dBs Institute alumnus Alexander Leeming Froudakis joined us to explain his BAFTA journey with the documentary project ‘When The Floods Come’.
We love seeing our students and alumni go on to achieve their dreams and have incredible career moments, and there isn’t anything much better than being part of a BAFTA award-winning team!
Alexander Leeming Froudakis is a dBs Institute graduate, who studied BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering at our Bristol Campus. Alongside his collaborator Manuela Lubrano, Alexander scored the soundtrack for the Yugo BAFTA Student Award-winning documentary ‘When The Floods Come’.
Here, he explains how he got into the industry, takes us through some of the other incredible projects he has worked on and explains how studying a music production course at dBs helped him gain the skills, knowledge and confidence to pursue a career in the music industry.
Learn more from Alexander here!
Hi Alexander! Introduce yourself and give us a bit about your background
Hi. My name is Alexander Leeming Froudakis. I grew up in Greece, in Crete, and I came to dBs to study BA (Hons) Music Production & Sound Engineering. I'm currently working as a composer for film and TV and a producer and sound engineer.
How did you start your career as a film composer?
When I graduated in 2018, I had to go back to Greece and join the army for a year because it's mandatory over there. When I came back, I didn't have any contacts in the music industry; I didn't know how to continue [my career].
Around that time, I saw on the internet there was a composer meetup in Bristol. I wasn't sure I wanted to go to it because I didn't know the people and was a bit nervous, but you have to put yourself out there. So I went and just got talking to different people; connecting on a very friendly level. A few weeks later, I posted some of my work on the internet and received a comment from someone from that meet-up asking if I wanted to work for Neil Davidge because he was looking for an assistant to work with on his arrangements. I was terrified, but I accepted the position, and now it's been a couple of years working together.
That’s amazing! What projects have you worked on with Neil?
The first project we worked on was ‘All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur’, a documentary about football, which was really interesting. Neil would provide ideas and basic arrangements that he would send over, and I would mainly work on the orchestration of those and developing the MIDI production.
Sometimes, if he didn't have the time and I was lucky, I might be able to score a scene. We also worked on another multi-episode series called Britannia and another one called Earth’s Great Rivers. It was just great to see the workflow of a composer of his standard. Taking part in orchestral recording sessions and knowing how deadlines work and how a team works together has been valuable.
You also worked on Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Tell us how that came about.
Queen Charlotte was another interesting story. My friend Mike Froudarakis, who's also a composer, specialises in trailer music, he was in touch with a sync agent in Los Angeles, and word had it that Netflix was looking for cover songs for the Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story series. We only had a couple of days to do it, and most of the tracks on the list were from Beyoncé. So basically, we sent them like six covers. We didn't hear anything for the next five or six months, and then it was actually on the day of my birthday that we found out that Deja Vu was chosen to be on episode four of Queen Charlotte! To my surprise as well, they had used the actual mock-up and the mix I programmed and did so that was a great surprise.
What is the When The Floods Come documentary?
‘When The Floods Come’ is a very important project. It was an honour to work on. Pakistan faced its worst floods in 2022 and it affected 30 million people. During my master's, I collaborated with filmmakers from the UWE wildlife department and that's where I met the director of the documentary Nyal Mueenuddin; we just started talking about the project, and what his goal was. What we wanted to do with the music was to provide a voice to the story.
The documentary won the Yugo BAFTA Student Award! Congrats! What is it like being part of a BAFTA Award-winning team?
Winning the student BAFTA, of course, was a great honour. It was a real surprise to find out that we were going to go to Los Angeles. When they announced the name ’When The Floods Come’, it was just a very surreal moment for us. Most importantly, though, we were just really happy that the voices of the people that were featured in the film got heard, got recognised and we were just happy that people are now seeing it.
What are your tips for anyone reading who wants to become a freelance music composer for film & TV?
Freelance work can be tricky. It can be very difficult, but of course, as with any success, the key is perseverance. Keep working on your craft and keep networking. Networking is the most valuable thing anyone can do in the creative business; it’s essentially just making friends. We always think of networking as this scary thing that you have to sort of endure, but it's just making friends and knowing what's going on in the industry. Of course, doing your best work is always important. So whatever it is you're working on, doing your best and then sharing that with the world is very valuable.
How important was studying at dBs for your career development?
Playing the piano was my only contact with music until I came to dBs. The facilities here are amazing. The insight from the tutors is really good. The experience I got from recording bands and using the equipment really trained my engineering skills, which of course, is very valuable in film music. With film music and deadlines, you have to do almost everything. You have to be the composer, you have to be the mixer, you have to be the arranger, the orchestrator.
I feel that, at dBs, I got a good all-round knowledge of engineering as well as just communicating with people. Because I grew up in Greece, I didn't really have any contacts here. So dBs, for me, was my community in those first years when I came over. It was a great place to share ideas and meet lots of new people. The people that you meet early on in your career are friends and collaborators, and it was a very important part of my progress. It really propelled me towards gaining the confidence needed to start a career in the music industry.
If you want to follow in Alexander’s footsteps and gain the knowledge, skills, contacts and confidence you need to start a career in the music industry, explore our music production courses and our BA (Hons) Music & Sound for Film & TV degree.
You can learn more about dBs on our website or at our next open day!
