Peter Dasent

Peter Dasent played keyboards in The Crocodiles, before he began composing for the screen. He kicked off with a triple punch of early Peter Jackson films: part-musical Meet the Feebles, zombie epic BrainDead and the Oscar-nominated Heavenly Creatures. Since then Dasent's composing work has mostly been in Australia, often for documentaries and children's television. For 20+ years he has played piano on the Aussie version of Play School. Dasent has also collaborated with ex Crocodiles Tony Backhouse and Fane Flaws — including on Flaws' song-packed special The Underwatermelon Man and Other Unreasonable Rhymes. 

I would just literally look at the picture and improvise something. That’s how I work. I've got some kind of instinctive ability for that . . . And I've got the different musical languages as well, from learning classical piano, and my dad’s jazz records, and the Beatles, and all the other kinds of music that I got interested in. I can just grab them and it's just hell of a useful if you’re writing film music. Peter Dasent on composing for the screen, AudioCulture website, 24 February 2023