Music composer for media - Mattias Holmgren.

Morningdew Media is a creative media production company dedicated to music & sound. We produce dynamic music and interactive sound design solutions for games, film, web and other media. Our focus is the sound of your productions, and to ensure excellent audio content on time.

How it is to work with us?

Initially we have a meeting / Skype session where I collect as much information and details I can regarding your vision for the sound and music colors on the product you are working on. Sometimes clients ask me for consultation on the possibilities of the media and how we best can achieve a higher quality value. I can give some handy advice on production implementation of the audio content and audio-engine features.

After signing a NDA I will ask for concept graphics, design documents and/or music and sound-asset lists and descriptions from your production team. The concept or in-game graphics helps out alot of finding the right tone and sound for the music themes if there is not a rough-cut or playable demo available. After the technical details are sorted out we get down to the production of the actual audio, the music and the sound design.

It all comes down to the foundation - the melody.
Sometimes it takes 5 seconds to come up with the notes, and another day I need alot more time to get things going. I keep a library of notes and sketches of basic ideas from which I quickly can grab some stuff to get moving. ie. action-cues, drama-cues, adventure-cues. It can be a series of notes or chords, maybe a scale which brings a certain cinematic emotion, or just a description of grouped instruments which work well for a specific music piece. But most of the time I just sit down with the basic piano and improvise, to work out the basic melody and work from there. I often place a clear image inside my head of what I'm trying to reach for (or what the client have told me to reach for)...almost like painting. It is a meditative state which brings the real magic.

Composing music - is about reaching out!
So when the melodies are found it is time to make the arrangement, to make contrasts and build interest.

At the age of 10 Mattias started taking lessons at the piano, but it wasn't until age 15 he really embraced composition. Mattias found interest in the drums, composing music and performing with bands like Embracing, Naglfar, Tired Tree and Azure. At an age of 17 in 1995 he released his debut album with Naglfar called "Vittra" which immediately received great success and led to more releases with his other bands. Embracing "I bear the burden of time" was recorded and released in 1996, and the following year saw the release of Embracing "Dreams left behind".

Early 1998 he begun studying composition and arrangement for orchestral, jazz and pop/rock music and begun writing music in a wider area of styles. This year he also participated on the Azure "Moonlight legend" album and played drums for Darkside Cowboys "Disclosure II" CD.

Finally in 2002 after releasing his first solo album under the name Tired Tree he resigned from the job as project engineer at SEMKO in Stockholm and decided to start his own business, producing audio for the entertainment industry. With focus upon game audio Morningdew Media was born. The company name comes from one of the songs from the Embracing 'Dreams left behind' album which he recorded in 1997.

He got in touch with a new canadian game development studio called Evillusion and begun working on their game Eon of tears, which was based upon biblical events like Soddom And Gomorrah. At Evillusion Mattias had the role as audio director/music composer, and also did post-production sound effect mixing for E3 trailers and ingame scenery. After about a year Evillussion was put on ice and Mattias continued working with other shows and game studios producing quality themes and sound design for shows like Umeå Höstljus, Kulturnatta and Skellefteå Tillväxtgala. He produced mobile ringtones for the Indian company Cornershop Entertainment.

The following years also included productions and studio recordings with different artists from Umeå, and he also contributed with some work for a antidrug compilation CD. He did a remix/cover of the Moody Blues song "Blue world" for a compilation CD called Higher and Higher - a tribute to the moody blues released by Mellow records.



In 2004 Mattias begun studying in Skellefteå while working on music for a few game projects like Sprint Madness, Furiae, Rightous Battles and music for marketing campaigns by BRIO AB etc. 2007 Ice Game Studios got in touch and Mattias started working on the orchestral fantasy scores for their game LEGIO which was released by PARADOX in 2010.

During 2010 Mattias worked on a number of new game titles including; Vegas Towers, Charmed, Flight Deck, Lawnmower kids, Valet Parking 1989 (DSi), Legio, iDamaged & Luminati.

Read more about the creative procedures at Mattias composer and sound design blog.

Recommendations from clients:

October 2, 2011
“Mattias stepped in at the last minute to score a one-minute film teaser another team had been working on, without much success, for five months. Ten days and two brief Skype meetings later, we had a brilliant, vibrant score that turned a good little film into a great one. I can't wait for an opportunity to work with Mattias again!”
Top qualities: Great Results, On Time, Creative

Mark David Gerson, hired Mattias for a Film-score composition in 2011