Sam Okell and Becca Gatrell met at University studying the Tonmeister course many moons ago. Now, with 50 years of music industry experience between them, the creation of Zennor Sounds is part realised teenage dream, part realisation of what they really care about in working with music, songs and the musicians who create the art form they love.
Sam cut his teeth at Abbey Road Studios in the classical editing department before learning the ropes on sessions for John Williams, John Barry, Chaka Khan, Annie Lennox and Amy Winehouse to name a few. As an in-house engineer he went on to record/mix many exceptional artists at Abbey Road from Fleet Foxes to Floating Points, whilst also establishing himself as a senior engineer in the world of film music. His extensive work in this field includes the Elton John film Rocket Man - mixing both the songs and the score - and close collaboration with composer Daniel Pemberton including recording/mixing the recent Spiderverse films, Motherless Brooklyn and Enola Holmes. Other notable credits include The Hobbit (Howard Shore), Harry Potter (Alexandre Desplat) and The Theory Of Everything (Johann Johannsson). Sam has two Grammys and an Emmy for his remix work which includes The Beatles albums, Ron Howard’s ‘Eight Days A Week’ and Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’. He also remixed The Beach Boys iconic record Pet Sounds and The Ramones self titled punk debut (who incidentally played a gig in Penzance, a few miles from Zennor, during the punk summer of 1977). Sam has recently worked on TV soundtracks with Jarvis Cocker and Graham Coxon as well as completing album projects with Matthew Herbert and FINK. When he’s not listening to music he is tuned into Melvyn Bragg on BBC Radio 4.
SAM OKELL
Becca’s first love is songs and capturing them on a bedroom 4-track became her teenage obsession. The recording studio has always felt like home. Becca started out as a tape op at George Martin’s Air-Edel Studios where her easy rapport with writers, artists and composers afforded her a place in Howard Shore’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ music team. She went on to join the film music supervision company HotHouse Music and found herself in the enviable position of sourcing and licensing songs for film, facilitating music on set and coordinating scoring sessions for world class composers (Hans Zimmer, Anne Dudley, Stephen Warbeck). She has worked with many incredible directors over the years including Danny Boyle, Alex Garland, Andrea Arnold, Fernando Meirelles, and currently Mark Jenkin. Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Children of Men’ is a project especially close to her heart, not least because she enabled a song called ‘Cunts Are Still Running The World’ to make it through the studio picture approval process - no mean feat. Her experience with songs and sync opened the door to music publishing and as Head of Film & Television at Universal Music Publishing she built a solid reputation across the industry for her meticulous yet creative approach with writers and their involvement in music licensing. She nurtured emerging writers and their songwriting repertoire alongside established catalogues including Adele, James Blake, Chemical Brothers, Coldplay, The Clash, Florence + The Machine, Elton John, Foals, Irving Berlin, Lily Allen, MGMT, Mumford & Sons, and The xx. After a brief interlude including childbirth, Becca returned to her passion of working directly with songs and recording by establishing her own indie label/publishing company, Wow & Flutter Music. She is excited to see where Zennor Sounds and music takes her next, alongside her practice as a psychoanalyst.
BECCA GATRELL
Thanks to everyone who helped make this happen including building & carpentry by @ablemaker1982, interiors by @studio.far.west and studio design by @milocostudios