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Biography |
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Dave
was educated at Lyndhurst, Charterhouse and Tonbridge,
where he received his first formal music training.
He later enlisted in the music services of the Royal
Air Force where he developed his performance skills
primarily on piano, studying privately with the
renowned jazz pianist and composer Stan Tracey.
Whilst at the Royal Air Force School of Music he
also studied the clarinet, flute and soprano sax.
After five years service he went on to study piano
again with Stan Tracey.
Dave
is one of only a handful of established contemporary
composers for film and television music who are
capable of working in a entirely self-contained
environment, embracing the very latest state of
the art computer recording and synthesis technology
in their own studio environment. Dave has an extensive
sound design studio with the largest privately owned
Synclavier systems and synthesizer setups in Europe.
He is also adept and experienced in writing for
and directing orchestras and live musicians, and
is very successful in fusing this with his extensive
library of original and treated synthesizer/sampler
based sounds. |
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As
a composer Dave has worked on a number of successful
feature films and television programs, in addition
to working as music associate, performer and programmer
to many successful Hollywood film composers such
as George Fenton, John Williams and Trevor Jones
to mention but a few. In his capacity as music associate
and programmer he takes a very active role in arranging
and orchestrating and even using his compositional
skills to a large degree.
His ability to realize and create quality and often-unique
sounds has also lead to quite extensive credits
as a sound designer, both musically and with relation
to film/television sound effects. Musically he has
used this talent to great effect in so-called fusion
scores such as the early Trevor Jones films such
as Angel Heart and Mississippi Burning (which actually
won an Oscar for best sound), where the created
sounds were an integral part of the compositional
process. The Steven Spielberg Amblimation production
Were Back and Kenneth Brannaghs
Mary Shelleys Frankenstein both
won Golden Reel Awards from the Association of Motion
Picture Sound Editors.
Dave has also composed and co-composed, with Ronnie
Bond and David Dundas, music for a large number
of cinema and television advertisements including
British Gas, Coco Pops, Philips, Le Coq, Birds Custard,
Braun, Blueband, Brittania, Philip Morris, Accurist,
Atari, Dixel, Dulux, Roxy, Mintguard, Bonjour, Ellermans,
Wilkinson Sword, Foster Grants, Alpine, Washn
Dye, Arctic Lite, Yves St. Laurent Kouros and others.
In
the 1970s Dave was a singer, keyboard player and
songwriter for a number of successful groups, Web
(later to become Samurai), Episode Six, The Alan
Bown Set and Greenslade. He then went into the session
musician scene breaking off briefly to tour
with Roy Harper and later Stackridge. He was then
invited to join Ian Gillans band, (who had
recently left Deep Purple) but because of recording
commitments regrettably had to decline the offer.
He also recorded some tracks with Chris Squire and
Alan White, who at the time were taking a break
from Yes. Jimmy Page also jammed with this set up
and had managerial matters been resolved this line
up would have been one hell of a band! Tony Reeves,
the bass player with Greenslade invited Dave to
jam with Curved Air, who at the time also included
Stuart Copeland. In 1982, whilst recording with
Bill Wyman, Dave was invited to play with Foreigner.
The session scene in the 70s and 80s
was the busiest time ever for Dave. He played on
the soundtrack of the cult picture The Man
Who Fell To Earth with fellow musician Big
Jim Sullivan, who he later recorded with and was
then fortunate enough to play under the baton of
John Williams and the L.S.O. on Starwars, Superman
and The Fury. Other memorable sessions were with
Peggy Lee, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. |
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