How important is it to have a relationship with the production studio and/ or director youвЂ™re working with? ItвЂ™s through this that I find inspiration and motivation. I really donвЂ™t want to be afraid to step out my field of expertise and try out different things. ItвЂ™s a tough job with a lot of pressure and with so many facets. It also gave me a new found respect for producers. It was tough but I learnt so much from the process. It was intense the client changed ideas mid-way, shoot locations were changed, styling decisions etc. We were working internationally, the director was in Paris, the client in South Africa and the Agency in Portugal. I was involved from its inception to delivery, so I had to work with set-designers, DoPвЂ™s, directors, stylists a whole host of people that is needed to produce a film. Last year I co-produced several pieces of filmed content for a clientвЂ™s website. Getting involved in other areas of creativity or the industry really helps. How do you keep yourself motivated and inspired? This way youвЂ™re doing the best for the project and helping the creative team figure things out about what works what doesnвЂ™t without bias as to a particular approach. I find it easier to think of myself as a designer (music producer) as opposed to a composer with a fixed stylistic approach. But usually you have begun to carve out a direction that is right for the picture, and the creative teams also feel that they helped through directing. Often the first feedback is the harshest, so I always brace myself. The ideas have to be noticeably different so that youвЂ™re not just giving them two or three versions of the same idea, but also within the boundaries of the brief so that itвЂ™s not too off-brief. I then set about to roughly structuring those ideas to picture giving the director the opportunity to hear the film in different ways. I usually give my self 2/3 hours to roughly sketch out some ideas, different routes, tones, intensities, energies that the picture/brief allows.

On the whole, youвЂ™re working to 30/60 sec lengths so I work up two three rough directions so I know that IвЂ™ve explored the direction to a good degree. Once I have that, then comes structuring to picture. I like to focus on the feeling that a client is trying to achieve and the different shades that feeling can have. I like to throw sounds at the picture and let something unexpected hit me, the tiniest thread of an idea can be pulled to kick-start a flood of connected ideas. I would just launch straight into writing. When I first entered the industry I spent every minute of that time writing, with little strategic approach or giving time to figure things out. One thing that you can always be certain of in advertising is that time is scarce and things need to happen very quickly. YouвЂ™re in the studio and youвЂ™ve got a new brief to work on how do you begin to tackle that? I occasionally get to stop at a local park onВ routeВ and I like to take a minute before the day starts. One of my greatest pleasures is my morning walk to and from work. Now I have a young family, sleep patterns and routines are unpredictable, butВ I do my best to keep a rhythm. ThatвЂ™s when my approach as a professionalВ developed. WhenВ youвЂ™re paying for a studio, itВ helps youВ to switch your mindset from hey IвЂ™m just making music for the love of itВ to no this needs additional funds, it needs to pay for itself and make a living. I found it impossible to maintainВ any sort ofВ coherent daily routine.В Getting a studio space was a way to impose a structure on my day. I work chaotically and have always struggled with having a particular orderВ toВ the day.В One thing I found out early is that IВ canвЂ™tВ work where I live. How does your day begin before you get to the studio? IвЂ™ve always written across lots of different genres, mainly because growing up, the group of producers and writers I surrounded myself with had different musical interests,В and I learnt a lot from collaborating.В TheВ name actually came about because at the time I wanted to have a singular alias, aВ representation ofВ this kind of mutation of styles and approaches.

Mutant Jukebox emerged out of the way I like to work.

Sound design animation