The Skating Music Guy

22/06/2021

A quick PSA - my schedule is now full right up to my summer holiday. If you haven't already booked your program with me, by all means get in touch and let's start planning it, but be aware your first draft will be arriving in early August. Have a great summer, everyone!

16/11/2020

Did you ever see a more colourful pic??
Yesterday I did the live sound for an event at my local rink. Our wonderful solo skaters from Joensuun Kataja Taitoluistelu and synchro skaters from Joensuun Kataja Muodostelmaluistelu collaborated to put on an exhibition, "Kataja on Ice". It was a great way to allow some of our outstanding local teams and soloists to perform their programs in a season where competitions are scarce. And unlike, say, a Christmas show where all the programs are put together in a hurry, these were real competition programs with months of practice behind them. I have to say the standard of skating was VERY high!! It felt great to get the solo and synchro families together and just celebrate how bloody good our skaters are. 💪💪💪💪💪 (And I was as proud as anything because every single program was edited by me - yep, this insanely talented lot are all the way!)
Pics by Petri Pakarinen 🔥🔥🔥 & Julia Aalto/Ville Vairinen.

10/11/2020

So proud of the three teams who used my music edits at the first qualifier for Finnish nationals in last weekend. Well done Blue Arrows Les Visions (Joensuun Kataja Muodostelmaluistelu) and Kaari: Dream Edges! 👏👏👏👏👏👏 It's been great fun working on your new programs. Thank you all for pushing me to improve my art and to create something new and unique.⁣
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⁣And congratulations to Stella Polaris and Aurora Borealis, who are also although I didn't work on their programs this season. I was cheering for you!⁣
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⁣We're not exactly drowning in competitions at the moment, for obvious reasons, so when we get one it's cause for celebration. Thank you Tappara Taitoluistelu and STLL for hosting what seems to have been a safe and professional event! And congratulations to all the medallists Helsinki Rockettes Team Unique Marigold IceUnity Team Fintastic Team Mystique Finettes Starlights Kaari: Diamond Edges Valley Bay Synchronics Team Dynamique CrystalBlades 💪💪💪💪💪💪💪 ⁣
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⁣Photos by the always-amazing SJPhotos 👌

28/09/2020

Working on Charlotte Man & Toby Palmer’s free dance has been a real highlight for me this season. It’s a very satisfying edit/remix/mashup of one of my favourite artists, with lots of nice details for me to get my teeth into. And equally exciting is the fact that none other than Mark Hanretty is at the choreography controls! This is one of two programs this year that I’ve edited and Mark is choreographing (the other is for deadly solo ice dance assassin Freya Williams - watch out for that one too...)

Can’t wait to see what you’ve all done with it!

Blimey - first it was Penny & Nick, then Christopher Dean, then John Kerr, and now Mark Hanretty… My music edits have really been choreographed by royalty over the years!

Pic reposted from Charlotte's IG:
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Had a great week in Sheffield having our new free dance choreographed. Thank you so much ⛸ and thanks to for doing such an amazing job with our music 🎶🎵

17/08/2020

More exciting news from this summer: I worked with Joti Polizoakis and Aljona Savchenko to create a new short program for German pair skating team Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel! Annika & Robert were fourth in the world at Junior Worlds last year and are the German national silver medallists.

I was very excited about this one, because a) I haven’t worked with an elite pairs team since Deanna & Nate retired, b) I’m a huge fan of Annika & Robert and I’ve wanted to work with them for ages, c) I love Joti’s creativity and I thought I’d missed my chance to work with him, but thankfully fate had a different idea, and d) one word: ALJONA. 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
The program is big and dramatic, real edge-of-your-seat stuff, but darkly beautiful at the same time. As well as improving Joti’s rough cut, my job was to make a few tricky sections work despite difficult element timings, and to amp up the drama using my own synths and samples. I was very pleased with the end result, it really raises the hairs on the back of your neck, and I can’t wait to see what the team have done with it on the ice!
Welcome to , Annika and Robert, and best of luck for the season!

14/08/2020

I'm back at work and back on Instagram after my summer break, and the first thing to do is say goodbye to 's greatest singles skater. When I first started my business at the end of 2015 I sent emails to Viveca and to Penny & Nick, because those were the elite skaters I most wanted to work with. It was my extreme good luck that they all said yes! Viveca was the first to use my music edits in a Challenger event, in a televised event, at the European Championship, and at Worlds. She took me to places I could never have gone on my own, back in the days when nobody had heard of me, and gave me the chance to make some pieces of art that I will always be proud of, including elaborate multi-orchestra mashups of Phantom and Les Mis. I am still struck by a wave of pride whenever I think of her bronze medal at Euros and the amazing, fearless performances (and years of dedicated work from Viveca and her coaches) that put her there. Viveca, I am so proud that I got to work with you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, and good luck for whatever happens next! 🖤

22/07/2020

Excited to see I got a lot of mentions in the latest article on the Skating Finland website. It's about how skating music is conceived and created, and they interview Sini Lagercrantz, coach for Kaari: Dream Edges, whose music I've edited for the last few years. It's a really interesting read (in Finnish, although Google Translate makes a half-decent stab at it), and Sini calls me a "wizard", which obviously IS 100% TRUE. 🥰😆🧙‍♂️

For anyone who isn't up to speed on the world of synchronised skating, Dream Edges are 2x Finnish junior champions and were 4th in the world in 2019... this is a seriously badass team! And I'm very pleased to be their music editor, especially when they keep throwing crazy ideas at me like this season's brand-new Rubik's Cube short program. More details soon!

Valmentaja Sini Lagercrantz kertoo, että uuden kilpailumusiikin luominen on monivaiheinen prosessi, joka alkaa jo edellisen kauden aikana.

09/06/2020

Attempting to create a pic by sheer density of text… 😆
TL;DR - This is a business account, and so far I’ve been pretty quiet, but it doesn’t feel right to stay that way. Black lives matter.

02/03/2020

It seems my business email is finally back online. If you've been holding off on sending me something, you're welcome to do so now, and if you've sent me anything since Thursday, it might be a good idea to send it again! Thanks, everyone, for your patience.

28/02/2020

A quick announcement - I'm in the process of moving to a new web server to fix the problems with my email. Unfortunately that means for the next few hours (hopefully not longer... famous last words...) I can't actually receive any email at all. If you want to contact me urgently, please use FB message, Instagram direct message or Twitter. And if you've sent me something in the last few hours, could you send it again in a day or two, please? Thank you!

18/02/2020

In case you're waiting for an email from me, please check your junk mail or spam folder. My website hosting company have told me that there are some problems with their servers and some email is being accidentally marked as spam. It should be fixed soon. Sorry for the inconvenience!