TOP COMPOSER JOINS TEAM

One of the country’s most prolific composers of original music for film and television, Karl Steven, has agreed to write the music for Every Little Thing.

Karl, a key member of the popular 90s group Supergroove, has created soundtracks for many documentaries, commercials and TV shows.  Recent work includes the drama series 800 Words and telefeatures How To Murder Your Wife, Venus and Mars, and The Monster Of Mangatiti.  (PICTURED: Karl Steven in the studio. Photo – Paul Taylor)

“I consider myself extremely fortunate to have Karl on board,” says director John Harris. “Music is hugely important in any film, and Every Little Thing presents quite a challenge because it encompasses life and death, beetles and birds, love and deception. Not to mention a car crash and a supernatural encounter.

“Karl is the right man for this challenge. He’s a brilliant musician and an extremely perceptive composer. I like his quirky sense of humour, and he’ll bring a light and intelligent quality – and some extra magic – to Every Little Thing.”

LIKE A PARABLE

Karl says he aims to preserve and help set the “dreamy, almost magical mood” that surrounds Harry’s unusual experience, “as well as striking the balance between the subtle humour in Harry’s situation and his response to it, and their high natural and supernatural stakes.

“To me the story is something like a parable, so I’d also like to give it a sort of timeless quality.”

AWARD AND DOCTORATE

In 2013 Karl was the recipient of the APRA PDA award for film and television and attended the celebrated ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop at New York University. During a break from full-time music work, Karl studied philosophy at the University of Auckland, and completed a PhD in Ancient Greek and Roman Philosophy at Trinity College Cambridge.

Karl is the son of a filmmaker and a writer, and trained as a sound engineer on both tape and digital media. He has a passion for the marriage of music, imagery and story-telling.

POLICE DRAMA

Karl’s earlier work includes the score and music supervision for Desert Road Films’ acclaimed police drama series Harry (a finalist for best original music in a TV series – APRA Silver Scrolls 2014), and the score for South Pacific Pictures’ drama The Blue Rose.

Karl is one the creative sparks behind Auckland’s “surf-noir weirdos”, The Drab Doo-Riffs. He collaborated with iconic New Zealand guitarist the late Ben Tawhiti on the soundtrack to Nova Paul’s experimental short film This Is Not Dying, which has screened at the George Pompidou Centre in Paris.