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Bio:
My early years studying classical piano and music theory were followed by an intensive period of progressive jazz study and practise, inspired by the recordings of such great artists as Bill Evans, Bobby Timmons, Oscar Peterson et al.
When the sixties arrived with the likes of Chuck Berry and The Beatles, I expanded my musical repertoire and began to write songs in the rock genre. There was much more live music around Sydney back then and I played gigs with my jazz piano trio as well as keyboards, guitars and vocals for such well-established rock bands as The Showmen and The Powerhouse.
In 1968 while studying music within an Arts degree at Sydney Uni, the opportunity arose to assist legendary composer Peter Sculthorpe create the score for the Anglo/Australian movie The Age Of Consent, starring first-timer Helen Mirren.
While working on this project, a rugby-induced fractured skull, resulting in massive tinnitus and loss of hearing in the left ear, meant that study (and sleep) were no longer viable options. Noisy bars and sound stages provided some escape from the inescapable and this led to a few months in Vietnam entertaining US troops.
Then followed the creation of the hippie, flower-power rock musical, Man-Child, which toured Australian capital cities during 1971/72, creating several box-office records along the way.
In 1974 I produced the solo prog rock album Winds Of Isis. This epic instrumental outing still seems to have a life, thanks to the many prog enthusiasts around.
Another high point of the '70s was the development of an electronic score for Fritz Lang's silent classic, Metropolis. I presented some live concerts featuring the soundtrack, played live on the first commercially available microprocessor-based digital sequencer (The Roland MC-8), while a film company sourced a high quality print to synchronise the music to. When the project was well into development, the word got out that Hollywood was working on a similar idea and the release did not go ahead . However, most of the music still exists in demo form...
The commercial scene in Sydney was thriving in the '70s. I wrote and produced ads for clients such as : Sunbeam, Goldenia Tea, Levis, Gilbey's Gin, 2UE, 2GB, Home Journal and countless others.
This filled in the weekly slots not used up by record production work for The Marshall Brothers Band, Bob Hudson, Maureen Elkner, Midnight Oil, to name a few....and there was even an extraordinary situation in which I found myself engineering for the great, sublime Stephane Grapelli.
By the time the '80s arrived, my career in film scoring was well underway. To date, I have scored some 16 features, many docos and hundreds of hours of TV drama.
In 1980, I built The Living Room suite of recording studios in Chatswood on Sydney's North Shore. This became home to the creation of many scores and soundtracks for feature films and television dramas for the next twenty years. In 2001 I moved the studios to the northern beaches of Sydney for some 19-odd years.
These days I'm loving the ambience of Wamberal, on the sunny, sumptuous, Central Coast of NSW.
The photo below is of Studio Eleven - Wamberal.
Since 2010 my focus has switched back to songwriting, releasing albums and the odd special project or collaboration. Links to these appear here:
Still going ... (touch wood).