It is harder than violin too. It is actually harder on the back than on the front because of the shoulder, while the front has more space to work with, and there is some space in between the two in the centre. But to an average person the saxophone is equally hard and easy – if you want to play very fast I don’t think you need to play with two hands. Some people don’t get to that speed. I haven’t been able to play with two hands to the best of my ability for long periods and I am a very good player.
Do you play differently when you play solo versus with a group?
Yeah, I think that if you work with a group, and a group isn’t you, you just don’t get as much out of it. You don’t get as much out of something you’re not with. If you’re just a solo player and you’re not with a group, you’ll play to different things, and you’ll learn in different ways. That’s what we do. We start off with a big group sound, but then we make a little piece where we want to play a different chord, a new part, or a bit of a different melody. It’s a great way to learn. You don’t end up learning much when you do it solo. When you’re playing in a group you don’t want to hear the notes and you don’t want to have them bouncing around, you want to go straight into the groove.
Does group work come naturally to you when you’re soloing?
Not so much, it takes a lot of practice and it becomes natural. When I was with The Prodigy it was really more of a group gig, and just learning to work with your friends and play with a group helps you to progress. I was working at the time with this guy, who was one of the biggest rock n roll dudes I’d ever played with – Mike Portner – and we played this huge show in New York in the early 80s and it was amazing. And I came to the show with two other guys, one of whom was playing in this huge band called The Police – and we all played with the police for like the first time and that was just a great feeling – a great experience to be able to do stuff like that. And there was a whole room full of police – all of these big music legends – and we all put on our police uniforms for the show. It was one of the best things