In today’s episode of Sync Music Matters I’m talking to TV & Film composer and solo artist Danny Mulhern.

Danny is a very philosophical guy and we go pretty deep in today’s interview, exploring improvisation and flow state as a tool for creating music.

Flow state can be defined as:

“mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energised focus.”

We talk about overcoming procrastination or what Stephen Pressfield in the War of Art, refers to as “resistance” 

And Danny generously shares about a difficult period in his life when he fell out of love with music. His love was ultimately rekindled through collaboration and ultimately the “human connection” which had been missing for some time.

We go Under The Skin with the movie What They Had and talk about a upcoming project about the Meaning Crisis cognitive psychologist John Verveake

Danny Mulhern is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer who in addition to writing for TV and film, releases his own unique brand of instrumental music. 

Much of his recent work has been with the London Contemporary Orchestra on records and film scores, including the critically acclaimed What They Had, starring Hilary Swank, Michael Shannon and Robert Forster.

Other Film and TV scores include long-running BBC forensic crime drama Silent Witness, BBC wildlife documentary The Natural World and entertainment shows with Derren Brown, Matt Lucas and Simon Pegg.

His own music is best described as contemporary classical with an ambient/electronic crossover. To my mind Danny’s music is wonderfully textural and he often plays with polyrhythms as he explores philosophical ideas around improvisation, intuition and collective intelligence

Look out for his forthcoming album Singing Through Others. Which is Inspired primarily by conversations around sense-making and the meaning crisis.

Jimi Hendrix
Paul McCartney
John Lennon
The Beatles
Joni Mitchell

Brian Eno
Bob Dylan
U2 –
The Clash

Aztec Camera
Crowded House –
The Specials –

FKA Twigs

Max Richter
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Hans Zimmer
Rob Simonson
Some of the things which inspire Danny Mulhern:

Ian McGilchrist
Steven Pressfield –

Get Back (The Beatles Documentary)
John Vervaeke (Awakening from the Meaning Crisis
Rebel Wisdom (Youtube Channel)
The Social Dilemma

David Baddiel