Before the Champion of the Arts award gala, film composer Alan Silvestri talks creativity.

Trust me, you have heard film composer Alan Silvestri’s music.

His career began in low-budget flicks in the ‘70s before catching his first break doing the funky and synthy music for the tv series CHiPs.

His next break, back into film, came when he met Robert Zemeckis and did the music for the director’s Romancing the Stone. That was the start of a collaboration that’s included the Back to the Future trilogy, Forrest Gump (for which Silvestri was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe), Cast Away, Flight, every subsequent film that Zemeckis has done.

Non-Zemeckis films that Silvestri scored include Predator 1 and 2, Van Helsing, Lilo & Stitch, Polar Express (he picked up another Oscar and Golden Globe nomination there), The Avengers, The Croods. Another of his projects, Allied, with Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, is in theaters now.

By the way, he’s also a respected winemaker with his own eponymous label. Because, you know, excelling at just one industry is boring.

And he’s done almost all of it from the comfort of his Carmel home, where he raised a family and he and his wife have lived for 28 years.

This Saturday, in addition to a whole new slate of arts dignitaries, the Arts Council for Monterey County is recognizing Silvestri's body of creative work (and local residency) by awarding him a Champions of the Arts trophy for Lifetime Achievement.

Weekly: What precipitated your moving to the Central Coast?

Silvestri: A couple of things. After we were married, [my wife and I] would periodically make visits up to the Carmel/Monterey area. [It’s] one of the most beautiful places we had ever visited. After we had our first child, in L.A., and she started to grow up...the thought of our daughter growing up in this place [Central Coast], which we thought was one of the most beautiful places in the world, was compelling. And we said “Let’s do this. Before she was deeply connected in a school system and she had too many friends.” We went for it and we have never regretted it for a moment.

Do you work from here?

Yes. The nature of my job as a film composer is that for the most part, all of the work is done sitting at a desk. Or at a piano in a room by myself. Other than the times when we record, where I have to go somewhere with a symphony orchestra, all of the work is done quietly in a room. It’s allowed me to really work from home my entire career.

Has digital technology and the internet changed the way you work?

It absolutely has. Let me backtrack for a second. One of the things that developed through my span of years doing this job—and that’s been about 45 years now—is back in the beginning, if you wanted to play a piece of music, you needed real musicians: living, breathing people to play. There was no technology of any kind of useful accessibility to recreate the sensibility of live performance. Because of that, I would see a film, meet with a director, go off into my room for two months, three months, and arrive at a recording studio with an orchestra. And that would really be the first time a director would hear their score. That is very different now. There’s a world of technology now that allows for a very good simulation of the end product to be prepared for a director. Directors avail themselves of this tool. It really has changed the complexion of the entire industry now. Now when I walk into Abbey Road in London with a 90-piece orchestra, each piece of music is not a shock and something new for the director. They’ve heard it in some form already. Our time is spent on performance rather than conversations about “Is the music working? Should this be there and that there?” Drastic change.

Other than a recognizably synthesizer or electronic score, is the majority of film music, the final music, recorded by live musicians?

I really can’t say to the affirmative. It’s vastly more expensive to record with an orchestra. It’s a very direct correlation between the size of the budget of either a film, television or game project. Size of the budget and whether or not “real” musicians will be part of the end product. If you’re working on a big budget film—for instance, Star Wars: Rogue One is out there now, that’s an orchestra, but if you’re working on episodic television, for instance, they have [fewer] resources and the composer [may be] asked to create the entire score on their computer.

Does Monterey County, the Central Coast, Carmel, your surroundings, where you are—is that conducive to how you work?

Absolutely. For me, it has to do with being surrounded by beauty. There’s a kind of wildness in the Central Coast. I think all of these kinds of things absolutely have an effect on one’s work. I like to think of it in the wine world, they use this term called “terroir.” It’s an interesting term about the dirt the vines grow in, the climate, the wind direction, how much heat, how much cold. All of these kinds of things go into this very complicated equation that ends up with a glass of wine. I think for anyone who does anything creative—and I think basically everyone does something creative—I think the environment they live and work in has a very direct influence on what comes from them.

Everyone knows your work in film is on a worldwide scale. Are there ways you participate in the cultural life here in Monterey County?

Well, let’s see. As I’m going on in my career, I find I’m coming in contact with more and more young people who have aspirations to go off into the world of music—young people from where I live, sometimes neighbors. One of the things we loved about coming to the Central Coast is that I wasn’t living in the midst of my professional world. That was part of the allure for us. Getting to know young people from where I live who want to hear about what it’s like in the professional music world, it’s on a very personal level. I’m not holding classes, but I’ve come in contact over the years—through my children at schools and all of their peers and friends—I’ve had a very lovely, direct contact with many young people who want to go off into the world of music.

I understand that early on you aspired to be a jazz musician. Do you attend the Monterey Jazz Festival?

I have not attended it very much. I was asked by an alma mater of Berklee College of Music a few years back to join Mr. Eastwood in being part of the conveyance ceremony of an honorary doctorate to Diana Krall a few years back. I have not, for the most part, been in great attendance. We kind of live a very quiet, soft life. It’s part of what we loved about being in this part of the world—that it allows for that.

You’ve won or been nominated for many awards, many of them very prestigious that people will recognize. How does the Champions of the Arts award fit into that company?

I think the way it fits in and is unique is that this is something coming from where we live. I think, over the years, through our participation in the wine world here on the Central Coast, and through my wife’s charitable work as one of the founders of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Monterey branch, we’ve been more and more connected to our community. And it’s one of the things I love about being honored in this way. It’s coming from where we live, it’s part of our real living environment and that’s very exciting and gratifying.

Do you have any idea what you might say as you’re accepting that award in front of that audience?

It’s interesting because there is an aspect of this that’s connected to that saying “preaching to the choir.” People who have followed a path into the arts are all going through the same things I have. I’m looking at so much of this evening as being with people who have walked the path I’ve walked. I have a feeling there will be great camaraderie there. One of the things I’ve found in my 45 years is that anyone who does anything like this, whether it’s dance or literature or music or whatever, I think I’ve found that we need to embolden each other and help each other have courage. And I think one of the interesting aspects is that these are all very competitive disciplines. One needs to have courage to face that level of competitiveness. I think the most courage we all need is the courage to face ourselves. Because when we see someone who does what we aspire to do, so well, and we see someone so accomplished, I know for me, I get weak in the knees. And I start to self-doubt. And I start to feel “Maybe this wasn't a good idea to try to find a life in music.” I think it’s important to continue to find ways to find the courage to get up the next day and practice and study and do all the things we need to endure. And being in a room full of people who face this on a daily basis will be very helpful to me personally. I hope to bring some of that sensibility to however I thank this magnificent audience on Saturday night.

With the body of work you’ve created, you still have self-doubt?

I absolutely do [laughs]. It never goes away. When everyone sits down to begin, the proverbial stack of blank paper sits there and it is daunting. As daunting as it was in the very beginning. Of course I do have the benefit of knowing I have survived on a number of occasions. But it somehow doesn’t change the fact that it is a very challenging time to find a way to begin.

I’ve heard that with the creative process the hardest part is the beginning. Is that true for you?

It absolutely is. There’s a tendency—and I know this from my experience flying airplane—when crisis arrives, one of the first impulses is to freeze. It's’ the idea of the deer in the headlights. And it is the great danger in the cockpit of an airplane to freeze in a moment of crisis rather than begin to make the ordered, necessary decisions to avoid the crash. That applies to writing music for film for me. I have to begin. You have to start. The moment you do anything, all of a sudden this panic impulse seems to subside. There’s always that moment of hesitation in which you find yourself breathless and it’s never changed in 45 years.

When you go to see a movie for entertainment, what’s the experience like for you? Is it different with someone working so intimately in film?

I really can say it isn’t different. I think the magic and the power of film is that if it’s created well, if it’s compelling and everyone has done their job well, it’s a kind of transporting experience. It’s more than the sum of its parts. And you are kind of taken into the story and captivated literally. When I watch a great film, I’m not looking at acting, I’m not listening to score, I’m not making note of camera angles. I’m following the story. It’s very much the same for me as, hopefully, anyone in the audience who’s watching a good film. If it’s not done well, we’re all distracted and we start seeing the stitching in the fabric. And the storytelling process breaks down and we’re just watching various people who’ve worked on parts of this project.

My understanding is that there are writers who narrate [moments in] their lives, like a running dialogue in their heads. Do you have that for music? Do you have moments in which you’re hearing a score?

No I really don’t. The analogy I use about how my work process is that it’s very conversational. For me, it really doesn’t begin without a film. When I see a piece of film, it literally says something to me. Then I respond and I say something back. It so happens I do that in music. So it goes as I work through the film. The film, of course, always goes first. I don’t tend to converse without being engaged with that particular film. I’m not usually walking around hearing or creating music in that way.

Do you go to the movie theater to see films you’ve worked on?

For the most part, I don’t. Normally you’ve been so intimate with this material for so long that you kind of know what’s happening. However, very often there is a premier or cast and crew screening and my wife and I will always attend these things because it’s fun to meet with the cast and crew who’ve been on this [journey] you’ve been on. So I’ve pretty much seen every film I’ve done in the theater, but it’s more of a celebration and a graduation than a cinematic experience.

I understand there are musicians who have “a vault” of music that has not yet found a project. Do you have that?

I do not because for the most part I don’t write music without a film. I’ve heard the idea. I could not verify that of other composers, although I’ve heard this idea. The trunk idea. For me, I don’t sit and write music that’s not part of the film experience.

Do you travel to L.A. a lot?

Not a lot, actually.

When you do, how do you travel?

For many years I flew myself. But I’ve been out of the flying world about 8 years. Now I drive and I enjoy the drive. Many times I’ll drive down for a lunch meeting and drive home.

If you were to pick one of your wines that would be appropriate thematically or to pair with the food at the Champions of the Arts gala, which one would you suggest?

When we start talking about those kinds of choices, it’s kind of like talking about one’s children. Which one do you like the best? Nobody goes there. You love them all for who they are. We do have a number of varietals that have traditionally been paired with all kinds of things. I’m not sure if we will be serving our wines but if we are, I’m sure chef will find lovely pairings with the varietals we make.

Have you seen the rough cut of Avengers: Infinity War?

They haven’t even started shooting yet.

Ah. [The Avengers storyline] has been an amazingly successful series of interconnected movies. What’s it been like to work on those [movies]?

Interesting question. Marvel, through their comic book life, has spanned a lifetime, generations of people. Then you have the commitment of this company to the kind of films they make and the quality they bring to the making of those films. Because Marvel was founded in the comic book genre, built in is a level of adventure and fantasy. I’ve worked on two of their films now and they make fantastic films. They have tremendous humor. They have a tremendous amount of visual art they bring to their projects, and commitment to making these films. I think their audience appreciates that. The audience is fans of the comics and they appreciate when the filmmaking side of the enterprise tries to do things that honor and respect the audience. It’s part of what they’ve come to call the “Marvel Universe.” I don’t know much about the upcoming film, but I’ve met with the directors who are fantastic. Joe and Anthony Russo. I’ve seen some of the concept art from the film, which is breathtakingly beautiful. So I can say that they are most seriously committed to making a beautiful, powerful film.