AN INTERVIEW WITH NICK GREY:

A contemporary, "contrarian" composer offers his unique perspective on Music and his role as its medium...

Second Issue (P. 34)

By Jane Delson

Late in January, Daria Trifu, Publisher and Editor in Chief of this magazine, introduced me to the innovative young composer/musician,Nick Grey. Romanian by birth,and now a resident of Canada, Nick grew up with distinguished parents who performed professionally in major Opera and Ballet companies throughout the world. His music both echoes his childhood and embraces enigmatic images he invites the listener to interpret without the imposition of his own vision.

In numerous subsequent communications with Nick,he shared his thoughts with me on his role as a "medium" or conduit for the Music he hopes will stir emotion and provoke thought. Neither restrictive nor random, Nick’s body of work has garnered international acclaim for its evocative nature.

Q. I’ve read online that you only had a few piano lessons when you were a very young child. Did you cultivate an ability to "play by ear," or do you still simply work through many permutations to find the tonalities that resonate with you for any given composition?

A. To be honest, the only thing I cultivate is my lack of technique. I refuse to learn anything about music – I have the distinct feeling I am merely a tool, an interface, a means for my music to express itself. I don’t know anything about notes, tonalities or even playing by ear – my work is 95% intuition and 5% luck.

Q. Your father, Vasile Moldoveanu, was a distinguished Romanian tenor who toured internationally. Please share with us your very first remembrances of his voice and describe how it affected you.

A. His voice certainly did affect me deeply as a child, but the first image that comes to my mind when I drift back to my jet-lagged childhood is falling asleep in airplanes and dark opera seats with a background of loud – yet soothing – music and human voices. This may sound like a cliché, but I really think this otherworldly ambiance modeled most of my creative instincts. Opera, when seen from a child’s perspective, is a deadly serious business!

Q. Did your father sing songs especially for you, when you were very young?

A.I’m pretty sure he did, just like any loving father. Lullabies rather than opera arias, though.

Q. Was your father’s professional musical career something you hoped to emulate as a child?Did those aspirations evolve as you grew older, and if so, how?

A. No. I was actually planning to avoid any kind of career related to music – I wanted to be a writer until five or six years ago, when I realized there was some amount of SOUND, rather than WORDS, stuck in my brain and heart and which needed to get out.

Q. Has there ever been a time in your life when you thought that perhaps music would not be your life long career?

A. Not since I started making music. I use the word “making” because I really don’t view myself as a composer. I prefer the words "sound designer", "architect", "shifter. "This is why music for films is a domain, which attracts me very much. The impact of music when combined with a visual source is incredibly fascinating: music has a direct influence on thought and reaction and perception. Moreover, modern recording techniques such as the use of computers allow the composer to visualize the music through a system of blocks, structures, sound waves, frequencies and loops, rather than scores and notes and tempo. Very visual indeed.

Q. Your music is very divergent from the music your father performed and to which your mother, Aluca Moldoveanu, danced. Despite that fact, www.mouvement-nouveau.com, the new online magazine about classical and experimental music, notes that your first album, Regal Daylight "...integrates operatic voices...like memories in the back of your mind." Are these "operatic voices" memories of your specific childhood, or are they allegorical in nature?

A. In fact – these operatic voices are a direct reference to the back of my mind, since they are sung by my father himself! It was a beautiful collaboration. Regal Daylight really deals with this part of my life – like a short and intense biography of images and sounds, before moving to something else, something more personal.

Q. You mentioned to me in an email recently that one of the things you’d like to discuss is the function of music and the parallel function of the human voice. Please share with us your thoughts about the essence of both and the impact you feel they both have outside of a professional musical career.

A. I think music does not necessarily have to please the listener, nor does it have to follow a precise narrative structure. Most of the music I listen to today is direct, thought-provoking, ambiguous, unclear, cerebral and emotional at the same time. About the human voice... I have mixed feelings. It’s the most beautiful instrument you can think of, and also the most immodest, indiscreet of all. This is why I think it should be used with more humility than it often is. For instance, I cannot listen to 19th century opera today – I find most of it graceless. But the works of Fauré, Gorecki, Pergolesi, Landi, Haendel... are immortal, I think.

Q. Just as the human voice marries music in song, as with your father’s career, the human body marries music in dance, as with your mother’s career. Music is the common denominator... please share with us your thoughts about this and the over-reaching powers of Music, perse.

A. ...and the human brain follows music in thought. I am fascinated by the work of Brian Eno (especially his music for films) who established once and for all that music does not necessarily have to carry emotions or be aimed at one’s heart: the brain, the mind and the process of thought can also be reached and stimulated through one’s music.

Q. The web site www.mouvement-nouveau.com also makes note of the fact that your music is influenced by Dadaism and Surrealism. Emanating from the terrible disillusionment engendered by World War I, the poetry of the Romanian Tristan Tzara hallmarked the arrival of the movement. I’m interested if your attraction to Dadaism is, in part, a cultural fascination with your country’s historical part in its rise to popularity?

A. Not really – I feel more attracted to Dadaism (and especially Surrealism and symbolism) as literary techniques. Most of my lyrics come from oral improvisations or automatic writing. Other Romanian authors, such as Cioran, influenced me a lot as well. The other literary influences come from France: Artaud, Apollinaire, Michaux.

Q. Dada attacked conventional standards of aesthetics and behavior and stressed absurdity and the role of the unpredictable in artistic creation. Your music is self described as being "...moved by inflexions, modulations, emotions," and you state that your songs "...rarely follow any traditional narrative structure. They don’t begin, and they don’t end." What is the intent of this free-flowing expressivity on your audience...or do you wish there to be an equally open-ended reception among your listeners?

A. I really don’t want to impose any form of reception upon my listeners – my music would be like a house with the front door left unlocked. Visitors are welcome but there’s no tour guide. As for me – I’m hiding in the attic, of course! I like to be surprised by what I create. I like my music to be unpredictable and to discover hidden layers of intentions in it. Again: I am a medium.

The impact of music when combined with a visual source is incredibly fascinating: music has a direct influence on thought and reaction and perception.

Q. Do you try to express your own inner feelings of disillusion about society/politics/world events through your music, or it is a much more intensely personal reflection that comes through your compositions?

A. I rarely express my private feelings on a direct level. My feelings and point-de-vue are usually hidden under several layers of twisted allusions, foggy allegories and wrecked images. It is quite a schizophrenic process!

Q. You’ve stated that composers like Philip Glass and Robert Wyatt have been influential in your musical composition. What, in their collective body of work, has most touched you, and how have you distilled and applied what you have learned from them in your own compositions?

A. Frankly, I usually mention Philip Glass only to be trendy – although I do love his music, especially his early work. But Robert Wyatt – yes, he is an absolute influence for me. Talent and modesty combined...a natural, yet otherworldly voice.

Q. Who are the other musicians with whom you collaborate, and for how long have you worked in association with one another?

A. It really depends on who I meet. I work with some of my old friends, as well as beautiful musicians which inspire me very much, such as 48 Cameras, Kris Force, Tanakh... There are quite a few interesting collaborations planned for 2006.

Q. Who is (are) your favorite classical composer(s) and why?

A. Morrissey! Because of the Italian suites.

Q. Who is (are) your favorite contemporary composer(s) and why?

A. Gabriel Fauré. His Requiem moves me to tears and I can’t think of anything more contemporary.

Q. Have you ever thought about a musical collaboration with your father? In your imagination today, what would the public performance of that collaboration sound like?

A. My first album, Regal Daylight (2001) is actually the result of such an experience. We have collaborated on four tracks. I’m afraid there won’t ever be any public performance though... such a project would lack the intimate quality of our initial purpose.

Q. What was your father’s favorite opera and favorite aria?

A. I’ll have to ask him but I’m pretty sure it’s Tosca...E lucevan le Stelle.

Q. What major projects are you presently developing, and when/ where/how will they be introduced to the public?

A. The two projects I’m the most excited about are both related to Toronto Pictures – I will be working on the score of a retrospective documentary on the career of Bruno Pischiutta, and also working on the music relative to the filming of Mr. Pischiutta’s latest movie, Punctured Hope. These two projects are tremendously exciting for me. It’s the first time I have worked on film scores in a professional context. It is both an incredible, heart-warming opportunity and a stimulating challenge. I’m always very moved by people who trust my peculiar visions and have faith in my music.

Q. In an email, you mentioned that you may be having a new recording released in the U.S. soon...can you share any additional information about that recording with us?

A. My next full-length album will indeed be out soon on the American label Hand/Eye... Also, I have just launched my own label, Milk & Moon recordings, on which I publish (in hand-made format) some of my productions, as well as the works of artists which I feel close to. D

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