Matteo Pagamici and Michael Künstle, composers

Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

MK: My father, with whom I’ve been making music since I was 9 years old. First, we had a band
together. He was singing and playing the guitar and I was playing the drums. That’s when I realised that it’s actually possible to write your own music instead of playing the music of others.
Then he bought me a Yamaha PRS-2000, which at the time was for me the most amazing tool to
work on. I could suddenly record an entire orchestra and save them on floppy discs (who
remembers them?). He also introduced me to Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for Gladiator which really introduced me to film and classical music.

MP: Probably my father as well. When I was a kid he started composing music in an old version of
Cubase, just for fun. I was hooked immediately and wanted to learn more. He gave me the spark!

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

MK: I think the greatest challenges always encounter when you feel you’re ready for the next step
of your career, but you’re not there yet. At every level of my career those were moments where all the extra miles had to be taken. They come with a lot of risks and a lot of requiring to leaving his comfort zone. But as challenging those moments are at first, as rewarding they are once you
overcome them.

MP: It’s so important to never forget that you’re always learning and developing. Sometimes it’s
tempting to lean back and believe that you’ve found your style, or your musical personality, but if
you keep looking, there’s always more to discover. Plus, trends and culture change so quickly, so
it’s important to be on top of that.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?

MP: With film music in particular we’re always part of a bigger team, but also of a bigger story. We can’t allow ourselves to forget that the music needs to serve the storytelling, which does something interesting with our creative process. On the one hand, it creates a stylistic framework and puts some limits to where the music can go. This usually happens in conversations with the filmmakers and the whole creative team. On the other hand, a good story, compelling images or an exciting script can be incredibly exciting and lead us to places that we wouldn’t think of looking. That can really push our musical boundaries and lead us to discover new things and techniques. So overall, I’d say that it really forces us to think into a specific direction and be extremely intentional with what the music is telling, which can be a difficult but rewarding process.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers,
ensembles or orchestras?

MK: By now, we know some of the best musicians working in music recording. As you get to know
them better, you’re able to write exactly for those musicians. This can be a certain sound you’re
after that you know only a particular musician can provide. The pleasures with working with the
best are also that they are usually the most relaxed and amazing human beings I know.
The only challenge I could think of when working with them, is to write music that’s good worthy of their performance.

MP: They really make the music come to life. Once they your music, you think that the music never really existed before. The mockups we create virtually sound satisfying enough when we’re
working on them, but once real humans come into the picture, you realise that the mockup was
barely a sketch, or the blueprint of a composition, and it rarely comes close to the live
performance. The challenge is that as a composer, it leaves you very exposed. You want it to be good, and you want the musicians to be impressed and to also have fun while playing it. A live performance is also very final. Before that, you can always keep changing notes or refine the arrangement, but once the music is performed and recorded, there’s nothing you can change anymore.

Of which works are you most proud?

MP: Our new release DIMENSIONS is definitely one of the works I’m most proud of, ever. It’s
the culmination of years of musical research, ideas and playing techniques that we discovered
together during our collaborations. It’s deeply personal, probably the most personal thing we’ve
ever written, and when I listen to the tracks, I can really hear ourselves in them.

How would you characterise your compositional language?

MK: The musical language we’ve developed with Matteo focuses a lot on textures and the
combination of modern playing techniques with melodies and harmonies that touch the soul.
One example would be „Isbjerge“ from our debut record Dimensions:

How do you work?

MP: For me the biggest challenge in the composition workflow is always finding the initial spark,
the idea that leads to everything. After that, it gets very easy. I find that I need a certain urgency,
and my surroundings have a bigger influence on me than I would like. I try to use that to my
advantage and put myself into inspiring places, new cities or comfortable spots that sub-consciously help to lead my thoughts into the right direction.

We also like to work with live musicians very early on. Maybe improvise in the studio based on a
loose concept, experiment with new playing techniques, or explore ideas with the musicians to see where it can get us. We record a lot of material and pre-mix it to get the best sound possible very early on. After that, a lot of the work happens virtually on the computer, and we play around with these recordings, add and remove things, until suddenly the fragments turn into a fully fledged cue.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

MK: My personal definition of success in music is when I’m able to create something new every
day. Something that moves me emotionally. Usually I find this kind of success in the very small
steps that are involved in composition. I find there is great pleasure and energy in honouring these small personal achievements.

What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?

MK: To write as much music as you can and to always challenge your own hearing and your own
writing.

MP: Look elsewhere. If you want to get into film music, don’t listen to film music, don’t take your
inspiration from film music. Instead, be curious. Generally speaking, studying any other type of
music will make your own musical language a lot more interesting, and ultimately standing out is
the most important thing.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?

MK: I always think it’s important to remember that the classical composers we play in concert halls today were once writing the popular music of their time. Today, there are so many possibilities to explore in the realm between classical, contemporary and popular music. There are already a lot of musical formats that make those connections and with great endorsement of a broader audience.

People are generally still very interested in the orchestra. It’s just that most of the musical
programmess are focusing on pieces written a long time ago. It’s important to honour the past, but it’s also important to connect with the present. And to give contemporary composers enough possibility to perform their music live. Mozart’s music was the popular music of his time. But he could only become the Mozart we know today because his music was played all the time.

There’s a quote from a Viennese newspaper from that time. They write after one of his premieres
that he can count himself now one of the top 100 composers of Vienna. Can you imagine? Can you name the top 100 concert composers of Vienna or London today? Apparently around 2000 composers used to work in Vienna alone at the time.

What next – where would you like to be in 10 years?

MK: I’m looking forward to release more solo music together with Matteo and to perform our music live with orchestras. My dream is to perform at The Royal Albert Hall.

I’m also looking forward to write more music for film and push the musical language for film
forward. My dream is to score a historical drama for the big screen.

MP: Honestly, I love not knowing. Part of what makes being a composer so exciting is that a career can be so unpredictable. It has been beautifully unpredictable so far, with many great surprises, so I hope to keep up the pace.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

MK: To be able to go for a walk in the morning and get a cappuccino from my favourite coffee
shop.

MP: Listening to the ocean’s waves, watching icebergs calve, the Swiss alps, sharing beautiful
moments with the people I love.

Dimensions is available now. The album was recorded at Abbey Road with a 92-piece traditional orchestra that the composers treated like a synthesiser, writing parts for each individual instrument, composing delay effects, LFOs, white noise, and more, which they then played live, completely analogue.

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