I was very familiar with the Cello Suites, in fact I played all of them on guitar. You wouldn’t want to pay money to hear me do this, but I can get through the whole of the Cello Suites. So I only knew it as a solo piece, but then I heard a piano version of it by Herbert Fryer, an English composer, done around the 1920s, harmonized, and it really struck me. So I thought, maybe there’s a song there, and I lived with that for weeks and weeks until this story came out about a journey in the snow — and it just seemed to fit the whole project.
Are there any other composers you particularly admire, anyone you’re thinking of exploring further?
I’m not going to tell you that! They’re going to board up the house and I’ll never get in! I’m not going to tackle Puccini, I’ll tell you that. Or Verdi. Or any of those guys.
Fair enough. Do you feel you’re entering more of a baritone phase now? Exploring more of that color?
Yeah, I’m exploring the darker, lower reaches of my voice as well as trying to maintain high C’s and D’s, which I can still do. But I think it’s nice to have that stretch. As you get older, it’s probably more fitting to sing a little lower.
Like the natural operatic progression —
[Laughs.]
— where you do the hero tenors as a young man —
I’m not gonna get way down there. I don’t think I can do that. But it’s a nice thing to be able to do, especially with a microphone, a close mic. You can sing quite quietly and deeply.
