Craig Armstrong
March 2002

Craig Armstrong is a man and musician after my own heart. The guy’s won awards galore - high prizes from alma mater the Royal Academy of Music, ASCAP, BAFTA, and the Golden Globe acquired this January for his Moulin Rouge score. Craig’s music has graced other award-winning films like One Fine Day in September, Orphans, Plunkett and MacLeane and Romeo + Juliet. One could go on and on about his film work but then there’s Craig’s collaborations in the rock/alternative world: Arranging, producing and orchestrating music with Hole, Madonna, Massive Attack, Pet Shop Boys, Tina Turner and U2, to name a few.

And then the guy goes off and does his own solo records that fearlessly throw together ideas and voices from all kinds of musical categories. Cocteau Twins vocalist Liz Frasier contributed her talents to Craig’s first solo release The Space Between Us, as did Massive Attack and Blue Nile singer Paul Buchanan, while Evan Dando of the Lemonheads, David McAlmont, Mogwai, Photek and Bono appear on Craig’s 2002 release, As If To Nothing. Who else can claim such esteemed talents as collaborators (much less people who return your phone calls)? Is Craig Armstrong a sadistic maniac or a raging genius? Or do these people just owe him a lot of money?

After only a few minutes on the phone with Craig, I get it (despite the fuzzy overseas connection). It’s not just the unabashed Scottish brogue or the wacky sense of humor or the way he keeps telling me I’ve got to come abroad to interview him in person - “This is too good!”. The man is so earnest about what he does that it’s no wonder his work is so powerful; you can’t help but root for him in a world where music is made for affluence more often than ardor. Heck, if I had any musical talent whatsoever I’d be offering my services to any project he’d have me for. His tone puts me at ease instantly and I feel fine about expounding on my mutually passionate feelings about music and film. To me, Craig is one of those rare innovators who can bridge the two arts perfectly. “You know, it’s funny because when you write for film, you’re really taught that no one listens to your music,” he confesses, laughing. “Because the director comes in, you write and record and that’s it! Then you don’t really meet any real people who listen to it.”

A sentiment like this is utterly perplexing to me - how can you watch a film without music? That is, how can the viewing of a movie be separated from the aural experience provided by a soundtrack? The music that’s done for film is so much a part of that entire collaborative process to bring a vision to fruition, even if the director ends up with all the credit for it. Speaking of directors, Craig says, “I’ve been very lucky working with Baz Luhrmann because he’s so into music. He’s just such a mad music fan. We were talking the other day in London at the BAFTA thing, and figured out we’ve worked together for a long time now! I know it’s only been Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge but that’s over eight years we’ve been working together.”

Moulin Rouge is arguably Craig’s most recognized achievement to date considering the success of the film. “I really thought that was a good project; I liked it because it was very passionate,” he says. “I like writing music that’s emotional, that’s not just in the background but actually is moving the whole emotion along.” Luhrmann himself may have expressed it best when he said to Craig, “What I love about your work is the way in which it’s like a movie in itself, but without any pictures.” Sheepishly, Craig admits, “It’s awful hard to talk about your own music, isn’t it? I mean I’m always saying to the publicists, ‘Don’t get me lots of interviews!’”

“You know when, as a kid, someone records your voice?” I know exactly what he means - you can’t stand the sound of it, I tell him, especially when you believed yourself the most nasal and adenoid-affected child in the universe. Craig laughs. “Yes! You say, ‘Oh, my god, that cannot be my voice!’ In a way, I think talking about music is like that. I had a party over the weekend and there was a guy there who’s a lecturer in philosophy and all this shit. He said to me, ‘I really want to talk to you about how you do it - you must get together with all these other musicians and discuss what it is that makes you make music.’ And I said, ‘Well, you know what’s really funny is I’ve never, ever met a musician in my life and spoken about how it is that we do what we do.’ Quite often the last thing you talk about is music…because you don’t want the spell to be broken - do you know what I mean?”

I think I know what he means…then again, 99% of the writers I know get together and talk about writing almost 100% of the time, a fact that cracks Craig up. “I guess we talk about equipment and pianos and synthesizers. But any sort of heavy ‘Where does it all come from?’ talk…I’ve never, ever heard a musician talk to me about that ever.” Another fit of laughter peels out of him. “I just don’t wanna know!”

Since the guy moves effortlessly (or seemingly so) between rock music and classical composition and film scoring, there’s got to be some way that the three inform each other even as they appear to be relatively disparate. Craig agrees. “If you’re an artist you can do silkscreen and you can do an oil painting and then you can do a sculpture - it’s all the same artist, you know? That’s actually how I view it. And all of these I kind of approach in the same way - I’m trying to do something special every time.”

Then Craig suddenly asks, “What’s your favorite movie?” I’m stopped in my tracks for a moment but the strange little Scot at my ear won’t stop egging - “Out with it!” I answer with my favorite film of all time, A Hard Day’s Night, which to me has always seemed a perfect synthesis of music and film. Craig is very excited by my answer; I can tell he probably wouldn’t expect some young writer kid out in LA to have made that choice - a reaction that I’m used to by now. He then offers up his own opinion - Cinema Paradiso. “That’s a killer!” he exclaims and I have to agree. “That’s my favorite soundtrack. I wish I’d written that,” he says wistfully.