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Composer Biographies
Terry Eckersley - Composer/Songwriter/Founder
Terry Eckersley is the CEO of Think Media Music, a music library he launched after finding great success in writing his first song at the age of 18. His passion for music inspired him to create an online library of his own, where he could share his eclectic mix of tunes with the world. Many writers joined and contributed with exceptional media music. His hard work paid off, as his music library soon caught the attention of ITV, who used some of his tracks in on of their biggest selling shows, Monkey Business, which aired worldwide. After this, his music was quickly picked up by the Discovery Channel International. And then the BBC followed suit leading to his music being used in numerous advertising campaigns and radio networks. Throughout his career, Terry has remained dedicated to providing the world with quality music that is both creative and inspiring. His library now continues to grow, with more and more people discovering the unique sound of Think Media Music.
Terry Eckersley - Composer/Songwriter/Founder
 Photo: Owen Wilkins (c)
Think Media Music's founder and CEO, Terry Eckersley has been energised by music for as long as he can remember. First as an avid listener and fan and more recently in areas including composing, producing, publishing and performing. His first albums bought were Motown Gold and David Bowie and he would list his main inspirations as The Clash, R&B and anything with soul.
Terry had a regular slot on BBC Radio Solent as a 'thought for the day' speaker and with his broadcast experience through those regular radio slots, he picked up more work as a voiceover artiste. With his warm, rounded, northern vocal style, his humour and rich overtones shine through in any production. His music as well as many of the projects he has worked on are gaining him a reputation for delivering quality that is exceptional. Some of the clients that he has written or provided music for include NHS, ITV and several satellite channels.
Terry has written a number of music reviews for the local press and is also a published author. His book 'Service User Involvement' can be found at jkp.com. This is a book about leadership, music and community. He loves to keep the creative ideas flowing and to collaborate with the other Think Media Music composers, especially in songwriting.
While he was recently based at Woking YMCA in Surrey, he connected with various players in media and the creative industries as well as growing resourcing and encouraging local talent. He was well received as a lecturer in master classes at Europe's largest music academy www.acm.mu Academy Of Contemporary Music.
Now back in the great musical city of Sheffield, he is planning the next move for Think Media Music with the exciting prospect of coming together with some of the UK's freshest and most dynamic new media companies.
Read Terry's 'Born Ready' blog here for his latest news
Ivor Novello award-winning writer/producer Mark Hill (left) getting creative with Terry. Mark was also involved in a community music programme, giving a seminar on the music industry and how he produces music.
Links: www.thestix.co.uk www.stopdroproll.com www.craigdavid.co.uk www.wokingymca.org.uk www.jkp.com
Owen Wilkins - Composer/Songwriter/Producer
 Photo: Owen Wilkins (c)
Owen began playing guitar at 9 years of age and played in rock, pop and folk bands throughout his school years. He added electric bass and MIDI programming to his instrument list in the early 1990s, gaining technical theatre, live sound and incidental music experience while studying for a BTEC National Diploma in Performing Arts at the College of North West London. He soon began to develop his production skills at home using a vintage ¼" multitrack tape machine. Owen got a taste for soundtrack score composition through writing and producing for a local theatre group's show in 2000 for which he received a local arts body award. Having relocated to Sheffield he trained for 6 months on Logic software, signed to Think Media Music and continues to write soundtrack music for TV shows on BBC, ITV and cable and satellite networks worldwide. From 2009 to 2010 he presented, edited, produced and wrote the theme music for a weekly podcast complementing online courses by Advance Training, a demanding schedule which he relished. Owen has always loved TV themes, jingles and incidental music. His recently upgraded home studio represents Think Media Music's northern outpost.
Viktor Janusev - Composer/Songwriter/Producer
Born in Macedonia, now residing in the UK, it's been quite a journey for this 28 year old. Brought up in a flat in Veles, central Macedonia (part of Yugoslavia back in the day), Vik has been exposed to music from an early age thanks to his big brother who still has an influence in his music style. Brought up in an era where music was becoming increasingly electronic, the first recording Vik bought was a cassette of the Experience album by the Prodigy. During his teenage years his listening spanned styles from American-flavoured modern punk (Green day, Offspring) to Dutch hardcore (Thunderdome, Earthquake). Never a fan of mellow music but always more on the aggressive side, from energetic dance beats to killer guitar riffs.
Vik plays electric guitar weekly in front of 600-1000 people, taking the crowd to another level with his performances. From his own 'Universe Studio' he is currently working on a DJ solo project as Christian08 and also as part of a punk band called Salt of the Earth.
In his own words: "History was made when I signed with TMM on the 25th of September 2008".
For more info, check out his first 2 debut albums: Good News and Out Of The Box.
Viktor also has several artist sites:
www.myspace.com/artistchr1stian08
www.reverbnation.com/chr1stian08
www.myspace.com/bandsaltoftheearth
www.purevolume.com/chr1stian08
www.reverbnation.com/saltoftheearth
Dayle Rodriguez/GamerAudio - Composer/Producer
 Photo: Pete Thorne (c)
http://petethorne.com/photo/
Dayle has had a long standing affinity and passion for music. From an early age he was encouraged in music and the performing arts, with various lessons and professional training in both mediums. It was often found that he would like to "do his own thing" with the abundance of creativity he had. Fast forward a few years and Dayle has become an accomplished guitarist and devoted much of his time towards video game music, specifically adaptive audio. These skills were sharpened during his time at the University of Portsmouth where he studied Entertainment Technology.
Dayle believes that over the years music has often taken a back seat during the development of the video games. In the past this was due to limitations in hardware and the general game play not requiring the level of complexity that today's modern games require, however, with the advent of new technologies video game music is now believed to be on par with Hollywood film music. Despite this, it can still be said that the implementation of the music and sound can still be improved. Depending on the genre of the game, transitions, loops and post processing effects can be used to a greater extent to provide a more immersive experience, whilst some of the traditional values of game music can be retained.
Dayle has many influences and strives to learn from all aspects and genres of music, in his personal life he has a very eclectic taste. However, when it comes to his compositions, it can be clearly heard that he is a fan of sweeping melodies, epic builds and grandiose symphonies. Artists such as Clint Mansell, Nobuo Uematsu, Johann Sebastian Bach, Gustav Holst are a strong influence in Dayle's musical style, as are many others.
Despite his personal preferences Dayle still strives to write in different genres and styles for a variety of other media, including TV and film, but if you want surreal and epic fantasy scores then look no further.
It is Dayle's dream to be on the vanguard of video game music, implementing the techniques of good musicianship and transition matrices to instigate a new era for game audio.
http://www.myspace.com/gameraudio
http://www.reverbnation.com/gameraudio
Paul Longland - Composer/Songwriter/Producer
Paul Tony Longland is a songwriter/composer. He has a well equipped recording studio, using Apple's Logic Pro music software mixed through a Yamaha 02R digital console providing exceptional sound quality.
Paul has recently relocated to the Dorset "Jurassic" Coast, an area of incredible natural beauty and renowned for giving inspiration to creative people, musicians, writers, and artists, where he has set up a state of the art studio to produce fine quality music of incredible diversity.
Drawing on his valued experience as a composer he is currently enjoying success as the writer and producer of the music in a major TV advertising campaign for Pantene Pro V Colour Essentials hair care product range. This key project was commissioned and coordinated by Jon Hall at Soho based music publisher Oomph Music.
Further demonstrating his musical diversity, he has successfully completed the production of Fransisca London’s debut album New Girl In Town for Miami-based Sunshine Sound Records. Paul has already achieved UK chart success with the song “Love me like you Do” featured on the debut single of Jonathan Wilkes released on EMI Innocent records March 2002 chart position 24. Previously he was involved in the success of UK pop/RnB act “Another Level” who recorded his song “Something To Live For” (produced by Rick Wake for BMG Northwestside records)
He also has worked with the singer Tiff Lacy who was the featured vocalist on the Paul Oakenfold single “Hypnotised” and has co-written many songs with successful UK writer/producer Peter Wright who was also involved in that project.
Other examples of co-writing/producing credits include;Rob Davis (Kylie, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Enrique Iglesias), for the song “Imagination” (also co-written with Peter Wright).
Paul has continued to add to his varied catalogue of songs and increase his scope of activities within the music industry. He is very excited about his involvement with Mark Hill who is an Ivor Novello winning writer/producer famous for his success with Craig David. Paul and Mark have co-written the songs “Summer Rain” and “Drive”.
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