James Harvey: Tell me about 1989 when you started doing several film soundtracks in one year.
Philip Powers: It was a bad two years and although I remember doing two CDs consisting of five scores for John Lasher, I don’t remember much about For the Term of His Natural Life in 1988. I do remember it cost $8,000 because it was half of the capital that James and I put up, as it was only mixed in mono for television, but the unmixed tapes were multi-track, so it required a big mixing session to mix and master the tracks. Simon was brilliant. He never was overbearing. It’s kind of crazy, but he left a lot of the mix of the multi-tracks up to me. He was there, and he’s a pretty opinionated guy, and it was his music, but he made suggestions, and I was kind of along for the ride, but I really got to make decisions – overriding any other opinions – and then I relied on the engineers to give me the best-sounding CD, with EQ, and Mastering. That’s what putting your money where you mouth is gets you. Control.
JH: Why was it so bad?
PP: It was a train-wreck of three different major events colliding over a period of 6 months. Plus I was writing two films scores over the same period and they were screening on television, during the December 1987/January 1988 period, if I remember correctly.
JH: What were all of these things which were happening?
PP: Oh, it was very tragic. You know… (laughs)
JH: You’re almost tongue in cheek saying that but it was something more emotional than you let on.
PP: I was doing everything to make my unpopular decision to finish my university degree after two and three-quarter years a winner, justifying my decision not to do a fourth year to get a Dip Ed.
JH: Such as?
PP: To do everything and anything to overshadow my father and brother’s achievements.
JH: In music?
PP: No, they had science or accounting or computer fortés. I had a piano (laughs) forté. I’ve been confusing chemists for years by asking for panadeine forté.
JH: Did you do your mum proud?
PP: Yeah.
JH: What did she know?
PP: Yeah, she wasn’t that smart – as a joke – she knew I was the ailing baby who wasn’t thriving and she nursed me but never believed in me. I never realised until I was fifty-years-old that she nursed me through my first year of life because I was hanging between life and death. It is one of those facts of life that you will never know what your family did for you from years one to five. From zero to up until your first series of memories, you have no idea. At five, six, seven – they’re memories but, still, not reliable memories.