Nearly all the synth work on Heathen is mine and some of the piano.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm a big fan of piano-based rock music like Elton John, Ben Folds, and even Queen.
In New Order, I played about 95% of the synths. It's not much fun for the other guys in the band when I'm playing my synth parts.
More recently, I used guitar synthesizer extensively on the two albums I did with Robert Fripp.
For me, the guitar synthesizer is a great writing instrument.
If you make it sound too much like a synth, it will just sound like a guitar part played on a synth.
I was never worried that synthesizers would replace musicians. First of all, you have to be a musician in order to make music with a synthesizer.
I listen to a lot of choral stuff at home, but I'm also liking Labrinth, Emeli Sande, Tom Odell and Wretch 32.
I really feel like I've written my most effective music in the instrumental realms.
I didn't develop or build synths. I had my technicians modify them for my live stage performances.
Sometimes I can sit at my computer and find a cool sound, or a new synth patch, and get super-inspired by that and make a track based on that sound. But the piano is where I find the inspiration and come up with the melody.