PASCAL MEYER
30 years old
Itzig, Luxembourg - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Pianist, Dj, Cook, Photographer, Language Genius.
Let's start with your music memories...
As a kid I only remember the first piece I played was from a Luxembourg folk tunes songbook.
I'm not sure about that… I remember at that time I wasn't allowed to go to piano classes, I was five so I was to small.
But I don't remember what was first… if Bach, or the folk tunes.
My brother was playing piano and I wanted to copy him.
I learnt Bach preludes in C minor…I could only play some parts, my brother showed me where to put the hands.
How was the school?
Conservatory!
Too many exams… twice per year…
The Conservatory is still a music school but also an academic insitution, therefore there are difficult exams.
For me they weren't difficult…but if you failed once you had to start the all year again...
It was all about discipline, which was good for me… if u feel good with what you play and confident you don't have problems, but loads of people stress a lot.
For me it worked well…
One year they tried to get me out… my teacher wasn't there and they gave me bad marks…
Everybody was surprised.
They tried twice to kick me out, for a kind of competition in between teachers!
And what about your Repertoire?
Quite contemporary the last couple of years…
Why? What do you see in contemporary music?
Contemporary music is more difficult…
With the audience is more difficult as well, you need to listen and to get the surprise!
This is the most challenging thing.
People think they need to understand..or at least to know something before they listen to it…this sometimes is not good for the audience. If you expect something, you are probably gonna be disappointed!
The good music needs time…
It's like in movies, if you go to Blockbuster there's no surprise, you know exactly what you're gonna get, but if you go to watch Haneke's movies, you find loads of "uncomfortable things" you don't expect…
Haneke is unexpected!
I don't know how people listen to music.
If I go to a concert I know how I'm gonna experience it…
I have people coming to me… saying they never listened to that.. loads of emotions… quite often they're surprised, and that is the right attitude: being open minded!
Anyway contemporary music is always for a smaller crowd, it will always be like that!
When Brahms was playing at his time, he played contemporary stuff, he was also criticized for being too contemporary, not classic, therefore the audience was more difficult. But he was brave.
At Casino Luxembourg, a contemporary music and art centre there's a piece of art with a neon tube that highlight this sentence: "All art has been contemporary".
or something like that!
And I find it interesting.
Favourite composer?
I don't have a favourite composer…
It just depends what I'm busy with…
From classical music I played a lot of Brahms, he's one of the best, cause he is simple and honest.
From contemporary I like Stockhausen and his early works, until the 60's and his first electronic music.
How is to read a contemporary "partitura" ?
You have to get into the language of the compose, everyone has his own way…
In these "Mantras" from Stockhausen I recorded now for Naxos for instance, the way of writing is easy. It depends on the period.
Some people write very difficult, therefore it's more difficult for us… it's a "pain in the ass" for the player…
New complexity for instance, composers like Cox, Mahnkopf ahnkopf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Complexity
they write very difficult and I don't enjoy playing them, you have to be at home counting the beats. I prefer then to play techno!
What do u like about "popular music"?
I don't like to think in styles…
Some people simply don't know about categories… and it's difficult to give categories
I like different styles in music.
I don't listen to classical music at home, it's more about jazz or pop.
I started listening to techno cause I drove a lot for my job and that music keeps me awake. I needed something strong…
Then I went into Radiohead and new stuff.
But I remember I started with Michael Jackson, then Queen and then Classical Music.
I had everything in cassette… I had "Bad" original, Thriller was copied…
I was keen on "Moonwalker"… I really wanted to get that track… "Smooth Criminal"…I didn't know thatwas the title… my mum brought me into town to buy the cassette and when I was listening to it, that songwas the last one in the album… because I didn't know the title I was scared it wasn't in there.. but then I heard it!
:)
And what about djing?
I had this cassette stereo, I used to make little "montages" of the music with all the stuff I recorded from the radio… and mixing them; 5 seconds of this, 5 of another….
Michel Sardou and this band called Gold… :)
That was already djing, early djing!
I still have the Technics headphones my parents bought me as Christmas present... probably they were really tired of me and my brother competing who was the loudest playing music… but I still use them for my djset now!
The first cd I bought was a cheesy synthesizers compilation, a kind of Twin Peaks music, before that cd I only had classical music by radio and my brother playing. I didn't even have Mtv, my father didn't have cables!
Music was all from the radio: never saw videomusic!
Do you still like Ac/Dc? Are they still contemporary?
Now in my ears Ac/Dc sound classical, they sound soft.
This is what happens to things in time…
Stuff that are really modern suddenly turn into old-fashioned.
It's the same kind of thing with art and fashion is the same.
So maybe in some years Stockhausen would be super affordable and he will sound soft.
The guy who wrote the introduction to the Mantras produced by Naxos said that Stockhausen will be like that, in many years, when somebody famous will start playing him again, he will suddenly became revival.
It happened the same to Bach. Without Felix Mendelsshon in Romantic years and Glenn Gould in more modern times, we wouldn't have considered Bach's music as we consider it nowadays. We even sent his music to the space, on a satellite, as a symbol of our presence in the world.
This is gonna happen to Stockhausen, because he was a genius!
Revival…
How did u choose to become a pianist?
I had two choices… I had to choose in between veterinarian or a pianist…
I choosed piano after having seen the town veterinarian was only chopping off animals balls!
At that time I was twelve, or maybe fourteen… and I was building up this thing I was a piano player, therefore I cut off loads of other things. I always listened to Ac/Dc from my brother, but always thought that music was too far from my classical piano.
When you're young you've to find yourself and you set up boundaries: there was shit or wonderful things:classical music was my choice and I simply forgot about the rest!
Now when I listen to music it's different, I'm more open minded.
Sometimes being a musician doesn't mean you're open minded… there are jazz players who only listen to jazzand they think to be good in music you've to be super good in one musical field. And in school is the same, you've a mission… to become the best in your field, but then you're narrow minded.
Musicians are narrow minded in music, like dancers for dance.
It's all like that!
You have to be open minded! That's the secret!
Upcoming projects?
Classical music with my trio, nothing dangerous for the ears.
A festival in memory of Oskar Nedbal in the south of Czech Republik… he was a contemporary of Dvorak….
What do you think about the wine?
(The wine we drink is a no sulfites, tasty and tomato parfumed Sangiovese di Romagna from my wonderful region, Tre Monti producer, 2009)
I will have another sip.
It's good!
It's strong!
I never drink wine, I find easier to drink beer… I never really know!
This is more fizzy…like the feeling of San Pellegrino!
:)
