The realisation that, depending on where we changed from one note to the next in a melodic line, the music could subtly influence the entire meaning of a scene in so many ways was like a door opening to this amazing new world for me.
For me, anything can be music! I can get huge enjoyment and be moved totally by the purity and perfection of some Renaissance polyphony, but equally I can feel emotion in the expectant hum of a big old guitar amp just before the strings are hit.
I worry about technical details - did I mix the cello half a decibel too high? Things like that.
I like taking my leads from what I see rather than trying to impose. I like that way of looking at things and seeing what's on screen and seeing how I can draw music out of it almost.
A lot of the music editing job is communication and working out what a director really wants the music to be.
In the mid-2000s, I kind of accidentally became a music editor.
I like expansive stuff that has a lot of space in it, like some of the early Pink Floyd albums.
With the great people that you work with, it's that they're never giving up and they're never thinking something's finished until they've really, really run out of time. They keep pushing in case there's a better idea around the corner.
I'm a guitarist by background. That's what I used to do for sessions when I was younger and that sort of thing. We have several pianos in the house and I tend to just sit and fiddle around.
No one's being precious about their music. They want the film to be great. And that was the huge lesson for me along the way to be a filmmaker. And yes, I'm leading the music department kind of thing and that responsibility with the music is with me, but really that job is one of many.
I find that I love so much stuff and respect so many people who work in this industry and music in general. I've kind of learned that I've got to just stick to what I can do and try and do that really.
I'm not very good at sounding like other people. When you're going through your 20's and trying to get a break and that kind of thing, and you're trying to do something that sounds like film music, your idea of what it would be, it never really worked out for me and it's only really when I learned to trust the fact that I could only really sound like me.
It's a funny thing with the inspiration thing. There's always loads of music around that I absolutely love and films going back to when I started making film music in the mid-80's.
I've been able to have broad kind of education and all sorts of different music and a lot of kind of films and also different styles and genres. And so, all of these things have influenced me along the way and I take a little bit from everything I do. I've been lucky to work with a lot of great people and learn from them.
I tend to work in layers. There's a huge orchestra in the film, but I also record a lot things with very intimate groups, and I like to be able to use the textures of those intimate groups.
For me, I work very self-contained. It's literally just me sitting in a room doing it until the very end of the process when other musicians come in and instruments are recorded.
I think after everything in the whole process of filmmaking, temp scores are great if you use them for what they're good for, if you use them for that early stage of support for things.
A lot of composers I know hate temp scores because people get attached to them.
I studied music all the way through college, but as soon as I graduated from university, I got straight into London and got straight into film music. So really my experiences have been being around the orchestras in London and being around the people who work in film music.
