New Townshend Project

Who guitarist finds your musical identity

26 April 07 - Pete Townshend has launched his latest musical project; it's a website that will create a unique piece of music for each user.

Called the Lifehouse Method, it’s a project he's been working on since the 70s, when he worked on his shelved film treatment Lifehouse.

Both that, and this website, are based on Townshend's idea that we all have our own unique musical identity.

In the movie every person had their own music, and if they played them together, en masse, the melodies would combine to resemble the sound of the sea.

For the interactive version, you submit some personal information into the website, including a photograph and a rhythm you tap in, as well as the answers to various questions, and a piece of music is generated for you.

"Whether you like it is absolutely immaterial to us"
Pete Townshend

But is the music it makes good? Townshend told us that musically, it does produce sounds that he tends to like:

"Whether you like it is absolutely immaterial to us: the composer is king.

“But what we are trying to do is we're trying to approach the truth, from the data that we get, and we're trying to produce something that is an authentic compositional reflection of the data that we get put it."

It may sound a bit loopy - but Townshend says it’s not the first time he's come up with ground breaking ideas - like the time he predicted the internet at a press conference in the 70s:

"When I went up and spoke most of the assembles press there thought I was mad, and I was describing only really what we have today, and it was 30 years ago I suppose, so I suppose in a way it was a bit mad."

Lucy O'Doherty