By BRUCE DENNILL
Composer Caroline Leisegang recently released her fifth studio album, Comes The Night.
What are the aspects of music that most appeal to or thrill you as a listener, from lyrics to arrangements to instruments used to production techniques?
I think I’d have to say “the unexpected”. As a listener and a musician, sometimes it’s special to be able to just listen to music – but truly listen. I almost want to say that I wish everyone could have the experience of listening to music while having even the smallest knowledge of theory and practice, because that’s when you notice the unexpected and it leaves you so content amd excited for what comes next. I’ll never fully understand another musician’s productions, but I will always be grateful to be able to listen and be inspired to find my own technique through listening.
Are those the same things you try to recreate in your writing or performance?
I think sometimes I have an intention of recreating, but most times I end up on my own journey and exploration of what I can produce all the while keeping my own sound very much a part of the process.
Which aspect of creating music comes most easily to you, and which requires the most discipline and practice?
I think the part that comes most easily is the actual process of composing. I can always compose a piece, but what I struggle with is the ability to translate it through an instrument. The recording process is so, so exciting but also so stressful because I don’t know what will come through the microphone and then there’s everything that comes after you record – the actual pushing your music onto this imaginary stage you have created for yourself. It takes a lot more than I think people realise.
Outside of the actual music, what is, for you, the most important part of a great new release?
Hands down, it has to be the way people respond to the music. Hearing how it affects people in an honest way. For me, that’s what I write for; live for. You create to share and if you don’t share then that would be one of the saddest things ever. It doesn’t matter whether music is “good” or “bad” – all music will illicit a reaction or feeling.
Live performance: which artist has most impressed you in terms of what they deliver on stage?
I have three on my list. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, night one in Paris. Max Richter and Daniel Hope performing Vivaldi ‘Recomposed’ at the Barbican in 2012. And Sigur Ros at Brixton Academy in 2013. Each one of those performances had an indescribable energy and passion. Of beauty, of music and of love for music and the audience. They were those experiences that just stay with you in a way that’s impossible to shake. I wish I could achieve that one day.
What role does music play in your life on a day-to-day basis – listening to it, writing it, practising it, buying and selling it or performing it?
I think the only way I can answer this question is by saying that I live my life like I’m starring in my own personal musical. Music is every second of my day – whether I’m walking on a treadmill or fetching my daughter from school. It just never stops.
What is your new/most recent release? What is the story behind it – the genesis of the song, the people involved, the muse behind its creation?
Comes The Night is my new release. I’m using it as my reintroduction as a classical composer – one where I’ve been on this journey for almost 10 years and after four years of quiet writing and navigating the ins and outs of my creativity and skill and seeing where I could go next. I think it plays a bit like a book. The story from beginning to end and Caroline as the character of this whirlwind that will become the first in possibly a series of works. It’s my conversation with the listener, saying, “Hey, are you in this with me?” I recorded piano and cello at my favourite studio, High Seas in Parkwood. Both me and my dear friend, Clare Vandeleur, played our cellos – but honestly, the magic was really Clare, and then I played piano. It’s maybe the first album I’ve made that I’m truly proud of, not necessarily because of the music itself, but rather because I challenged myself in ways I’ve always been afraid of. Then we mastered it in Spatial Audio for Apple Music, which was an absolute pleasure. Rici Martins was the ATMOS engineer and he really created something special. Is it too vain to call myself the muse? Just kidding – the real muse was just life.