Screen Music Awards 2021: Joff Bush wins big for his playful work on Bluey The Album
The key to the composer’s new-found success is his playful and creative work on Bluey, the internationally acclaimed children’s ABC TV show, now in its third season.
Up until recently, Joff Bush had never attracted much attention for his work as a musician and screen composer, but now he’s fast running out of space in his South Brisbane studio to store the accolades.
The key to his new-found success is his playful and creative work on Bluey, the internationally acclaimed children’s ABC TV show, which now in its third season.
On Tuesday, the composer added two more trophies to his growing collection by winning two Screen Music Awards: best soundtrack album and best music for children’s programming.
Bluey is a series of seven-minute animated cartoons centred on a family of talking blue heelers, and as its composer since day one, the 36-year-old has shaped the sound of a show that has swiftly become one of the nation’s greatest cultural exports.
When The Australian visited Bush at his recording studio last week, he was running on little sleep, having pulled an all-nighter while midway through production for the third season of Bluey.
“To be honest, I think I’m probably addicted to the adrenaline of it, too,” said the bleary-eyed composer. “The late night, ‘I’ve got get this deadline, I’ve got to get it over the line here…’ [mentality] – you do that enough and you become addicted.”
“In this last stretch of season three, there’s so many great episodes, and it genuinely feels like I can’t let everyone else down, because it’s such a good story – or we get the music to a certain point where we go, “Oh, if we got 12 French horns in an ancient church, it would be perfect!’” he said with a laugh.
In January last year, a re-recorded set of tracks originating from the TV show was released. Bluey The Album became the first Australian children’s music album to debut at No.1 on the ARIA chart, while in November, Bush won the ARIA Award for best children’s music.
“It’s a very validating experience to know that the music stands up on its own; it doesn’t necessarily have to be watched with the visuals, or have the story there to have its full emotional impact,” he said. “It’s nice that people love it; that means a lot to me.”
The annual Screen Music Awards are hosted by music rights organisation APRA AMCOS and the Australian Guild of Screen Composers.
While the award for best music for children’s programming went to Bush alone, the best soundtrack album award was shared with his co-composers David Barber, Helena Czajka, Marly Luske, Lachlan Nicolson and Steve Peach.
These mark Bush’s first accolades in the annual celebration of excellence in music for film and television, which will once again be held as a live event in November after Covid interruptions to its usual industry gatherings.
Other Screen Music Award winners announced on Tuesday include Brian Cachia, whose work on horror thriller Bloody Hell won feature film score of the year, and Caitlin Yeo, whose suspenseful score for Playing With Sharks was named best music for a documentary.
The award for best original song composed for the screen went to Bagi-la-m Bargan by hip-hop artist Birdz, aka Nathan Bird, and collaborators Fred Leone and Daniel Rankine (aka Trials).
The track was written for the documentary Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky, which offered a fresh look at the Captain Cook story from a First Nations’ perspective; Bagi-la-m Bargan also placed at No.30 in last year’s Triple J Hottest 100 music poll.
WINNERS – 2021 SCREEN MUSIC AWARDS
Feature Film Score of the Year
Bloody Hell
Composed by Brian Cachia
Best Music for a Documentary
Playing with Sharks
Composed by Caitlin Yeo
Best Music for a Short Film
Yellow Jack
Composed by Adam Moses
Best Soundtrack Album
Bluey The Album
Composed by Joff Bush, David Barber, Helena Czajka, Marly Lüske, Lachlan Nicolson & Steve Peach
Published by Universal Music Publishing on behalf of (obo) BBC Worldwide Limited
Best Original Song Composed for the Screen
Bagi-la-m Bargan from Looky Looky Here Comes Cooky
Composed by Nathan Bird*, Fred Leone & Daniel Rankine^
Published by Sony Music Publishing obo Bad Apples Music Publishing* / Sony Music Publishing obo Blue Max Music Publishing^
Best Music for Children’s Programming
Bluey
Composed by Joff Bush
Published by Universal Music Publishing obo BBC Worldwide Limited
Best Television Theme
Halifax Retribution
Composed by Cezary Skubiszewski & Jan Skubiszewski*
Published by Sony Music Publishing obo Beyond Properties / Mushroom Music*
Best Music for a Television Series or Serial
Jack Irish
Composed by David McCormack & Antony Partos
Published by Sonar Music
Best Music for a Mini-Series or Telemovie
Hungry Ghosts
Composed by Roger Mason
Best Music for an Advertisement
The Untold Tale of Isabelle Simi
Composed by Jonathan Dreyfus & Daniel Müller
Most Performed Screen Composer – Australia
Composers: Adam Gock and Dinesh Wicks
For: MasterChef, 20 to 1, Anh’s Brush with Fame
Most Performed Screen Composer – Overseas
Composer: Neil Sutherland
For: Border Security, Mythbusters, Bondi Vet
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