You hear reverberations of what is inside–Interview with Scott Reich

The title of this interview is selected from one of the answers that Scott Reich provided, and it so wonderfully sums up the whole idea of creating music, or art for that matter, and living the idea behind that art. Nature is often one of the foremost ‘muse’ of musicians and there would hardly be any musician who is not inspired by nature around him, and Scott is no exception to this.

However, his music and persona reflects the beauty that he sees in the nature so eloquently that you are bound to give a fresh look to the nature, and try finding out those subtle messages and meanings in everything that happens around you.

We talked to Scott about his music, his passion, and also his newly released album.

Q1. Tell us how you selected the piano as your preferred instrument.

I love the piano because it is so expressive over an extremely wide range of feelings and colors. Widening this to keyboards in general (which more accurately represents what I actually do), this adds many more possibilities for expression, because it invites in the entire electronic world of sound. As a composer, I am, among other things, a painter of soundscapes. So having such a large, almost limitless palette of aural color combinations is incredibly exciting to me.

Q2. You studied classical music but tried New Age and other genres. How has been the experience?

Music has five elements: Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Structure, and Color. My personal musical truth has been that I generally try to create music that has respect for each of these elements. Classical music is very strong with Melody, Harmony, and Structure. Jazz is natively strong and inventive in Harmony and Rhythm. New Age is adventurous in exploring Color and, of all the popular genres, is the best for this. As I’ve said, the colors of sound are very seductive to me, so it is not surprising that I have found myself here.

Q3. Being a nature lover, how does it help you to compose music?

Staying in touch with, and in awe of, nature opens up my consciousness and sensitivity to beauty. One of the characteristics of nature is that it expresses itself without words, just by being. Music is also a non-verbal expression, so when I hear the song of nature, it draws me into the song within myself. And Nature is an inspiration to me to try to achieve something of the grace and balance that it has in such abundance.

Q4. You have done film scores, CDs, and also concerts etc. Which one you like most and why?

Writing film scores has been a particularly wonderful experience for me. There is action, there is a plot, there is character development and there is dialogue. And then there is the sub-text, what isn’t said because it is what the heart has just learned. That’s the world inhabited by music. I like living there, in the world of the heart.

Q5 Tell us about your latest album ‘Instar.’ What was the inspiration behind it?

The word Instar seems to make a reference to a kind of bright light within. In fact, Instar is a biological term. It refers to the stage of life leading up to a metamorphosis. Organisms undergo metamorphosis because their current form can no longer contain what they are about to become. This happens to all of us, sooner or later. I feel that our world is in such a stage now, that we are rapidly approaching a period of radical change that will also require of us a massive transformation. That process is an accrual of all of our individual stories, and the music on Instar tries to give expression to some of these stories of emerging light, emerging change.

Q6. What objective do you seek to achieve through your music?

The objective is to achieve enough peace, enough stillness for myself, and for the listener, that we can hear the voice inside us that reminds us why we are alive. We know, but we forget. I hope the music will help us remember that we have a reason – a beautiful and lovely reason, each of us have – to be alive.

Q7. A message for our readers

If you can listen to the music of peace, you can become the music of peace. You are only hearing reverberations of what is inside.