This piece is about a transcendental moment of connection. That moment where all the nightclub posturing and idle chitchat fall away as you look across the room and lock eyes with a beautiful stranger. In an instant, your entire world stops and you stand frozen in the imagination all of the fantastic possibilities that this unknown person might hold. In the space of a single breath, you envision what your life might be with her – how it would feel to gaze into those dark eyes for the rest of your days.
And then, as quickly as it began, it is over. She blinks, or looks away, and the moment is destroyed. You drop your gaze and pick up your drink to distract yourself from the enormity of what has just passed between you. Finally, you gather enough courage to look up once more, to memorize her face or maybe to walk across the room to introduce yourself… and she is gone.
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This piece explores the painful process of sacrificing what we want for what we need. The gut-churning decision to step up and do what is right instead of what is easy. The thing that no one ever tells you is that there are no prizes or awards for doing the right thing – especially when it involves breaking someone’s heart.
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A photo of suburban Tokyo at dawn inspired me for this piece. The landscape has so many colours, strange buildings and this incredible, majestic glow to it. There is a sustained chord towards the end of the piece that represents this glow. A magical, musical, weightless moment where the listener can take in the hum of the mysterious nightlife of the city. At the end, the sun comes up, erasing the strange, pulsing, neon glow of the night.
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I have just composed the score for two Canadian Cancer Society films. Below is the English version entitled “Fight”. If this powerful video inspires you to want to help, please visit the CCS website at http://www.fightback.ca to find out how you can join the fight.
Finally! Pop Music is out today! For the next eleven days I will post the stories that inspired me for each piece on the album.
Toronto Stories
Toronto is often called a “multi-cultural city” but I think we lose sight of what that term means. Walking the streets at any hour will reveal a constant clash of languages, food, art and music from cultures around the world. However, the true essence of our collective cultural experiences comes from the silent and invisible struggle to reconcile where we’ve come from to where we’ve ended up.
As one of millions of people who have left another city, country or continent for the promise of a better life, I have found Toronto to have a very melancholic sprit. I think it’s because there are so many people who come from different places here, living with some sort of dream that they hope the city will bring to them. Often that doesn’t happen. This piece is about all of our stories. The dreams, hopes and plans we pack up and transport to a new place – and what happens to those aspirations as the city swallows us whole.
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Todor has just scored this ad for Robinsons (airing now across the UK). It plays on hopes that Andy Murray could become the first British winner in Wimbledon the men’s singles since Fred Perry in 1936. Well, it didn’t happen this year Andy…better luck next time.
