Mar 9, 20233 min read

NAS 10 Questions with Danno Scordino

This time, we get to know Danno Scordino, a music composer for cinematography and other orchestral instrumentals."In 2002 Danno was commissioned to remix ‘FC Allstars – Footballs Is Life’, which later garnered extra prestige by becoming the Official David Beckham Soccer Game Anthem for the Xbox. Later on in the same year the DJ and radio/television presenter Tim Westwood invited him with London’s new delegates to be on his ‘Trust the DJ 2002’ album, prior to him then taking on a Masters in Audio Technology to further support his talents with a sound foundation. Based in Didcot, other previous collaborations have been with singer and songwriter Jay Sean and hip-hop recording artist Dizzy Rascal. He is now using his passion for intricate melodies and innovative sounds to write music for various projects under Danno Scordino Productions."

The track "Arrivals" is featured in the New Artist Spotlight Family of Playlists.

Link To New Artist Spotlight Playlists:

https://www.newartistspotlight.org/playlists

1. Tell us a little about where you are from and what you are currently doing.

My name is Danno Scordino I am a music composer and producer, I live in Didcot and currently working on finding sync and music film/tv and video games, I have been doing music for over 20 years with a huge catalog of released and unreleased music.

2. What inspired you to start playing and making music?

Music has been with me through childhood helping me through the most challenging of times. I have been doing music since the 90s on small pianos and keyboards writing my own melodies and recording them on dictaphones and 4-track machines. This led to a publishing deal with Attick Music in 1996 and accelerated my ambition to have my own recording facilities.

I love all sorts of music and find live music most inspiring.

𝟯. Who are your biggest influences?

From childhood Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, Prodigy, to as of late Hans Zimmer to Steve Jablonsky

4. What are your goals in the music industry?

To get my music on moving images such as film television and video games and a broader audience. I love evoking a feeling and emotions with my music that the listener can enjoy and relate to.

I enjoy collaborations with other artists and the way we can bounce off each other and would love to work on further projects.

5. Tell us about your creative process when you make new music.

I have a home recording studio that has most equipment I need from East west symphonic orchestra, Komplete, to classic synths such as Access Virus, Novation, akai s2000 samplers.

I would usually start by playing a melody on the piano and explore my library of sounds, which could either lead to something I would save or discard, not everything I write is worth saving.

Once the inspiration is in motion, I tend to enjoy layering my track with harmonies and other rhythms and percussions.

6. What is your all-time favorite song?

This is a hard one and there is no one song, from the top of my head I would say land of confusion or sound of silence, as these songs, have everything in them from touching melodies, and emotional lyrical content to well-created recordings for their time

7. What is the best advice you have either given or received in terms of music?

Be patient, persistent, and never give up.

I myself find this difficult, but I think that my skills have improved and I am happier with my results.

8. Proudest accomplishment?

My personal achievement was to go through university and get my degrees in audio and music technology. In relation to music, I created a HipOpera score for a theatre production that was shown for a week in west London.

9. Just for fun! What's been your most embarrassing moment so far?

Working with Charlotte Kelly when finalizing the name of the collaborative song I thought the lyrical content was around people “coming together” whereas Charlotte kind of said: Darling, I am not sure how innocent you are but this song is about an intimate situation. Never mind, my wife and I were discussing the spelling of ‘coming’ before, with me not being the innocent one.

𝟭0. Tell us about your lowest and highest points in music so far.

My lowest point was having a documentary filmed by the BBC with the topic ‘Music and youths in the UK’ for my Hip-Hop group which did not turn up.

It was filmed on a bank holiday weekend and my hip-hop group would rather have had a double pay weekend than do a session that was presented by Richard Blackwood. My group was replaced by Dizzy Rascals who is now well known.

My highest point would be finally landing my first sync library signing last year, and aiming for a lot more, this year and beyond.