Len Arran (born Leonard Arran, 7 June 1961,

Thornaby-on-Tees Thornaby-on-Tees, commonly referred to as Thornaby, is a town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Yorkshire, England, north of York and south-east of Middlesbrough. On the south bank of the River Tees, Thornaby falls within th ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

) is an English composer of

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

s, and songwriter for

Skunk Anansie Skunk Anansie are a British Rock music, rock band whose members include Skin (musician), Skin (vocals, guitar), Cass (bass, guitar), Ace (guitar) and Mark Richardson (musician), Mark Richardson (drums). Skunk Anansie formed in 1994, disbanded ...

and solo artist Deborah Dyer (

Skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different ...

). He began his career as a guitarist in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in the late 1980s. In 1991, he developed a writing partnership with Dyer, leading to the formation of rock band

. From 1994 onwards, they produced eight

Top 40 In the music industry, the Top 40 is a list of the 40 currently most popular songs in a particular genre. It is the best-selling or most frequently broadcast popular music. Record charts have traditionally consisted of a total of 40 songs. "To ...

singles, including "Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good)", "Twisted" and "Brazen (Weep)", and three

gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

albums: ''

Paranoid and Sunburnt ''Paranoid & Sunburnt'' is the debut studio album by British rock band Skunk Anansie, first released in 1995 via One Little Indian Records. It was re-released in 2005 with a DVD featuring the videos to the singles. This album was recorded with ...

'' (1995), ''

Stoosh ''Stoosh'' is the second studio album by British rock band Skunk Anansie, released on 7 October 1996. Critical reception In July 1997, '' CMJ New Music'' described their sound on this album as "sludgy retro metal", and compared them to Fait ...

'' (1997) and ''

Post Orgasmic Chill ''Post Orgasmic Chill'' is the third studio album by British rock band Skunk Anansie, first released in 1999. Two album covers exist: the European version with the band lounging in an oceanside apartment, and the American version with the ban ...

'' (1999). 2004 saw the release of songs for Skin's first Solo Album, '' Fleshwounds'' on

EMI EMI Group Limited (formerly EMI Group plc until 2007; originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At t ...

followed by her second solo album, '' Fake Chemical State'' (V2 Music) released in March 2006. The huge hit song ''

Secretly "Secretly" is a popular song. It was written by Al Hoffman, Dick Manning, Hugo Peretti, and Luigi Creatore and published in 1958. The best-known recording of the song was done by Jimmie Rodgers, which was a gold record. Chart performance The ...

'' was used in the film ''

Cruel Intentions ''Cruel Intentions'' is a 1999 American teen romantic drama film written and directed by Roger Kumble, and starring Ryan Phillippe, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Reese Witherspoon, and Selma Blair. The film, set in New York City among rich high s ...

'' (1999), along with other tracks for the films '' Strange Days'' (1995), '' Mission: Impossible'' (1998), '' The Avengers'' (1998), and other television credits in Europe and America. Arran has composed music for many computer games, including the

Sony Entertainment Sony Entertainment, Inc. is the umbrella entertainment division of Japanese multinational conglomerate Sony Group Corporation and managed by its American subsidiary, established in 2012 to oversee the corporation's ventures in film, televisio ...

PC game ''Tellurian Defence''. He has scored music for several Irish short films, in addition to music for "Simon Community" TV commercials. He has scored films including the award-winning ''A Dublin Story'' (2003), and ''Push Hands'' (2004), ''Past Pupil'' (2005) and '' L'Empire des loups'' (2005). Other works include the British romantic comedy '' The Truth About Love'' (2006), the Shimmy Marcus/Paul Davey documentary " reaking Boundaries(2008) and the latest feature from Shimmy Marcus, '' Soulboy''. In 2009 the film '' New Boy (film)'' (2007), scored by Arran was nominated for an Oscar at the 81st

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

(2009). He has recently written for singers J Marie Cooper and Indie Murton both of whom appeared on BBC show

The Voice UK (series 1) ''The Voice UK'' is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The first series began on 24 March 2012 and ended on 2 June 2012. The show was co-presented by Holly Willoughby and Reggie Yates on BBC One. The series was won ...

2012, and played guitar with

for European acoustic shows in April 2013, recorded for a live DVD in summer of 2013. Arran lives on the island of

Gozo Gozo ( ), known in classical antiquity, antiquity as Gaulos, is an island in the Malta#The Maltese archipelago, Maltese archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The island is part of the Republic of Malta. After the Malta Island, island of Malta ...

in Malta.

References

External links

*
Official HomepageLabhaoise Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arran, Len 1961 births Living people People from Thornaby-on-Tees English film score composers English male film score composers English male songwriters