Joe Glasman

Joe Glasman is a British composer, songwriter and music producer, specialising in the fields of score to picture and audio branding.[1] He has received 30 international awards for his work, including Clios, Mobius and D&ADs.

In his early career, he was contracted as an apprentice in-house producer for Red Bus records.[2] During this time he worked with artists such as Imagination, Ray Dorset, Graham Gouldman[3] and Andrew Gold, the Techno Twins [4][5] (with whom he recorded ‘Foreign Land’ - a West Coast dance hit) and the French band, Indochine.[6] With Indochine he produced the album 7000 Danses at Air Montserrat and their live album ‘Indochine au Zenith’, as well as mixing their No.1 Singles ‘Troisieme Sexe’ and ‘Canary Bay’. His work at this time also included TV and Film credits, including additional scoring on Superman IV and the Death Wish movies as well as performances of modern classical work at the Wigmore Hall. During this period he received several Gold record awards.

Once out of contract, he prioritised his career as a composer. He soon received commissions, composing the score for the performance installation at the British Pavilion at the Seville Expo in 1992, writing the theme music for many TV shows including the long-running news quiz ‘Today’s the Day’ and inaugural music for the reopening of the Earth Galleries in South Kensington.

Having acquired high value modern studio production techniques he found himself at the leading edge of a new wave of composers re-defining music for commercials in terms of a modern filmic vocabulary in contrast to the prevailing culture at the time of sung 'jingles', particularly instigating the use of layering of live performance and abstract sampled and synth sound integrated with sound design, an approach still heard on many original music scores today. Notable examples of his work include the series of iconic Boddingtons commercials,[7] directed by Daniel Kleinman which brought Melanie Sykes to celebrity prominence, for which he received a Best Original Music Clio award. He has also produced and arranged award-winning music for a controversial set of road safety commercials for the Department of the Environment, including 'Mess'[8] and 'Classroom'. The latter film, broadcast in July 2014, quickly achieved four million hits on YouTube.[9][10] Other global and UK brands for which he has written include Volvo, Ford, Samsung, Carlsberg, Mercedes, Exxon, Dove, Chrysler, Shell, Orange and Sainsburys.

Having been commissioned regularly by the branding agency Lambie-Nairn at a time when that company redefined the nature of Channel Branding, he became acquainted with the processes of branding and the principles by which they might be applied in broadcast media. As a result he has become a leading figure in the area of audio branding. His clients have included BBC Sport, BBC Film, Chinese State Television (CCTV9), the Prince’s Trust, BBC World Service News, RTE2, Exxon (We’re Drivers Too), UBS, La7 and La7, UKTV channels (misc), PBS Europe, BT Vision, BBC4, Sky Movies and Sky Italia.

He is the managing director and head composer of Music Production company Hum in London and the Humtracks Music Production Library.[11]

Awards

References