“I need to get out there and confront humanity”: Johnny Marr convinced Hans Zimmer to start playing live and stop “hiding behind a screen”
Even the legendary Hans Zimmer isn’t immune to imposter syndrome. For years, the composer – responsible for some of the most iconic film scores in history – was content staying behind the scenes, letting his music do the walking. That is, until two of his closest friends, Johnny Marr and Pharrell Williams decided it was time for an intervention.
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“[They] are really my best friends,” Zimmer says on CBC’s Q with Tom Power podcast. “[They said] it came to the point now where I have to look the audience in the eye, where I can’t hide behind a screen anymore, and I need to get out there and confront humanity.”
Shortly after their pep talk, Williams invited Zimmer to play guitar for him at the 2015 Grammy Awards.
“At that moment, I thought only an idiot would say no,” says the composer. “That sort of started the whole thing up.”
Two years later, Zimmer took things even further, swapping Hollywood sound stages for one of the biggest music festivals in the world. Ahead of his first ever US tour, he made his Coachella debut, performing sweeping renditions of his film scores from The Lion King, Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, Interstellar and more, accompanied by a full orchestra.
“I said, ‘Well, this is a festival. We’re not going to do The Lion King,” Zimmer recalls. “And Nile Marr, Johnny Marr’s son, said, ‘Hans, get over yourself. That’s the music of my childhood!’”
“[So] we played The Lion King and suddenly I’m looking out and there are 80,000 people crying – I mean, crying in a good way.”
As for overcoming stage fright, Zimmer says he has a simple but effective strategy: “I figured out a really good method. I just get up on stage, look at the audience and do what Johnny said: look them in the eye and make contact with them.”
Zimmer’s new concert film, Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert, is now out. Check out the official trailer below.
The post “I need to get out there and confront humanity”: Johnny Marr convinced Hans Zimmer to start playing live and stop “hiding behind a screen” appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
