ICMP student Ollie Trevers pens songs for Brit flick Funny Cow

ICMP Masters songwriting student Ollie Trevers has had four songs featured on the soundtrack to new film ‘Funny Cow’.

Released today (20th April), the new British film stars Maxine Peake and Paddy Considine and features new music from Ollie as well as Sheffield music legend Richard Hawley.

Ollie will be performing some music from 'Funny Cow' and the latest film he is working on at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

But with the release of the film today (20th April), we caught up with Ollie ahead of its release to find out more about his music and how it ended up on the silver screen…

How did your music find its way to the team behind ‘Funny Cow’?

My dad used to work with Natasha Smile when he was still in advertising. She got in touch with him about a year and a half, maybe two years ago and asked if he would like to work with her current partner, Kevin Proctor. He’s a film producer who has worked on films such as ‘Inception’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’.

One day my dad was listening to a couple of new songs I had sent him over the phone and film producer Kevin Proctor heard and asked who was behind the music. My dad explained it was me and Kevin asked if I could write a song for his film." 

The first song I wrote was meant for a club scene in the sixties where the main protagonist meets her husband, so I wrote a love song called ‘Nightmare In Paradise’ . They loved it but said it had to be an upbeat rock and roll song as opposed to a ballad.

So then I wrote ‘Twist It, Shake It’  in about a day which thankfully they also loved. Then they asked me to perform the song in the film with a band, so I got a few friends together to learn the song and we recorded a demo as soon as we could so we could play to it in the scene ... it was all very last minute!

I went with my dad to see Kevin when they were filming in Leeds and overheard that they needed more music. Presumably they wanted Richard [Hawley] to write more for the soundtrack but I immediately put myself forward to write two new songs for them. Anyway, they (Studio POW) liked all the music that I wrote and asked if I could work on another film for them. Now I'm working on the music for their new venture 'Cordelia'.   

It's just you and Richard Hawley on the soundtrack - how does it feel to be in the company of such an illustrious artist? 

Richard is someone who wasn't really on my radar before ‘Funny Cow’. I'd heard his name before but was never familiar with his work; but it is amazing to be on the same album with someone as successful as him and I'm now a genuine fan. But yeah, it feels pretty great, it's every young artist’s dream to be associated with other prestigious artists. 

How has your time at ICMP helped prepare you for the wider music industry? What are the most important things you've learned while studying here? 

Even if you're as lucky as I have been you still need to understand that your success is at least 50 percent luck, 30 percent hard work and 20 percent talent.

As a songwriter ICMP really has pushed me. I used to just write a song and think it was perfect. Now I find myself searching for any way to criticise my music in order to understand why it isn't perfect. Drafting and re-writing are an integral part of my creative process, which really should be the case with any songwriter or creative." 

Basically ICMP has taught me the importance of hard work, and in many way's hard work is the most important of the three points I just mentioned, as not everyone can have all the talent or all the luck, but anyone can strive to achieve their goals and maybe even one day, their dreams.  

You're also working on another soundtrack/score - could you explain a little about this? 

I am working on the next film for Studio POW which is called 'Cordelia'. The basic premise of which is based around a woman who experienced the 7/7 bombings in London and her struggle ten years on. It's essentially about the silent victims of attacks such as 7/7 who suffer from PTSD and other mental illnesses due to those atrocities. 

It's a really interesting and exciting project I think, especially as I'm writing all of the music myself! I've almost finished writing the soundtrack album and I've just started working on the score music, all of which is going really well. It's all very dark though, I've never written quite so many melancholy songs/music in one go, but even if I say so myself it is all going very well.

Visit Ollie's Facebook profile to learn more about his music. 

Find out more about 'Funny Cow' and watch the trailer to the film below.