Stunning solo acoustic piano from Peter Manning Robinson

Welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World, where I interview musicians about how their music helps make the world more harmonious.

Peter Manning Robinson has become a regular piece of my life online, as we’ve connected on social media since our original chat in January 2021. Peter is a fabulous pianist, Emmy Award–winning and multi–BMI Award–winning composer and inventor of the Refractor Piano™. With his latest music, he’s going back to solo acoustic piano and it’s great to chat with him.

Thanks to Peter for allowing me to play extracts from Pure Heartbreak and Bent Out of Shape alongside our conversation.

Thank you for listening to Harmonious World. Please rate, review and share: click on the link and subscribe to support the show.

Don't forget the Quincy Jones quote that sums up why I do this: "Imagine what a harmonious world it would be if every single person, both young and old, shared a little of what he is good at doing."

Transcript

Hilary 0:22

Hello, welcome to the latest episode of Harmonious World. My name is Hilary Seabrook. If this is your first time listening to Harmonious World, then welcome. If you're a returning listener, then thank you, and especially thank you if you're one of my big supporters. So you can support me just by sharing the episodes, rating them, reviewing them, but also can buy me a coffee, you can support me on Patreon, or you can subscribe on Harmonious World, or even indeed on Substack. All of these places you can find me and my work. So thank you to everyone who has done that so far and continues to support me. It's really good. There's something special about being an independent podcaster. Anyway, on to this week's episode. I am delighted. I'm speaking once again to Peter Manning Robinson, who I spoke to in 2021. What you're listening to now is Pure Heartbreak, and he will tell us all about his music. So thank you for joining me. Hey, there you are. Unbelievable. Oh, how great to see you again. I know, but you've been going through some stuff, haven't you?

Peter 1:50

Um that's one way of putting it, yes. I have.

Hilary 1:55

Yeah. Yeah. So it is. I am absolutely delighted that we've made it this time. So thank you.

Peter 2:04

Oh, thank you. You know, you've been very patient and to put up with the craziness that's been going on.

Hilary 2:10

Okay, I see you're sitting at your piano. I am. How fantastic.

Peter 2:15

When all else fails, I go to my temple of joy here.

Hilary 2:20

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's talk about all of the music that you've got coming out. So when is excursions coming out?

Peter 2:30

We are guessing that excursions will come out sometime in the fall. We're juggling not only the music videos and the success that these last two have had, but my collaborator Klaus Hogue, who you you're sort of familiar with, right, Klaus.

Hilary 2:50

Yeah.

Peter 2:51

Right. So we're actually doing a feature film in the summer that I'm co-producing that he has. And uh so we're we're it it's a uh it's a plethora of fantastic combination of creativity, and I'm just very, very I'm very happy and very blessed that I've got these things going on.

Hilary 3:17

Yeah, fantastic. And so in the feature film, will that include your music?

Peter 3:23

Uh we would assume so. Uh but I get the total producer, uh, the trip that he wrote is insanely it's very personal to him. It's a subject I I I've never heard of before. And uh so we're um you know, we're doing it on a shoestring or half a shoestring, but uh uh I think it's going to be uh it'll be very powerful, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Hilary 3:55

Fantastic. Oh, I look forward to hearing more about that. Um let's talk about the music that's on excursions and what you've been up to because you've released two videos. So Pure Heartbreak was one, and what's the other one?

Peter 4:11

That came out about two weeks ago.

Hilary 4:13

Ah, right.

Peter 4:15

And it's really interesting, Hillary, because you know you've been familiar with a lot of my previous work that's involved my invention, the refractor piano. And a lot of it is uh, let's say, off the beaten path. Uh and over the last two years, with everything that's been going on, not only with me personally, but in the world at large, um it's getting very sad, you know, that that people that that these horrible things were happening all over the world, happening in my city, uh, happening to people that I knew and loved. And I found myself gravitating away from the refractor piano and just to my solo acoustic piano. And I found myself writing and creating these pieces that I would have thought, well, this is kind of simple for me, and it's but it's yeah, this is kind of nice and it's beautiful and it's evocative, and I don't know, let me keep going with it. So as I dove deeper into that, uh it became not only about my experience with the things that were happening, but so many other people's experience. You know, I've I've I've gotten to a point where enough people are aware of me that I that they're I I get comments, and so many of the comments were about these horrible things. I mean, you you know, you'd hear from a woman in Afghanistan who is you know, she's locked in her room and she's singing or because if anybody hears her, you know, they could slit her throat. Uh and then she would hear my story about my childhood and everything that happened, and then she'd listen to her my music, and she says, Oh my god, now I think I can keep going, you know, and and you and you hear these incredibly poignant, powerful stories, and says, Okay, I need to tap into this more. And rather than trying to create this music that with my instrument that's never been done before, no, I'm going to be very simple, very direct, and talk about those emotions.

Hilary 6:41

That's really exciting, and I like that because our chat before was all about the refractor piano and about what you were doing with that. And and I feel like this is sort of getting more into your soul, isn't it?

Peter 6:57

It's just different, it's just different sides, you know? Yeah. And with the refractor piano, I can immediately create imagery and sounds and approaches that have never been done before, but not necessarily melodic and not necessarily something that people will immediately connect with. And with the with my solo acoustic piano, I can I can just go right to them. I mean, I found myself a lot of times people would reach out to me and I'd end up playing for them, either uh over the phone or maybe over Zoom, or I would send them a piece. Just because they were whatever they were going through, I would create that. And a lot of that became the basis for for some of these pieces. And there was just an immediacy about it that doesn't necessarily happen with my refractor piano.

Hilary 8:05

Because it's more technical and it's more, it's not it's not quite as easy. I think I'm not saying that God, I'm not saying that your piano, solo piano stuff is easy. I'm not saying I could play it for sure, but um it's it's more direct, isn't it?

Peter 8:22

I can I can immediately connect with somebody's energy or the world's energy in a melodic, clear way, and still be me. That it doesn't it that it's not trite, it's it's not imitative, it's none of those things. It's simply another expression that's that's easier. There's there's this beautiful story. Um I'm not sure if you're familiar with the pianist u Artur Rubinstein.

Hilary 8:56

Of course, yes.

Peter 8:58

So he was concertizing up until his middle 90s. And I saw an interview with him. It was, I guess, about it was one of his last concerts, and it was in Israel, and he was in a little apartment with a little piano, and they were asking him questions, and they said, Well, Maestro, tell us what you love to play. And he says, Oh, I love to play anything, but here, here's some Rachman enough. And so he sits down, and you know, this guy's in his mid-90s and just you know, and there's a few mistakes, and he says, Oh, I know there's a few mistakes, but you know, it's I still play. But, you know, there's this composer, well, you know, he he's not very well respected, and he's people think his music is simple, you know, his name is Schubert. But but I like these sometimes. And here, I'm going to play you a very simple Schubert leader, and he sits down and he plays this piece, and I'm falling, you know, as I'm watching this thing. And it was, he just went right to the heart with this piece. And all of a sudden, I started realizing okay, there's this part of me that I don't share with a lot of people, and I can express it through my music, my appreciation for every everybody and everything that's happened to me and where I am, but also the sadness of what's been going on. And I always remember that story because I didn't set out to create the music like that. But then, you know, when when the when I put when the first video came out, I remembered that experience. I thought, oh right, yeah, I'm having the same experience that this man had like 30 years ago, you know.

Hilary 10:54

Yeah. One of the things that I find interesting about your music and about a lot of music that I listen to is that I don't feel the need to put it into a genre box.

Peter 11:08

This is true. Many, especially with a refractor piano, but even with my solo kids going, some people may love it, some people may hate it, but they won't say, oh, this is this, this is that. And this has been, you know, I've heard this all my life, but I've been playing since I was three, and I would heard from uh the age of three. You're you're a genius, but you will be famous after you're dead because nobody will understand you, nobody will get it. And that's an ongoing theme, especially now where with the with the streaming algorithms and people. I'm so blessed that I've connected with the with Pershona of uh um Morame Agency, who's you know, who's now my new agent and handles a lot of stuff, and then another woman, Lucy LaForge, who's handling uh my my social media, because they love it and they say, we don't care if there's no algorithm, we're going for it. And that's exactly what happened. As soon as I got with them and Pure Heartbreak came out, uh, it was like boom, you know? And they had the they had the intestinal fortitude to say, you know what, we don't care about algorithms, we don't care what anybody says, we're going for it.

Hilary 12:29

Yeah, and I think the very fact that there are these beautiful videos alongside the music helps people to because I think while you kind of create pictures in your head when you're listening to music, or at least I do, I think I think most people do, I think it's nice when you have somebody else's ideas because you can go, that's not what I imagined, I imagined this or whatever, and you can it'll take you on a journey.

Peter 12:58

That's exactly how pure heartbreak was created by Klaus. Because that that piece was written as a reaction to a combination of the fires where so many of us were displaced, and the absolute horrific things that went on to cover up what was going on, and then Gaza, and you know, all of these things. And I wrote it as my reaction to that, but Klaus listened to it, and he says, No, this is a breakup about two people, you know, and it was also like he had to convince me that I didn't need to be in this video, you know. They can make it, I don't have to play an actor who's be uh who's going, no, we get another act, we get a real actor, and we get this this actress, and we do this breakup, and it's about betrayal and and what happens to somebody's heart. You know, and uh and he's just brilliant. And I I gotta say, I'm so glad that I I was able to help facilitate this feature film because he's just dedicated his life for the last decade to helping me and my music, and you know, when we were before COVID, when we were doing concerts and everything. And I like to give back, Hillary, you know, it's really important. You know, so many people have helped me, and so if I can help them, not just through my music, but but for any other way I can do it, it's it's important, you know, it's bigger than me.

Hilary 14:38

Yeah, it really is. And and I think that's a very generous way of going through life, and if only everybody was like that.

Peter 14:47

Oh my god.

Hilary 14:49

Yeah. So you've got the feature film coming up in the summer, you've got excursions coming out sometime, you know, later on in the year. Uh now I know you well enough to know you're probably working, your brain is probably working on other things as well. What else is going on?

Peter 15:07

Well, I'm trying, I'm I'm sort of bifurcated in that because of the I still have to finish the album. I still have a couple more pieces uh that uh that I'm happy with to that that I need to finish. Uh I suspect that a lot of the score, at least as of now, is going to be refractor piano. So I'm uh once I get the album uh finished and the the pieces selected, then I have to dive deep as deeply as I've gone into the solo acoustic piano, dive into the uh um into the refractor piano again. You know, I don't I don't do superficial things, Hillary. You know, you it takes a long time, you know, for that for that stew to percolate, you know, when you get just the right combinations of spices and herbs, you know, and then you add the roux and you add this and you add that, you know, it doesn't happen overnight. And so I'm just constantly, oh, that's an interesting idea. Well, yeah, let me try this. Let me try. Oh, okay. Let's record that. And then you record it and you come back and next, hey, this is I bet this is great. Well, that kind of sucks, doesn't it? Okay, but then it points you in another direction. Yeah.

Hilary 16:36

Well, that sounds really exciting, and I'm actually really glad that I'm talking to you at this stage in the process because you know it sounds like you're on the cusp of really exciting new things.

Peter 16:49

It's you know, many people contact me and say, I have a block. I can't, I don't know what to do, I can't come up with anything. And I have the opposite, which is I never have a block. I'm never, you know, I I'm if I live to 800 years old, I'll still only be covering just this minuscule amount of of what I want to do. And uh I I'm very fortunate and blessed that I have that, but it it does kind of drive you crazy when it's like three o'clock in the morning, it's like, oh, okay, right, let's do that.

Hilary 17:30

Um yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. I frequently wake up in the middle of the night and go, Oh, I know what I'm gonna do, and I have to make a note because otherwise it'll you'll you know, and then you wake up in the morning and you look at it and you go, that's a great idea.

Peter 17:47

And in my case, because my handwriting is worse than a physician, I have to do it. If I don't get up, then at least I have to dictate it, because I will get up, and it was like, wait, what does that say? You know, the brilliant idea was in the middle of the night.

Hilary 18:08

Yeah. Um, I can't talk to you without talking about your vegan cooking because every time you post something on Instagram, I'm like very jealous and want to start cooking that straight away. So as a fellow vegan, uh, you know, how is that going?

Peter 18:26

It's just like music. And I'm sure you find this, Hillary, where like you you I never use recipes, and you know, I I can be uh sometimes I'll see something online or I'll read something and go, huh, well that could be interesting. But I have no idea how I ever how I do anything. Um recently uh I've been because I don't know if you've gone through this, but I sometimes I miss the taste of certain things. And fish, I never miss the taste of chicken or or meat, but I know because of my experiences in Japan and being taught how to make sushi by I I miss that. So I became possessed on how I could create vegan plant-based dishes that gave me the taste of fish. I didn't care if it looks like fish, but how do I do that? And then you start experimenting with, well, let's see, fish, if they're not eating other fish, what are they eating? Oh, they're eating seaweed, they're eating well, right? There's a taste of the water because it's, you know, if if it's not polluted with with horrible toxic things, you know, there's there's a salty taste in there. And and then I just started coming up with combinations of seaweed and nori and different spices, and then, okay, what can I use? Well, okay, let's oh, artichoke heart. So it kind of has a has a texture that's a little bit like crab. Well, let's mess around with this. And uh, oh, I can take this tofu and I can mold it, and then I can steam it, and then I can braise it, and then here we can put this on it, and then we can wrap it in rice paper, and then we can we can very slowly broil it, or we can roast it. And and so it's it's just become a part of my life, you know?

Hilary 20:24

Yeah, it's really interesting because hearing you talk about cooking like that, it's just how you talk about music. It's like, what if I take this and I add a little bit of this, what will it sound like? And that's exactly how I imagine you sitting at the piano or you know, wherever.

Peter 20:42

It's you know, the the the Dallas say let your mind go empty, let your heart go empty. Something will come in to fill it. That's where you start. And so often, that's what I do at the piano. But halfway through working at a piece, I'll get an idea for a recipe. Or I'll be working on a piece, and it's like, well, this isn't going so well, is it? All right, you know, I haven't eaten for a while here. Let me make something. Oh, okay. I'm gonna make a simple stir fry. Uh-huh. Ah, that's it! I know what I've got to do, and you go running back to the piano. Um, so you know, creativity is everywhere, and I don't make a differentiation between music and food and anything else that one does. And I think that's the way for humans in general. I think everyone has some kind of creative juices, some kind of nugget inside of them. And it doesn't matter if it's an art or you know, it could be I I really know how to hammer. Huh. Well, I know how to do that. Well, maybe I'll make a table. Or, you know, I mean, people just everyone has. This and the idea that somehow artists are above all of it, you know, I think is a miss moment. That needs to tap into that.

Hilary 22:13

Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think everyone's got something in them. And I don't believe it when people just go, Oh, you know, I'm not bothered about whatever, whatever happens, whatever. I don't believe them. I think they just haven't found their thing yet, you know.

Peter 22:26

Well, they don't believe it, you know. It's like uh my my late brother, um he was very much into mechanics, and at a very age, early age, he actually became part of uh Ferrari America racing team. But because of things that happened to him as a child, similar to me, he didn't have the confidence, and so he he was constantly comparing that to something bigger, and then it sort of consumed him. And and I've seen that with so many people, you know.

Hilary 23:05

Yeah.

Peter 23:06

If you love something, uh cherish that and let it grow.

Hilary 23:11

Yeah, definitely. Oh, Peter, it's such a pleasure to talk to you. Thank you so much.

Peter 23:18

All right, so what's the last thing you cook?

Hilary 23:22

Oh, do you know what I made today, right? I used to love years and years when I was a child, I used to love scrambled egg and tomato. And somebody introduced me that age, you know, a while ago to scrambled tofu. And so I was out walking my dog this morning, and I thought, do you know what I'm gonna try doing that with so I put some onion in, and you know, and and honestly, it was the most delicious thing I've ever eaten with a bit of you know, a few herbs and spices and things like that. Just and it and it reminded me of one of my favorite things when I was young, and I'm never gonna eat eggs again, but I don't have to.

Peter 24:08

That's like me and fish. I don't have to. I can create the sensation and the memories without it. Try next time, take a little bit of chickpea flour, a little bit of coconut unsweetened coconut milk, and make just a little bit of a sludge, and then you mix that with the with the tofu, uh, and it it'll become a really great basis for an omelet for a pricotta. Uh, so I will put that a lot of times.

Hilary 24:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will try that. Thank you. Oh, honestly, it's such a pleasure talking to you. And uh I I've been talking uh for years, about three or four years, about coming out to the States. And obviously, you know, things are a bit tricky out there at the moment, and we're not we're not in a hurry to come over there, but we like Americans, we just don't like all Americans, if you know I mean. So but when I come over, you are definitely on my list of people I want to see.

Peter 25:13

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Hilary 25:16

Yeah, fantastic. Thank you so much for your time. Yeah, well, that's right. Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Peter 25:28

I've missed it.

Hilary 25:30

Sorry, yeah, absolutely. It's been such a pleasure. It's just and I and I every time you pop up on my Instagram or you know, when your PR girl messaged me about having this chat, and I was like, it was it's just such a joy, so thank you.

Peter 25:47

How many times we've gone back and forth over the last couple of years.

Hilary 25:51

I know, crazy. Yeah, yeah.

Peter 25:54

All right, so we have to brilliant a lot sooner than the last one.

Hilary 25:58

Absolutely, let's speak to you soon.

Peter 26:00

All right, thanks so much, Hillary.

Hilary 26:18

Oh, really, that was such a joy. And I hope you've enjoyed listening to my conversation with Peter. He is such a good man. He's one of those creative artists who just is so inspiring. So inspiring. And what you're listening to now is bent out of shape. So thank you for listening in, and and I hope you have a very, very good week. Thank you for joining me on Harmonious World.