watts

A talented composer and sound designer with a wealth of skills, knowledge and experience in scoring to picture

I offer an innovative and creative approach which is informed by years of studying, listening, and performing music, and over twenty years professional experience working on film and television soundtracks.  Many of these projects have won awards at the main international film festivals and awards ceremonies.  My work has also received several craft award wins and nominations.

Collaborating with many talented drama and documentary filmmakers, I have often had the opportunity to explore unconventional and exciting fresh ideas.  I prefer an organic working process and like to commit myself to the full duration of projects, where ideas can develop and mature over time.  I have also worked with many talented musicians over the years, including larger scale orchestral ensembles. 

My style embodies my musical background.  Trained classically from an early age, as a violinist I performed in various instrumental groups and soon developed an obsession with orchestral music, listening to works by classical composers such as Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Debussy, and Stravinsky.  In my late teens, I developed a love for more electronic-style music by artists such as Aphex Twin, The Orb, Orbital, Biosphere and The Future Sound of London.  These two contrasting instrumentations are often fused in the music I write.

Majoring in composition at degree level, I developed my sonic palette further through the study of more abstract 20th century works by composers such as Schoenberg, Stockhausen, Edgard Varese, Ligeti, and John Cage.  Their influence can clearly be heard in my sound design work.  In contrast, my scoring style has also been heavily influenced by my post-graduate studies of film music by composers such as Bernard Herrmann, Ennio Morricone, John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith.  I developed a deep understanding of the techniques needed for scoring to picture through this experience.

I interpret music and sound as being part of the same spectrum which often leads to a frequent blurring of the lines between these sonic powers in my work.