Gutterboy Suite

I was born in 1976 and spent my first years in Cornwall while my father helped set up the Sawmills Studios on the river Fowey. A couple of years later we moved to London where I have lived (on and off) ever since. My dad, Phil, has spent his career in the music business - firstly in the 70's band Sailor, and then in the 80's with Culture Club. Because of this I had an awesome childhood including lots of travel and meeting some incredibly interesting and famous musicians.

I went to St James Independent School for Boys and was very lucky to go to a school that took music, and the performance of music, very seriously with performances of Mozart's Requiem, Mass in C minor and Purcell's Te Deum at our end of year concerts. It ignited a huge passion for classical music within me and frustrated at St James's lack of music A-level, I attended Richmond-upon-Thames college where I was taught music theory by George Selman. George was an amazing teacher and liked nothing more than ripping up the curriculum and starting from fresh. Sadly George passed away just before we were to sit our final exam - but his influence and approach has remained wiith me ever since.

After college I studied composition at Exeter University under Phil Grange (himself a student of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies). It was an interesting time for me - observing a modern school of music intellectualism. Personally, creatively speaking, I found it restrictive and left after a year to move into my dad's studio while he took a sabatical. Here I put together 2 trip hop albums (Melatonin and Freetrader) and released them under the pseudonym The Legendary Danny K. The release of these albums also coincided with the launch of mp3.com - a digital platform that allowed anyone that could encode an mp3 the ability to upload their material into a global chart. Royalties were paid everytime the track was played or downloaded and a number of tracks from these albums were successful and though largely ignored by the industry, allowed TLDK to be something of a global brand selling downloadable digital content in over 100 countries worldwide.

I would go on to release 5 other albums under this pseudonym - We are one, Space Breaks, The Drop, Nightshift and Big Plans and in 2002 signed a licensing deal with Carlin Music ® for sync use in TV, film and radio. Ever since I have been passionate about using the web as a platform for independent music delivery. I keep everything I earn (rather than the typical 8%) and have enjoyed creative freedom to do what I will (those that know me tell me this is all I am really capable of anyway!).

In 2006 I started to write purely orchestral music again and, at this current point in time, this is what I spend most of my time working on. I have put this new website together to showcase this work which I have (mostly) put together on my apple laptop running Logic 9 - and lots of help from good friends I have made in the industry, and most of all my beautiful girlfriend Lizzie who patiently puts up with all the turkeys that never see the light of day ;)

Please do get in touch if there is anything you hear that you wish to comment on - I am very much a gun for hire and would love to hear particularly about any film projects (big or small).