Ah, you want to hear some sound design?
Okay.
Here are some samples of my work:
“What am I Called?”
From Rockabye
Joanna Murray-Smith’s play about Sidney Jones, an aging 80’s popstar, features reverential descriptions of Sidney’s greatest song, an optimistic, mid-80’s cri de coeur that ranks among the best pop anthems of all time. Never one to shy from a challenge, I wrote music and lyrics that would capture not only Sidney in her prime, but also one of the central conflicts of the play.
“an interview with my ex-boyfriend”
For this piece, selected to be presented in the ADC’s 2021 Level UP Digital Art Gallery, I turned the transcript of a real Zoom call with my first ex-boyfriend into a musical verbatim theatre piece.
“Love, Love, Love”
from CHekhov’s Shorts
I wrote the music and lyrics for this production, which married Chekhov’s short plays with vaudevillian, music hall aesthetic. In this opening number, the vaudevillians debate the show’s big question: is love worth it?
“This is Box 4901”
from Box 4901
In this piece from my Dora Award-winning score, dreamy synths, melancholy chords and samples of 90’s divas set the stage for a tenderly nostalgic theatrical memoir.
“Mourning”
from Venus & Adonis
This emotional fusion of opera and electronica was featured in the dance theatre adaptation of Shakespeare’s epic poem, presented at the 2021 Toronto Digital Fringe. “Pilgrims’ Chorus” from Wagner’s Tannhäuser is sampled.
“Tomato Sauce Prologue”
from In the Continuum
This energetic overture established the play’s continent-spanning storytelling, incorporating samples and rhythms of both Zimbabwean folk music and American club hip hop.
Vocal Arrangements
These a capella arrangements of contemporary pop songs showcase my affinity for rich, complex and emotionally resonant vocal arrangement.
Jokes
Check out these jokes I told over a smooth, original Laugh-In-style soundtrack. But don’t tell my ex-wife about it, or you’re dead meat.
More Highlights
For further listening, check out these selections from my theatre work.
My work is energetic, detailed, surprising and emotional.
I’m a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and I’m proud to create Canadian art.
I believe empathy is the key to a positive workspace and to excellent work.
I believe design is an interpretive act: my job is to illuminate and clarify the intention of the author or creator.
My electronic toolset makes my work adaptable to many genres and media.
I’m gay, and it’s been my recent pleasure to lend my work to storytelling that centres queer experiences. I’m still open to working with straight people if they’re nice, though.
Here are some projects I’ve worked on:
Diva Discography
Wherever You Get Your Podcasts
This podcast takes deep dives into the careers of music icons past and present. I edit, co-produce and co-host the entirely independent show, which has amassed thousands of downloads. Each episode features my original theme music.
Rockabye
ARC
This dramedy centred on Sidney Jones, a washed-up 80s popstar. I created a catalogue of music to evoke not only the hits from her prime, but also her slowly disintegrating present-day world.
Easy as PiE
James And Jamesy Productions
Although the iconic clown duo initially brought me on board as a sound designer for their new play, my involvement in the piece’s development earned me a co-writer credit. Easy As Pie earned rave reviews at Fringe Festivals in Winnipeg, Orlando and Toronto.
Gilgamesh And the Man of the Wild
Soulpepper/US Tour
This seriocomic international collaboration used sound and music—both live and pre-recorded—to transport audiences from a stylized Mesopotamia of ancient myth to the set of a Hollywood blockbuster and back to contemporary Toronto.
CHEKHOV’S SHOrts
Guild Festival Theatre
Tyler Seguin’s adaptation of four of Chekhov’s short comedies featured a full suite of my original songs and accompanying underscore, which blended Baltic folk music with comic music-hall songwriting. I also served as music director for the production.
Venus & ADonis
Theatre Oculus
This half-hour dance piece, inspired by Shakespeare's epic poem and presented at the 2021 Toronto Digital Fringe Festival, entices the listener with ethereal choirs and slamming four-to-the-floor beats. Sampled throughout is Wagner's opera Tannhäuser, which, like Venus & Adonis, tells a story of the amorous goddess falling in unreciprocated love with a mortal.
Russian Golf
GDL GAME Jam 2o21
This puzzle platformer video game was created in 72 hours by an international team for the 2021 Game Developer’s League Game Jam. It includes my detailed sound design, my original Russian-folk-inspired score, and my bravura voice performance as all eight soaring matryoshka dolls. The v1.0 prototype can be accessed here: tripleseven.itch.io/russian-golf
With Aunt Sheila
Bad Dog Comedy TV
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bad Dog Theatre Company produced a full slate of live-streamed content, including this improvised chat show, which features my zippy original theme music for its opening titles and recurring segments.
Box 4901
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
This tender, meditative memoir set both in the present and in 1993 was scored by throbbing synthesizers, distant club beats, and melancholy reworks of Céline Dion hits. This design won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Sound Design/Composition.
A Very Leila Christmas
Conrad Centre for the Performing Arts
Persian diva Leila experiences her first Christmas as a Canadian citizen in this cabaret-style extravaganza, supported by an original score and brand-new hip hop remixes of carolling standards.
Mary of Shanty Bay
Theatre By the Bay
In this historical epic, a frontierswoman encounters vibrant wildlife, sails stormy waters and braves her first Canadian winter backed by a lush sound design and an original score inspired by Canada’s earliest surviving sheet music.
In the Continuum
Obsidian Theatre (Workshop)
This searing drama set in Harare, Zimbabwe and South Central Los Angeles was enhanced by an original score, evocative ambient sound design, and remixed hip hop, Afrobeats and folk songs from both Africa and North America.
Thunderfoot
International Fringe Tour
This Nordic fable featured sweeping Disney-style ballads, a sprightly original score, and an enchanting fairy-tale soundscape.
Fake Nerd Girl
Toronto Festival of Clowns
This comic solo show saw its titular superhero encountering fierce dragons, anthropomorphized computer viruses and even Captain Picard himself thanks to an energetic sound design. Her bombastic theme music helped make this show an audience favourite.
The Good Dr. Holmes & His Children of God
Theatre Passe Muraille
Warped musical instruments, distorted cries, and haunting, expressionistic soundscapes put audiences inside the disintegrating mind of a historical serial killer.
Love Me Forever Billy H. Tender
Videofag
This dystopian pop prophecy, which also presented at the New York Fringe, featured a full album’s worth of original futuristic dance pop and an electro-nightmare sound design.
The Life of Jude
Summerworks
This faux-biblical parable featured a massive ensemble performing original music in a variety of genres, often a capella.
Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada
Winner of a Dora Mavor Moore Award (2020)
2x semifinalist in the International Songwriting Competition (2020, 2021)
Very cool and interesting guy