January 2012 - a whole new year

January 2012! Unbelievable ... 

A very 'Happy New Year' to everybody, and I hope the holidays were awesome, perfect and perfectly awesome. 
Here we are in 2012, and so far everything seems to be moving in the right direction. 

In terms of music, 2011 was probably my busiest year so far. 
As well as a couple of short films, I completed two new feature film scores in the first half of the year: 
Alex Chandon's supercharged horror opus 'INBRED' - and a traditional thriller called 'UNWELCOME' written and directed by Stefan Smith. 

In the second half of 2011 - it was a pleasure to play some fantastic festivals in Belgium, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden, and also two European tours playing guitar for former Iron Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley. 
In 2012, I'm extremely pleased to be playing guitar for Tim Ripper Owens! 
Undoubtedly one of the best and busiest vocalists in the United States - and frontman of such incredible bands as Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force. 

I'm working on the set for Tim at the moment, and I have also put pen to paper on a new album of original material, which should be finished and ready to go in the coming months. 
Also currently getting some parts together for another full FILM4 FrightFest score in August. 
Everything is looking good! 

December 2011 - Tour dates.

I always forget to write blogs on time!

Tour dates for December 2011

08/12/11 Nuneaton: Queens Hall

09/12/11 London: Camden Underworld

10/12/11 Birmingham: Route 44

11/12/11 Edinburgh: Bannermans

12/12/11 Glasgow: Ivory Blacks

14/12/11 Stamford: Voodoo Lounge

15/12/11 Bristol: The Tunnels

16/12/11 Swansea: Sin City

18/12/11 Antwerp, Belgium: Trix (with Sabaton)

Main support on most shows is Disarm Goliath.
Support for shows in Scotland is Dirty Rose & Deezil

November 2011

INBRED continues to do very well at screenings and various festivals across the globe at the moment which is great news.
There have been some incredible reviews and reports about the film over the last five months, which seems to be knocking them dead every time.
I've been putting together a detailed blog about the scoring process on INBRED, which is available here soon.

The website is looking spick and span after a major redesign and overhaul by my lovely and talented friend, Nola.
She's been working very hard to get everything looking amazing, and I think she's done a wonderful job. Thanks a million Nola, you're the best!

I'm currently getting ready for a short UK / Belgium tour in December with former Iron Maiden frontman, Blaze Bayley - and meanwhile I'm plotting out a new album which is scheduled for completion early next year.
It's hopefully going to be very different, but more on that as it evolves over the coming weeks.

I'll be working on video and audio demos for the album very soon, which should be available here.

UNWELCOME (2011) Part 2

It's been a long journey, but Stefan Smith's debut feature film 'UNWELCOME' is finally complete.

This is is not an easy film to categorize, but I've already spoken about the story synopsis in Part 1 of this blog (April 2011)

The story has elements of other sub-genres; home-invasion, isolation, kidnapping, psychological terror etc - all of which sounds like an assault on the senses, but in actual fact, the film shows restraint for the most part.

It is musically quite dark & claustrophobic, and rather minimalist, although it opens right up in key scenes which crank up the tension and terror accordingly.

I first met Stefan in 2008 on the set of A Day Of Violence, in his role as assistant director.

Later, in June 2009 - at the premiere screening of ADOV, we got around to a conversation about a film he was putting together at the time, which turned out to be UNWELCOME.

I think we started chatting about some of our favorite movie scores over a few beers, and it went on from there.

In those first conversations about the music for his film, I think we spoke about the overall soundtrack as being 'bigger' which we later discovered would not work with such a dark, smoldering story.

After the film had been shot, things went very quiet for quite a long time.

The film had been in post production for an extended period, and I was scheduled to start work on Alex Chandon's next feature film, INBRED.

At that stage, I had to pull out of the production as composer for UNWELCOME, because the two films were set to clash, and I'd been committed to work on Alex's film for almost a year.

Stefan advertised for a new composer for a while, but somehow I found myself back on the production again, and I'm glad I did. It's very strange how things happen.

I think that Stefan & I both learned a lot from the scoring stages on this movie.

It's always an interesting learning curve working together with a director for the first time. Everybody has good ideas about the way things should be done, and it can sometimes take a while until you click into each other's mindset, and develop a more instinctive communication.

Most film directors wear many hats. They can be involved with every aspect of the production from beginning to end, so I totally understand that ideas are firmly nailed down before many of the post production team ever touch the final edit.

It is also natural that any producer / director has very specific ideas about exactly how the score will eventually sound - especially if they have used a temporary music track, which is something that many film-makers often do. It's also something that many composers often hate!

A temporary score can be a good thing, because it gives you pointers, - but it can also be frustrating - especially if the editing stages have taken a long time.

The temp track can almost become like a fixed part of the movie, and often a composer is almost expected to emulate those established pieces of music (which are often from another very well known feature film) because they have watched the cut of the film a million times as it develops, and become quite accustomed to the dynamics of the edit with that score.

There were a couple of occasions of this during post production, but after some discussions and meetings we established that the film had it's own very specific identity.

We opted for lonely piano segments for many of the themes - and a more organic sound design for the body of the film - with lots of rumbling sub tones and sounds that you can feel in your stomach, even if there are no melodic passages evident at the time.

Stefan brought the (almost) finished movie over recently, and we watched it on a nice big screen.

By this point, the edit was very sharp, the music was nicely mixed, the ADR had been done and the sound design was mostly completed.

After a few editorial notes, and a couple of the usual last minute musical changes / fixes to the odd scene here and there, the film went back into the studio for the final mix and master, and is now complete.

Congratulations Stefan on a job well done. I'm looking forward to working with you again, and very much looking forward to seeing the movie somewhere out there soon!

Touring with Blaze Bayley

During the last few months, I've been playing some European shows with ex-Iron Maiden vocalist & Wolfsbane frontman, Blaze Bayley.

Blaze was tearing up stages across the globe with Wolfsbane from 1984 - 1993.

He then took over from Bruce Dickinson as vocalist in Iron Maiden in 1994, and recorded The X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI (1998) - and from 1999 until present, he has been recording and touring as himself (Blaze, Blaze Bayley etc)

I've previously played as deputy musician for Blaze in 2009 on The Man Who Would Not Die tour through Italy, France, Switzerland and Belgium, and then a couple of UK shows (Birmingham NEC, Glasgow Garage) in 2010.

Sometimes, whenever a full-time band member was unavailable, I would be called upon to stand in and play shows, or blocks of dates accordingly on either guitar or bass.

On a few other shows, I was general roadie and did some tech duties.

This time around, I'm back on guitar, and so far this year, we have played some fantastic festivals and venues in Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, London and Belgium, and there are two further tours in September (Europe) and December (mainly UK).

The show in De Rots, Belgium (23rd September) is being recorded for a live DVD release, which will be available early 2012.

The European dates for September 2011 are:

15 Sep De Verlichte Geest (Roeselare, Belgium)

16 Sep Blue Devils Bar (Arras, France)

17 Sep Chez Paulette (Pagney Derriere Barine, France)

18 Sep Yukon Bar (Collombey, Switzerland)

20 Sep Graffiti Club (Lublin, Poland)

21 Sep Madness Klub (Wroclaw, Poland)

22 Sep Londoner (Gotha, Germany)

23 Sep Rots (Antwerp, Belgium)

24 Sep Fortrock (Hoboken, Belgium)

The December 2011 dates are:

08 Dec Queens Hall (Nuneaton, England)

09 Dec Underworld (Camden, England)

10 Dec Route 44 (Birmingham, England)

11 Dec Bannermans (Edinburgh, Scotland)

12 Dec Ivory Blacks (Glasgow, Scotland)

14 Dec Voodoo Lounge (Stamford, England)

15 Dec Tunnels (Bristol, England)

16 Dec Sin City (Swansea, Wales)

17 Dec BIG BASH (Somewhere in England)

18 Dec TRIX (Antwerp, Belgium)

It's a blast to be playing with fellow musicians Claudio Tirincanti on drums, Nick Meganck on bass, Steve Deleu on guitar, and of course Blaze Bayley on vocals.

Hope to see you somewhere out there!!

Update on Matt Bloom's short film 'Endless'

Some quick news!

Really pleased to report that 'Endless' won the BEST HORROR award at the London Independent Film Festival 2011, from a jury headed by Robert Carlisle.

And so far it is official selection in the following international festivals:

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: London Independent Film Festival*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Cyprus Int Film Festival, Greece*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Bradford Int Film Festival, Fantastic Films*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Renderyard Film Festival, Spain*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Dead By Dawn Festival, Scotland*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Itzon Film Festival, Devon*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Loch Ness Film Festival, Scotland*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Limelight Film & Arts Awards, London*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Exploding Cinema, London*

More as it happens!

Unwelcome (2011) Part 1

Over the past months, I've been working on the soundtrack for a feature film called Unwelcome, which is the directorial debut of Stefan Smith, and the first of two feature films scheduled so far for 2011.

Four friends travel to rural France to fix-up a farmhouse together, enjoy each other's company and generally soak up the beautiful weather out in the countryside.

On the ferry crossing, they encounter a rather intense fellow called Chris (Martin Hobbs) and his anxious girlfriend, Gill (Eleanor James), who later arrive unexpectedly at the farmhouse, and join the party.

Everything is just fine, until a drunken conversation goes awry, and the atmosphere becomes decidedly uneasy as the true nature of the uninvited visitors is revealed, and a unfortunate convergence of circumstance leads to kidnap and murder.

Although it does contain horrific themes and scenes, Unwelcome is more of a traditional thriller than a typical horror film.

Much of the musical emphasis here is concentrated on smoldering claustrophobia and quiet rage than on aggressive shocks and protracted terror, and we associate several leitmotifs with central characters Kate (played by Marysia Kay), Chris and Gill.

From the outset, as with any other film - the music can go in any direction, but after various discussions with Stefan, we decided on fairly melancholy piano signatures and minimalism for the majority of the movie - rather than trying to cram as much musical content as possible into ninety five minutes.

I can't really give away specific plot twists and turns just yet, but of course things heat up as the story progresses, and inevitably unpleasant things start to develop.

As this happens, we abandon our leitmotifs for some of the players, and as the story advances further into terror, the music takes on a much darker character.

Sweeter piano melodies are left behind and more dissonant sounds are introduced, and the music becomes more layered and complex during the last quarter of the film when some of our established themes combine.

Starring Marysia Kay, Martin Hobbs & Eleanor James, co-starring Emily Eaves, Ryan Elliot, and directed by Stefan Smith - Unwelcome is screening for two days during May in the Cannes Film Festival 2011.