James Edward Barker

Biography

James Edward Barker is a relation to Benjamin Frankel, one of Britain's most prolific film composers. He is a self-taught musician from a young age, as well as later becoming classically trained at Newcastle University in the UK. His music suggests influences from an eclectic mix of genres from: Jazz and Blues, rock, Classical and more contemporary styles of Electronica and Dance music (including Drum n Bass and House). He is also a multi-instrumentalist, performing as a guitarist, percussionist, pianist and vocalist; and throughout his scores he performs a variety of alternative and ethnic instruments including: Tibetan Singing Bowls, Thai Saw Duang, African drums, Japanese Percussion (Taiko), Dilruba, Hammered Dulcimer; and his scores often include performances on authentic or traditional instruments, but in an experimental and contemporary fashion. Most distinctively, he experiments heavily with many leftfield techniques for his tones and sounds, including using items such as detuned music boxes (on his score for The Human Centipede 2); match boxes (he had entire orchestra scratch them in time for his score for Psych 9); and on his score for acclaimed Lean On Pete he used bowed vibraphone, bowed cymbals and bowed singing bowls to create the an ethereal and melancholic backdrop to the film. Barker has been quoted for using a number of modified live sampled recordings taken from various atmospheric locations around the world and is a fan of non-descriptive vocals.

He quotes Radiohead, Muse, Matthew Herbert, Django Reinhardt, Rachmaninov and film composers Hans Zimmer, Ennio Morricone and Christopher Young as some of his main influences, with the latter inspiring him to "experiment with children's toys". He also cites The Crystal Method and Aphex Twin as influences.

When recording scores and composing, he records traditional and authentic instruments through a variety of collectible guitar pedals and analog machines. James Edward Barker quote: "Much of my work has been the result of trial and error with working for many years alongside the chief designer for Vestax, Steve Hills, who worked there during the late 1980s and 1990s. We spent time remodelling a number of already rare and vintage pedals in order to attain certain sounds... including the rebuilding and modifying of pedals such as the Roland GR-300 and the 1980s Morley Pik series, with the Pik-Percussion and Pik-A-Wah pedals. Steve also encouraged me to experiment with the early pre DJ Vestax pedals".

Prior to University, his late teens were spent in a various rock and Jazz bands as lead guitarist; and recording early demos as a singer–songwriter at Abbey Road Studios, where he worked with childhood friend and music engineer Charlie Andrew, who would go on to Produce Alt-J albums An Awesome Wave, This Is All Yours, Relaxer, winning a Brit Award for best Producer Brit Award.

After honing his production techniques at one of the UK's leading studio environments, Barker moved to Newcastle University, in the North of England, where he received his classical training in music composition, performance, orchestration and technology. After receiving a BA Honours Degree in Music, he joined rock outfit Revere as manager and lead guitarist and toured the UK's top venues, supporting acts such as The Futureheads, Maxïmo Park, Simple Kid and Martin Grech; he then moved to London and formed his current dance collective, Liberation Jumpsuit, with TenTonAtom and Howlround's RobinTheFog, with whom he secured a residency at Ginglik Club, Shepherd's Bush, in west London (UK). Liberation Jumpsuit continue to perform around Europe and have played with dance acts such as Andy C, Four Tet, Shut Up and Dance, Alex Paterson (The Orb (band)The Orb), Aphrodite, Cylob and Nicky Blackmarket.

His first feature, Unhitched, was an $11 m romantic comedy starring Seth Green, Stuart Townsend, and Amy Smart, and was directed by Shooting Fish director Stefan Schwartz, which he scored with Composer, Tim Despic. He then went on to work with veteran director Robert Young, known for his comedies such as Fierce Creatures, the sequel to A Fish Called Wanda, on a comedy called, Bye, Bye Harry!, again which he scored with Composer, Tim Despic. Barker followed these films with a number of solo ventures, mostly dark and moody scores, including Psych:9, starring Sara Foster, Carey Elwes and Michael Biehn; the BBC release of Jim Threapleton's Extraordinary Rendition, starring Andy Serkis and Omar Berdouni, and the film received critical acclaim and was nominated for a number of awards and festivals including the British Independent Film Awards, Locarno and Edinburgh Film Festivals; and the British low-budget horror film Reverb, starring Leo Gregory, Margo Stilley and Eva Birthistle.

In 2007, Barker again co-scored with Tim Despic the $7m British ITV television production, The History of Mr Polly, starring Lee Evans; and in 2008, he continued his solo career, working with BAFTA-nominated director Martin Radich on the WARP Film and UKFC production Crack Willow.

During this time he then composed the score for British Director Andrew Haigh's first short, Five Miles Out. This was swiftly followed with two film scores, one for Adrian Vitoria's gritty urban thriller The Crew, with Stephen Graham and distributed by Momentum Pictures, and the other, a dramatic score (collaborating with Canadian/British composer Tim Despic) for Ashley Judd's role as a manic depressive in the Sundance selected Helen, directed by the critically acclaimed Sandra Nettellbeck of Mostly Martha.

In 2009, Barker Composed and served as Music Producer on Scott Mann's The Tournament starring Ving Rhames and Ronert Carlyle and he also worked in tandem with Relentless energy drink's company to score two features, "Powers of Three and the groundbreaking – "Lives of the Artists" featuring Gallows and world-renowned snowboarder Xavier De La Rue. He also wrote the music and produced the sound design for their 2010 campaign for their Relentless Shots commercials.

In 2010, Barker worked on Mark McQueen's debut Zombie flick – Devil's Playground with Danny Dyer and Craig Fairbrass and Jaime Murray; two shorts: one for previous Sundance winner Jonathan Hopkins a Sci-Fi comedy called One Man and His Dog; and a drama for director Tristan Goligher called Cowards & Monsters starring Luke Evans. His other projects for the year included a docu-drama for US award-winning and Emmy nominated director Guido Verweyen, based on the Purlitzer prize winning book by Robin Gaby Fisher – called After the Fire:

He then went on to Produce Noel Clarke's "4.3.2.1" which he produced through his Veneration Music outfit.

Barker also started working with Scott Mann's Mann Made Films, through which they developed and produced the supernatural horror film Mara, starring Olga Kurlenko; and the U.S. action Precious Cargo starring Bruce Willis. Barker composed the music for both films.

In early 2011, he scored The Holding for Lionsgate and the Momentum Pictures produced Weekender from the award-winning UK director Karl Golden.

He also scored the documentary Greek Pete for Andrew Haigh and developed music for Andrew's acclaimed drama, Weekend".

Barker also scored the follow-up to the cult horror hit The Human Centipede, called The Human Centipede II. Barker then went on to score a number of action films, including: Heist for Scott Mann starring Dave Bautista and Robert De Niro; Precious Cargo starring Bruce Willis; London Heist by Director Mark McQueen. He most recent films include the horror, Don't Knock Twice; the British gangster prequel to Rise Of The Footsoldier; and most recently, Lean On Pete, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival 2017. The Film starred Travis Fimmel, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, and Charlie Plummer who also won Best Newcomer at the Venice Film Festival.

Filmography

In development

Short film filmography