You might assume that to be an Emmy winning composer, you would require a studio in Los Angeles, a Hollywood budget and a huge entourage. But for Torrance-born Tommy Reilly, 32, and his writing partner Roddy Hart, they needed just a small studio in Glasgow to compose the soundtrack that saw them awarded an Emmy for the cartoon series Animaniacs.
Getting to write music for the revived version of Animaniacs – developed by none other than Steven Spielberg – is the kind of stuff a composer’s dreams are made of. However Tommy had plenty of practice, honing his song-writing skills since high school.
“I’ve been doing piano lessons since I was five and I was always writing songs, but I didn’t tell anyone I planned to make it my career. I was studying engineering at Glasgow University, keeping quiet about my real ambitions. Then one day I just surprised my parents and said: ‘I want to go and do an audition for a TV show in London’, then six months later it was: ‘I’m quitting uni to go and play guitar for a living!’”
Tommy’s first taste of stardom came in 2009 when, aged just 18, he was crowned the winner of the TV show he’d been auditioning for: Channel 4’s Orange Unsigned Act. The competition was judged by the likes of Lauren Laverne and Blur bassist Alex James, and after it aired Tommy was playing headline gigs across the country and getting recognised by fans, yet fame, and all its trappings, was never his goal.
“The Unsigned competition happened by accident. There were no big record labels in Glasgow so I thought that if I could get someone in London to listen to my music – and because it was televised – it might help me get my songs out there. Then I went and won it! I loved playing shows and I enjoyed that aspect of it. But the fame and the publicity, where you are constantly promoting yourself? I don’t miss any of that. It wasn’t ever that natural for me, whenever anyone came over I would go really shy.”
After the hype from the show died down Tommy decided he wanted to finish university, so he returned from London and enrolled in a ‘Sound for the Moving Image’ Masters at the Glasgow School of Art. He was soon writing music for short films, which led him to meet Roddy.
“He thought we would write well together,” Tommy explains, “so he asked me to come on board with a film he was working on called Anna And The Apocalypse. It was an independent British film, but it got picked up for release in America, bringing everyone who’d been involved to the attention of some big producers. We got the opportunity to pitch for Animaniacs – which was just mad – and we’ve been writing together ever since. It’s the best thing ever to hear songs you’ve written sung by professionals.”
And although Tommy and Roddy are predominantly writing for LA-based studios, they have no interest in moving across the pond. “It’s crazy to think we are doing all this from a wee studio in Glasgow. There’s loads of cool stuff happening in the city – I’ve just moved to the southside and it’s absolutely great. I’ve got no desire to get away from Scotland.”
Recent projects have included writing the score to the acclaimed film Our Girls, with the duo now working on a musical version of Orphans, based on Peter Mullan’s hit film.
“It’s like living a childhood dream,” Tommy enthuses, “and my advice to anyone interested in music would be to keep trying until you find the thing that suits you best.
"I’ve now got the best job in the world.”
Orphans tours across Scotland in April 2022.
Tickets from nationaltheatrescotland.com
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