Because I have success, it doesn't mean I'm part of the mainstream. I'm still an outsider.
I don't want to release things too similar to each other. I've been working on selecting something different from my other work.
Initially, when I was making the bagpipes and reed instruments, it was different from the other instruments. In terms of sound itself, it may not be different, but in performing with it, it was a necessity to build it if I was going to perform and make scores with it. By making the instruments, it helped me compose the way I want.
I wasn't so interested in merchandising through CD or whatever form. I wasn't really so aggressive about promoting my own work. I had my recordings from the past, but I never thought someone was interested in releasing it.
I remember, in elementary school, being asked what my father does and not knowing how to answer. When I asked my mom what I should say next time, she replied, "Just say he's self-employed. " I love that.
Most of my music is improvisation, and composition is improvisation. Even if I have a score, it is improvisation.
I don't think I differentiate between composition and improvisation. Improvisation could be a large part of a composition.
Three and a half million years ago our ancestors - yours and mine - left these traces [indicates footprints]. We stood up and parted ways from them. Once we were standing on two feet, our eyes were no longer fixated on the ground. Now, we were free to look up and wonder.
Everyone goes with the flow. . . but the one who goes against the flow becomes someone remarkable in life.
The government can back up its tastes and beliefs with the police power. That is why it cannot be permitted tastes and beliefs. Most emphatically, it cannot be permitted to define one group as being privileged over another group of people. It was wrong in the days of Jim Crow; it is wrong in the days of affirmative action.
I will not say I failed 1000 times, I will say that I discovered there are 1000 ways that can cause failure