The good folks of Scream Street (the series I wrote the music for) ran a student competition to story board some 1-minute shorts, and the winners' boards were used to make a series of delightful shorts based around Dig & Lulu. I approached the music in a Laurel & Hardy-esque way, as the shorts are reminiscent of those early slapstick silent movies.

You can find out more about them here, and watch them on YouTube here.

It was such a thrill to be invited to talk to Wez Allard on Skwigly's animation podcast series: Animation Composed. Skwigly has been my go to website for animation news for a long time, and if you're interested in animation it's well worth checking out. 

​You can listen to the podcast below (I'm around 52 minutes in, but it's a cracking podcast if you want to listen to the whole thing).

​Source (with bio info and track listing): Skwigly website

Last week saw the Scream Street production team get together to celebrate the enormous undertaking that was Scream Street series 1.

It was great to catch up with people I knew and worked with, as well as people I hadn't yet met, like animators, the CGI team, prop makers, some BBC people and more. The series needed around 60 people to happen, so it was good to celebrate the achievement with a lot of them. Fingers crossed for series 2!

​p.s. the photo below was taken later on, so beer may have been imbibed!

It's important to celebrate the small victories.

Today the last episode of Scream Street series 1 was signed off. I'm incredibly proud to have worked on this amazing stop-motion series, and thankful to be given the opportunity. Fingers crossed for series 2!

Although it's the start of a new year, my part in series 1 of Scream Street will soon come to a close. I've enjoyed my time on the show...well, I have a couple of months yet so I'll save it until then. Needless to say it's already busy!

By the way, you are reading this blog post on my website. I tend to post here every so often, and my new year resolution is to post here every more often. However, I use social media for everyday posts; so if you want to know the Norwegian for 'Scream Street', or find out where my music is being used around the world, then please do join me on Facebook and / or Twitter. And if you already do, tell your friends! I tend to keep posts music-related, so you won't find any political rantings (there's enough of that around already).

I hope you're having a good start to the year too, and hopefully see you on TwitFace.

​Gareth

So Christmas is coming. Since I made the leap to composing music for a living I have experienced a large collection of firsts. My first directorship of a company, my first studio set up, my first paid composing job, my first album, my first EP, my first short film soundtrack, my first track on TV, my first TV series...it's important to celebrate the small victories, they are all markers and memories on the journey.

​Tomorrow I have another first, and I'm still pinching myself about it. The Christmas special for the series I'm currently working on - Scream Street - is being aired. A double episode called 'The Grumpus', it's being repeated a couple of times, one of which is on Christmas Day. For me that's like my childhood and my passion for music aligning; the future and the past colliding. Some may think that 'making it' means fame and fortune, but for me it's getting up on Christmas Day and knowing the fruits of my labour are being enjoyed by kids all around the country.

Happy Christmas everyone, I hope you get what you wish for too.

Gareth

p.s. The show times for the Christmas double episode are:

Thursday 15th December at 6pm on CBBC.
Wednesday 21st December at 11.35am on CBBC
Sunday 25th December at 9.10am on CBBC

For 90% of my time I hide away in my music cave contributing to the storytelling of Scream Street, so it was so nice today to: a) see daylight, and b) go and see some Howl'oween action at Chessington World of Adventures. 

It was a really fun day, and I even dared to have a Scream Street burger. A great day out, with something for everyone - it's back to work tomorrow on the latest batch of Scream Street episodes. If you're looking for something to do with the kids this half term, head on over!

​In the meantime, you can catch up with some Scream Street episodes here...

I really enjoyed writing the music to these 1-minute Scream Street 'bites' about Dig & Lulu. Based on the storyboards of student competition winners. Enjoy!