| Simon Boswell is primarily a film composer with more than 85 films to his credit. His prolific career spans every conceivable genre, from his early work on Italian exploitation movies (Phenomena, Stage Fright) to contemporary thrillers (Shallow Grave, Hackers), horror flicks (Lord Of Illusions, Hardware), romances and character studies (Jack And Sarah, This Year's Love, Born Romantic), dramas (In My Father's Den, The War Zone), fantasies (Santa Sangre, Photographing Fairies) and literary classic (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Cousin Bette).
Current Work:
Film: Simon's unique film project with the Vatican Santo Subito is now available on DVD from www.santosubitoonline.com. The film is a collaboration with the Vatican - settting speeches, and for the first time, the singing of Pope John Paull II to Simon's music and visuals. Completed score for feature film Bathory, directed by Juraj Jakubisko, starring Anna Friel. Film release set for 2008. TV: Composed score for series Catwalk Dogs for Shed Productions.
Simon's music projects demonstrate his versatility. In recent years he has worked on Free Jimmy (2006) - an animated road movie written by Simon Pegg, voices include Woody Harrelson, Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton, written the music for the BBC children’s series Jackanory which has been given a 3D 'Shrek'-style reinvention and features storytellers Ben Kingsley and comedian John Sessions. Boswell brings to each new project an energy and distinctiveness that stems from his unconventional background and his own admission that he lives in a 'musical vacuum'. Based in London, his film work stretches back to 1985 and his roots in Italian horror with Dario Argento.
Since then he has worked with many of the world's most ambitious directors including Danny Boyle, Michael Hoffman, Clive Barker and Alejandro Jodorowsky. No stranger to live performance as well as the recording studio, he loves to combine electronic and orchestral players.
At seventeen Simon went to PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE to study English Literature and in 1977, at the beginning of punk rock, Simon formed the band Advertising. Labelled 'Power Pop' the band was more of an homage to the pop art style of Andy Warhol. They toured extensively with Blondie.
Following the demise of Advertising, Simon went into record production. Amongst his many producer credits of the early and mid - 80s are Amii Stewart, Nik Kershaw, 23 Skidoo and Nine Below Zero. He joined the A&M band Live Wire after producing two albums for them. His record productions from the 1980s have influenced many contemporary
musicians, notably the sample from his production of the band 23 Skidoo's Coup
which became The Chemical Brothers' Block Rockin' Beats. Recent years have seen
him collaborate with and produce many high profile artists for his film
projects: Elton John, Dolly Parton and Marianne Faithful, and work with
musicians from bands including Blur, Orbital, The Sex Pistols and Echo And The
Bunnymen. A unique project of Simon's was BLINK, an audio-visual installation
of portraits extracted from news footage, looped to last forever, and
individually scored with their own soundtracks. This was first exhibited at the
ICA in London in 2002 on 4 simultaneous cinema-sized screens.
A stint in writing music for ads was quickly superceded by his move into film soundtracks.
Simon produced a string of highly successful Italian pop stars and was spending increasing amounts of time in Rome. Whilst there, he met Italian Horror director Dario Argento who, a fan of Simon's band Live Wire, asked him to contribute to a soundtrack along with Goblin and Bill Wyman. This was his first work as a film composer.
His rare forays into TV have often managed to shock: The Lakes (for which he was nominated for a BAFTA) and Pornography: The Musical - his collaboration with film-maker Brian Hill and poet Simon Armitage. Simon's most recent collaboration with Brian and Simon, Songbirds, is set in Downview prison in Surrey. Inmates talk about their experiences of offending and prison life and suddenly burst into song.
In Autumn 2006, after 12 years in the making, Simon's album Close Your Eyes; was released independently via Flick Records.
'I have cut up my previous scores into bits and re-assembled them as new songs featuring newly written voice parts for some of the actors and directors I have worked with along the way (Ewan Mcgregor, Ray Winstone, Goran Visnij, Dario Argento and Alejandro Jodorowsky)'.
AGENT:
Hot House
Tel +44.020.7446.7446
Fax +44.020.7446.7448
Email info@hot-house-music.com
Web www.hot-house-music.com |
Howard Price
