I first met director Philip Curry on a chilly February afternoon in 2024. 

My friend, actor Bar Reddin, had secured a role in Philip's film ‘Reputation’ and had passed my details on to him in case he would require a composer for his work. Something I'm very thankful to him for. Bar had let me know in passing, and a few days later I received an email from Philip. We arranged to meet up in Dublin at TCD and I arrived way too early, so took a walk around my old childhood haunts and grabbed a coffee to while away the time.

3pm sharp, I knocked on his office door and I knew I'd met an enthusiastic and instantly likeable man. He was in full on creative mode and was between shots so much, that some of the set had been placed in the office for the moment, and we shared a laugh as I manoeuvred my way into a chair after a handshake and an, almost telepathic, “Great name!” joke, which immediately put me at ease.

He explained the film's intriguing premise and showed me a couple of fabulous photos, dark and moody, which mirrored the internal struggle of the film's main protagonist, Ben, with PTSD and the ensuing “Word Substitution Disorder”, which is interpreted to brilliant effect through Philip's script and the onscreen work of actor Paul Nugent. Harrowing, thought provoking with a sprinkling of some brilliant wry humour. I was immediately on board.

As an aside, I've been very lucky with the directors I have worked with. Of course there's always one or two that will be a little more “difficult” to collaborate with, but thankfully Philip was hugely, the former.

He was clear and concise with his direction. He wanted a BIG, dramatic title. And I was delighted with this, as he gave me his blessing to “Hans Zimmer” it. I believe this was a case of Philip just being a great director. He was allowing me to get the BIG sounds out of my head to make room for the more thoughtful, restrained music that would make up the rest of the film. There was also some extreme and surprising sound design ideas, that were completely out of my comfort zone, but I never felt uncomfortable, or any sort of shortcoming myself, at tackling them. He's a super collaborator and again, provided ideas and sounds that he had found to keep me on course. Philip had split the film into a number of pieces over a number of weeks so we could focus on it, in chapters, and not overlook the minute details.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project, and I'm excited to see the completed film. I can't wait for other people to see it too. 

There will be two showings of it, in The Lighthouse Cinema, Smithsfield in Dublin on the 13th and 21st May. I'll leave the link for tickets HERE. 

You can find the OFFICIAL WEBSITE HERE.

And here is a taste of the main theme:

As always, thank you for reading, and following my journey.

Stay happy, stay healthy,

Phil.