Keith Emerson interview

While going through some of my old files, I found a brief interview I conducted with Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer fame) that was never published. (Keith Emerson, along with two other composers, wrote the score for Godzilla: Final Wars, Godzilla's 50th anniversary film.) Why was it not published? Because, as you'll see, the answers were too short for publication. So I sat on the interview for three years, unsure of what to do with it.

Now that I have this handy blog, I feel that I can finally publish the interview, as brief as it is. My questions, and Mr. Emerson's answers, follow.

UPDATE: After publishing this post, I just realized that two of the questions were actually submitted by Erik Homenick of Akira Ifukube.org. (Hey, we are talking three years ago!) So I've updated the transcript to reflect that.

Erik Homenick: How did you become involved on the soundtrack to Godzilla: Final Wars? (I understand the film's director, Ryuhei Kitamura, is a big Emerson, Lake & Palmer fan.)

Keith Emerson: Kitamura-san had come to my last concerts in Japan. As I had had experience writing for horror films (Inferno, Murderock, etc.) I was only too honoured to be invited to contribute music to such a legendary iconic character.

Brett Homenick: What was your reaction to being asked to compose the score of a Godzilla film?

KE: My main concern was if I would have the time before going on tour.

EH: In Japan, composers are traditionally given less time to write film music than in other countries. How much time did you have to write the score?

KE: About two weeks. But I should point out I did not write all of it. In fact, in the end, I wrote more than was used in the final cut.

I would like to thank John Arnold, Mr. Emerson's tireless webmaster, for all his assistance. For more information about Mr. Emerson, please visit his official Web site.