Have you had any training?
Grade two and half piano, and then two years of contemporary music when I was 19/20, maybe 20/21, something like that, which was having basically taught myself and composing for theatre I thought I’m gonna be held back by the fact I can’t read and I thought if I go to college I’ll learn to read and I’ll be the full bottle. But really, when you’ve gone that far down the path it’s pretty hard to go back. It’s so frustrating that I still can’t really read. My theory’s really good but if you put notes in front of me it’s like really bad.
No acting training. No comedic training; there is such a thing but I think that’s a bad idea.
How old were you when you started playing the piano and why did you take it up?
I think I was about 8 or 9 and just because our parents just went, “do you want to play an instrument?” and my brother took up guitar and I just thought I’d choose something different and there was a piano in our house. In fact, there was a Pianola in our house, which we used for family sing-a-longs; it was pretty Brady Bunch actually.
Anyway, I was just trying to choose a different instrument. I didn’t like the piano any more than anyone else when I first started doing it; it was a pain in the arse. But when I quit piano a few years later my teacher taught me how to play a few chords and then I didn’t do anything with it for about a year or two but then I just started playing with my brother.
I wasn’t any good for ages. I just pissed around for ages and ages and ages but once I’d started doing it myself, I loved it. Which is the story of everything I’ve ever done in my life really. Although I procrastinate as much as anyone, if I enjoy something on my own terms then I’ll become more proficient at it just through enthusiasm alone.