Favourite Composers: Bernard Herrmann / Howard Shore / Elliot Goldenthal / Marco Beltrami
Favourite Scores: Titus / eXistenZ / Vertigo / The Lord of the Rings trilogy
Favourite Sport: Baseball
Favourite Teams: Boston Red Sox & Atlanta Braves
Musical likes: Vivaldi, Arvo Part, Philip Glass, Jean-Michel Jarre, Gravity Kills, Thomas Lang, The Smiths, Limp Bizkit
Hobbies: Mainly film scores, reading, listening to music in general.

Biography:
Born in Scotland way back in 1964 and lived in Falkirk. Went to university in Glasgow to study cell biology. A career in science has led me to live in Manchester, Warrington and currently North Wales. In my present job I am lucky enough to get to see a bit of the world. Favourite cities are San Francisco and Venice. Least favourite city is Buffalo, NY. I got into listening to scores back in 1977 with the release of STAR WARS and "...the rest is history". My CD library exploded with the advent of the internet and the access to numerous outlets selling CDs that I would never otherwise known about. Over the last couple of years I've been increasingly hearing film music being played live. It all started with hearing the FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING portion of Howard Shore's LORD OF THE RINGS Symphony at the Royal Festival Hall in London, then catching the whole Symphony firstly in Antwerp and then again in London. The latter sitting included a Q&A session with the composer himself where I at last got to meet the man himself.

Then in April 2006 I had what must be the highlight of my film music "career" so far: attendance at a recording session of Marco Beltrami's forthcoming score to THE OMEN. It was an eye-opening experience to see how these intense occasions happen - it certainly had given me a different aspect on what the process is to get to the end result: the film score proper.

Then a few months later I was fortunate enough to attend the 1st SONCINEMAD music festival in Madrid, Spain. It was a great experience mixing with composers such as Chris Young, Dario Marianelli, Tuomas Kantelinen, Harry Gregson-Williams, Hans Zimmer & Trevor Jones. And it was also an opportunity for several members of this very forum to meet and chat (you know who you all are!!). As part of the festival, concerts of the music of Gregson-Williams and Jones were highlights. The 2nd SONCINEMAD festival in 2007 was an even better experience. Again, having the opportunity to meet again composers such as Chris Young, Tuomas Kantelinen and Trevor Jones was a definite highlight. And having the chance to meet more composers (Alan Silvestri, Christopher Gordon) was an additional highlight.

Finally, if I had one piece of advice for anyone interested it would be to seize the moment; if you want to do something don't put it off 'till tomorrow. You don't know what could happen today and tomorrow may never come. (A bit depressing, I admit, but I talk from experience.)

FILM SCORE WRITINGS:

Reviews:

Girl With A Pearl Earring
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=23)
The Butterfly Effect
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=19)
The Punisher
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=27)
The Door In The Floor
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=29)
King of the Ants
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=33)
A Very Long Engagement
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=38)
Les Choristes
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=41)
Nathan Larson: "Filmmusik"
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=47)
Deep Blue
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=56)
Mysterious Skin
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=64)
MirrorMask
(http://musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=67)
Valiant
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=115)
Murderball
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=118)
Cars
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=142)
Unknown Soldier
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_review.php?id=141)

Published pieces:

"Inside the expanded Bond", letter in Film Score Monthly Magazine vol. 8, no. 6, 2003 (p. 10)
"Too much TV?", letter in Film Score Monthly Magazine vol. 8, no. 10, 2003. (p. 9)
"Success for Silvestri at SONCINEMAD", festival review in Film Music Weekly Issue 23, July 12, 2007.

Other film score-related items:

Batman Forever run-down
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_column.php?id=2)
The Cell run-down
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_column.php?id=3)
eXistenZ run-down
(http://www.musiconfilm.net/get_column.php?id=7)

Movie & TV music book collection:

--- Bond, Jeff. The Music of Star Trek: Profiles In Style. Los Angeles: Lone Eagle, 1999.
--- Brown, Royal S. Overtones and Undertones: Reading Film Music. Berkeley, University of California Press, 1994.
--- Burlingame, Jon. Sound and Vision: 60 Years of Motion Picture Soundtracks. New York: Billboard Books, 2000.
--- Burt, George. The Art of Film Music. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1994.
--- Cooper, David. Bernard Herrmann's Vertigo: A Film Score Handbook. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001.
--- Cooper, David. Bernard Herrmann's The Ghost and Mrs. Muir: A Film Score Guide. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005.
--- Dane, Jeffrey. A Composer's Notes: Remembering Miklós Rózsa. www.iUniverse.com, 2006.
--- DesJardins, Christian. Inside Film Music: Composers Speak. Los Angeles, Silman-James Press, 2006.
--- Donnelly, Kevin J. The Spectre of Sound: Music In Film and Television. London: BFI Publishing, 2005.
--- Donnelly, Kevin J. (ed.) Film Music: Critical Approaches. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001.
--- Goldmark, D., Kramer, L & Leppert, R. (eds.) Beyond The Soundtrack: Representing Music In Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
--- Halfyard, Janet K. Danny Elfman's Batman: A Film Score Guide. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2004.
--- Hickman, Roger. Reel Music: Exploring 100 Years of Film Music. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.
--- Karlin, Fred. Listening To Movies: A Film Lover's Guide To Film Music. Belmont: Schirmer, 1994.
--- Karlin, Fred & Wright, Rayburn. On The Track: A Guide To Contemporary Film Scoring. Second Edition. New York: Routledge, 2004.
--- Lack, Russell. Twenty Four Frames Under: A Buried History of Film Music. London: Quartet Books, 1997.
--- Larsen, Peter. Film Music. London: Reaktion Books, 2007.
--- Leinberger, Charles. Ennio Morricone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: A Film Score Guide. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2004.
--- Morgan, David. Knowing The Score. New York: Harper Collins, 2000.
--- Prendergast, Roy M. Film Music: A Neglected Art. A Critical Study of Music In Films. Second Edition. New York: W. W. Norton, 1992.
--- Russell, Barry. John Barry's Goldfinger In Focus. London: Rhinegold Publishing Ltd, 2007.
--- Schelle, Michael. The Score: Interviews With Film Composers. Beverly Hills: Silman-James Press, 1999.
--- Scheurer, Thomas E. Music and Mythmaking In Film: Genre and The Role of The Composer. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co, Inc, 2008.
--- Smith, Steven C. [b]A Heart At Fire's Center: The Life and Music of Bernard Herrmann. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
--- Sullivan, Jack. Hitchcock's Music. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
--- Thomas, Tony. Music For The Movies. Los Angeles: Silman-James Press, 1997.
--- Timm, Larry M. The Soul of Cinema: An Appreciation of Film Music. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2003.
--- Wierzbicki, J. Louis and Bebe Barron's Forbidden Planet: A Film Score Guide. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2005.