This piece was used as part of the initial soundtrack to the Italian television show Le Iene and is really a tongue in cheek tribute to all that great surf/spy soundtrack work that emerged in the 1960s, especially in the work of composers like John Barry and Ennio Morricone. The idea of mixing twangy electric guitar sounds with orchestras was a very radical one at the time and on this piece I attempted to blend that with some modern influences, maybe even a little bit influenced by Fatboy Slim (!). The voices you hear at the beginning belong to Grammy winning producer and ex-Beach Boy collaborator Scott Mathews. Surfs up. This is a medley of material I composed for Marfi Maus, a children’s show sponsored by the Mondadori publishing house. It was fun doing this because it gave me both the chance to write in different styles (everything from 50’s R&B to bossa to straight rock’n’roll) and have a mouse sing it to boot! I think doing kids stuff can be a great way to showcase material (Smashmouth would probably agree with me) and it’s funny how much of the Beatles stuff almost sounds like it was written with the little ones in mind. Children are sometimes hipper to good stuff than adults so maybe they’ll give Marfi a heads up on how they liked my soundtrack. This was written a jingle for a Boston area brewing company named Sherwood Forest. The idea (obviously) was to produce sounds that would conjure up Robin and merry men sitting around the campfire with large challises, larger, pliant wenches in taverns and all that other fun stuff from Ye Olde Albion. If two guys from Noooo Yawk could hit big with this style back in the ‘60s (think Scarborough Fair), I figured a true dyed in the wool “New” Englander like me could try his hand at it as well. Once more into the pub! I’m a very big fan of orchestral composers like David Abrams (check his soundtrack work on the original Manchurian Candidate, chill bumps guaranteed) and Christopher Young. Here I wanted to attempt something in that style and mix it with a Wes Montgomery style guitar playing the song melody…. if I got within a thousandth of the genius of these aforementioned masters I’d be very happy. This piece was written for a short film by the talented Milanese filmmaker Matteo Modena. This is a funky, jazzy piece that was also written for Le Iene television show (though I’m not sure if they ended up using it). Here I was definitely influenced by the early ‘70s soundtrack work of people like Herbie Hancock, Curtis Mayfield and (who else?) Issac Hayes. Of course being primarily a guitar player, I liked the idea of being able to stretch out a bit…especially over a cool groove. This one seemed as good a place as any.