Name: Bob Holroyd
Nationality: British
Occupation: Producer
Current release: Bob Holroyd 's Football Chants and Nursery Rhymes is out via Six Degrees.
Recommendations: Boyhood by J.M Coetzee; Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

If you enjoyed this Bob Holroyd interview and would like to stay up to date with his music, visit his official homepage. He is also on Instagram, Facebook, twitter, and Soundcloud.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Normally with my eyes open, but I tend to daydream whilst listening.

It obviously depends on what I’m listening to, but if it evokes an emotional response it’s usually in my stomach.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

I was made to go to piano lessons when I was a child, which I really didn’t like. My teacher was very strict and only wanted me to learn classical music – anything that I was interested in playing was apparently dreadful! However, I did benefit from learning some of what I was taught, and when I came to starting my own band at college it did give me a good starting point.

When I was younger I would write songs or pieces of music, and then go to the local studio and record them as performed. This was a good discipline, but over time I have become more interested in sounds and textures, and I use the studio as an instrument in itself.

I tend to play with sounds and ideas, and do what comes to me at that moment, playing with ideas and seeing where they lead me.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I suppose that’s when puberty kicks in, and we start exploring our own identity more. Also there are loads of hormones flying around so it makes sense that something as emotional as music will have a big effect on people at that age.

At that age, once I realised there was so much out there, I listened to music all the time, and discovered so many new ideas and feelings. Unfortunately I tend not to listen to as much new music as I feel I should. There are still lots of great artists out there but I don’t feel the need to explore it all like I did in my teens.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

The sampler has made it possible for me to create sounds that I couldn’t have come up with in any other scenario.

Sounds that are not really possible to imagine, like, for example, a door creaking, slowed down way out of it’s natural register, then reversed. This can be the basis for an atmosphere or rhythm that cannot be produced in any other way, and as a result can set my mind on a new creative course.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

To try and express my emotions.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

I find it strange listening back to my own records. I think it’s better once I’ve had some time away from it because when you are working on new / current material you listen to it over and over again, and it can become difficult to hear whether it’s any good. Coming back to the tracks is a very interesting experience, sometimes good, and sometimes bad.

It’s hard to judge your own sound, but mine is very texture driven, and often quite minimal. I want to create an atmosphere, and I like the combination of real organic instruments combined with synths and sound manipulation.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

Trains often get my mind working in a musical way. I think it’s the combination of the repetitive rhythm of the track noise, the constantly changing scenery, and the strange screeches or ambient noises of the brakes, signalling etc.

For completely non man made sounds, it may seem corny but the whale songs are so beautiful and emotional.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

No sound is off limit, but I am increasingly drawn to spacious, long ambient sounds to create a backdrop, which is then filled in with sometimes quite glitchy or processed ‘colours’.

I like to create musical collages which hopefully takes the listener on a journey.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

Personally I like just seeing where ideas go, so it can be a bit disorganised at times. However, I do like structure and well and want the piece to actually feel like a piece of music, not just a random collection of sounds.

It’s hard to say what music actually is, because obviously it IS a collection of sounds arranged in various ways, and because there are only a certain amount of notes, there is going to be quite a lot of repetition.

So therefore I think the emotion or feeling that comes across to the listener often becomes the quality that sets one piece of music apart from all the others.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

On one of my previous albums, Afterglow, I decided that I would not use any drums at all. This made me think more about textures, but also about the spaces within the music.



I think that I often try to put too many sounds and instruments into a track, and this was the first time that I deliberately tried to strip everything back more. Doing this has made me concentrate on each individual sound or line more, as they were more exposed.

A lot of the sounds started as experiments, a bit like as I was discussing earlier. I would start with a piano line then perhaps reverse it, halve it’s speed and then use that as the basis of the piece. It can be very time consuming, but once I get the right building blocks my mind goes off in directions it wouldn’t otherwise go in.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

I don’t think of it as science but the way I use samplers, as I described earlier is a very experimental, random approach which couldn’t happen without this technology.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

I don’t know whether it does or not. I think if we are in touch with our emotions more, whatever they are, then life can be more real.

Music can open up areas of ourselves that sometimes we don’t want to expose, or even knew were there. So it can definitely affect our lives quite profoundly.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Not necessarily, I think music can be written in a ‘functional’ way. Musically certain chords will definitely work with other chords, and once you know this it is definitely possible to piece a track together that would sound ‘correct’.

However, the point with any music or art is to go beyond this and try to express emotion or feelings that hopefully move people.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

Arvo Part’s ‘Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten’



Ryuichi Sakamoto ‘Chinsagu No Hana’



Both these pieces are just so beautiful, they both build up in waves, the strings make me want to cry.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

That people actually listen to music on better equipment than their phone, and spend time to actually listen to it properly.