How did you meet Joby Talbot? What were the serendipitous circumstances that yielded this amazing collaboration?
Joby and I met quite randomly. He was a friend of a friend of my neighbor. My neighbor knew I was a composer so she invited me over for dinner one night while he was in town. Somehow we were friends within minutes. We exchanged CD’s and both loved them. We talked about working together pretty early on but mostly we just hung out when he was in town for a meeting on a film or whatever. Then about a year or two later Joby came to me with this idea. Genus is a serious conceptual work. What was it like working within the set parameters, trying to interpret a central theme of science into music, that will in turn be interpreted by dance? It was great really. One of the most successful collaborations I’ve been a part of. I should back up though and give some background on the piece I realize. Genus is about Charles Darwin and evolution. So that was our first (and possibly main) inspiration. Wayne McGreggor, the choreographer, gave us some other clues as well. He knew that he wanted it in thr
