Rare interview with Vangelis Papathanasiou (Editor: LECTURES BUREAU)

This is a rare interview with Vangelis Papathanassiou in 1989 before a sold-out concert in Rome.

Reporter
Recently, Vangelis played a sold-out concert in Rome. During the build-up to this unique event we spoke to him about his career. He rarely gives interviews, but has very definite ideas on his success and fame.

Vangelis Papathanasiou
I think Fame is great aid. It works only for queues. When you wait in the queue and you want to have a nice restaurant table in a restaurant, then it’s nice when you are famous because you can have it immediately, which is not very nice for other people. But Fame could be really a pain. Because it disturbs. I mean, it can really destroy your life. Because then you live another life which is not you. I mean, it’s somebody else.

Reporter
How much does the introduction of synthesizers in the early 70s help you and your music? Was it a great help having those sorts of instruments around.

Vangelis Papathanasiou
Enormous. Because I’ve been waiting that to happen for years. Because it gives you a different I think it’s much more physical. You can go to areas that you can’t go with conventional instruments. Although I love every instrument. But you can expand. You go closer to nature. Every instrument has exactly the same difficulty up to a point. I mean, you start and it seems easy. And then you want to go further than that. Every single requires the same amount of attention. And, of course, technique. They make this decision too easy to buy, but not too easy to play attractive that the buyer can buy immediately. But that is not the point. When you start playing only one really to play. Then you can find out that this synthesizer can let you down. Let down your expression, your feeling, your spontaneity, all that.

Vangelis Papathanasiou
What is difficult is that the way that we grow up and the way that we learn to act or to react is totally different. It doesn’t help this tremendous gift we have to act immediately. The immediacy of the human beings is tremendous simply maybe because it’s one of the oldest computer on Earth. Compared to these computers. That they’re stupid completely rr they are very fast to do calculations but they’re not fast to react as fast as the human being, or to decide, or to be totally to have the awareness of the human being. So mainly what we do, we underestimate ourselves and we rely on computers, and we think that faster than us than not. Because this is what cuts the immediacy and the immediacy is the freshness and the accuracy and the honesty of the moment. You’re honest. You’re not lie. I mean, not lying, not a liar. The lie is something which is clean, clear. That’s it. Now, maybe this moment is not a successful moment. Not successful in a success way. Not, let’s say, a complete moment. Maybe it’s a failure or something. It doesn’t matter. But at least it’s a true moment.

Without any past thoughts, disturbance. I mean, what I’ve said before to you. With the new way of building instruments. Besides today is that they’re interfering something which is very precious, the immediacy and the way that the building today is like a big castration and what we have to preserve today is the freedom of creation because I don’t think we preserve today nothing is preserved right and I think it’s this touches directly your soul and this is very dangerous what they do to the kids today with these new computers I’m not against computers I’m not against technology. I’m against the way that it’s been used filing a flute guitar. You pick it up, you do it. You don’t have to think twice, you don’t have to program anything. The technology is there for immediacy. The makers are not there.

Reporter
Your work with Frederick Rossife in France working on his wildlife films was particularly striking. How difficult was it scoring those sorts of things?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
At the time I didn’t have time to think how difficult was because I remember we used to do 1 hour program in one day. It took one day for one and basically because Frederick was one of the first ones to understand that the spontaneous way to work is the best way and as I’m totally spontaneous he didn’t want me to think and everything anyway, so it just got another one. Good.

Reporter
Why did you decide to collaborate with John Anderson? I know that you more often than not like to work on your own and very much with your own ideas and yet you were letting somebody else in .

Vangelis Papathanasiou
That makes a good chance and it’s nice to collaborate. Some people could be joined. We join because we work in a very spontaneous way and this is something I like and also as we don’t plan anything that makes it better.

John Anderson
Working with Vangelis it’s a dream for me to work with one of the best in the world he’s a unique artist and he has still to show himself yet he doesn’t show himself musically properly it’s the Greek in him. He’s a little bit afraid of being shot at .

Vangelis Papathanasiou
For every work you do which is not spontaneous piece of music you must have a discipline because you have to work in certain limits which is a time factor, a certain theme and of course the approach of the project, those are quite important limits but again you try to limit the limits to make them less heavy, less important and to keep the spontaneity as much as possible

Reporter
how difficult is it adapting your work to live performance?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
Well, mainly when I walk on stage it’s like a white page. I don’t think. I don’t know what I’m going to play. I know, of course, that I will play some of the previous works because always it’s a pleasure for people of course I never played the same way twice but the 70% of the performance is totally unknown to me, to anybody else which makes it very exciting, very risky, very nice.

My only worry is that to be in the right frame of mind to play and what is very difficult is that I’m not worried about myself. I’m worried that maybe one of the machines won’t work or maybe we have a failure of power or maybe it will be something and that doesn’t put me in the right frame of mind.

Reporter
Vangelis retains a massive following all around the world and wherever his concerts take place there’s always an air of expectancy that surrounds the performance yet he’s most well known for his work on film soundtracks and particularly Chariots of Fire. How does he look back on that theme now?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
Simple film I knew he had some I like very much the Olympic Games, it was not a success orientated film it was quite low budget film all the time nothing spectacular but what happened after, you know but nobody knows.
When I watch a film it’s like I don’t watch it like a musician like everybody else and then if I feel something that I’ll translate that to music at the moment . Now if I write a game transparent, it would be different but at the moment I reacted like that.

Reporter
And how surprised were you buying the end result and the success it generated?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
Like everybody, I was very surprised everybody was surprised.

Reporter
Do you think it was almost the perfect marriage between film and music?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
This is what they said, but I can’t say that.

Reporter
Do you feel that it’s perhaps overshadowed, though, some of your other work?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
Maybe, but that’s always the case. But I’m not concerned about it because tomorrow, maybe something else will happen. But this is not the point. The most important is to work, to work with the same intensity and interest and inspiration. Sometimes you have things that people prefer. The knowledge that doesn’t mean anything. It shouldn’t affect the work, is what I’m saying. You can never say to people what to like, what not to like. Unfortunately, this is what happens every day. Push, push, push.

Reporter
In 1983, Vangelis scored the soundtrack to Antarctica. The film tells the story of a pack of Huskies fighting for survival after being abandoned in a storm by their expedition.

Reporter
Do you ever worry that the inspiration might dry up but that instinct might suddenly go?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
No, I never worry about that. I worried about the disturbance of inspiration. I ‘ve never been worried that I won’t have any more. I mean, what is an inspiration? After all? It’s not an idea. Inspiration is to be in the right moment, to be able to vibrate at the right moment. So the danger of that and the enemy of this is when something will happen and will stop this creation, this vibration. So you don’t create it anymore. That’s the only thing. But creation is always there, like electricity. I don’t think there are moments of inspiration. Nothing else than being in tune.

We live in a total polluted pollution of sound. Today we have a pollution of sound in every area. How many local companies, how many products are they calling products? They don’t even call it music. I mean, even the attention. How many thousands of people want to be famous today? It’s a big force wanted to be famous. It’s a very violent idea.

Reporter
Do you try and keep that purity in your own music?

Vangelis Papathanasiou
I try not to be disturbed because, you see, the only thing I was fortunate in my life ιs that I start very early. And I didn’t start through in a period of my life that I could have been influenced and I could be taught to react in some way. So I kept a certain amount of freedom. Because when you are very young, like four years old, you don’t have the time to be influenced. And you don’t have the time to have enough information to become a famous composer, direct performer, or whatever. Because you don’t know what those things are. So your relation with this wonder, with nature, it’s direct and pure. Now, if you keep that through all your life. And if you try to keep this clean as possible, then you win. Doesn’t mean you win successfully, publicly, in a public way. But successful for yourself and yourself is the most important thing. Trying to create. A successful. Album? Is a failure? Trying to be true with yourself? Is it a success?

Transcription 
LECTURES BUREAU