Hi, I'm Christian. I want to work for Spotify.
"[Spotify is] not in the music space--we're in the moment space." --Daniel Ek
I have been making moments as a film/television composer for more than a decade.
CREATIVE
"Music is the shorthand of emotion." --Leo Tolstoy
It began as an apprenticeship at the most influential and trend-setting studio in Hollywood: Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Studios. Hans is able to re-invent himself and the world of film scoring with every score he writes by fusing technology, out-of-the-box thinking, and top notch musicianship. I have continued to draw from the ethos of Remote Control Studios in my solo career.
Every day I am asked to create music that transmits all kinds of emotions: heartache, happiness, hope, fear and everything in between. Music is emotion. Music is memories new and old. Music is sublime. Music is moments. Click here or here to listen to some of my music.
TECHNICAL
As an apprentice at Hans Zimmer's Remote Control Studios, I built two custom studios for Rupert Gregson-Williams (see pics below): one in Los Angeles and an identical studio in London. I set it up so that we could exchange session files between London and Los Angeles and they would sound exactly the same. Same samples. Same plug-ins. Same bussing, speakers and I/O.
MY STUDIO
#knowledgeapplied
MY GEAR
HARDWARE: (4)Mac Pros, RME Fireface UFX, RME RayDat, UA Apollo Quad, UAD-2 Octo Ultimate, (2)UA 4-710d Preamp, Drawmer MC2.1, Lucid GENX192 Word Clock, Synology DS1813+, Novation Zero SL MkII, (2) iPad Midi Controllers.
SPEAKERS: Adam A77X, Behritone, Adam A7X.
MICS: AKG C214, Avantone CK-40, Rode NT1-A matched pair, Rode NT5 matched pair.
SOFTWARE: Cubase, Nuendo, ProTools, Native Instruments Komplete Ultimate, Logic Pro, Garageband, Vienna Ensemble Pro.
PLUG-INS: Everything iZotope, UAD, Slate Digital, Soundtoys, FabFilter, Waves, Native Instruments, Valhalla, Kush, Parallax, BBE Sound.
SAMPLES: Everything Native Instruments, Spectrasonics, 8Dio, Audio Imperia, AudioBro, Spitfire, Cinesamples, East West, Embertone, Orange Tree, Output, Vienna, Sample Modeling, Cinematique, Soniccouture.
INSTRUMENTS: Fender Stratocaster, Epiphone Les Paul, Ibanez Artcore, Norman Folk Acoustic, Teton Acoustic, Art & Lutherie Acoustic (Nashville tuning), Yamaha NTX700 Nylon, Manuel Rodriguez Nylon Acoustic, Epiphone Mandolin, Ibanez Bass, Deering Banjo, Horacio Orozo Charango, Lanikai Ukelele, Gretsch Lap Steel Guitar, Electric Cello.
WORK ETHIC
It goes like this ... It’s 1PM, I’m in my studio recording guitar. I have a meeting in the morning with the director, and I need to finish this cue for his review. My phone rings – it’s the showrunner for Jane the Virgin. She needs two versions of a new cue by 8PM tonight. I drop everything and get to work, meet the deadline, and go back to polishing my music for the meeting tomorrow, staying up late to make sure the guitar sits just right in the mix. I wake up early the next morning to notes and revisions for my Jane cues, due ASAP. Am I ready for my 10AM director meeting? And so my days repeat. Never a quiet moment, always different and thrilling.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Managed and produced the scores for over 25 feature films.
- Prepped Pro Tools sessions, printed sheet music and recorded a 100 piece orchestra for 8 studio films.
- Coordinated the delivery of the score mix stems to the final sound mix dub stage.
- Mixed and mastered smaller budget films entirely by myself.
PROCESS & STRUCTURE
I am always looking for ways to hack my workflow and creativity:
- Programmed custom TouchOSC ipad template.
- Built custom logical presets in Cubase.
- Created custom workflow in Excel/Google Sheets to track status and progress of all current projects.
- Developed custom composing template that allows me to export and deliver an entire film mix (80mins of music) with stems in hours rather than days.
DIGITAL
- I built this website. :)
- Published my own albums digitally on Spotify.
- Work daily with software, plug-ins and samples to make music.
- Run my own file server on a Synology DS1813+.
- Use Dropbox, Google Drive, WeTransfer to digitally send and receive files.
- Collaborate in the cloud with the Google Drive suite.
COLLABORATION
I have worked with directors, producers, music editors and film editors to create hundreds of hours of audio-visual moments. Moments that people will remember for years to come. I have produced sessions with some of the world's best musicians at Fox scoring stage, Warner Brothers scoring stage, Sony scoring stage, and the Village Recorder.
HIGH PROFILE ARTISTS
I am comfortable working with high profile talent. Artists I have worked with include: Adam Sandler, Al Pacino, Patrick Stewart, and Jon Heder.
FANBOY
In 2009 I was working at Rupert Gregson-Williams' London studio and he showed me an amazing new app called Spotify. I was blown away. When Spotify launched in the U.S. in 2011, I immediately signed up and I’ve been an active user ever since. It's an integral part of my creative workflow; to have all the world's music at my fingertips is incredibly powerful. Streaming is the future of music and I want to be a part of it.
Christian Davis
christianbd@me.com
310-421-8653
IMDB
