快猫短视频

writes songs celebrating anything and everything about science, from evolution to the solar system. Eleanor Harris caught up with him at rehearsals for his Tremendous Journey concert this month.

What is Tremendous Journey about?

The concert will feature 15 songs about the science of life and evolution. It鈥檚 a shorter version of my 鈥渟cience oratorio鈥�, Lifetime. We open with a song called Mr Darwin, which tells the story of his historic voyage aboard the Beagle. Then there is Selfish Gene, a song referring to Richard Dawkins鈥檚 work, and Living Light, Queen Bee, Bacteria and Taxonomy.

Video: See David Haines perform Mr Darwin and Taxonomy

I鈥檝e never had a biology lesson, so I chose to cover life sciences in Lifetime. It鈥檚 a great way to learn new stuff. 快猫短视频 gives me ideas for songs a lot of the time and I鈥檝e gathered a big collection of popular science books. One danger is that because a few of the books are quite old, some of the facts I鈥檝e incorporated into my songs are out of date.

Does that mean you have had to update some of your songs?

My song Planets was called Nine Planets when I wrote it 20 years ago. Five years ago I briefly rewrote it as Ten Planets when it was thought that Sedna was the 10th planet. And then of course it was decided that the dwarf planets, including Pluto, wouldn鈥檛 count any more, so I had to make it Eight Planets. I was so amused by all this that I wrote a new section of the song about how Pluto was kicked out, and also a description of the Kuiper and asteroid belts.

Who do you write your songs for?

I don鈥檛 have a target audience in mind. I write songs about science the way other people write love songs. I get so emotionally moved by science, it鈥檚 like being in love, so I write them with passion. I don鈥檛 compromise just because I know that children are going to be performing a song. If anything I might put in tricky words, because kids love that.

I鈥檓 not under any illusion that I can really teach people about science through songs. My aim is to celebrate science. I want to get other people to realise what an incredible fund of knowledge and curiosity and fun it is. And I think it works. When people sing about it they become curious and ask what it all means.

鈥淲hen people sing songs about science they become curious and ask what it all means鈥�

You do hear people say 鈥淚鈥檓 just not interested in science.鈥� If you鈥檙e not interested in science what are you interested in? People should understand that things aren鈥檛 as black and white as they might think. If you can sneak up on them from behind by putting it in the form of a song, that鈥檚 a really good way of doing it.

Are science songs a difficult sell?

People think the songs are going to be high-tech plinky-plonk music with lots of synthesisers, but they鈥檙e actually very lyrical, like ballads or rock or pop songs. When other people write science songs they go for the pastiche approach and make it sound, I鈥檓 afraid to say, like Gilbert and Sullivan. I come from a classical music background and I love a good melody, so I write really catchy tunes. The music is more sophisticated than the other stuff churned out for children.

What鈥檚 next?

I鈥檝e just begun a songwriter residency at 鈥� the Royal Botanic Gardens in London. I spent two days at Kew and one at the Millennium Seed Bank with their top scientists and archivists. Now I have to write a song encapsulating their work. I鈥檓 enjoying the challenge.

I鈥檓 talking to the Transplant Trust about an oratorio about organ donation and transplantation. It鈥檚 an issue I feel strongly about: I feel it鈥檚 a public duty for everyone to register for organ donation. At some point I鈥檇 also like to write a song about what science is. People think that science deals in solid facts which are never going to change, and that鈥檚 the opposite of what science is. I want to try and put that into a popular form.

Video: See David Haines perform Mr Darwin and Taxonomy