The thing I find about writing blog posts is that it’s actually quite easy when one has no actual proper deadline type work on but it’s basically impossible when one has a gig or two on the go because one can’t really speak candidly about the behind-the-scenes stuff. It has to be hush-hush for various reasons of confidentiality, but also good sense - don’t shout about it till the fat lady sings and all that. You don’t want to jinx it.
So, you’ve been asked to write some music that’s ‘catchy’, ‘sing-able’ and ‘hummable’? Or you’re after it from your composer? This isn’t rare. A huge proportion of my career has involved writing music that is deliberately memorable. But what does a tune being ‘catchy’ actually mean? Aren’t all good tunes memorable? Or is it their ‘memorable-ness’ that makes them 'good'?
You know when you’ve had one of those days? You know when you’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed? Turn to your PickMeUp Playlist (and play it LOUD).
Sometime last year (or maybe it was the year before… the last few years sort of blend into one blur of time), I was emailed by a local radio station to see if I would comment on air about ‘Skip Intro’ options on streaming services. Good on them for trying (again and again). Every few …
Continue reading "Why Would You Want to Skip Intro? Title Sequences are Awesome!"
Happy New Year! For me, and maybe for you, the start of the year feels like a re-synchronisation between my internal clock and the external world of work and life in general. A re-calibration of energies: we all get to start somewhere on the same page. It's an opportunity for an amnesty for past misalignments. …
Continue reading "Rethinking Christmas, and Re-Synchronising with Everyday Life"
The lovely project I worked on during the summer is being broadcast on UK telly tonight. It’s streaming on Now TV. Red Riding Hood: After Ever After is live, so it’s ok for me with the powers that be to talk about it now.
Just a quick one today (and, as promised, way more optimistic!). This morning, a bunch of lovely friends, a magnificent dog, and I went on a brisk, refreshing and death-defying (tres icy 🥶) walk around one of the local reservoirs. Sheffield was rather dashingly handsome today.
The genie’s out the bottle with AI. We’re moving to post-broadcast, streaming-only media consumption. Whether you look at the dwindling royalty system for creators, rights grabs by commissioners, the many dubious ethics of creating datasets, or any other de-valuing of a human's creative output in the 21st century, one thing is true: I’ll say it again, it is all unsustainable.
You know how it feels to send off the final draft, don’t you? I always forget. Leading up to it, I always think of how celebratory and different I’ll feel. How much lighter, but also how accomplished and even… reliable? I feel reliable in a really solid, content way. As if I set out to …
Continue reading "Final Draft – Blogmas #8"
The well is the store of creativity, the depths of which I like to plumb on a fairly regular schedule.
