Hi! I’m Curtis Coello, a music producer from the South coast of Cornwall who’s now based in West London. Growing up, I was mostly into rock music of all kinds. I wrote and performed in bands as a guitarist, and (somewhat) vocalist. During my band phase, my older brother gifted me a computer with an early copy of Ableton Live which initiated my journey into music production. I started to demo riffs and ideas for my bands, and then progressed into writing for myself using only electronic elements. This was when I began to unlock the doors of music production, lifting the restrictions of writing with only a guitar and now track by track I learnt new ways to explore sound. After receiving my Music Performance Diploma, I moved to London to study for a Music Production degree. Over these three years, I crafted my sonic identity and when receiving my degree I was finally technically capable to turn the sounds in my head into a reality. By this point I had produced for neo-soul and pop singers, had my artist project’s first single feature on an E4 Ident. Shortly after graduating, I wrote bespoke music, created foley and sound design for animations that featured across animation festivals and BBC Sounds. Since then I’ve predominantly focused on my artist project. As I believed I was getting into a happy stride – the pandemic hit. I found this particular time was a great opportunity for me to write, however without really noticing it at the time, it distanced me from my music industry peers. I fell into working at a pub right before COVID, and over the course of the lockdowns and then with restrictions being fully lifted, I ended up full time in a managerial position at the pub. A couple of years then passed me by, working 50/60/70/ sometimes 80 hour weeks before I then looked back and realised I hadn’t made any concrete progress in my music career. I’ve since made steps to get myself back into the industry, and still work at a busy pub but now just part-time so I can focus on music again. Ideologies I think about when creating music and how they lend to my music identity; ~Perfectionism – The ongoing battles of knowing when to keep working on music or recognising it’s at a point of completion. ~Time – How long spent to create specific elements, or the entire body as a whole. ~Flaws – The choices of presenting and hiding flaws. I take this idea into the mixing stage, by holding onto the original reasons why the track came to life in the first place. ~Mood – Does the music evoke feeling, does it need to, should the feeling change? ~Shock factor – The different ways you can change elements to present a new experience to the listener. ~Ear candy – Does the music have elements that scratch the brain? ~Experimentation – Is the music exploring new territories or not? How much new exploration should be presented and how much should stay predictable? ~Audience – Who is this for? Did I write this for myself or for someone else, should it be shown that I created this or not? I’ve spent the last year channeling sync opportunities again and I’m very excited to have my work heard by the panel of judges for this award. The music I’ve selected is of my artist project, each track contrasts from one another but are strongly held together by my sonic identity as it’s silver lining. My musical personality can then be understood and imagined towards the possibilities of entering sync realms. Thank you for taking the time to learn about my musical journey, I hope you enjoy my entry and can be considered amongst the other great candidates. I hope to continue my journey with as many of you listening whichever sonic pathway that may be.