How to be a Composer in an AI World
I did a lecture back at my old Uni last year on "How to be a composer in an AI world" and thought I'd write up some of my notes as a post. Anyway, here were my 10 quick suggestions for what young composers/artists of any kind could focus on, to flourish in this brave...
How to be a Music Editor
As someone old enough to have been a music editor on Lord of the Rings, Love Actually and Children of Men, when I had some very interesting questions recently from someone just making their start in music editing, I thought I'd collect my advice on music editing in...
How to be a Composer’s Assistant
I was assistant to a really great composer, the late Michael Kamen, for 5 years or so. It was the most amazing, frustrating, bewildering, life-enhancing experience I could have hoped for. I feel like I’m still absorbing some of the things I learned from him, and from...
How to Get an Education
There are lots of people who are very happy to take your time and money for training in the music industry. These range from serious universities and colleges to one man band trainers working out of bedroom studios. I think it's a positive sign of the enormous amount...
Little Music Notebooks
Gotta love Moleskine. They do two sizes of music manuscript notebooks; a really small one that genuinely fits into a pocket, and a bigger one that alternates manuscript and blank pages. They are so cool. Nearly as covetable as the Sigur Ros hand-painted Moleskine...
Letters to a Young Composer
With apologies to Rilke, I'm collecting together a series of replies to some of the questions I've been asked, about the how, when and why of composing. Zen and the art of Pencil Sharpening, perhaps? Or the Composer's Way? In any case, I'll keep this page updated as...
How to Conduct an Orchestra
Have you tried conducting? If you ever get the chance, you should. It’s the ultimate game of ‘rub your tummy & pat your head’, and, apparently, takes as much coordination as flying a helicopter, except pilots don’t have to withstand storm-force heckling from the...
Free Manuscript Paper Templates
I've had a few enquiries about the customised manuscript paper I print for myself, that I use for different kinds of composition work. My own version has my name at the bottom in case I forget who I am during a late night, but I've left the PDF versions below blank,...
Working from Home
I resisted working from home for a long time. Our family seemed to benefit from some separation of roles, and I always felt I could be more present at home when I couldn’t just go and fiddle with something work-related at the weekend. But circumstances change, and it...
Keeping a Piano Diary
I’m fascinated by the daily rituals of other artists. The painters who get up at first light, whatever the season, the musicians who practice in hotel bathrooms to avoid complaints, and the writers who turn their daily craft into an act of disciplined service. More...
Soundtracking with Edith Bowman
I’ve always been a massive fan of Edith Bowman’s Soundtracking podcast. She’s interviewed so many great film-makers and composers and always draws out something of substance from people who have been interviewed many times before, so it was a real privilege to have a...
Why Your Cue Doesn’t ‘Work’
In April 2019 I was in Moscow with the British Council, talking to some wonderful composers on a course based at the Moscow Film School. The students had an intensity of purpose and an ear for bullshit that immediately made me wish I’d thought more deeply about our...
Why You Shouldn’t Buy Any New Gear
… and neither should I. “Time & money – these seem to be the two things of which we never have enough, but for contemporary composers our relationship between the two is becoming ever more warped.” We’ve seen the composing profession, particularly in the media...
Dr Who’s Yamaha CS80
The Yamaha CS80 that currently lives in my studio (the synth you’ll know from Blade Runner and Chariots of Fire) used to belong to Peter Howell of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and was used by him throughout the late 70s and 80s. One of the ways I managed to track the...
A Sense of Space
Pre-glasses, and several years younger, this is me writing and recording the score to Another Me in 2013. The film, a psychological doppelgänger thriller with Sophie Turner in the lead role, had needed a quick score turned around, and so it was all hands on deck down...
