Past Projects - "Gift" by Chris Palmer / Big Theme Pictures

Back in 2005, Myself and Kris Byrne (long standing friend and collaborator) were asked to score a short film for writer/director Chris Palmer. The film was called "Gift" and centres around a young man with a mental illness struggling to come to terms with being in the world. The film was produced by Philip Cooper and Big Theme Pictures and was a UK Film Council funded short film.

This film is copyright Chris Palmer / Big Theme Pictures - Music copyright Chris Davis / Kris Byrne.



Current Project - Animated Film - War of the Worlds

One of the projects that I'm working on at the moment is with a very talented young film maker called Nathan Wilkes. Nathan is only 15 years old and yet he's directing a feature length animated film based on the War of the Worlds story. This isn't a remake of the recent live action film, or of the Jeff Wayne musical, but a newly created version of the story. Nathan has gathered a very talented team around him, even getting professional animators from Pixar involved with the film thanks to his talent and passion for what he does.

I've just received the first trailer for the film which is looking amazing! This is a project which is in its early stages but i'm about to start writing the score for the trailer. Nathan is a talent to watch and i'm sure this film will be great! The picture at the top of this blog post is some of the artwork from the film.

I'll mention any major announcements about the film here on the blog as the project progresses.

Nathan is also trying to get some funding together for the film - information about this can be found here: http://www.indiegogo.com/WOTW

Current Projects - Straight On Red

I thought i'd post some blogs over the coming days about various projects which i'm working on at the moment - this is the first of those.....

One of my more regular musical projects is playing percussion with a band called "Straight on Red". The band is an 8 piece contemporary jazz outfit who began life as a sort of Pat Metheny covers band (yes that's right). Since then we've developed our style and now play a whole range of funky contemporary jazz from the likes of The Brecker Brothers, Mike Stern and Steely Dan alongside the Metheny stuff and some original material. The band has played across the UK in venues and at several jazz festivals including Coventry and Wigan.

We recently spent a weekend rehearsing and writing some new original tracks at the superb Dunfield House (a residential music centre on the Welsh border) and plan to record and release a 5 track EP of this material later in the year (recording dates are set for the summer). The band are:
Phil Danter – guitar
Kris Byrne – keyboard
Chris Davis – percussion
Tim Prottey-Jones – vocals
Mike Davis – woodwind
Ben Haines – drums
Richard Beardmore – bass
Nick Ashwood – Trumpet/Flugelhorn


I'll post more news on the band, gigs and recordings as it happens - but you can also check out the band website (which does need a little updating) for images and videos of the band:  http://www.straightonred.co.uk/