Hanks a million for golden Hollywood high
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BUCKIE met Beverly Hills at the glitter and glam of the Golden Globes thanks to the musical talent of a local man.
The award ceremony had a special moment for actor Tom Hanks when he was presented with the Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievement, but it was an emotional moment too for young David Chappell as his musical composition Dreaming Awake was played in the background.
Mr Chappell (25), a former student at Buckie Community High School, has been composing tracks for use in the likes of the film industry for the last three years, working from a converted room in his home at Buckie.
While he may be based in Moray, he works with companies and composers across the globe, including the USA, France, Germany and Croatia.
Although he knew his track was in the running for the Golden Globes slot it was not until the morning after the ceremony that he received a message to say that it had made it to accompanying the Green Mile actor's award presentation
"It feels brilliant to have one of my pieces chosen for the Golden Globes," Mr Chappell told the Advertiser.
"To be honest it's weird to see one of the biggest celebrities in the world being presented with one of the greatest honours in the film industry using music created in a spare room in Buckie, it really is bringing together the opposite ends of the spectrum.
"It's a great honour and my biggest placement yet. Tom Hanks is my favourite actor and I'm glad that my music helped him celebrate one of his biggest awards."
Dreaming Awake was actually a track produced around a year and a half to two years ago in the earlier days of Mr Chappell's three-year professional career and included on the album he submitted in response to a brief for uplifting tracks that was eventually see him feature in the Golden Globes.
While it may not be a brand new piece, Dreaming Awake looks like opening doors for the Aberdeen University graduate.
He continued: "It's a threshold moment for me, really.
"This shows my work is good enough to operate at this level.
"Going forward I'll be looking at getting more tracks out their and hopefully land a movie trailer, that would be the big one.
"You never know where your music is going to end up once it's out there. My tracks have ended up being used by a German ice hockey team, an international fairytale convention – also in Germany – Australia's Got Talent and a Greek language film. Some of the stuff can be pretty left field from across the world."
For those who missed the live performance of Mr Chappell's track, search InfraSound – Dreaming Awake on YouTube.
Mr Chappell's acreer is actually the culmination of a long love affair with the art form.
He explained: "I've been a big fan of this kind of music for the last 10-plus years.
"I really fell in love with it just before I went to uni and there was this mad rush before I left to get a laptop powerful enough to create my own tracks.
"From there on I'd save and buy more and more pieces of equipment which would allow me to expand what I could do. The production quality required is ridiculously high.
"Everything's done 100 per cent in the box."
Mr Chappell added that he nevertheless had a number of real instruments at home, although they were not needed for work.
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