“There’s nothing like being part of a moment that is unique to the cast, crew and audience who have all gathered to be involved in something magical for a few hours together before going back out into the world.”
By way of introduction, could you tell me a little bit about you and your musical background?
Like most people my age, my musical journey started with group recorder lessons in primary school, but despite most of my peers quitting as soon as they were allowed to, I kept going until the class of 30 had dwindled down to just me. When I realised being the best recorder player in year 5 wasn’t giving me the coolness I’d hoped for, I started to learn the guitar as well. The day before my 11 th birthday, having been learning on an old acoustic for about a year, my sister won the grand prize at the school raffle, a brand-new electric guitar. My parents dutifully bribed her and the next morning I started my career as a burgeoning rock god. As a teenager I’d listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers, Iron Maiden and Muse, learning every riff and solo that I could figure out, but I also found myself studying Jazz theory. I’d have guitar lessons with Jazz musician Jonathan Bratoeff and every weekend I’d play at the New Camden Jazz Ensemble led by Nikki Yeoh. On top of this I started to teach myself piano and had some drum lessons, I then went on to Leeds University to study Maths and Music as an undergraduate.
Maths and Music is interesting. Can you tell me why you chose to combine the two? How do they complement each other?
The boring answer is they were my two favourite A Level subjects, and I wanted to carry on with my musical education, whilst having the safety net of a “proper” subject in my degree. But whether it was subconscious at the time or not, the two fields do really complement each other in all sorts of ways. All music is based on different frequencies and the relationships between them. Notes are tuned to Hertz which basically means cycles (or repetitions) per second, an A above middle C is 440hz, the A an octave above that would be 880hz and to go up another octave you’d double the Hertz again.
If I’m in a rehearsal and need to transpose the key of a song to best fit a singer’s vocal range I’m essentially doing mental maths to change the chords from the old key to the new one, and maths at undergraduate level can become a lot more abstract and creative than the times tables and equations that you’d usually think of in relation to maths at school.
When did you first get involved in music for theatre? What was your first production and how did it come about?
Towards the end of my second year of university in the summer of 2012 I saw an ad from the music department, there was a student company called Hungry Bitches Productions taking an original musical “Facehunters” to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and they were in urgent need of a guitarist. I contacted the producer, a few days later I met the writer, Gez Mercer, and the MD for a short play through of the songs. A week later I was in full rehearsals, preparing for a month of shows at the Fringe. We did 3 summers at the Fringe with Facehunters and then another new musical “Americana”, which later became “Billie The Kid”, a musical which is still in development and had a short run at the Vaudeville Theatre in 2023.
Can you talk me through your work with OVO in the past? What productions have you worked on and how did your work with OVO specifically come about?
This Summer we are doing our 10th anniversary production of As You Like It, which also happens to be the first show I worked with OVO on. In 2016 I was a few years out of university, doing bar jobs and still working on Americana. OVO were offered a slot at the Minack after many years of waiting and needed a new MD for the show. A friend of mine recommended me to Adam, and he invited me to take on the role. As it was my first MD role for a production of that scale it was a steep learning curve, but it proved to be worth it as the show went on to win the Minack Award. I’ve worked on over 15 productions with
OVO since, with styles ranging from 50s Rock and Roll, through to 00s Folk, plus some Bluegrass and String Quintets along the way.
What do you think music, and specifically live music brings to a theatrical production?
Adding music to these well-known plays, especially the Shakespeare ones, helps to make them accessible and captivating for all audience members. It’s much easier to convey how a character is feeling through a song or with a particular underscore than just through the text alone. Most importantly music is fun, when there’s a live band on stage playing joyfully you can’t help but get swept up in it as an audience member. I love finishing a show with an encore of a classic hit that has the audience up singing and dancing alongside us (sometimes even on the stage).
Can you describe the style of the upcoming shows in a few sentences?
For As You Like It we’re in the Summer of Love, 1967, singing classics by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix and many more. The Importance of Being Earnest is set in the 1920s, so I’ll be arranging a whole host of modern songs into Postmodern Jukebox-style jazz covers, including possibly my favourite OVO song arrangement that I’ve done to date…
What is the best part of your job and why?
I love every aspect of creating these shows, it starts off almost like solving a puzzle, trying to find the perfect songs to fit a genre, convey the right message through the lyrics, and most importantly, also be entertaining. Then in rehearsals, collaborating with the actors and creative team always brings up new ideas and opportunities for humour within the show. Once we open it’s a joy to perform onstage every night and directly see the effect your work has on people, whether they are crying in the front row during an emotional scene or dancing in their seats along to a musical medley. There’s nothing like being part of a moment that is unique to the cast, crew and audience who have all gathered to be involved in something magical for a few hours together before going back out into the world. Then we go to the pub.
As You Like It is being performed at the OVO Roman Theatre Festival until 22nd August in St Albans. For bookings, please click the link below.