Why are you doing this?
It feels like a natural development of the experimental music I've been making over the past few years with Blacksand - improvisation under pressure
I guess.  I'm very intrigued by the concept of improvising with unknowing people - the cyclists crossing over the Manhattan Bridge - over such a long period of time and how relentlessly they will impact on the music.

Will you actually be playing the theremin for 24 hours?
I will be making continuous music throughout the 24 hours.  However I'll not be physically playing the theremin all the time, probably not even most of the time. I'm going to play for a while, then feed the music I'm making into looping pedals which I'll add to and effect in a variety of ways.  I imagine there will be long spells where I'm just listening to a textural loop swirling round over and over, or focussing on how the rhythms of the passing cyclists are developing.  Or wondering what to do next through a haze of tiredness.

How good are you at the theremin?
I'm alright.  I'm no virtuoso but I can play what I want and keep it in tune, which is the hard bit - it's a very difficult instrument to play, requiring high levels of concentration.  I am good at playing effect pedals so that should keep the quality levels up if my theremin skills dip.  I'm also going to have a guitar with me to play into the effect pedals as a backup, just in case either the theremin breaks or I really really need a change - when I performed under London Bridge I found it almost impossible to keep my hand steady for the last two or three hours, which made decent theremin playing close to impossible. 

Are you going to take breaks?
I'm going to try not to, calls of nature excepted.  When that happens I'll leave a friend to keep an eye on whatever's looping at the time.  It's important to me that the piece runs continuously for 24 hours even if I'm not there for a few minutes.

Why?
The piece obviously has to run for many hours to get any sense of how the change in volume of cycle traffic affects the musical flow, and to get the full range of this you need to see what happens at 3am as much as at the rush hour.  I could have selected a tidy 12 hour section to cover some highs and lows but that felt a bit contrived - I very much like the idea of eavesdropping on one complete cycle, and slipping off exactly where I started.  The working day will have gone through its full cycle.  So midnight to midnight made sense.

What are you going to do to keep your energy levels up?
I am genuinely fascinated to see what happens to the music over such a long period - I don't think I'll be leading it, it'll be leading me, so that should help keep it all fresh.  I'm also anticipating some interesting interaction with passers-by in The Archway throughout the day, and there are really good coffee shops around the area, so that will help.

How can people experience Hymn to the Manhattan Bridge?
I'lll be streaming the audio live on this site, and from time to time uploading photos of what's going on around me as it happens.  I'll also be tweeting live during the performance so people will be able to communicate with me throughout the 24 hours.  I particularly hope people will come down to the Archway to see and listen to the performance as it develops.