Strictly sE
Saturday 20th March 2010
Dan McGrath and Josh Phillips have scored some of the biggest TV themes out there including Strictly Come Dancing, I'd Do Anything and Any Dream Will Do. Now they've just scored big time with sE's Reflexion Filter. "It's phenomenal…", they say, simple as that…
Dan McGrath and Josh Philips have both been involved in the music business for many years albeit on different sides of the fence. Dan produced Chris Evans' radio shows from his time on Radio 1 to the infamous Virgin Radio stint. Josh, on the other hand, has played in many bands from Big Country to his current role as keyboard player with Procol Harum. Both had successfully produced music for TV in their own right, but after meeting nearly a decade ago they realized that their combined skills could pay dividends…
"We landed Strictly Come Dancing soon after we got together which is the most infamous bit of music we've done as a partnership," says Dan. "We pitched for it, landed it and went down the pub and got drunk as we realized it was quite a good show to get!"
Since then the duo have produced over 140 TV themes, covering a myriad of light entertainment, game shows and high profile, prime-time series, such as BBC's run of Andrew Lloyd Webber talent shows, (Maria, Any Dream will do, and I'd Do Anything). They both use sE's award-winning Reflexion Filter for a variety of tasks as Dan details:
"We actually used it yesterday on a Channel 4 celebrity tribute program.
A celebrity is at a table, and friends and other celebrities take the mick out of them. We've just done a spoof song for one of the celebrity guests, who's in a very high profile talent show. We did a Westlife type ballad and used the Reflexion Filter for that."
"It's one of those bits of kit you see around that makes perfect sense," he continues. "We've sound-proofed our vocal booth as much as possible but it's still fairly boomy. We could have spent a huge amount sorting it out but got the Reflexion Filter instead and it's phenomenal. Just hold it up to your face without a mic and talk into it and you realize why."
Josh adds: "I have one at home as well. I just formed another band with Jim Cregan from Rod Stewart's band and Cockney Rebel. He was pretty stunned by it - the difference when you put a pair of cans on, walk up to it and the room disappears is incredible. We also used it on some new Procol stuff for their new album that we've been demoing and it was fantastic, unbelievable… We were down at Gary Brooker's [Procol Harum] studio and he was amazed by it."
"And when we were rehearsing with Procol a couple of years ago," continues Josh, " we did some things with the Danish Radio Orchestra who are so technically advanced and they all had sE Reflexion Filters! It was incredible, all with their own feeds running!"
Josh and Dan have just completed music for McLaren F1's latest merchandising campaign, and are currently putting the finishing touches to the new Lloyd Webber Wizard Of Oz show (Over the Rainbow) for the BBC. You can find more information including the full and incredible list of shows the duo have composed for here: www.danandjosh.com.
Dan's background
"I trained as a TV sound engineer, cut my teeth mixing The Big Breakfast on Channel 4, met Chris Evans and followed him to the Radio 1 breakfast show. I produced Chris Evans on 1FM & Virgin Radio until 2001. Quite famously in the papers we were then all asked to leave! Evans was a great challenge for 10 years, but I didn't want to do any more radio at the time, so carried on writing music for TV and radio which I had been doing since TFI Friday and The Big Breakfast. I had a lot of contacts in the industry, got a few bits of work like Jonathan Ross' theme, was doing great but wanted to work with someone who would complement my skill set, and was put in contact with Josh."
Josh's background
"I started as a pro musician in 1981. My background was more performance based, recording and live touring. I've played in many bands over the years with acts as divers as heavy metal band Diamond Head to the American disco funk band Heatwave, later joining Big Country, then moving on to almost 10 years as Midge Ure's keyboard player. I've been Procol Harum's (A Whiter Shade Of Pale) Hammond organist for the last six years and we are about to embark on a major US tour in June 2010."
