A celebrated composer best known for his work on film and television, Stephen Warbeck previously won an Oscar for his involvement in Shakespeare In Love. Recently teaming up with Carmel Winters on a show that premiered at the Dublin Fringe Festival, the story centres on a lonely Maestro, haunted by dreams of past glory and tortured nightly by the visitations of a bloodhungry mosquita.
The last thing I saw and loved… Cowbois by Charlie Josephine.
The book I keep coming back to… I would like to come back to The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, but I can’t find it! I may have to buy another copy.
I find inspiration in… anecdotes, nature, the performance of an actor, a fragment of a tune that I hear or remember.
My favourite film is… Paris Texas, although now that I’ve said that, I wonder if it is true. Perhaps it’s really Wings Of Desire.
My career highlight is… going to watch Arsenal play Real Madrid with my son – it was research.
The song I listen to to get in the zone is… I think I would listen to a song to get out of the zone. If I am working intensely on something, I probably need a little aural holiday where I could listen to all sorts of different things, but especially Bob Dylan who seems to have chronicled all the important things in my life.
The last thing I recommended is… a performance by the Tom Campbell trio, a group of traditional Scottish musicians who play the whistle, guitar and bodhrán. They’re taking things in a great new direction.
I never leave the house without… the usual stuff. Phone, wallet, hat etc. It is more interesting perhaps when I forget them.
The piece of work I still think about is… Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth.
The best advice I’ve ever gotten… was from director Philip Kaufman. We worked together on the film Quills, and he told me, “Be as mad as yourself – I didn’t choose you to try to write like someone else.”
The art that means the most to me is… “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell – both her original performance and the version by Lars Danielsson.
My favourite moment in this show is… the beginning because of the anticipation, the mystery of where Louis will take us.
The most challenging thing about being a composer is… trying to stay true to your own instincts while listening and adapting to those of your collaborators.
If I wasn’t a composer, I would be… an architect. Perhaps not such a different thing – they’re both about something that fills a space where it wasn’t before.
The magic of music to me is… that we can be transported to a different place, we can be taken on a journey that is unexpected and we can see the world in different lights.
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