Access Music has published an interview with Hans Zimmer, in conjunction with the release of Dark Knight.

There’s a lot of synth discussion throughout the interview, but a couple things caught my eye:

Do you remember your first exposure to electronic music

Yes, at school someone had brought in Switched on Bach and I thought it was cool. I come from a technical family, my father was an inventor, and although I was only 12 at the time, or something, I thought this was definitely a step forward in the development of instruments.

Do you remember the first synthesizer you ever owned?

Yes! An EMS VCS3.

Awesome. The Putney!

The Putney! Without an instruction manual or keyboard, so I really learned the hard way. I think it took me a year to get the first noise out of it, and of course it was the sound of someone squeezing a gerbil a little bit passionately.

via trashaudio