An audience with Hans Zimmer

With two Oscars and four Grammy awards under his belt, prolific German musician Hans Zimmer – who also has over 150 film credits to his name – is arguably the most famous composer in the world. His work has uplifted movies like Rain Main, Gladiator and Dune, effortlessly moving between genres and even triumphing in the animation field with his score for Disney's The Lion King.

The maestro's genius lies in being audacious, in taking risks in musical arrangements and embracing technology to realise his vision, all with an innate ability to empathise with the viewer and heighten their emotions.

Zimmer tells us what delights him, what inspires him and what's next on his horizon.

Which piece of music do you never tire of listening to?

There are lots of pieces that I never tire of listening to. The world is full of great music. One of them is Johann Sebastian Bach's The Little Fugue in G Minor. Such a humble name for such a piece of absolute, total brilliance.

The other one is The Beach Boys' God Only Knows. I think it is a perfect song. It is so adventurous where it goes... it’s just amazing.

And, of course, it is not necessarily the song but because he recently passed away, and was one of my heroes and a friend, Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott's. It definitely worth listening to all the time. If you want to see musical genius at work, there it is.

What was your most memorable performance?

When we played the Coachella Festival in California [in 2017]. Two days, 80,000 people each day and we’d never done anything like it before. It is out in the desert and I thought it would be a great idea to bring an orchestra and a choir out there.

I did not want to do The Lion King, and my friend Nile Marr said, "You are an idiot if you don’t — it’s the music of my youth." So I agreed. And to stand there and watch 80,000 grown-ups crying for two nights was really quite a revelation.

It said a lot about what we can and can’t do, and what we can get away with. So that was a very memorable show because for me it broke the ice between the audience and me.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? And did you follow it?

The best piece of advice... I don’t even know who said it to me, but it is very simple and I follow it. And that is basically, say yes. Say yes a lot more than you say no.

Let's take this as an example, [A League of Their Own Director] Penny Marshall comes in and she asks if I would like to do a film about 1940s baseball, and it's about girls and it's swing music? And I reply, "Penny I have no idea about the 40’s, I am not a girl and I don’t know anything about swing music."

She goes: "Say yes, just do it."

I said yes, and it was a totally mind opening adventure. There was nothing about it that I knew how to do, so everything was new and everything was an adventure and everything was a delight and everything was a challenge – a delightful challenge. It’s things like that.

Or Chris Nolan coming in and going: "Do you want to make a movie about space, do you want to make a movie about time?" And suddenly you are thinking about it [Inception]. Or Ron Howard coming to me, asking: "The Da Vinci Code, do you want to spend two weeks in the Louvre?"

These adventures, they are all about saying yes, yes, yes to a project and having no idea how to do it. Then afterwards you sit down and go through the adventure of learning and exploring and researching and getting your group of great musicians together and figuring it out. So, say yes, you know, don’t say no.

What would be your motto in life?

The first thing that came into my head were words by [Johann Wolfgang von] Goethe. He said you should do the right thing and never be afraid of anybody else. My other motto is: Always execute Plan B flawlessly – that’s gotten me out of a lot of scrapes. The other one, of course, is to never ask for permission, always ask for forgiveness.

What surprised you most about Dubai?

It wasn't something that actually surprised me, but I loved it. I loved the delight, I loved the conversations, I loved meeting the people, I loved the education, I loved the friendliness, I loved the hospitality, I loved being greeted with open arms, I loved just the intelligent conversations and questions that took place at every opportunity. And I loved that somewhere in the middle of the desert, somebody had the audacity and the recklessness and the courage and the vision — it is really about a vision to go and build these architectural jewels. And out of nothing rose a diamond.

How has this city inspired you?

Dubai shows you that the impossible is possible. One of the great things about Dubai is that it is so open to the idea that you can be inclusive as opposed to exclusive. There’s a very strong multicultural [experience] but we have the opportunity to create a new culture that never existed before without losing the heart, soul and essence of our own cultures, and I think that’s very interesting.

Finally, what are the top three things you’d recommend in Dubai?

Food, sand and beach – and the Museum of the Future.

A cinematic experience "Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert" featuring the best of Dubai will be hitting global theatres on 19 March. Find out more on hanszimmerfilm.com