Simon Daum - Of One Heart (2018)

Growing up in a family full of musicians, it was no big surprise that, as soon as Simon could walk, that his first run was to the piano. Already at age three, as he was told by his parents, has he made his first attempts to compose his own music.

Being around eight years old, his parents decided that it would be a good idea sending him to get piano lessons. But "unfortunately" his interest in writing his own music was so great, that he quickly became bored with "just playing what other composers wrote". So it happaned, after about two years, that his parents had him try getting trumpet lessons instead, which ended the same way though.

It must have been around age 11 that Simon first came across the music of the American pianist and composer Jon Schmidt, today best known from the The Piano Guys. His music and friendship had a tremendous influence upon Simon, and so his desire to become a full time musician got shaped around that age.

His first great love, of course, was to write piano solo music. But over time Simon also disvocered his interest and joy in orchestrating, and so today you will find a great variety of music amongst his compositions, going from piano solos to emotional soundtracks, aswell as to epic music. Though Simon loves the challenge of writing new styles, most of his music is still focused a lot upon the piano.

Another composer that influenced his music quite a bit is Thomas Newman, not just because, to Simon, his music is one of the most emotional and authentic ones, but also because Thomas Newman is able to create such an expressive music by "simple" means, something refreshing in times where the "best music" is mostly defined by it's loudness and fatness.

Well known composers you may find sound alike Simon are: Thomas Newman, Ludovico Einaudi, Yann Tiersen, and Jon Schmidt.