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Denis Carnahan |  
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Denis started playing guitar and writing music in the 1980's with a head full of rock star dreams. After winning the Australian Busking Championship in 1988, he studied Music at Southern Cross University in Lismore, then spent five years as lead singer of a covers band, playing 4 to 6 nights a week on the East Coast of Australia from Cairns to Wollongong and as far west as Tamworth.
In 1995 he moved to Sydney began working as a sound engineer, specialising in TV audio post production. This developed his great ear for production and detail, which has become a trademark of his work. Later that year he established his company Blarter Music and began writing advertising jingles for clients including Mazda, Sony (PlayStation), Ricoh and Ikea. Blarter Music then moved into writing music for pay TV, creating on air music packages for Fox 8, MTV, TV1, Channel [V], Nickelodeon and The Comedy Channel, several of which won broadcast awards. Denis also started writing music for short films and TV shows. Soon ABC Kids and ABC Asia Pacific joined the list of music clients, winning several awards for Blarter Music’s work with them. The new century saw Denis composing for TV shows, including Location Location (9), D.I.Y. Rescue (9), Bodywork (9) Sunday Sunrise (7), Overhaul (9), Escape With E.T. (for which he still composes!) (10), The Shak (9), Australia’s Best Backyards (7) and Clever (9). In 2006 he wrote “You Were There” as the theme for The Footy Show. The song was released as a single, and used by the NRL as a theme for the finals campaign that year. Denis returned to live performance, singing the song on The Footy Show as a launch for the single, then singing it before all the semi finals in Sydney. (Sadly he didn’t quite make The Grand Final, being pipped at the post by INXS.) His focus was turned back towards song writing, so when he was commissioned to write the music for Australia’s Next Top Model late in 2006, he wrote several songs for the package, and added a few he’d worked on in previous years, including “Different World” which was used in the elimination sequence in the show, and is now a signature song for the series. After stints as music director for The Footy Show and The Matty Johns Show, Denis has come full circle. His political parody songs for 2UE and Fairfax online, “Rugby League The Musical” songs for ABC Grandstand and The Game Plan, and live shows for corporate functions, very closely resemble what he did to win the Australian Busking Championship way back in 1988. Except now they are finely crafted works of art, produced with 25 years of learning the craft of song writing and music production.
2004 Promax (Australia) Silver Award 2001 Promax (Australia) Gold Award 2001 APRA/AGSC screen music awards nominee
Australia's Next Top Model series 6 (compose to picture + music library) 2010 Astra Award Winner - Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Programme 2008 Astra Award Winner - Favourite Program 2007 Logie Award Winner - Most Popular Sports Program 2006 Logie Award Winner - Most Popular Sports Program 2004 Logie Awards nominee - Best Lifestyle program 2004 Cool Bananas Short Film Festival - Best Film 2002 Promax (International) Gold Award - Consumer promotion 2001 Promax (Australia) Silver Award - Best Launch Campaign 2001 BDA (Australia) Gold Award - Best Terrestrial ID 2001 Promax (Australia) Gold Award - Best music program promo 1999 Tropfest Finalist 1999 BDA (Australia) Silver Award - Best out of house ID MTV's "Frankenskippy also won Gold at the Vancouver Animation Festival, and was a finalist at Blackchair (USA), Darklight (Dublin), the Atom Awards, and many others. 1998 Promax (International) Silver Award - Best Non promotional promo (animated) 1998 Tropfest Finalist |
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