THE EURYTHMICS / PLAYSTATION: THE KING
“I have a very clear memory of being about four years old, in the back of my dad’s white Ford Escort XR3i, head shoved between the rear speakers while a cassette of early Eurythmics blasted in my ears. I loved this band as a kid, and it was one of the reasons I became obsessed with synthesizers and electronic music.
Decades later I was tasked with reworking their classic track “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” for a very unique PlayStation commercial, directed by Martin de Thurah (Kanye West, James Blake, Feist). The fact this is essentially a short period film created an interesting challenge. We tried a few approaches (Elizabethan trap music, anyone?) before settling on my semi-scored approach – in brief, extrapolating the original track’s DNA and reusing those individual basic elements as a scoring tool. I had a lot of fun on this one.”
Recorded with the Manchester Camerata Orchestra and members of the Hallé choir, with solo violin by Rakhi Singh (The Northman, The Manchester Collective),