Kiwi musician Blair Jollands has made a name for himself overseas. 

He works as a sound designer and composer in the film industry, as well as creating and releasing his own music. 

Jollands has a wide range of film credits, but some of the most popular he left his mark on are Poldark, Shackleton, Midas Man, and Alien vs Predator.  

He’s worked with a wide range of stars, including Madonna and Rhianna, and won praise from the late David Bowie and Boy George. 

‘Little Comet’ is his fourth album, which he recently released under his own name after performing under the pseudonym ‘El Hula’.  

Jollands left New Zealand in 1995, spending awhile in the United States before winding up in the UK, where he’s remained since. 

He told Mike Hosking that getting a job in sound design at the time was very much a right time, right place situation. 

“I was a coffee barista, and I thought y’know, I really need to get something that pays a little bit more to help my music along.” 

“So I actually walked in and gave them my CV, and a week later they said ‘will you come in because we had three people just, they’ve been headhunted and they’ve gone to another studio.’” 

Although sound design and music production may seem like different areas, Jolland says these days the line between them is really fine. 

“For example, the late Jóhann Jóhannsson, for say, his movie ‘Sicario’, it’s, I find it very hard to establish what is music and what is sound design – it's very tonal, it’s not as harmonic, less melodic.” 

“But generally speaking, sound design is more organic, and we capture sounds and manipulate them.” 

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