Film and music are not just my business. They are my life.
Not a day goes by without songs by the likes of Beyoncé, Panic at the Disco, Depeche Mode, Harry Styles, and The Carpenters streaming through my headphones.
Not a night goes by without watching another film or TV series, from The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Prestige and Parasite, to The Mandalorian, The Split and Taskmaster.
All the composing and conducting I do aside, this means that I spend a lot of time breathing my practice as well as living it.
I apply the same principle of immersion to any new project I start. For example, to research for my soundtrack to “Address the Court” (2022), I had the opportunity to
visit the set on an exclusive tour of the formidable Bristol Old Crown Courts. Pacing those dilapidated prisons couldn’t help but inspire brooding, despair and menace,
the same feelings the director wanted to portray, and the same feelings I channelled into my soundtrack.
I enjoy composing film music, because I love storytelling and I believe music is an integral part of making storytelling personal. Film presents a narrative, but
music can present the emotion. Film explores the meaning of stories, but music helps us interpret why these stories and meanings matter to us. As an audience, it leads
us to become immersed, partisan and emotional. Film music leaves a moving legacy, it coaches and subverts our expectations.
For this reason, I’m always interested in discovering new and different sound worlds, including diverse international music styles, to create new colours and new feeling.
New projects are always challenging me to apply my Grade 8 performance skills on piano, violin, voice and percussion to create something fresh, meaningful and bespoke.
By pushing the limits of my creativity, I can also push the limits of my audience emotionally.
This is a tantalising and unpredictable process, measured and rewarded in reactions. However, it does have one tenet: I cannot expect of my audience any more than I have expected of myself.
Therefore, when I immerse myself in a new project with humility and an open-mind, I know I have found the right way to start.