How would you define your main role on most of the projects you work on at the moment?
I am the producer and performing artist for my touring immersive audiovisual show. I also creatively direct the visuals working with an international team of designers and technologists.
Please tell us a bit about your musical background. How did you get started in the music industry? What was your pathway to your current role?
I studied a few instruments classically when I was young and was always composing music but didn’t really see a pathway into that being a career at the time. I had another job for many years and music composition was something I did in my spare time. That all changed when I took a course on music production software at Point Blank Music School which coincided with an interest in artists creating more emotive or experimental electronic music such as Jon Hopkins, Oneohtrix Point Never, Arca and Moderat. I was also fascinated with audiovisual art installations by people such as Ryoji Ikeda and United Visual Artists and wanted to somehow combine art, music and technology into a single immersive project. I received Arts Council funding to enable me to stage a first immersive show incorporating spatial audio, visuals and bespoke lighting, which I staged at the Copeland Art Gallery in Peckham in 2021. This was then the prototype for the headline immersive show which I have now toured extensively across the UK and internationally with festival appearances at MUTEK Montreal, Amsterdam Dance Event, LEV festival Madrid and Wonderfruit in Thailand.
What or who inspired you to follow this path?
There are so many artists I could mention as above but I would also say I was personally inspired by my friend Simeon Bowring, owner of Gargantuan Music, who has always believed strongly in my ability – it’s good to have someone to talk to who has had a wide experience of different aspects of the music industry. Also a huge debt of thanks to the company L-Acoustics. I met their team when I was performing at Abbey Road Studios in 2019 – the Managing Director of their immersive division Guillaume le Nost suggested I reprogramme my set for spatial audio using their L-ISA software and with their kind support I’ve been on a journey using immersive sound to add an extra dimension to the project ever since.
Are there any highlights from your work that you are particularly proud of?
I was recently commissioned to write for the BBC Orchestras by PRS Foundation, Bradford 2025 and Southbank Centre, which was an incredible opportunity to broaden my practice with a classical crossover. Completely coincidentally I had been taking out scores of favourite composers from the Barbican library and considering how to work with an ensemble so when this came up I was absolutely thrilled. The first performance was at Bradford St George’s Hall a few weeks ago and it was such a privilege to work with the BBC Concert Orchestra and conductor Ellie Slorach. On the electronic music side I was featured as part of a lineup at the Polygon London Live festival recently and had a slot just after Jon Hopkins – as I was setting up in the morning he was playing piano on stage which made the whole process quite dreamlike – I couldn’t believe that I would be featured alongside an artist who had been so inspirational to me!
What’s one tip you can share with other MPG members that could help their workflow?
At the start of a project I tend not to think about workflow and generally create lots of musical ideas in no particular order as I find that odd or interesting connections between sounds can arise out of this, but as time moves on I get quite methodical about the way tracks are grouped and labelled. Ideally I always leave a track overnight and come back with fresh ears before reviewing for changes.
What’s one tip you would like an MPG member to share with you?
I’m always interested in creative plugins – I had a favourite granular FX plugin called the Mangle but it’s not available any more – if anyone knows a good replacement for this I’d love to hear!
Do you have any words of wisdom for people wanting to get into a similar music production role to yours?
Just stick to your guns and go for your vision even if sometimes it feels like you don’t quite fit anywhere!
Read more MPG Full Member Spotlight interviews
