Tim Davies and the Music of Maya and the Three

Tim Davies opens up his scores and his Pro Tools sessions describing his work on Netflix’s Maya and the Three. Engineer Steve Kaplan also joins Tim to show the recording and mixing process and how the hybrid score was put together. This session was moderated by ASA Vice President Reuven Herman.

ABOUT TIM DAVIES

Born and educated in Australia, now based in Los Angeles, the Grammy- and Annie-nominated musician splits his time between orchestrating for features, television, and video games; composing his own scores; and conducting and arranging for orchestras all around the globe.

His film and TV credits as lead orchestrator and/or conductor include Frozen and Frozen 2, both Ant-Man movies, The Lego Movie 2, La La Land, Trolls, The Peanuts Movie, The Croods: A New Age,Free Guy, The Bob’s Burgers Movie, Empire, and WandaVision. He is the most prolific orchestrator and conductor in the world of video games, having worked on multiple titles from the God of War, Infamous, Sims, Ratchet and Clank, Resistance and Batman franchises, Marvel’s Spider-man, and Halo: Infinite. A full list of credits can be found on IMDB. He is currently lead orchestrator for Christophe Beck, Mark Mothersbaugh, and Fil Eisler. When not on the scoring stage, Davies can be found on the podium conducting orchestras in concert halls and other live venues specializing in film scores live to picture.

Davies has been asked to score several high-profile projects. He has special relationships with Mexican directors Jorge Gutierrez and Guillermo del Toro. He recently scored Gutierrez’s Maya and the Three, receiving his second Annie Award nomination, and previously collaborated with two-time Oscar winner Gustavo Santaolalla to score The Book of Life. He also received an Annie nomination for his work scoring Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia, executive produced by del Toro, and contributed additional music for Crimson Peak. In 2019 del Toro asked him to produce and conduct a concert of scores from his movies with the Jalisco Philharmonic in his home town of Guadalajara, Mexico. His next project is del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

Davies is an active pop and jazz arranger as well. Highlights include arranging and playing drums for the twentieth anniversary concert of NAS’ Illmatic and being lead arranger for Kendrick Lamar’s performance of To Pimp a Butterfly, both featuring the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Other collaborations with the NSO have included shows with Ledisi, Common, Maxwell, and Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds. He enjoys a close relationship with the Metropole Orchestra in the Netherlands and has recently written for concerts featuring Donny McCaslin, Cory Henry, Ibeyi, and Moses Sumney. He has contributed arrangements for several recent BBC Proms concerts and for the last two Academy Awards Ceremonies. He has written string arrangements for Amy Winehouse, Miguel, Cee Lo Green, and Akon. When not working for others he can be found playing drums and writing for his own group, the 18-piece Tim Davies Big Band, for which he has received two Grammy nominations for Best Instrumental Composition, in 2010 and 2016.

In 2013 he launched his orchestration blog, www.debreved.com, which has since become an important resource for composers and orchestrators. He is represented at ICM Partners by Brice Gaeta (Composing) and Emily Yoon (Conducting).