Steve Reich - Different Trains

Before my music I was focused on football and wanted to do something in sports. But there was a competition in my school to write a song and I won. The prize was to go to a studio to record this song and this was where I was first exposed to making music on computers. The music teacher convinced me to drop PE and study music. I studied Music at GCSE, and one of the highlights was being introduced to Different Trains in class. The structure of it in particular stood out. I had never heard anything like it. The way it repeats, but keeps you in its grasp. Even though the tracks were so much longer than what I was used to, I wanted to follow and stay with the music. There are so many intricate and subtle changes occurring that you only notice after repeated listens. It required studying and I was eager to follow that path. I would have been fourteen years old. That track is why I then liked Actress as a twenty-year-old for instance. They are doing something similar with repetition and structure. It is all connected.

It influenced my taste when it came to certain other artists. It was my first time hearing ‘minimalist’ music. I’ve continued to be fascinated with other music outside my immediate surroundings since that initial experience.