My name is Jon Starling and I specialise in the scoring,
arranging and production of original music for film, television and
advertising. On this site is a brief showreel of some of the tracks
I have composed as well as information on my musical background. Please
contact me if you would like to licence any of my music or if you
have a particular brief that needs a modern, professional sound.
Biography
I graduated in 1999 from Anglia
Polytechnic University (now Anglia Ruskin) in Cambridge where
I studied a 3 year BA in Music and Music Technology. Since then
I have been involved in bands, produced original music with
colleagues, worked for 7 years in the music retail industry,
and more recently have started writing short pieces of production
music for use in the advertising world.
My musical background was primarily classical to begin with
(the usual, piano lessons every week for 8 years, scales, ABRSM
grades....) and then I studied jazz sax under esteemed US alto
player Kev Flanagan, working my way through the Charlie Parker
Omnibook, memorising Coltrane solos, tritone substitution. Whilst
at Uni. some colleagues and I formed a pretty awful (repertoire
that is) covers band called Ro-Sham-Bo. Fortunately the band
turned into the moderately successful funk rock band Calling
Orson. We won a few competitions,
recorded at BBC Maida Vale Studios and played at the Cavern Club,
Liverpool. Several years/tours/arguments later Calling Orson split
and we all went our separate ways. We have since made up and still
call upon each others individual talents when required.
Influences
I like music that portrays lots of emotion
and suspense. Whether it's classically instrumented or electronic.
I watch films as much for the music as for the cinematography and
as such find the composers Hans Zimmer, Mark Mancina, Nick Glennie-Smith
and Mark Mothersbaugh very inspiring.
Studio
Synths: Yamaha DX7S,
Roland VK7, Vox Continental, Transcendent Powertran 2000, Roland SH2000,
Novation Xio, digital piano. Guitars: Fender Strat, Fender Jazz Bass,
Fender acoustic. Effects & Processing: Line6 Spider II guitar
amp, Toneport UX2, DBX Mini Pre, Boss pedals, Samson S-Com compressor,
Recording: M-Audio Axiom61, Reason 3.0, Cubase SX, Soundforge, Roland
DS90 near fields.
Music to Video
Last year I entered the BBC New
Composer Competition. 'BBC New Talent, in conjunction with the
BBC's Natural History Unit, set budding composers the exciting
challenge of writing an original and imaginative piece of music
for a BBC Natural History programme.'