I would like to be a musician when I grow up, and I want to show people that the super
people can play the guitar, and people like the new people who think they can. I want
to show them they're wrong. When I was at school, I think it was like the project was caught
in technology, and I was like, what? Is it technology? Oh no! It's a land chain! Help me! Help me!
It's not about that. No, no, no, no, no. It's about, I think, music.
I'm playing a piece for dinner for you. It was commissioned for the cultural Olympics.
Technophonia, for example, is a piece that was written for a group of individuals,
rather than just a group of instruments.
I think the first time I mentioned the possibility of a project called Technophonia to Anthony,
he said, yeah, I'd really, really like to be involved, but I don't think he actually
knew quite the scale and the complexity of the piece that we were going to do.
That overall title for the piece, I suppose, Technophonia, but I think increasingly that's
become about the ensemble of people involved, and the fact that we're incorporating all these
unusual instruments that haven't really been used in this context before. I suppose the
sub-title for this work is Microscopic Dances, and that was really just my artistic inspiration
for it, in a way.
One of the things that we're very interested in, that Great Music Scotland, is the idea
of creating new repertoire for new instruments. Over the last 500 years, composers haven't
really written parts for the same beam, or for Skoog, or Brain Fingers, or Hand Sonic,
because these instruments didn't exist. So one of the things that we are trying to do
more and more is to work with composers and collaborate with composers to create new
repertoire for these instruments. This allows people like Anthony to get involved with
performances and be part of bigger projects.
I think one of the most inspiring events in my life was actually the opportunity to play
within a group of musicians. I think it's wonderful to learn an instrument for the sake of learning
an instrument, and to get better at it, and to enjoy playing that by yourself in your
bedroom. That's great, but actually the thing where it really begins to come alive, and
you really get a lot of enjoyment as a young person, is actually having that opportunity
to interact with other people at your own age or stage, or even much better than you.
That's one way in which you're able to push yourself and be inspired.
Anthony has been coming along to Drake Music Scotland for individual sessions for a number
of years now, and he works with one of our musicians on a Friday playing guitar, keyboard
and percussion in a project called Music Space. What we were interested in is trying to create
opportunities for Anthony to play alongside other musicians, so this is a real step up
for him to work with an ensemble of 17 musicians playing all sorts of different instruments
where they all have to work together to put on the performance, and for us this is a very
exciting opportunity for Anthony to show where and how far he's come as a musician.
And within the ensemble, for Microsoftic dances, we had strings, a group of strings,
and we had guitar, electric bass, drums, piano, and then we had the three sort of electronic
instruments, if you like, or three participants from Drake playing. So we had Stephanie playing
Skoog, we had Anthony who was using hand sonic and also sound beam, and then we also had
Chris Jacquin who was using the brain fingers to trigger this notion of software.
One of the major benefits for him, I think, is yes, because of the social element, but
also because of the musical element of the whole project, he was part, an included part
of the whole ensemble, and he made music with other people.
Very active putting these young people together in the same room, which I think has made it
much more of an enjoyable experience. I think everyone has gotten much more out of that,
and for me that's the point of being a musician, is just no matter what you play, at some point
getting together with someone else and making music, being expressive, finding different
environments in which to exist as a musician is really what it's all about.
One of the things that Technophonia has allowed us to develop for our participants is the
ability to follow a conductor and to know their part in a wider piece, keeping time,
understanding how rehearsal processes work, being sensitive to other musicians and their needs.
All of these skills are ensemble skills, and I think it's been a great chance for Anthony
to develop those skills during rehearsals and performances of Technophonia.
I mean he's like jamming at home with his brothers and friends, but this was a different level.
And also where his contribution was valued and respected.
Yes, and his enthusiasm was nourished.
The composer listened to Anthony's ideas, and that's what took into account his ability
and his enthusiasm and sort of geared his contribution to that,
which made him have only meaningful moment.
And it was great for his self-esteem, I think, just to feel that he's a valued part of the ensemble
at the moment.
Music
Any musical instrument at all, producing any musical sound, if something's good at it,
it looks quite simple, and tall people actually try and do it themselves.
It's very difficult to say whether they'll work out that it's quite a tricky thing to do.
I think it reminded me not the best of...
Anthony's quite a pre-Madonna, aren't you, Anthony?
A little artiste.
I'm really just your assistant.
Music
In terms of instruments like sound beam, we had Anthony playing sound beam.
I suppose we were using that in quite a straightforward way.
Although, actually, within the context itself, you've got this quite high-tech instrument.
You've got this thing where you've got this sort of optional thing being
compared to something like a violin.
If you have that accompanied by a violin, for me, that gives you all sorts of other connotations there.
So, what's actually happening?
Sound beam is creating a series of small clicks that are sending out from this sensor here.
It's an ultrasonic sensor.
So, those clicks just disappear normally.
But if a solid object, like your hand, breaks the beam,
those clicks are sent back to the same minute, judges the distance that that is,
and we've programmed that distance to play a particular note.
And then we've divided up that beam into lots of different notes.
So, it is literally like a keyboard in space.
Music
So, these were notes that we actually put in for technophonia.
This is called real scale, because it's for the concealed reel at the end.
So, these notes agree with the notes that everyone else in your ensemble was playing.
So, it was a tricky thing, I think, to, if you're confronted by a new instrument,
composer to really know where to start.
And because of this opportunity I had to actually work directly with people,
it made it slightly easier, because you then sort of see what people actually enjoy doing.
And the fascinating thing is when I got together with Anthony,
and I could see quite clearly the sort of things that he enjoyed doing.
I remember we've had quite a few conversations about this,
and I know that you love playing guitar as well, and keyboard, and piano, and well, all instruments.
But I was playing a bit of everything me.
And you weren't that keen on sending at the beginning of the project.
Well, you didn't think it was really the thing, but I think you did brilliantly with soundbeam.
But I know that this was kind of the most fun.
Yeah.
So, one of the things I've got Anthony to do is actually copy a lot of the sort of rhythmic fragments
that it started off by doing.
And then we started doing that on things like soundbeam.
And we found that was actually for Anthony that that's very difficult to control,
things like rhythm, particularly.
So then we moved on to handsonic, and Anthony had said clearly that he really enjoyed using that.
So you've got handsonic, and you press every button and you take a big drum.
There's five big ones here, one, two, three, four, five.
And then the other big ones, but there's also some on the top here.
Seven, eight, nine, ten.
All together there's 15 buttons around.
There's bass so you can choose between 15 different noises.
So with the handsonic, we can change the kit.
So Anthony's already explained you've got the, how many different buttons?
Was it about 15 or something?
Yeah.
Each of those buttons has a different sound, but we've also got ten different families of sounds.
So if I go to Latin percussion, you'll hear there's different sounds.
Indian, African, Asian.
Dance kit.
Anthony came in and worked with me and Oliver one Saturday, didn't you?
Yeah, I did.
And we worked all afternoon just playing with the handsonic.
And we chose certain sounds.
And Oliver said, oh, I like that one.
I like that one.
And you also said which ones you liked.
And we just used kind of some of the presets, really.
But during rehearsals, we worked out which of the pads gave the right sound for the piece.
But the brilliant thing for us is that you helped Oliver decide what to do with the music.
And he wrote that piece for you.
He did it.
Because he knew that you were going to be playing it.
And so when we came together, the piece hadn't been finished.
Well, let me do a great little piece.
I had this idea initially that you have this sort of clapping sound that comes through,
which is akin to what is used in a traditional fanbango, sort of Portuguese fanbango.
So we tried that with Anthony.
He really enjoyed that.
And then we ended up sort of incorporating some of those sort of clapping noises,
some sort of rhythms from the rest of the band there as well.
And Anthony sort of took that sort of starting point, I guess, for his work in the handsonic.
When did you replay the handsonic?
It was show people.
I do have good reflexes.
I have good reflexes.
I would like to do more now, so definitely.
There's a technology that they were used to using,
or they enjoyed using, sort of, allowing them to express their musical personality, for example.
Putting something like that down in front of young people, generally it's not something they would normally come across.
It's not something they would necessarily choose to listen to straight away,
and they're going to find it difficult.
I mean, no one has ever heard that before.
So we're asking them to do something which is, it's an unknown quantity in a way.
We just have to start from scratch and see where we go with it.
And I think everybody has pulled out the stops,
and we've actually got to a stage where we've got an incredible piece of music,
which is far surpassed anything I could imagine when I started the project.
Why is that?
Because it's the first content.
The public performances were important as well.
No, they were very good.
There were large numbers of people listening to him, listening to his contributions,
and just bringing on his own confidence to be able to do that.
Being involved in music and learning an instrument, learning to play with others is a really important skill,
but it really comes into its own when it's involving a performance.
And the main reason for this is the fact of your overcoming all sorts of additional challenges,
which result in a huge satisfaction when it all comes off.
And allowing your family and your friends and the general public to see what you can do,
and to see what you're capable of is really what performance is all about.
I don't know where you're going to go.
You can just go around.
And we're asking, again, there's some news about someone who's got people there
who aren't necessarily used to performing.
Anthony wasn't necessarily used to performing in that environment at all.
Relax.
You're not used to doing that.
That's an incredibly daunting prospect.
Really?
And then out again?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
I met you during the preschool, and I was at the corn stage.
I've been preparing you, you've been thinking over the years,
who you have been having fun with, sitting with, and trying to talk to people.
And Anthony, they always look good.
One of my favourite moments was Anthony making everyone laugh
outside the building at the end of the evening.
And everyone actually just sort of standing around and chatting.
And I thought, actually, this is the chance where everyone's actually asking
and everyone else involved, how are they playing the music
and what they've got out of it.
And actually, just that opportunity for young people to get together
and do that is really, really important for us.
It's a fantastic moment.
Hi, I'm Anthony Swift.
And I'm here to tell you about my team when I went there.
My team was in dorms, too.
It was very nice to meet you.
Where Ricky beers.
I don't want too many girls coming to my door, really.
I'm just saying, I'm not home.
Anyway.
That probably won't happen, so I probably won't need to.
Go on down to London.
It's going to be very exciting.
And very amazing.
I've been to London before, but for me, London is wicked.
It's wicked.
Three, two, one.
Good morning.
We've got Anthony's clothes.
Are you confident?
We drove to Basingstoke and then caught the train to London.
It's going to be exciting. I want to live in London.
I think the performance in London was wonderful.
I mean, just to get everybody down there all together.
And everyone actually arrived.
And there were no complete disasters along the way.
We managed everyone there.
So I suppose that was maybe a better moment, actually,
was actually just doing that performance in a way.
Yeah.
One of the very exciting things about technophonia
is the nature of performances.
We've performed in Edinburgh and Glasgow,
but the chance to perform in London has been fantastic.
As a small organisation based in Scotland,
we've never had a big performance in London before.
So for Drake Music Scotland,
being part of the 2012 Festival in the South Bank Centre
with 20 other new commissions
was a very great opportunity for us to share what we do
with the rest of the UK.
And for all the musicians involved in the project,
for most of them, it's the first time they've ever played in London,
which is such a happy-sensory musical and cultural activity
for the UK.
And we're going to be hearing two performances
of Oliver Serro's technophonia.
Oliver's going to conduct the piece first,
then Oliver and Peter Sparks,
who's the artistic director of Drake Music Scotland,
and I'm on the top, and we'll be able to hear
more about the three extraordinary performers on stage,
sound being stooped and brave.
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome
for this first performance of technophonia, Oliver Serro.
Thank you.
Music Scotland,
it's been amazing this whole thing,
and it's been a pleasure getting chosen as well.
I just feel wonderful for doing it,
and I think this will help me all over the world.
What was particularly great about the performance in London
was my role in the piece.
I was able to step back,
and really all I was doing was handing Anthony a switch
or changing a setting on the handsonic,
and he knew where he was,
he knows his part in the piece,
and he knows exactly what he's doing,
and it was quite satisfying to reach a point
where actually he is just working as a musician
as part of the ensemble.
He actually grew to love and joy,
the actual piece of technophonia,
the actual music,
and whilst I'm not saying that's what he should only do,
I think it's important that his horizons are widened,
and that's what this did for him with knobs on.
I think that the warmth that we've received from audiences
at our technophonia performances
has been incredibly satisfying for us as the project has gone on,
and I know that all the performers have really enjoyed that as well.
And I was saying to everyone,
I bet we'll do something like this again.
It was the best example of true inclusion
that I have ever experienced for Anthony.
He was one of a group of young people who were all musicians
playing a piece that had been written for all of them,
and all of them were challenged and pushed
to develop their musical abilities.
Technophonia has finished,
and I feel kind of less stressed.
It was really fun.
I feel mixed and sad but relieved.
I've made a lot of friends with Technophonia,
and it's been a wonderful experience.
I wanted to be in a rock band,
but I think this will give me the opportunity to show people,
look, I can do this, I can be in a band.
Just give me a try.
I've proven I can make a lot of friends,
and I feel better about myself.
I proved to myself that I can make a lot of friends,
and it's been an amazing experience.
Peace.
Anthony has had an opportunity to play in Technophonia,
and I know it's been an absolutely fantastic time,
and these opportunities are rare,
they're few and far between,
and although we worked very hard,
we wish that there were more opportunities,
so we'll be continuing to create more
and more frequent opportunities in the future.
The one night when I found myself playing the guitar
was John Fashanti,
because when I first heard him on the bridge,
that's what inspired me to want to play
such a nice song,
and be a rock star.
Yeah, definitely want to be a rock star, definitely.
So in ten years, what would you be your ultimate friend to do?
I'm going to be a cheerleader.
I am going to show the one day that I can play.
I am going to be a rock star.
You have been listening to Sandbeam Time.
That's new Swift.
Why?
To hear from Music Space.
