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Oliver Daniel Nicholls
@OllieDNmusic – Composer, Performer, Teacher
February 19, 2015 by OllieDNmusic on Uncategorized
'Lost' – Idea for a Game theme
I created a theme for a game called 'Lost' in early 2014 to test out ideas and experiment with what I could do with the technology available to me. I created it using Cubase and ProTools and a Roland FP7F keyboard.
'Lost' came about because I wanted to test my composition and mixing skills to see how much I could enhance the tension in the music. I did not compose to a brief. It is called 'Lost' because it sounds like someone who is scared and running. It would work better as a theme for a game because it is linear – starting quiet, getting louder to the climax and ending quiet again. From this I learnt many new tricks in the mixing world and I will keep improving on these skills more and more with each new project I take on.
All Music by Oliver Daniel Nicholls 2014
January 5, 2015 by OllieDNmusic on Uncategorized
'The Big Day' song
I composed this song at about the same time I wrote 'Do You Love Me' when I was 15. I recorded it during my first year at University. Like the song 'Upside Down' I uploaded recently, I still feel that much more can be done with 'The Big Day' in regards to mixing. The main problem I have with it is that I don't know exactly how it should sound, so I keep changing all the settings of all the tracks and the master mix to see if I prefer it or not. I could spend forever on this so I decided the last mix I've done is the final version and it is as good as it is going to get. If I re-recorded it I would take out a chorus or something because I feel it does get a bit repetitive at times. Anyway give it a listen below! 🙂
The song is about somebody who can't sleep and is up all night worrying that something might go wrong at their wedding the next day.
Lyrics and music by Oliver Daniel Nicholls (OllieDN) 2010
Lead vocals, Backing vocals, Piano and Synths by Oliver Daniel Nicholls
Lead and Rhythm Guitar and Bass Guitar by Michael Price
Drums by Mark Vincent
Recorded and Produced by Oliver Daniel Nicholls (OllieDN)
(Drums recorded by Michael Price)
December 19, 2014 by OllieDNmusic on Uncategorized
'Upside Down' song
This is one of a few of my own songs I recorded during my first year of University. I hadn't had much experience mixing or recording at this point. The first song I mixed is a song called 'I don't really care'. I spent hours and hours mixing this one although it was all experimenting… I listened to it the other day and I can do a much better job of it now. I plan to come back to it at some point and start the mixing again from scratch. I still think 'Upside Down' can be improved but I can be too much of a perfectionist€¦ And there has to come a point where I sit back and say it is finished. So this is the final version.
The song is about somebody who was in a desperate situation in their life. However their world was turned upside down when they met somebody who brought them hope, and laughter too. They were brought out of their sadness and learnt to appreciate life again.
Lead vocals and Piano by Oliver Daniel Nicholls
December 3, 2014 by OllieDNmusic on Uncategorized
Undergraduate Composition Dissertation Portfolio Project
For my University undergraduate dissertation I am doing a composition portfolio and research based around music for video-games. I am composing music for a video-game lead by Harrk, who is programming a game for his own undergraduate dissertation.
I have set up this Tumblr Account primarily as a place to compilate research I have carried out, and discuss the process of how I have composed the music. There will be loads of videos, links to websites that I find useful, and research from different kinds of sources.
November 27, 2014 by OllieDNmusic on Uncategorized
'I Need Help' song
Lyrics never usually flow straight away for me. Usually it's the music that comes first and the lyrics come after. However with 'I Need Help' the lyrics and music came together. The funny thing is that when I wrote it I was actually stuck with some homework at the time (I was about 15 years old). I went to play the piano and mess around on it as I do, and thought it would be amusing to sing about struggling to do homework… It is the only song I have ever written where the lyrics and music just poured out. Just like that. I quickly got a pen and wrote them down as I went along. At the time it was really funny and I didn't take it seriously. I still don't really but people loved it and remembered us because of that song, so we decided to record it.
Lead vocals and Bass Guitar by Lewis Spring
Piano and backing vocals by Oliver Daniel Nicholls
Lead and Rhythm Guitar by Simon Nicholls
Drums by Leo Petrokofsky
Recorded and Produced by Alex Hehir
'Do You Love Me' music video
'Do You Love Me' is about unrequited love involving two teenagers, one of whom is desperate for his love to be returned. The band members represent his conscience getting him to try several different approaches but he still fails to win her heart. It was really fun to write and to film!
OllieDN – Do You Love Me music video
Video recorded and produced by James Quayle 2012, who has now gone on to run his own company Warpline Films.
Lead and Rhythm Guitar and backing vocals by Simon Nicholls
Bass Guitar and backing vocals by Lewis Spring
Michael Jacobs
Rhianna Holdershaw
'Do you love me' song
The song 'Do you love me' is one of the very first songs I wrote with lyrics when I was about 15 years old. I thought I would come up with a song that has a serious and meaningful subject, but at the same time is fun and playful.
The song is about unrequited love involving two teenagers, one of whom is desperate for his love to be returned. The lyrics show this guys's obsession with a girl he has a crush on but she does not love him back.
August 22, 2014 by OllieDNmusic on Uncategorized
PeteScriv – The Lover
Okay so this is a very funky original song by PeteScriv that has much character. It was recorded around May 2013. I really enjoyed playing saxophone in this song. The harmonies between the trumpet and saxophone are very nice (and in my opinion could be louder in parts of the mix). Anyway it is definitely worth a listen:
Lyrics and Music by Pete Scriv
Lead vocals by Sian Magill
Alto saxophone by Oliver Daniel Nicholls
Tenor Saxophone by Anthony Wilson
Trumpet by Jack Finney
Guitar by Pete Scrivener
Bass by Ed Rixon
Johnny Foreigner – The last Queens of Scotland music video
This is something random and fun that I got involved in at uni I thought I'd share. It was a project my mates did for one of their uni modules. The idea was to create a music video with very little time, no budget and hardly any previous experience. It turned out pretty well considering these factors!
Anyway the video is a song by Johnny Foreigner, an indie-rock band based in Birmingham.
'The last Queens of Scotland' is about a mad creature that enjoys killing bins, cutting their hearts out and doing some pretty weird things with it if you ask me! (I'm the bin in the video… Was very random running around a park in a sweaty bin costume that I couldn't see out of all day…)
Video Directed and Produced by Matt Ainsley and Guy Crossley 2014
Music and Faces by Johnny Foreigner
Masked man played by Jamie Loyn
Bin man played by Oliver Daniel Nicholls
Vagabond Legacy
Take a look at this game that I have done music for the game developer Harrk in the summer of 2014:
I have written music to set the scene in a dungeon setting. The character in the game is trying to escape from the dungeon where there are loads of monsters preventing them from leaving the dungeon. I hadn't played many dungeon games before so I installed and played a couple of other dungeon games to hear what other composers had done. I found a trend in musical style between the games which then influenced me to get across a similar feeling. I enjoy making my work unique and creative so I put my own stamp on it.
I have also composed some music for the grass scene to reflect a lighter feel.
The game hasn't yet been released yet! Here is a video of some of the gameplay with the music:
All music in this video by Oliver Daniel Nicholls
Wawow! Music
February 2016 Nature Photo selection
Thame Players promotional video music
January 2016 Nature Photo selection
Undergraduate Composition Dissertation
Casper WP by Lacy Morrow