I update this website when I can, so please visit again. And don’t forget to click through to my blog!
Profile
Based in my studio located just outside Los Angeles, I am an established music professional who relocated from England to the USA in 2014. As an independent producer, I work regularly with clients representing a range of musical genres. Active as a composer, songwriter, and arranger, I work for film and broadcast, the stage and the concert platform, and also in the field of library music. For an explanation of library music, see below.*
CAREER (EDITED HIGHLIGHTS)
Composer, arranger and producer of background library music for dozens of tv programs, films, adverts and other events, my work is regularly broadcast in more than twenty-five countries. Partial list includes: Made in America (Whoopi Goldberg, Will Smith, Ted Danson), Get Shorty (Gene Hackman, Danny Devito, James Gandolfini), Shameless, Friends, Parks and Recreation, The Simpsons, Oprah Winfrey Show, Saturday Night Live, Iron Maiden ‘Dance of Death’ (Death on the Road World Tour), Roger Waters The Wall (Live in Berlin), Nike Alpha Project advert, Spongebob Squarepants and Highlander (including a co-writing credit with Freddie Mercury for the track Uomo Della Foresta). Plus, of course, many more.
Through hanging about and being a nuisance, I was lucky enough to get a great start learning sound engineering and production as a tape op/gofer at several studios, including Gary Numan’s ‘Rock City’, located at the legendary Shepperton Studio Center. I eventually worked in various capacities alongside many leading artists, including Sting, Pino Palladino, Andy Taylor (Duran Duran) and many others. I was proud to be a member of the bands No Exit, Electronic Circus, and Crucible, who regularly supported The Enid and also recorded with Hans Zimmer.
I undertook additional production and session work at many other leading studios including Ridge Farm, Nomis and CTS Wembley. I have a comprehensive working knowledge of most musical instruments, and I regularly perform drums, guitar, keyboards, vocals, brass and bass on my own broadcast works.
I also supported or toured with a diverse range of acts including Squeeze, Dramatis, and Siouxsie and the Banshees, amongst others.
With long-term collaborator Chris Payne (Visage, Tubeway Army) I composed and arranged two albums of substantial orchestral and choral works, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra for Carlin Production Music and Chappell Music.
Under the name ‘Glass Bead Nation,’ I write and record songs (mainly electronic/industrial genre) that gain regular radio airplay in several countries.
Author of the book Lyrics and Poems.
Composer of five musicals, all of which have been staged: ‘Gynt on the Rocks’; ‘Oedipus Wrecks’ (the making of which was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 documentary series); ‘Robin of Sherwood’; ‘The Three Musketeers’; and ‘Dracula’.
As a producer, I create custom backing tracks for singer songwriters to their brief.
Email me: pjr[at]pauljohnsonrogers.com
Click the links below to hear broadcast examples of my work as a composer, arranger and producer:
The Simpsons: Couch Gag Music
Click on the image below to hear the playlist “The Best of Glass Bead Nation” (leaves this page).
*What is library music?
Library Music is another name for production music or stock music. Library music is ideal for TV, film, video games, live events and other commercial productions as it is completely owned by the library publisher, who can act as a ‘one stop shop’ for the end user and, along with the PRO, represent the composer in terms of rights and payments.
How does it work?
The library publisher will approach me and commission an album of, say, orchestral horror music. After the composition, recording and editing processes are completed, the publisher will make the tracks available to program makers, who will use the music in their various productions thus generating royalties, which are split between me and the publisher. As any one track could end up being used in multiple productions, library composers rarely see their names in the end credits, but that’s ok!