I write music for movie trailers, adverts and TV, and I’ve done quite well at it. My music has been used in over 100 campaigns for clients like Disney, Warner Bros, Universal, Netflix, Google, Unilever and Toyota, including trailers for Captain America: Civil War, Glass Onion, WandaVision and The Conjuring 2. I’ve won eight awards for it, which sounds cooler than it feels.
I’m known for organic thriller and horror music, big orchestral work and piano-led music, and I’ve written for libraries like Elephant Music, Immediate Music and Cavendish Music.
I live and work at home in South Oxfordshire with my wife, our three children and a guinea pig. Friday nights are Disney films and homemade pizza. My wife and I play Star Realms, Monopoly Deal and Exploding Kittens, and yes, she wins most of the time.
How I got here
Rewind a few years and it wasn’t like this at all. I used to sit at my PC with a cracked copy of Reason and no sample libraries except Stormdrum, looking at the websites of award-winning composers with a lot of envy and no idea how to get my foot in the door.
So I worked on my craft. I wrote music I wanted to listen to and said yes to everything, which meant writing for free for film, dance and drama students. A friend asked me to write walk-on music for his band. A music consultant at the gig liked it, asked for my showreel (60-second tracks made in Reason) and offered me work writing for ads.
I did custom ad work every other day for years and landed maybe one pitch in fifty. It felt rubbish at the time. What I didn’t realise was that it was training me in tone, structure and scoring to picture. So when I stumbled into trailer music, a place where being experimental, noisy, over the top and mixing genres is actively encouraged, I was ready. I won the first custom trailer job I ever did: Men in Black 3.
I started writing for ads in 2007 and trailers in 2011, and went full time in 2014.
Why I teach
Once I’d made it, I started getting emails from composers who were as frustrated as I’d been. When I started there was no easy way to learn this stuff, so in 2017 I started teaching what I’d learnt the hard way. Thousands of composers have since taken my courses, listened to The Trailer Music Composer’s Podcast or joined The Composer Academy.
If you’re new, start here. It’ll point you at the right free learning path.
What else I’m up to
I take on a lot of projects because I love making things, I love being useful, and I love working towards a goal.
- Pryn Music is my independent record label and royalty-free music library. I write, record, produce and market all of its artists’ music. If I’m honest, it’s the heart of everything I do.
- Composer HQ is a hub for working composers, with plugins, sample libraries, courses and music libraries side by side.
- Books. I’ve self-published various books on Amazon KDP, from my best-seller Live Your Ideal Life to some that have barely sold a copy.
- Websites about things I love, like The Name Generators, Haunted Hotels UK, Dots, Lines & Paper, Acorn & Ink and our family travel journal Travels with Five. They’re all on the projects page.
This site is the hub for all of it. If you saw me on YouTube, heard me on a podcast, took one of my courses or heard my music somewhere: welcome. Thanks for being curious enough to click “About”.
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