Stephen Power

Portmagee, County Kerry, Ireland

Retired mental health Lecturer. Pro photographer for 40 years. Now composing most of the time (to avoid decomposing).

What styles of music do you create?

I'm trying to concentrate my composing on cues for TV and film, and have signed a contract with a boutique library in Ireland to write at least 4 albums. The first two were released in 2024. Ideally, I would like to be commissioned to write directly for a low budget film or a TV show , as I feel I have some ability to write to picture, especially with having spent a very long time creating short films and videos. I'm not sure that I can pigeon-hole the style of music I write, but I try to imbue it with emotion, and hope it has an immersive quality. Certainly much of it is in a minor key. :)

Tell us about your inpirations and influences and how they have contributed to your creativity 

I've always loved music, from being a teenager. I played in brass bands in the NW of England as a teenager and then joined a band in the late 1970's. I still remotely record with the guitarist, 50 years later and despite the fact we are in different countries now. He is on both of my Film and TV cue albums. I am hugely inspired by Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, whom I met in the 1990's. I am always impressed by multi-talented musicians and especially those who do more than just put 'four on the floor'. I became a pro music photographer in the early 1980's and have been privileged to stand a few feet away from (and shake the hands of) some of the best musicians in the world, including Carl Perkins, who wrote Blue Suede Shoes for Elvis Presley and Courtney Pine, a truly amazing jazz saxophonist. A few years ago, I wrote a book of photographs and text about some of the best traditional Irish musicians alive today, which was published by the Liffey press and is a homage to my new home on the west of Ireland.

What kit do you love using most in your studio and why? 

I have only learned to use a DAW in the last 12 months. Although I have recently invested in Cubase, I use Cakewalk by Bandlab most of the time, as I have become familiar with it. I have 3 keyboards. My midi controllers are a Nektar Impact LX 61+ and a Nektar Impact LX 25+, and I have a 71 key Yamaha Portable Grand, which has been around a long time, and I've recently dusted it off and assigned it to occassional DAW duties. I play tenor and soprano saxophones. I have a violin and a mountain dulcimer with which I make strange revered and delayed pads, and some percussion instruments including a vibraslap and shakers. I used to play guitars (6 & 12 string) and bouzouki, but my fingers don't bend well enough to use them anymore.

Which Kompose Audio Kontakt Instruments you have used, why you like using them and how they have contributed to your music

I have only recently been using Kompose instruments and have two (for now), Tureis and Arcturus Nano, which you kindly offered for free. So far, I have only used Tureis for composition, and I have a track which uses that instrument along with sampled cello and voices from Musio. I have called that track Tabula Rasa (with a nod to my former life as a psychotherapist, and also the notion that Tureis starts 'blank' and fills up quickly). I have linked to that track below. Other tracks (20) are on my Reelcrafter page. The link is in the Soundcloud slot below. All other tracks I have are WAV files, and so would not upload under 'share your music with us'. I would ask you to have a listen to 'Sigh Wrens' under 'Human Frailty' on my Reelcrafter showreel, as I feel it sums up who I prefer to write.

Audio Demos

Tabula Rasa

Follow Stephen Power

Website

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Paul Beaudoin
CWaD Music

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