Getting a gig working on the All Aboard! Scotland’s Poshest Train is something of a career high “so far” for James Gray.
After leaving school in Oban with “no jotters” to working on the Channel 4 documentary with traitors star Alan Cumming, it still feels like just the beginning for James.
He says getting the job on the production was down to being a bit of a workaholic who composed music to understand the world around him.
That, and a chance opportunity for the programme’s producer to hear his work.
The Oban composer spoke to The Press and Journal from his “Baltically-cold” studio in a barn at Dunollie Castle.
He describes himself as the opposite of what you might think a composer is, he is from a council house, and his parents were not teachers or doctors, just “hard workers”.
It was by chance that the production team behind Channel 4’s All Aboard! found James’s music and featured it in all four episodes.
‘I am a prolific composer’
He has received rave reviews from the production team on how the music has helped bring the landscape alive for viewers.
In All Aboard!, James uses traditional musicians and original music scores to create a cinematic experience alongside some of Scotland’s most inspiring landscapes.
He said: “I am a prolific composer. By chance, I wrote lots of music for a sound library that was set up by a music producer who was at that time running a bed and breakfast in Dalmally.
“He asked me if I could compose library files for him, that would then be promoted to the TV, film and radio industries. I wasn’t paid to do it at the time.
“The production company making All Aboard! heard the music and asked if I could make a few changes that they needed.
“Instead, I offered to compose original music, and by using traditional musicians we have created something really special.”
It is not the traditional way to get the opportunity to work on a major TV production, despite “just enough” pay to make it work – other opportunities are on the horizon.
He is now working on the Area 51 S4 documentary feature, Project Gravitaur.
The score will sit alongside first-hand accounts from UFO “physicist” Bob Lazar.
He can’t speak more about the documentary for now, as there is a non-disclosure agreement in place.
James is also producing a podcast “This is Vinyl” and has plans for his own TV and film podcast in the works. His
‘I get ill without music’
Discovering two years ago he was dyslexic has helped him to come to terms with the “snobbery” that can exist among composers.
Something James says may have “held him back” when it comes to getting his scores into production.
The 51-year-old said: “I feel music everywhere. It is in the air that I breathe, it is where I am. I get ill without music.
“I don’t rely on dots and notation to make music, my dyslexia doesn’t allow me to do that. But good computer software can help me with that.”
After attending North Glasgow College in his teens, he was offered one of only two places that went to Scots at the Univeristy of Westminister.
His year group went on to be Bafta and Oscar winners for their work. James believes his dyslexia may have held him back.
James left school without qualifications, although did attend a handful of piano lessons with composer Geoffrey Heald Smith when he moved to Oban.
“Geoffrey said I would never be a traditional pianist because I was always going to ‘follow my own path’.
“I have followed my own path, and it has not been easy. I am not a businessman, the music has always been more important than the money.”
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