What's it like to be Roger Doyle?

A short, informal question and answer interview with Roger Doyle. 

Originally published in 2005.

1. How and when did you get interested in composing?

In 1968 I had left school and was sleeping ‘till lunchtime and remembered I had studied piano, so I composed a four-page piano piece over a three-month period, and this led to composition studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.

2. Is composing your 'day job' or do you do something else as well?

It’s my day job.

3. Where do you mostly get your ideas?

Everything I need is already inside me, growing like a fruit.

4. What are you working on at the moment?

I have formed an electronic improvisation ensemble called ‘General Practice’, which is part of a larger project produced by the music-theatre company Operating Theatre, of which I’m a co-director along with actress Olwen Fouéré.

5. Describe your typical working day.

Composing interspersed by frequent visits to coffee houses in the south Wicklow area.

6. What is it like hearing a new piece played for the first time?

I don’t do it that way. I compose the sounds in my studio just the way I want them. I am thrilled to have fourteen CDs of my music out that I can listen to.

7. What has been the highlight of your career so far?

Winning the Bourges International Electro-Acoustic Music Competition in France.

8. What has been the lowlight of your career so far?

Having a record released in the 1980s paid for and released by the U2 label Mother Records, and watching it sink without trace due to a total lack of promotion.

9. What is your greatest ambition?

I have achieved it: I’ve composed my life's work and magnum opusBabel (on 5 CDs) followed by the two-hour Passades (on 2 CDs). Now some recognition would be nice.

10. Which musician in history do you most admire and why?

Probably Debussy, because his music goes so deep whilst resting on the surface.

11. Which present-day musician do you most admire and why?

Bjork, for her courage.

12. Which period of history would you most like to have lived in and why?

The last years of the nineteenth century or the early years of the twentieth century in Paris. There are a few artists I would like to have met then.

13. What is the best thing about being a composer?

Artistic fulfillment, literally realising one’s dreams.

14. What is the worst thing about being a composer?

Little appreciation of non market-led music, leading to little recognition for composers.

15. If you weren't a composer, what other career might you have chosen?

A failed tennis player.

16. What is your concept of heaven?

A quiet place full of intelligent and sensitive people.

17. What is your concept of hell?

Being poor and alone in a damp basement flat on a Saturday night with the sounds of party music upstairs keeping me awake.

18. What is your favourite food?

Soul food.

19. If someone gave you three months off with unlimited travel and living expenses, what would you do?

Travel back to Paris in 1900.

20. If you could have one thing in the world that would really help you as a composer, what would it be?

Recognition.