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Billy Childs: The Perfect Picture

AAJ: You have been playing the piano since you were six. What do you think you would be doing if you were not playing a piano?

BC: I can tell you about things that I like the idea of doing, but I don't know if I would have the intelligence or the discipline to pursue it. But I always liked science-like things, like mathematics ... and I also like poetry, I like Cummings. I'd be a writer. I would do that if I weren't a musician. Ultimately it is about what moves you. I like music, but music is not my whole existence. I like sports too.

AAJ: What's music to you, then?

BC: At its best, music is a more perfect representation of what life is. It's a description of life, an illustration of life. Like in a dream, you dream an alternate reality of what life is. That's what music is; it's an alternate reality of life. The craft that you learn, to me, is in service to try to describe things in life and things in your head.


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