Five Questions with ... Roger Eno

What are some of your favourite records at the moment?

There's a record I like very much called Triste plaisir (et douloureuse joye) which is the music of Gilles Binchois, a mediaeval Franco-Flemish composer. I find his music utterly beautiful. Music of that period, and similar composers like Guillaume de Machaut, John Dunstable – many of the early people making music before the kinds of rules were written which we now take to be the normal rules of music. So a lot of it sounds quite unusual.

Can you tell us about how you got started in the music industry and how your career as a musician has evolved?

I knew at the age of twelve what I wanted to do with my life, and that was to make a living making music. What music I made was of secondary importance, and that allowed huge flexibility. So I went to music college and whilst there I played in folk bands, punk bands, orchestras, choirs, folk groups, a whole range of different music. Which meant, of course, that when I left I had experienced all of those fields, so it's very easy for me to fit in with various groups. Our German Oompah band was another one; I played tuba and that was great fun. And that was the point of it: I didn't really mind what I did as long as I made a living out of that art, and I've successfully done that.

You've had a hugely diverse career, working with some huge names in the music industry. What are your most memorable projects?

The one that first springs to mind is playing at the Acropolis in Greece with my daughter and my brother. This would be perhaps about three years ago, when it seemed like all the countryside was on fire. So it was an interesting thing from two viewpoints: as my brother pointed out, we're playing at the place where civilisation started, in what looks like the end of civilisation. We're burning the planet.

Where do you draw inspiration from when composing new pieces?

Well, up until recently, it's been poetry and the area in which I live, and the hope that I can somehow transmit a certain spirit. But I've currently run out of that, so I'm looking for other ways to do it. It could be aleatoric, like throwing dice. It could be mixing letters up like William Burroughs did in some of his work. Or it could be asking you, listener, if you've got any better ideas...

Which artist – dead or alive – would you most like to work with and why?

There are people that I'd like to meet, but not particularly that I'd like to work with. One of them is the composer that certainly was at one point the greatest influence on me, Eric Satie, who I'd like to meet and have a drink with. He once said, "Everyone's always willing to bump into you and say, oh, come for a drink, I'll buy you a drink. No one ever says I'll buy you a sandwich." Well, I'll be the person that buys him a sandwich!

skies: rarities is out on IDAGIO now.