Cliff Martinez

I want to be known for having a recognizable style. I believe having your own personal identity is what makes you competitive. On the other hand, I would like to be versatile and be challenged to go in new directions.

Pop music is a fashion, and fashions come and go. The public retires you as their tastes change.

I got fed up with being in bands. I spent a couple of years touring the country in a smoked filled band, doing lots of drugs and being really unhealthy.

I think music will be created algorhythmically, all the things that we do will be boiled down to a little computer program.

The more I come to understand music, the more I feel like a numbskull because there is always more to learn.

Composing demands a degree of isolation.

I know so few people who actually give music their undivided attention, so I've been trying to just park myself on the couch between the speakers and listen.

I guess what I've learned is that there are no boundaries when it comes to imagination. It's limitless.

I'm not sure why anybody makes a physical CD anymore when the costs are so much lower to just throw it up on iTunes. And it doesn't seem that making a hard copy of something prevents pirating any less. I mean I'm amazed that they still do that.

I actually don't see that strong of a connection between my background as a rock 'n roller and my early films. In a way I think your musical identity in film work is determined by the jobs that come your way.

For me, the work begins with a rough cut of the film. I can't do much with the script. I've tried to write music to a script prior to seeing the film, but I've found it turns out to be a waste of time.

I don't want to be typecast as the 'ambient guy' or someone who only does electronic scores. I think most of the work that comes my way is because people feel they know me musically.

I've always been very left of center and the radio never had much diversity and film did.

I guess I'd like to have my cake and eat it, too. I want to be known for having a recognizable style. I believe having your own personal identity is what makes you competitive. On the other hand, I would like to be versatile and be challenged to go in new directions.

You'll know if you're a famous composer if 20 years from now your name appears on a pull-down menu in Band in a Box, alongside Hans Zimmer.

I've often thought that my background in rock 'n' roll has gone to waste in film work. My background was that I was a rock 'n' roll drummer and I don't think I used drums in my first ten years of film scoring.

I was in the Chilli Peppers at the time and I asked myself, would I be able to wear a sock on my genitals at the age of forty and they proved me wrong because I guess they're still doing it.

I'm free to make music - I'm sitting on about 40 or 45 new songs that I can't wait to put out.

The more I come to understand music, the more I feel like a numbskull because there is always more to learn. The more I do it, the more I'm humbled. I'm just always trying to get better at it. I pick up a few tricks along the way.

I live in Topanga Canyon, which is like a faux-rustic enclave in Los Angeles. I love the sounds of all the critters outside - the frogs, owls, crickets, and birds. Some of the birds around here are pretty accomplished musicians. You can learn a lot from them.

I work at home but average 15,000 to 18,000 miles per year on my Honda.