Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?
My creation is very instinctive. When I am particularly touched by a person or a situation, my feelings translate into music. Traveling around the world can also be a part of my creative process.
Besides, I listen to very different types of music; what I love the most are artists who manage to offer very qualitative and touching songs to a large audience. It can go from Debussy to Nina Simone and Ennio Morricone for instance. They mix greatness and emotion.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
To stay focused on my line, to keep building around my art, the piano, avoiding all the advice that would make me lose my vision and my identity.
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on your album LETTER?
I composed LETTER while I was traveling through Asia. I traveled from one city to another, being inspired by the aesthetics
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians or singers?
I had the chance to work in some of the greatest recording studios in the world, with many different artists, creating music for rappers, singers, electro music, funk… What I like the most is the feeling of incorporating the character and energy of the artist I collaborate with, and translating it into piano compositions.
Of which collaborative works are you most proud?
I am very proud of the only track on LETTER featuring my sister Lina Pamart, who plays the violin. I love the song, and beyond the song, it means a lot for me and my family.
How would you characterise your compositional language?
My compositional language is often described as graphic and narrative. I am often been told that my piano songs tell stories and convey direct powerful emotions. I am indeed influenced by visual arts, such as great movies or impressionist painting.
How do you work?
I try to have a piano wherever I go. Then I just play every time I have something to express.
As a musician, what is your definition of success?
Music has the power to bring together people from all sorts of backgrounds, beyond borders. Achieving this objective, by gathering people around music, from all over the world, is my definition of success. And by definition, there is no limit in this perspective.
What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?
To find this thing that makes you special, and to build everything on it. Having a strong identity is for me the most important thing as an artist. I recognize talent when I see a line, a consistent universe developed in the music and everything around it.
What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?
The more artists are close to the people in the way they think, and in the way they share their emotions, the more the public feel concerned by the music. It works in any genre of music. Classical music can stay an art of excellence without a condescending or conservative attitude.
What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about but you think we should be?
We should talk more about the mindset regardless of the genre of music. Personally, I learned a lot from entrepreneurship and from anime /Mangas. I think that the mindset is the most important thing to work on.
Sofiane Pamart’s album LETTER is out now
Sofiane Pamart is a French pianist, based in Paris and originally from Hellemmes in the suburbs of Lille. He is known to the French public for breaking the elitist codes of classical piano. As a gold medallist at the Conservatoire de Lille, he took a different track to the typical classical music path.
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