[Eirik Myhr]

What a great thread!

Music has always been in my life, as I was drumming on cardboard boxes and improvising melodies before I could talk. Using the full size drum kit my parents were loving enough (or stupid enough, depending on who you ask) to get me as a Christmas present when I was five, combined with my parents’ piano, my sister’s Casio synthesizer and my voice, I created hundreds of lo-fi cassette tapes with questionable material.

The music I listened to as a kid was pretty diverse – my dad (kind of a music geek) was playing a lot of Frank Zappa, which I today regard as a genius composer. I got really into Genesis, both their 70s prog rock days and their 80s pop-flavoured periods. I still enjoy all those albums more than ever, and know them word for word, note for note. But in the early 90s I also liked some of the harder kinds of rock that was emerging, like Nirvana and Rage Against the Machine.

My way into film music was probably through gaming, as I was not really interested in movies as a kid. I remember also watching a lot of TV series and noticing the name Mike Post appearing in almost every one of them – funny that I’m not alone in this! But around the time I turned 10 (early 90s), I got really into PC games, and in particular, those wonderful point-and-click adventure games from LucasArts and Sierra. I am still in awe of all those great LucasArts soundtracks by the likes of Michael Z. Land and Peter McConnell, especially. The music of SAM & MAX HIT THE ROAD (1993) might have some small part in making jazz my primary music interest from this point and throughout my teenage years, which was very much appreciated by my dad, but totally frowned upon by every other 10 year old in my class, obviously. After a while, I discovered that LucasArts (or Lucasfilm Games as it was originally called) was a daughter company of Lucasfilm, and that there was this thing called STAR WARS…

I rented and watched the STAR WARS Original Trilogy on VHS, and was hooked for life. Later, in 1997 when the Special Editions were released, I bought all the double disc releases, listened to them all while reading the liner notes with great care… Suddenly I understood that all these themes I’ve heard countless times (and not just the main theme and the Imperial March) actually MEANT something, that nothing was random. Every rendition of every theme had a distinct meaning, and John Williams was indeed a genius. Something clicked in my head, and I knew that somehow, I had to be a film composer. I was now 15.

I don’t really know how to tell the rest of the story. While going to a music-oriented high school and later studying music at University in the early 2000s, I played in a lot of different bands as drummer, keyboard player and singer, but still had this solo thing going on where I created instrumental music which was more geared towards film music, even though I still did not listen to a lot of film music actively, other than John Williams. After a while I started taking notice that I also really loved Danny Elfman’s music, especially his more mature work like BIG FISH (2003). John Williams’ music of the STAR WARS prequels also still stand for me as some of his most interesting work, in addition to many of his more experimental 2000s scores like A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (maybe my single biggest favourite of his to this day).

I’ve now been a composer for theatre, film and TV since 2006. I’ve also listened to more film scores than I did as a kid. In addition to Williams and Elfman, I also really enjoy some scores by Mancini, Zimmer, Menken, Silvestri, and I also like some works by Desplat and Giacchino, though I can’t say I know their portfolio that much. I am hardly a film music encyclopedia like many of you guys are! These days, I probably listen the most to classical music – Grieg, Dvořák, Ravel, Fauré and Bach in particular. But also Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns and others. I know that many of these have been inspirations to many of our greatest film composers, and getting more into their music, it’s not hard to understand why. Grieg’s PEER GYNT (1876!) is a complete 90 minute-ish epic theatre score, with some of the most wonderful themes imaginable, and not that far from a film score at all. For anyone curious, just let me know if you want to know which recordings to start with, as that kind of thing makes a BIG difference in classical music. It quickly becomes an obsession to find the performance and the recording that you find the most “right”…

As for my own music, I will try to let you know about new releases, hopefully without spamming too much.