RICK WRIGHT « Pink Floyd - Auf der Suche nach neuen sound », Pop, May 1972

Rick Wright: « Our difficulty is that we are actually completely in the dark. We are in a constant search for the next step to take. When a group plays the blues, there's nothing else they can do but develop their technique and follow the guidelines they already know. For us, there are no footsteps to follow. The piece Echoes on the « Meddle » album was created in this way. We spent the months of January and February writing down all kinds of things. In the end we had about 30 separate fragments. <Echoes> was built from that. We were very happy with it; I think it's the best work we've ever done. Saucerful of Secrets was also created according to this scheme.

The music for the Barbet Schrôeder film « More » brought us a lot of recognition everywhere, but did not satisfy us at all. It got even worse for us when the soundtrack for Antonioni's film " Zabriskie Point ", for which we were commissioned by the master himself, was finally completely cut up by the film people without our consent and only fragments of our compositions remained alongside many pieces by other groups. We then swore not to write any more film music unless we were assured of precise control over the use of the material. We got this assurance, and our latest LP, the music for the film « Obscured By Clouds », which like <More> was made by Barbet Schrôeder, is once again a film score. The film was shot last fall, the largest part of it in Paris. The film contains scenes of Pink Floyd performances in the amphitheater of Pompeii and in sulphur mines and will probably be released in cinemas this year. The matter of the ballet music is still on ice at the moment. There were rumours two years ago that we would write a ballet for Roland Petit in which Nureyev would play the main part. But we didn't have enough time, as we were fully booked with tours all year.

We are prisoners of the business. It's not worth spending the 6 weeks of vacation we have a year at home, where we're constantly being pestered with interviews. Also a lot of musician friends come over, you go to visit the other group members and at the end of the 6 weeks you are so dog tired because you couldn't forget for a single moment the fact of being a member of Pink Floyd. I don't think many people outside the music business can empathise with how trapped and burdened you feel when you have to carry this musician's burden around with you.

You carry this burden 24 hours a day. It's impossible to come home from a gig, switch off and be a different person, as someone who comes home from work usually does. You constantly have your head full of droning and whistling melodies, you wake up in the middle of the night and think, that phrasing wasn't right.

Exactly the opposite of what most people think is true. The burden gets bigger the bigger you get. The more you do, the more you have to think about what you're going to do next

« The whole thing can take on scary dimensions because too many people take rock music too seriously. But we're not dissatisfied; we couldn't possibly throw in the towel and go into the movie business, for example. But it would be fun to make our own movie. It would be something completely different from always writing the music for other people's films »