Interview with Allan Holdsworth (Jazz Italia 2005): Difference between revisions

ALLAN: This is a good question, because nothing has changed! It's the same thing now as then ... When I was 25, I used to think things would be better at 40! But the only thing that has happened is that more people know who you are. No real change ... Well, I played because I loved music and I started to be a paid musician by chance ... You know, some guys want to be professional musicians as soon as they start. I never did... But later I realized that I was earning and traveling and that I could not do anything else. And then you feel like you're trapped. In the 80s I probably earned more money than today. Everyone paid more money for a record. For a record, you earned three times more in the 80s than today ... Earnings have gone down a lot and yet everything goes up in price. On the last tour in Japan we had more evenings but we earned less. Today it was good because we had a day off (editor's note: at the Big Mama concert). But the rest of the tour is really brutal, it's very hard! It is no longer worth it at all because when you are my age you ask "why am I not at home?" I could stay at home and just make records! It 's hard to be 10 hours on a bus, play... then 13 hours more on a bus etc. ... You do not sleep ... It' s pretty tough! But that's how it goes! [Machine back translated.]