Magnus Fiennes
Encyclopedia
Magnus Fiennes is an English cross-genre composer, record producer and songwriter. He has worked with artists such as Shakira
, Pulp
, Tom Jones
and Morcheeba
. In 1997 he produced All Saints
million selling single "Never Ever", which reached number 4 on the US charts and number 1 throughout Europe; producing and co-writing on their eponymous 5 million selling album.
He composed and produced much of the two multi-million selling albums from the girl quartet Bond
. He has composed several major film scores, numerous commercials and TV series, including many seasons of leading BBC dramas such as Hustle
, Murphy's Law
, and Death in Paradise
. He also created developed and produced the $20 million animated cartoon series Freefonix
.
, Marianne Faithfull
, Bryan Ferry
, The Spice Girls, Hal David
, Seal
, Yello
, Propaganda$2, Erazure, Eagle-Eye Cherry
, David McAlmont
, Ian McCulloch
, Roland Gift
, Lenny Kravitz
, Nigel Kennedy
, Daniel Lanois
, Trilok Gurtu, Damien Hirst
(in the guise of Fat Les's Vindaloo), Dot Allison
, Justin Hawkins
, Jamelia
and Geneva
.
Other work includes producing the double platinum "Watching Angels Mend" for Australian singer-songwriter Alex Lloyd
, a collaboration with Canadian violinist Lara St John on the album of "Bach with beats" for Sony Classical, co-writing material with Massive Attack and The Sugababes, and co-writing and producing album tracks and singles for Bertine Zetlitz
(a Norwegian
number one) and Liberty X. Although Fiennes now works primarily in the field of film and TV composition he was music director on Shakira
's "The Sun Come Out 2010 World Tour".
Magnus Fiennes continues to develop and consult on US based film and TV projects including developing a TV series for Silver Television/Pictures. He lectures on music and aspects of music technology at The National Film And Television School, Kingston University and The Architect's Association in the UK.
(featuring Neneh Cherry), Madonna's "Next Best Thing" and Scala Pictures music business satire, "Five Seconds to Spare". Fiennes has produced tracks for Working Title's Rowan Atkinson
vehicle, Johnny English
, and co-wrote the closing Massive Attack song on their score for the Luc Besson film, Danny The Dog.
on bass and Gary Husband
on drums. He was Music Director on Shakira's "The Sun Come Out" 2010 World Tour.
, England in 1965, a son of photographer Mark Fiennes
and novelist Jennifer Lash
(both deceased). One of six siblings, he is brother to actors Ralph Fiennes
and Joseph Fiennes
, and film makers Sophie Fiennes
and Martha Fiennes
. Another brother, Jacob, is a conservationist. His foster brother, Michael Emery, is an archaeologist.
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
, Pulp
Pulp (band)
Pulp are an English alternative rock band formed in Sheffield in 1978. Their lineup consists of Jarvis Cocker , Russell Senior , Candida Doyle , Mark Webber , Steve Mackey and Nick Banks ....
, Tom Jones
Tom Jones (singer)
Sir Thomas John Woodward, OBE , known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, techno, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records...
and Morcheeba
Morcheeba
Morcheeba are a British band, mixing influences from trip hop, rock, R&B, and pop.They have produced 7 albums since 1995, two of which reached the UK top ten.-Biography:...
. In 1997 he produced All Saints
All Saints (group)
All Saints were a British/Canadian girl group. Founded in 1993 as All Saints 1.9.7.5, the group consisted of founding members Melanie Blatt and Shaznay Lewis, and sisters Nicole Appleton and Natalie Appleton...
million selling single "Never Ever", which reached number 4 on the US charts and number 1 throughout Europe; producing and co-writing on their eponymous 5 million selling album.
He composed and produced much of the two multi-million selling albums from the girl quartet Bond
Bond (band)
Bond is an Australian/British string quartet that specialises in classical crossover music...
. He has composed several major film scores, numerous commercials and TV series, including many seasons of leading BBC dramas such as Hustle
Hustle (TV series)
Hustle is a British television drama series made by Kudos Film and Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom. Created by Tony Jordan and first broadcast in 2004, the series follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long cons" – extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but...
, Murphy's Law
Murphy's Law (TV series)
Murphy's Law is a BBC television drama, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Northern Ireland, starring James Nesbitt as an undercover police officer, Tommy Murphy. There were five series of the drama, shown on BBC One. The first two were composed of individual stories. Series three, four...
, and Death in Paradise
Death in Paradise (TV series)
Death in Paradise is a crime drama/comedy joint UK/French television programme filmed in Guadeloupe, the first overseas region of France, starring Ben Miller and Sara Martins.-Synopsis:...
. He also created developed and produced the $20 million animated cartoon series Freefonix
Freefonix
Freefonix is a CGI animated television series about the adventures of fictional band of the same name. To date, the show consists of 40 half hour episodes. The series was launched on January 4, 2008 and was aired as part of the CBBC strand on BBC1. The first 20 episodes aired on BBC2 during...
.
Records
As a producer/arranger programmer and re-mixer, Fiennes has worked with a diverse range of artists including Neneh CherryNeneh Cherry
Neneh Mariann Cherry is a Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper, and occasional DJ and broadcaster...
, Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
, Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry
Bryan Ferry, CBE is an English singer, musician, and songwriter. Ferry came to public prominence in the early 1970s as lead vocalist and principal songwriter with the band Roxy Music, who enjoyed a highly successful career with three number one albums and ten singles entering the top ten charts in...
, The Spice Girls, Hal David
Hal David
Harold Lane "Hal" David is an American lyricist. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York. David is best known for his collaborations with composer Burt Bacharach.-Career:...
, Seal
Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...
, Yello
Yello
Yello is a Swiss electronica band consisting of Dieter Meier and Boris Blank. They are probably best known for their singles "The Race" and "Oh Yeah", which feature a mix of electronic music and manipulated vocals, as does most of their music....
, Propaganda$2, Erazure, Eagle-Eye Cherry
Eagle-Eye Cherry
Eagle-Eye Lanoo Cherry is a Swedish musician of African-American descent.-Life and career:Cherry was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of African American jazz artist Don Cherry and Swedish painter/textile artist Monika "Moki" Cherry . He is half-brother of singer Neneh Cherry, his mother's...
, David McAlmont
David McAlmont
David McAlmont is a British vocalist and songwriter.-Early years and Thieves:...
, Ian McCulloch
Ian McCulloch (singer)
Ian Stephen McCulloch is an English singer, born in Liverpool, and is best known as the frontman for the rock group Echo & the Bunnymen.-Career:...
, Roland Gift
Roland Gift
Roland Lee Gift is a British singer and actor. He was the lead singer of the band Fine Young Cannibals.-Biography:...
, Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
, Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy
Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...
, Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
, Trilok Gurtu, Damien Hirst
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst is an English artist, entrepreneur and art collector. He is the most prominent member of the group known as the Young British Artists , who dominated the art scene in Britain during the 1990s. He is internationally renowned, and is reportedly Britain's richest living artist,...
(in the guise of Fat Les's Vindaloo), Dot Allison
Dot Allison
Dot Allison is a Scottish singer and songwriter, who has made significant inroads in electronic music circles, most notably as a result of her tenure fronting the band One Dove in the early 1990s...
, Justin Hawkins
Justin Hawkins
Justin David Hawkins is an English musician and singer-songwriter, best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist of The Darkness, alongside his brother, guitarist Dan Hawkins...
, Jamelia
Jamelia
Jamelia Niela Davis , best known mononymously as Jamelia, is an English singer-songwriter, model, entertainer, television presenter and actress. She is most famous for her use of a cappella and prolific work in the R&B genre...
and Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
.
Other work includes producing the double platinum "Watching Angels Mend" for Australian singer-songwriter Alex Lloyd
Alex Lloyd
Alex Lloyd is an Australian singer-songwriter. His most popular album Watching Angels Mend, which includes the songs "Amazing" and "Green", was released in 2001 went double platinum. His third album Distant Light released in 2003 featured three songs that made the Australian top 40 singles charts...
, a collaboration with Canadian violinist Lara St John on the album of "Bach with beats" for Sony Classical, co-writing material with Massive Attack and The Sugababes, and co-writing and producing album tracks and singles for Bertine Zetlitz
Bertine Zetlitz
Bertine Zetlitz is a Norwegian pop singer. She is one of Norway's most popular performers.-Biography:Bertine Axeliane Robberstad Zetlitz began her musical journey at a young age, penning her first numbers aged just 12. After gaining a background in classical music, Zetlitz began to experiment...
(a Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
number one) and Liberty X. Although Fiennes now works primarily in the field of film and TV composition he was music director on Shakira
Shakira
Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll , known professionally as Shakira , is a Colombian singer who emerged in the music scene of Colombia and Latin America in the early 1990s...
's "The Sun Come Out 2010 World Tour".
Magnus Fiennes continues to develop and consult on US based film and TV projects including developing a TV series for Silver Television/Pictures. He lectures on music and aspects of music technology at The National Film And Television School, Kingston University and The Architect's Association in the UK.
Film
- Soup (1995)
- Preaching To The Perverted (1997)
- Onegin (1998)
- The Reckoning (2001)
- Peter Cottontail – The Movie (2005)
- Casper's Scare School (2006)
- Chromophobia (2007)
- Donkeys (2010)
Television
- Pleasureland (2003)
- Hustle (2004–2011)
- Vital Signs (2006)
- Murphy's Law (2006–2007)
- Five Days (2006)
- The Last Enemy (2007)
- The Fixer (2008–2010)
- Injustice (2011)
- Death in ParadiseDeath in Paradise (TV series)Death in Paradise is a crime drama/comedy joint UK/French television programme filmed in Guadeloupe, the first overseas region of France, starring Ben Miller and Sara Martins.-Synopsis:...
(2011)
Film Tracks
Fiennes has written and produced a number of featured songs including the title song for Paramount's Addicted to LoveAddicted to Love (film)
Addicted to Love is a 1997 American romantic comedy film directed by Griffin Dunne, starring Meg Ryan, Matthew Broderick, Tchéky Karyo, and Kelly Preston...
(featuring Neneh Cherry), Madonna's "Next Best Thing" and Scala Pictures music business satire, "Five Seconds to Spare". Fiennes has produced tracks for Working Title's Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...
vehicle, Johnny English
Johnny English
Johnny English is a 2003 British action comedy film parodying the James Bond secret agent genre. The film stars Rowan Atkinson as the incompetent titular English spy, with John Malkovich, Natalie Imbruglia, Tim Pigott-Smith and Ben Miller in supporting roles...
, and co-wrote the closing Massive Attack song on their score for the Luc Besson film, Danny The Dog.
Live
As a keyboard player, Fiennes toured extensively with legendary blues guitarist Gary Moore in a line-up with Pink Floyd’s Guy PrattGuy Pratt
Guy Pratt is a session bassist and also a songwriter, actor and comedian. He is the son of actor Mike Pratt. In Kensington and Chelsea, London, in 1996, Pratt married Gala Wright, the daughter of Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright...
on bass and Gary Husband
Gary Husband
Gary Husband is a British jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer.- Short biography:Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer...
on drums. He was Music Director on Shakira's "The Sun Come Out" 2010 World Tour.
Personal life
Magnus Fiennes was born in SuffolkSuffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, England in 1965, a son of photographer Mark Fiennes
Mark Fiennes
Mark Fiennes was an English photographer and illustrator.Mark Wykeham-Fiennes was born at Dalton, Northumberland, the eldest of five children of industrialist Maurice Fiennes, who was later knighted by Prime Minister Harold Wilson for his services to the export of British heavy engineering...
and novelist Jennifer Lash
Jennifer Lash
Jennifer Anne Mary Alleyne Lash was an English novelist and painter....
(both deceased). One of six siblings, he is brother to actors Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
and Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Fiennes is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, Merlin in Camelot, and his portrayal of Mark Benford in the...
, and film makers Sophie Fiennes
Sophie Fiennes
Sophia Victoria Twisleton Wykeham-Fiennes , known as Sophie Fiennes, is an English film director and producer.-Career:Following a foundation course in painting at Chelsea School of Art, Fiennes worked with director Peter Greenaway from 1987–1992. She managed the UK based dance company, The Michael...
and Martha Fiennes
Martha Fiennes
Martha Fiennes is a British film director, writer and producer. An award-winning director, Fiennes is best-known for her films Onegin and Chromophobia .-Career:...
. Another brother, Jacob, is a conservationist. His foster brother, Michael Emery, is an archaeologist.