Grateful to be a part of the incredible team developing the new animated comedy-satire series “Atlantis Rocks”! Check out the great article from Deadline about the process so far:
https://deadline.com/2024/05/atlantis-rocks-cast-phil-lamarr-tara-strong-vico-ortiz-1235907870/
Read MoreHi friends!
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve just released a new EP of original music. “The Sky Is Their Cathedral” is available on Apple Music, Spotify, and pretty much everywhere music is sold.
I’m incredibly proud of this record, and owe many thanks to all of the great friends who made this dream a reality. Here are the champions of these songs:
I hope you check out the new tunes and that you love them! Check back soon with some stories about the songs and the recording process.
Cheers!
DH
Read MoreHowdy folks!
I am absolutely thrilled to announce that Musicbed and myself are taking our relationship to the next level. They offered me a rose and I accepted it. I am now joining their roster of Exclusive Artists!
Musicbed has been an incredible partner to me over the last several years, and has enabled me to continue composing and producing music that I’m passionate about. You’ve always had the opportunity to license my music through TMB, but now you’ll also have access to my songs via their Subscription service and some other goodies as well.
Check out my catalog on Musicbed today!
Hope you all have a lovely day.
Cheers, DH
Read MoreWell, hello there!
I thought it might be nice to have a catalog of different film festivals that my music has been included in through various projects. I’ll keep updating this post along the way, and (hopefully) it’ll turn in to a fun little time capsule!
ACCEPTED:
IN CONSIDERATION:
Cheers, DH
Read MoreHi friends!
I wanted to take a moment to welcome you to the new website. Please pardon the dust as I’m continuing to finalize everything here. Hope you enjoy browsing around, and make sure to check out some of the updated features!
Speaking of updates, be sure to check out this playlist of music from some of the projects I’ve recently scored. A list of the included works is below.
DHM RECENT WORKS 2019
Thanks for stopping by…come back soon!
Cheers, DH
Read MoreHi, friends!
Hopefully, 2019 is off to a tremendous start for you and yours! I wanted to let you all know that I’ve just released a brand new full-length album, “Wandering”. This project was a TON of work. It’s the longest release (about an hour and ten minutes of music!) that I’ve done to date, and I’m so excited to share it with y’all!
Click here to download the album from iTunes, but it’s also available on other digital platforms (like Spotify, Amazon, etc).
A very special thank you to Drew Lavyne, who mastered these songs brilliantly…and to my lovely wife Mary who created the album photography/artwork. I am so thankful!
Enjoy the music, and have a great day!
Cheers!
DH
Read MoreHappy release day, everyone! Thrilled that “The Frontier”, my new 3-song EP, is released out into the world for all to hopefully enjoy. You can check it out on iTunes or Amazon Music, and most streaming sites as well. For you filmmakers and video gurus, you can license the music over at The Music Bed! Exciting times!
I wanted to make sure I give credit to the amazing people who made this new music possible. When I look back on how it all came together, I’m really blown away and overwhelmed with gratitude. As discussed in my previous post, music COSTS…and especially in this season of life, every penny counts…so it is really humbling to be able to work with people who give such great care and attention to your music (as well as your budget). Without further adieu, here are the geniuses that made my music so lovely:
Miriam Mayer: violin, viola
Simone Vitucci: cello
Sarah Wilkinson: french horn
Matt Adkins: acoustic guitar
Josef Mirakovits: acoustic guitar engineering
Scott Michael Smith: strings engineering, mixing
Drew Lavyne: mastering
Mary Fortson-Harwell: artwork
The experiment and the process. This EP was always a bit of an experiment, and at times I was very nervous about how it was going to turn out. With our move, my budget for new music was basically cut in half. (I talked a bit about working with the limitations in my last post). I also wanted to use the opportunity to try and start building a bit of a community here in Los Angeles. But where to start? And when every cent counts, it became quite a stressful experience trying to find the right team for this project.
Enter Facebook. Yes, Facebook. I joined a Facebook forum for composers in all stages of their careers (from beginners to Hans Zimmer…yes, THAT Hans Zimmer). I connected with Scott through this forum after he posted offering to give some mix feedback to composers who needed it. We grabbed coffee, talked about my EP and he really helped get the ball rolling. Scott recorded the violin/viola/cello at his house and also mixed the entire EP.
Now to find the players. Again, enter this Facebook forum. Miriam is an administrator of the Facebook group, a prolific film composer, and a wonderful violinist. Through her we were able to figure out that she’d record violin and viola, and recommend a cellist. That cellist happened to be Simone (who you recently heard as a featured soloist on the score for Blade Runner 2049). The sessions went great…we did violin/viola with Miriam one evening, and then cello with Simone the next evening.
For french horns, I turned to Sarah…she’s recorded on several of my previous songs and I’m a huge fan. Fantastic playing and really wonderful to work with. She also played on some Sleeping At Last stuff, so I’m always a bit starstruck when I get to work with her.
At the last minute, I realized that the third song on the record “Sunsets With You” needed a little something extra in the bigger “chorus” sections at the end. Matt and Josef were the answer…they tracked a couple of acoustic guitar takes that are very subtle, and really perfect for the song.
Scott then took all of my stems, and somehow made it all into the wonderful mixes that you hear on the EP. I really can’t believe or describe to you the difference between what I gave him and what he gave back to me…the mixes are perfect.
The glue that ties it all together, and puts the perfect bow on it all, is the mastering. Drew Lavyne for some reason agreed to master it all for me, and he knocked it out of the park.
My lovely and talented wife Mary did the artwork for the album, and it’s so inspiring! The Frontier! Adventure! Let’s do this!
Long story short (if you’re still reading, thank you and I’m sorry)…the team is made up of friends (old and new) who are all completely out of my league, and I’m very grateful. Be sure to give them all some love, and thank you for reading along!
Cheers,
DH
Read MoreFriends! Family! Strangers!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope that the holidays were wonderful for you and yours, and that your 2018 is off to a great start. I’m thrilled to be writing this post because I’m releasing a NEW EP of original music…and it’ll be available TOMORROW! Woo! This here blog post will (hopefully) be a little window into the inspiration behind the EP.
Working with limitations. As a composer, one of my biggest dreams has been to compose music that gets performed by real-live humans who are great at playing their instruments. Thankfully, over the last few years, I’ve had lots of opportunities to make that dream a reality. My last few releases have included guitars and drums and bass and string orchestras and low brass sections and woodwind players. While this always increases the cost of a project, it is ALWAYS worth it.
So, after we moved from Atlanta to Santa Monica, and since it costs about $100000000000 to move here and live here, I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to afford releasing any new music. After talking with Mary and figuring out our budget, the name of the game was “work with your limitations”. That could have been a very constraining thought, but ended up being really inspiring!
The scope of the project completely changed. From full album down to an EP, and from full instrument sections down to solo players. So there’s a solo violin, a solo viola, a solo cello, a solo french horn, and an acoustic guitar. We did overdubs on some of the stuff to make it feel a little bigger. Everything else like pianos, synths, vocals (don’t worry I used a ton of reverb) and other subtle textures I did on my own. It was a challenge but also very fun to write music specifically for this smaller “ensemble”, and to still find ways to be dynamic and cinematic throughout.
The songs. This is a 3-song EP called “The Frontier”. You’ll notice that the photo on the album artwork is of Los Angeles. This music is all about Mary, Indy and I taking the leap to move out to California to pursue our careers and dreams. We’ve been here for 6 months now and haven’t been evicted yet, so I guess we’re really doing it!
That’s it! So there you have it! “The Frontier” will be available Thursday, January 11, 2018 for purchase on iTunes/Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify/Pandora, basically everywhere. Check back soon for a post about the players and the process, and I really hope you enjoy!
Cheers,
DH
Read MoreHi all!
I hope this Monday morning is off to a great start for you. Mine is splendid, as today is officially OPENING DAY for Major League Baseball!! It’s the best time of year, and I’m excited to make a couple of announcements below:
So that’s it for now…very excited about these two projects, and how they’ve come together over the last few years. Hope you love the music and the video, and hope you have a great week!
Cheers,
Davis
Read MoreHi folks!
I hope that 2017 has been treating you all very well! I wanted to take a moment to let you know that my new single “What We Could Be” is now available on iTunes!
I am so incredibly proud of this music. This song didn’t come easy. It took a lot of time and work…hours of frustration and doubts, and then moments of clarity and excitement. I am so honored that so many talented and wonderful humans took part in this music, and I really hope you LOVE the song!
Here are some stats from this project:
Later on I’ll be posting another blog with a bit more behind what the song means to me, and some more specific stuff about the making-of the song. But in the meantime, check out the wonderful artwork (Mary created it!) and read about the incredibly talented people that made this music a reality!