 Although formally trained in classical music, he played in and arranged for various soul, jazz, funk and disco bands and began scoring TV documentaries whilst still in high school.In addition to the main canon of western music from the Middle Ages to the present, his musical interests have included a special love for jazz, electronic music, and for certain non-western music, especially Indonesian Gamelan and Indian classical music, the result of seven months teaching and traveling the Indian subcontinent in 1995.Following his travels, he gained his bachelor's degree in Composition at the University of York, UK, with a First Class Honours and his Masters at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.