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- 2010-Apr-02: Press Coverage and Radio Play
Xan Phillips is a journalist and broadcaster with a long and admirable history of supporting unsigned talent. It was he who played my track Tiny Lights on local radio in 2007. Now, Xan is associated with the groundbreaking phenomenon, Amazing Radio, which plays only music from unsigned artists, drawn from their uploads to accounts on Amazing Tunes. Xan has recently taken an interest in my work, and today there is an article in the Southern Daily Echo about me, which is really cool.
Xan writes:
The world of film music has always fascinated me, my first album was a collection of movie themes released by MfP (Music for Pleasure).
So it has been great fun talking with Mike Torr recently who is composing scores for the south coast production company i-Catching Movies which is run by director Simon Morice.
Next summer Simon is shooting a documentary about a polar expedition involving some brave men from Lymington who hope to break the record for the "fastest, unsupported, unassisted crossing from edge of continent to South Pole".
The record is currently held by Norwegians and is exactly the same route taken by Capt Robert Scott some 100 years ago.
Even though this attempt is taking place many months away Mike has already written the overture for "The Best of British South Pole Expedition".
Mike's work is epic and can be best described as a "tone poem" a piece that is completely inspired by the landscape or narrative.
"The whole point of film music is that you provide an emotional guide for the audience" he told me and Mike's been given great freedom by the director: "He comes round to my studio and we talk not just about film music but the concepts of the film."
This is not a traditional approach to soundtracks as usually the musician is invited to work on the film four weeks before it is finished.
You can hear the overture tonight on Amazing Radio - 7pm DAB and online at amazingradio.co.uk
So, if you'd like to hear him play my music, please listen to his show, Xan Down South, which goes out on Amazing Radio today at 7pm and Sunday at 3pm, online and on DAB.
I'd like to thank Xan for his interest and for supporting new talent over the years - and for the very pleasant interview I had with him the other day over Skype. We need more broadcasters like him!
Mike Torr
- 2010-Mar-14: ReverbNation page
Just a brief heads-up: I now have a page on ReverbNation. You will find various links and information there. It's also a place where you can sign up to my email list as a "fan". You will then receive occasional updates on what I am doing (in film music as well as other projects).
Mike Torr
- 2010-Mar-07: Antarctic Horizons
Well, you may have been following me on Twitter and/or Facebook recently, in which case you will have noticed that I was working very hard last week. The reason is a wonderful project that has come up: the Best of British South Pole expedition. This is taking place at the end of 2010 and is an attempt to take back the record (from the Norwegians) for the fastest time to the South Pole over the route taken by Scott and his team on their ill-fated expedition of 1910-13. i-Catching Movies are planning a documentary series covering this expedition, and asked me to write some music. The result is a Best of British Antarctic Overture, now up on my samples page. I hope you enjoy it, and please go to the links above to read about this inspiring project!
Mike Torr
- 2010-Jan-15: Brand new studio!
In the past couple of months, a new studio setup has been slowly taking shape here at TSM. With the purchase of a powerful Mac Pro in December, a move to Cubase 5 as a sequencing platform and a whole bunch of new sample libraries, I now feel much better placed to handle future requirements. Also on the way in the next few weeks will be a new high-quality audio interface, a small controller keyboard for desk-based work (though I'm keeping the full-size Fantom X8 too) and a second monitor for the Mac, to ease mixing and video display. I'll be updating the kit list shortly, and also posting a few photos. 2010 is turning out to be an interesting year, and I'm already excited about one or two projects that are coming up. Watch this space!
Mike Torr
- 2009-May-03: New Samples Page
Twelve Score Music now has a new Samples page. Take a look! You can filter the list of samples by all kinds of categories. As the collection grows, this should become more and more useful. Please let me know if you have any ideas for improvements. Thanks!
Mike Torr
- 2009-Apr-19: Twitter Feed
Twelve Score Music now has its own twitter feed. Subscribe to "twelvescore" for the latest updates and general news about the media music industry.
Mike Torr
- 2009-Apr-19: New-look Samples Page
I think I finally have a nice player for my samples page. Check it out and see what you think.
Mike Torr
- 2009-Apr-15: A Great Way to See a Film
Tonight I accompanied my good friend James Semple to the Royal Albert Hall to witness a live performance of The Fellowship Of The Ring. It was a fantastic evening out! The LPO were present, with a 16-14-12-10-8 string section, 6 horns, a huge bass trombone sound, an entire row of incredible percussion instruments, and to top it off, the three choirs at the back (men, women and boys). Howard Shore's award-winning score was brought to life in a big way for us as we watched from a side box. I'd watched the film recently on DVD so that I didn't get distracted from watching the orchestra, though even my music nerdiness couldn't keep my eyes off the screen the whole time ;) But it was educational. The conductor was using a traditional paper score, plus an electronic display for streamers and punches, which I could just about see from my angle. The whole thing was quite a lesson in film scoring: usually you don't hear all the score because of the sound mix, but a live context is a lot more conducive to musical listening.
Highlights included the sporano soloist, Kaitlyn Lusk, who was wonderful; the huge drum (about 7 feet deep) used for the drum sounds in Moria; the Uruk-Hai music which featured a woman whacking the low strings of a piano with chains wrapped around a gardening glove(!); and of course our brief greeting from Mr. Shore afterwards, when he was signing CDs. There was quite a queue.
I can't recommend this type of experience highly enough, particularly if you have a special interest in film music. We already have our seats booked for next April's performance of The Two Towers!
Mike Torr
- 2008-Nov-14: Orchestration and other crafts
I haven't posted an update for a while. A lot has been going on, though! In October I was delighted to be a student for two days on the New York Orchestration course given by Steven Scott Smalley. Scott is one of the top guys in Hollywood for orchestration, and he really knows his stuff. I can't recommend this course highly enough. It's very informative, and also entertaining. It was also my first chance to see New York properly, if only for one day (the Monday, between the course and my flight home). Central Park was just gorgeous in the early Autumn sunshine, and the city itself is beautiful. I'd much rather live there than London, although to be honest I'm not really a natural city-dweller in any case.
In other news, my personal project (the album) is in the final mix phase. I have had some wonderful sessions with great musicians, and one contribution came from a soprano sax playing film composer in the USA - isn't the Internet great? I'm designing full graphics and getting it mastered, as it is good experience for me, and I can't believe how many audio skills I've picked up in the fifteen months (yes really!) that I've been working on it. I was hoping it would be available by Christmas, but it's a little unlikely now. The question of whether all this effort at professionalism is worth it for my singing voice is one that has yet to be answered...
I've been working on a new orchestral cue called Homecoming, which I will post on the site once it has been completed. I am currently going through a learning curve with the art of mixing and sample use, but I am improving every day. Technology is sprinting ahead, with the release of unbelievably good libraries such as Symphobia, making music production more accessible to the masses than ever: but at the same time, my attendance on the Smalley course taught me a valuable lesson - that traditional skills are still valuable. I wrote the abovementioned orchestral cue with pencil and manuscript paper, away from an instrument, and it felt GOOD. I rather enjoy being a chimera wrought of tradition and progress. It sits well with my view of myself.
One more thing - you will have noticed the embedded Twitter feed on these pages. I am going to try this as an experiment for a while to supply more instant updates on what I'm doing. If you want to follow these, you can sign up for a Twitter account and subscribe to my feed. I'll be updating from my phone, and from whatever PC is available, whenever I think of it.
Peace. I'll be back again soon!
Mike Torr