An encounter with the ‘Molitor’ Stradivari violin

For some, myself included, the idea that one can go from initial spark to polished recording in sixty minutes boggles the mind, and I was keen to find out more. What’s the process? Davis explained how technology enables him to speedily turn the music in his head into notes on a page. ‘If I want to sketch something quickly, I use a programme called Cubase. That’s what I used for the Molitor. If I want to do intricate arrangements for orchestral parts I use something like Sibelius.’ Using Cubase, Davis swiftly clicks through various samples and colour-coded channels on his screen to show me how flexible it is. Within seconds his printer is miraculously churning out a crisp sheet of music. ‘Jonathan is a gifted sight reader, so in no time at all he was able to take the music into the recording studio. We did a few takes, and I filmed him through the studio window on his phone.

Technology is only a tool of course, and the behind the sleek façade, the composer’s talent is restlessly at work. The son of acclaimed musician Howard Davis, Oliver was born into a world of skilled musicians and first rate musical influences. From the age of three he played violin every day, a grounding he credits with the role strings now play in his arrangements. It was at the age of nine or ten, when he first encountered a synthesizer, that Davis knew he wanted to be a composer. He eventually carried his interest in electronic music to the RAM, where he studied under Justin Connolly. ‘I was the first person to take the commercial music course as well as the classical one at the Academy’ he tells me. Arguably, it’s the blend of popular and classical which defines this Davis’s style, and one that keeps his work in demand.

And it’s a style which has certainly built up a successful and prolific career. In 1997 Oliver set up We Write Music, a boutique agency based in Soho. Since its beginnings, the commissions have steadily grown into an impressive back catalogue. Moving easily between film, TV and advertising, as well as his artistic collaborations with the likes of the LSO, Royal Ballet and soloists like Kerenza Peacock and Hill, it’s the sheer range of Davis’s work which impresses. Right now he’s just finished the music for the soon to be premiered Thomas The Tank Engine movie, and he’s putting the final touches to Dance, the third album in his triptych which began with Flight and Seasons, and which grew out of a collaboration with the choreographer Erico Montes and the Royal Ballet. Davis eagerly shares with me a snatch of one movement he’s working on – a brisk and melodic piece of folksy Americana. Energetic and with a naturally overflowing curiosity, the composer works best with a deadline. He also thrives when he’s collaborating with other artists and when he’s flitting between projects. ‘Every day I’ll have different pieces on the go. Either I’m finishing off this piece or tweaking that one. I move between things. That’s what keeps work fresh.’