One of the best things about being part of the NAMM Oral History interview team at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, is the surprise element. Interviews can suddenly become available with little notice or preparation time. You gotta be on your toes! At this years show in January, I was offered interview time with legendary animator and director of The Simpsons cartoon, David Silverman. David also happens to be a longtime Tuba player and visits the NAMM Show regularly, checking out the brass instruments and sometimes performing too.
David Silverman sat down with Australian Musician editor Greg Phillips for a fascinating chat about his career and the connection between music and animation.
The NAMM Oral History Program is an archive of recordings of interviews with people from all aspects of the music products industry and includes everyone from Les Paul, Carol Kay, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock to Robby Krieger, Robbie Robertson, Hal Blaine, to Judy Collins and thousands more. https://www.namm.org/library/oral-history
David Silverman is an animator, writer and musician. He is best known for directing many episodes of the animated television series The Simpsons, where he would go on to be the supervising director of animation for several years, as well as animating on all of the original Simpsons Tracey Ullman shorts. He left The Simpsons to direct sequences in The Road to El Dorado for DreamWorks Animation and then worked as co-director on Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. before returning to direct The Simpsons Movie. Music has also played a large part in David’s life, inspired at an early age by seeing Gilbert and Sullivan productions with his parents. Since 2009, David has played tuba for Andy Comeau’s LA-based band, ‘Vaud and the Villains’ and is a regular visitor to the NAMM Show, where he is trying to curb his addiction to buying new Tubas.
