick my favouritetrack which was 'Faraway so Close' and we would work on that and see wherethat would get to.
Mogwai, another artists I collaborated with, are actually a Glasgow band. Itturned out to be the most fascinating project. I love the way their music isso filmic and so fascinating. I felt in many ways their sense of space;their sense of dimension and landscape is quite similar to mine.
Question three:
In a sense I have been working on this new album from the period where Ifinished with my first album. Even when I was in Australia working on MoulinRouge, I was still writing some work for my solo record. In all, maybe acouple of years.
Question four:
The song that I composed first was 'Ruthless Gravity'. It was a song whichin many ways defined the whole record. It was a song that was very completeand I decided that I would take fragments from that song and it would beinterpreted through the album, little fragments of the melody would appearthrough the album. So in many ways it being the first track was quite luckybecause it was almost the theme that the whole album was created from.The last track was 'Let it Be Love', and this is a track that like 'TheSpace Between Us' I wanted a feeling that the album was resolving that itwas coming to a positive end, something that was uplifting.
Question five:
Between 'The Space Between Us' and 'As if to Nothing' in terms of thecreative process there isn't a lot that's changed. I approach both albumswith the same sort of intensity. The only difference is the fact that in 'Asif to Nothing' there is this idea of musical development where one track canfilter down through the album bit by bit but other than that there's not alot.
Question six:
The difference between writing for movies and writing for a solo project inone sense is obvious, the fact that in film obviously you have moving imagesto write to. Other than that I would say I approach all these differentmediums say like film, my solo work and my classical work, I just approachthem in the same way as a composer. It's my same voice but in differentprojects. In every single thing I'm trying to write something special andsomething emotionally true.
Question seven:
I don't think any composers get used to making acceptance speeches. From thepoint of view that I think that most composers are more comfortable actuallyworking in their studios composing music. For me receiving these awards likethe Golden Globe or another BAFTA - they are great honours. A film likeMoulin Rouge is incredibly hard work so the fact that your own peers likefilm makers and directors and other musicians want to vote the fact thatwhat you wrote was special, I think its a real honour to receive theseawards.
Question eight:
At the moment I'm very into the German Electronic music from Kitty Yo. Atthe same time I've revisited a lot of old records of Ennio Morricone.Classically I like a composer called Concelli. I think I'm just like anybodyelse these days, you listen to lots and lots of different music.
Question nine:
At the moment I'm trying to put together this concert for the Barbican inLondon which is with the Sinfonietta, one of the main orchestras in London.Other than that I'm doing a new classical work for the Royal ScottishNational Orchestra and maybe towards the end of the year I may do anothermovie. So it's quite busy but at the moment, just concentrating on the liveshow of my albums.
Visit Craig Armstrong's website here
www.craigarmstrong.com
2026
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