Palm-Greasing with a Huge Bag of Coffee
The Short Story
An Endless Passion for Music
Endearing-Weirdo-Post-Audio-Freelancer.
I’m into motorcycling, photography, 8 & 16bit era gaming, Japanese whisky, collecting way too many Funko Pops, Lego and the toys of my fading youth.
(So far this sounds like a horrendous dating profile)
I grew up on Nintendo, programming and watching all best of 80’s Animation & Movies. My parent’s gifted me a synthesizer for grade 8 graduation and I was hooked! Highschool was endless MIDI programming, playing in school bands (Bass Clarinet, Bari-sax & Vibes) and bands (Synths and percussion). I even grew my hair out and looked like a total poser-rocker!
I studied music engineering at Fanshawe College’s esteemed Music Industry Arts program and then moved to Toronto upon graduating. After a two-day stint working at a gas station where my trainer boasted that “I’ve only been held up at gunpoint once” , I knew I was ready for something more gruelling: the TV/Film industry!
I started in advertising at a very busy Toronto post facility called “Deschamps”, working on TONS of different commercials synchronizing dialogue to film Dailies. Everything from McDonalds to Walmart, Sony Playstation to IKEA! It was late one fateful night, while synchronizing endless takes of a couple making out in a car (with a tail slate clapper that routinely didn’t visually occur as the film ran out), that i decided editing dialogue was not for me. Hey, I’m all for problem solving… but not manually scrubbing through slurpy face eating! I departed soon after.
As it turns out, my father’s accountant’s-friend’s-friend (Spaceballs style father’s-cousin’s-brother’s-roommate) worked at Nelvana Animation. I finally had a phone number! This is pre internetz-find-all-the-things after all!
So, I called them for 6 months solid, and finally in a feat of gusto, sent delivery of a massive bag of coffee to the engineers in the Music Department… with a ransom note that said “Hire me!” … Engineers like coffee right!?
AND…. they did!! This was the start of working in the weird, wonderful and wacky world of Animation Music!
The good thing is, I’ve worked in audio post for over two decades and haven’t become a bitter boob. Truth!
It could be from scoring a ton of cartoons and poking fun at genres and pop-culture.
Perhaps it’s from zoning out while fiddling with my arsenal of synthesizers making sounds for some pretty high profile shows and movies.
Maybe it’s the galavanting around the world working on some pretty mega recording sessions.
Possibly it’s from sharing and teaching this passion at a local college.
Definitely, it’s from working for and with people I value, respect and proudly call my friends.
It’s all pretty awesome, to be honest! Onwards!
The Bollocks version:
“My work explores the relationship between the Universality of myth, postmodern discourse and football chants"
My work explores the relationship between the universality of myth, postmodern discourse and football chants. With influences as diverse as L Ron Hubbard and John Cage, new variations are manufactured from both simple and complex narratives. Ever since I was a child I have been fascinated by the endless oscillation of meaning. What starts out as hope soon becomes corroded into a manifesto of greed, leaving only a sense of unreality and the unlikelihood of a new order. As spatial replicas become reconfigured through diligent and repetitive practice, the audience is left with a hymn to the inaccuracies of our era.
