Metamorphosis

After hearing my debut album, the directors of Arcadia got in touch asking if I could help out musically with an exciting new stage show they were creating for Glastonbury 2015. The Arcadia stage is focused on cutting edge electronic dance music, featuring the world’s biggest name DJs over the renowned 4 day festival at Pilton Farm. Combining huge pyrotechnics, futuristic lighting and projections, and a highly tuned 360 degree sound-system, all built around a 50ft high spider sculpture built from recycled military equipment; it’s easily one of the most talked about stages at the festival with its awe-inspiring presence and visual impact. Personally, the Arcadia stage was something that I had wanted to write music for since I had first seen it back in 2010, so this was an opportunity that I was very excited to be working on.

Initially, we met in London to discuss the project. Over a cup of coffee, a sketch was drawn on the back of a till receipt that gave the timings and description of what was to be an interactive theatre style performance (a very artistically drawn stick man, spider, arrows and some rough notes). With this in hand and a load of ideas running around my head, I returned to the studio and began putting ideas down.

A week later a sent over my first draft, which was a 20-minute piece of music that combined all the elements we had discussed in our meeting. They loved the piece and took it to the first rehearsals to perform with the choreographer and acrobats.

After this it was re-briefed following a feedback session, and I was told that they had really wanted to use a track from my album, titled ‘Nibiru’. This track is a hybrid electronic, hip hop and rock track, that also features The City Of Prague Philharmonic orchestra, so has a very intense cinematic, theatrical sound.

They requested a newly composed 3-minute introduction to this piece, and then have my track reworked and extended to create a 12 minute piece of music.

I re-arranged the music I had written for my demo and combined it with the Nibiru piece, totally reworking the tempo, key, and arrangement. A lot of sound design and additional elements went into the production, including contingency tracks that could be played ‘on-the-fly’, if there were issues in the live performance that meant the music needed to be ‘paused’ effectively, but without any silence.

After some minor timing tweaks following further rehearsals, the track was completed and I sent off the final mix to the mastering engineer.

The Metamorphosis show was performed each day of Glastonbury festival, before the headline act of the night. It was a huge success all around, and the show has been the main fixture of the Arcadia Spectacular performances ever since.

The show was subsequently performed in Bristol, and the performance won the TPI award for ‘Best Live Production 2016’, from a top 5 short list that included Ed Sheeran, U2, AC/DC, and Take That.