Runner-Up, UK Songwriting Contest 2005
Who Knows? (Ecological Song)

I almost didn't find out about this success - there was a breakdown in communication with the contest organisers, and I didn't know the results had been announced. I checked the Contest web site and found “Who Knows?” listed as a winner, but written by a David Wilson. I thought it was too much of a coincidence, and made contact. The contest organisers very quickly confirmed that it was my song and apologised for the mix-up. It did seem quite funny with a song title like “Who Knows?” that the writer himself wasn't sure that it was his song!

I didn't set out to write a song with a message, but I was working on it about the time of the G8 Summit in Edinburgh, and the discussions about global warming must have had a subconscious effect on me. This doesn't stop the song sounding commercial, and the fact that the lyrics have a bit more “bite” than the average pop song may be an advantage.

I suppose with competition successes for chamber music (Scottish Society of Composers prize in 2002), and now Hip-Hop/R'n'B, I have some claim to the versatility that media composers are supposed to have!