Mark Constantine OBE, LUSH co-founder and managing director:
Do you have any
other forms of synaesthesia besides scent-colour/shape?
MC: I don’t think so but I’m not completely sure. I find that when
I look at a set of numbers, I know when they are wrong. I can sense it. Or when
I look at percentages, I intuitively know if they are not right.
When did you
realize you perceived scents this way? Did you keep it a secret or tell people?
MC: In a meeting at work with about 50 people. I thought the
reason I looked at things this way was normal until everyone explained to me it
was not actually normal.
It was then reinforced in an interview with Vogue magazine
who brought a number of items for me to smell (such as coffee, lemon, different
fragrances) and then asked me to draw what I was smelling.
What do you
think the meaning/value of synaesthesia is?
MC: It’s a different way of appreciating the world. It’s not
wrong, I think it heightens your awareness.
I find it exceptionally useful in my work, particularly with fragrance
– everything has a right or wrong shape and I know intuitively straight away.
I’m not thinking in numbers so much as shape.
I think it helps but I don’t like to think about it too much as it
makes me feel a little self-conscious.
Simon Emmerson,
LUSH’S musical director:
What are some
of your musical associations? For example, what colour/shape is F#?
SE: I am not totally convinced by the popularized reductive
approach to understanding synaesthesia that explains it away by
simply tagging one concept/sensation with another random dissociated experience
or concept.
f# = dark blue, Number 7 = the smell of fish
This is the popular conception of synaesthesia and I do appreciate most
synaesthetes have this. But this form of synaesthesia can easily get confused
with what may be just deep random/creative memory connections.
Yes, I would say E major is a very black key but that may be because it
is the guitarist’s favourite key and is used in heavy rock. D minor (especially
in its modal form without a 3rd) is very 'Blue' but then it's the preferred key
of cool modal jazz and Blue Note records. F+ is for me an earthy rustic red,
the colour of the soil in Senegal but that may be because I co-wrote a song
with a Senegalese Kora player that was in F#.
What are some
of your favourite synaesthetic moments?
SE: My favourite Beatle as a child was always George Harrison who
for me was represented by the number 3 (the 3rd Beatle?) and the colour green
and the smell of oranges. I was obsessed with shades of green and the number 3
and the number 9. Whenever I saw a picture of George Harrison I smelt oranges.
It became a family joke.
The rhythms I REALLY love have always been 3/4, 6/8 and 9/8.
When producing Baba Maahl in Senegal in the early 90's I found a deep
connection between the triplet rhythms of his music and traditional Celtic
music and went on to form the Afro Celt Sound System to explore these
connections. But to be honest this was as much to do with my inherent love of
the way triplets move against a 4 or an 8 count.
When I hear hardcore 4/4 music like house/disco music, I can't stand
it. It's the only form of music I can't listen to and will leave a club if they
are playing relentless House music with the same 4/4 bass drum pounding
throughout the night. It literally 'closes me down'. 3's and 9's are very
maternal, open, excepting numbers and rhythms, whereas 4 is a very male,
authoritarian, judgmental rhythm.
I think there is a much more complex understanding of synaesthesia that
works on the level of deep archetypes and unconscious creativity.
When I mix music I know we have hit a sonic sweet spot when I sense the
convergence of shapes forming a harmonious whole. The bass frequencies are
circular and oval moving up the sonic spectrum to the pyramid/triangular shapes
of higher frequencies. Each shape has a non-specific colour but when the mix is
working the shapes and colours fall into a very pleasing spectrum that is like
a meta language of the music. A 'bad' mix is a mess of shapes with jagged edges
and 'noisy' confused colours, it can make me very uncomfortable and even angry
at times!
A good mix is the physical sensation of shapes and colours falling into
place in a way that is impossible to describe other than as a harmonious whole.
The ‘Synaesthesia’ LUSH spa treatment was a joy because I could
literally bathe in the colors and shapes I use when creating music.
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