Stephen Barton
Stephen Barton (born 17 September 1982) is a British film and video game composer who has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2001. He has composed the music for dozens of major film, television and video game projects, including Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Titanfall, Apex Legends, Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (with James Cameron), and Disney's Motorcity.
Stephen Barton | |
---|---|
Born | Preston, England | 17 September 1982
Genres | Film scores |
Occupation(s) | Composer |
Website | afterlightinc.com |
Early life
As a child, Barton was a cathedral chorister in Winchester Cathedral Choir, later winning a prestigious DfE specialist music scholarship to study piano and composition at Wells Cathedral School,[1] one of the oldest extant schools in the world.
Film and television
Barton's film work include scores for Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away, Jennifer's Body, Tom Dolby and Tom Williams' debut feature Last Weekend, Line of Fire, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and the BAFTA nominated thriller Exam. He also contributed music for the Narnia and Shrek franchises (including the "Fairy Godmother Song" from Shrek 2) as well as Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, Tony Scott's Man On Fire and Ben Affleck's "Gone, Baby Gone".
Chris Prynoski, the animator behind the hallucination scene in Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, heard Barton's score for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and asked him to score Titmouse's animated series G.I. Joe: Resolute,[2] which led to a further collaboration on a series for Disney, Motorcity.[3] In addition to those he also co-wrote the music for MTV's Disco Destroyer,[4] a project conceived by Scott Mosier, Jim Mahfood and Joe Casey and animated by Titmouse, composing the score with Chevy Metal and My Ruin guitarist Mick Murphy.
Video games
In 2007, Barton wrote the score for the highly regarded first person shooter Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (with Harry Gregson-Williams).[5] He teamed up with the same developers at their new company Respawn Entertainment to work on the music for Titanfall,[6] an online-only multiplayer shooter. Barton also created the music for the 2016 sequel, Titanfall 2 and its battle royale sibling, Apex Legends in 2019. His other game work includes additional music for two of the Metal Gear Solid games as well as the game score for DreamWorks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon.[7]
Other work
Barton has collaborated frequently with Sir Anthony Hopkins since producing the soundtrack for the film Slipstream in 2006. He produced the Decca album "Composer", which topped the UK Classical charts for a month in 2012,[8][9] as well as collaborating with Hopkins on the production of "And The Waltz Goes On" with André Rieu, which won the Classic FM "Album Of The Year" award in the Classic Brit Awards 2012.[10] As a pianist he has performed extensively as a soloist with numerous orchestras including the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Symphony,[11] City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and the Brussels Philharmonic, as well as on numerous movie soundtracks and diverse albums including Hybrid's I Choose Noise[12] and playing the mellotron on a cover of Snowblind for Fireball Ministry's eponymously titled album in 2010.
His company Afterlight Inc. is based in Hollywood. Barton is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
Discography
Film scores
Year | Title | Director(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2005 | Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont | Dan Ireland | N/A |
2009 | The Six Wives of Henry Lefay | Howard Michael Gould | N/A |
Exam | Stuart Hazeldine | Co-composed with Matthew Cracknell | |
Jennifer's Body | Karyn Kusama | Co-composed with Theodore Shapiro | |
2012 | Dino Time | John Kafka Yoon-suk Choi |
Co-composed with Loren Gold |
2013 | Line of Duty | Bryan Ramirez | N/A |
2014 | 4 Minute Mile | Charles-Olivier Michaud | N/A |
Last Weekend | Tom Dolby Tom Williams |
N/A | |
2017 | Unlocked | Michael Apted | N/A |
Other credits
Television
Year | Programme | Network | Episode(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | G.I. Joe: Resolute | Adult Swim | 11 | N/A |
2012 | Motorcity | Disney XD | 16 | Theme music composed by Brendan Small |
2013 | Liquid Television | MTV | 1 | Composer for pilot episode only |
2015 - 2017 | Niko and the Sword of Light | Amazon Video | 14 | N/A |
2017 - 2018 | 12 Monkeys | Syfy | 16 | Co-composed with Bryce Jacobs, Paul Linford and Trevor Rabin |
Video Games
Year | Title | Studio(s) | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2007 | Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare | Activision Infinity Ward |
Theme music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams Nominated — Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media |
2010 | How to Train Your Dragon | Activision Étranges Libellules Griptonite Games |
N/A |
2014 | Titanfall | Electronic Arts Respawn Entertainment |
Nominated — NAVGTR Award for Best Original Dramatic Score, New IP |
2016 | Titanfall 2 | N/A | |
2019 | Apex Legends | N/A | |
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order | Co-composed with Gordy Haab | ||
References
- "Wells Composition Alumni". wellscathedralschool.org. 2011-04-06. Archived from the original on 2016-04-08. Retrieved 2013-10-06.
- "G.I. Joe: Resolute". Yojoe. VerticalScope Inc. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "Gamer Profile: Stephen Barton". Obsolete Gamer. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- Dambrot, Shana Nys (17 October 2013). "Jim Mahfood: Frenetic Illustrations and Cosmic Comic Books". KCET. Public Media Group of Southern California. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- Van Zelfden, Alex (14 June 2012). "The Music of Call of Duty 4". IGN. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- Jenkins, David (21 October 2013). "The music of Titanfall interview – the sound of the next gen". metro.co.uk. Associated Newspapers Limited. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
- Bell, Lowell (6 February 2014). "Titanfall: Stephen Barton Discusses Online-Only Music Composition". Game Ranx. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "Anthony Hopkins Lives Out A Long-Deferred Musical Dream". NPR. 9 March 2012. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "Classic FM's Anthony Hopkins Interview – Part 1". Classic FM. Global Group. Retrieved 11 December 2019.
- "The Classic BRIT Awards 2012 with MasterCard — Winners". Classic BRITs. 2 October 2012. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 3 October 2012.
- Kortals, Sabine (20 May 2007). "Composer, CSO take audience to the movies". denverpost.com. MediaNews Group, Inc. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- "Hybrid Bio". MTV.com. Viacom International Inc. Archived from the original on 6 March 2014. Retrieved 11 December 2019.