Clint Mansell

Clinton Darryl Mansell (born 7 November 1963) is an English musician, singer, and composer.

He served as the lead vocalist of alt-rock band Pop Will Eat Itself.

After the band's dissolution, Mansell moved to the United States and embarked on a career as a film score composer.

Mansell partnered with American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and composed the scores for his films Pi, Requiem for a Dream, The Fountain, The Wrestler, Black Swan, and Noah.

Mansell is best known for the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, particularly the film's composition "Lux Aeterna" and a re-orchestrated version titled "Requiem for a Tower" that was created for The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers trailer, both of which have been featured in multiple advertisements, films, film trailers, video games and other media.

He provided the scores for the Ben Wheatley films High-Rise, Happy New Year, Colin Burstead, Rebecca and In the Earth.

Other films featuring Mansell's scores include Sahara, Moon and Stoker.

He has also composed music for television and video games.

Mansell's work on The Fountain was nominated for a Golden Globe and he was nominated for a Grammy Award for his work on Black Swan.

Mansell was born in Coventry, England.

His father worked for the electricity board and his mother was a preparer of school meals.

Inspired by David Bowie's performance of Starman on the television series Top of the Pops, he started to play guitar at the age of nine.

His foray into punk-inspired music was influenced by the Ramones.

From the band's inception in 1986 until their dissolution in 1996, Mansell was a member of grebo/alt-rock band Pop Will Eat Itself (PWEI).

He served as the band's lead vocalist, guitarist and one of the band's main songwriters.

The band was first introduced to computer-based music in 1988 while working with producer Flood on their album This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This!.

Their sound evolved to include sampling and electronic music, bringing influences from hip hop, industrial music and other dance genres into their music.

After the band was dropped by RCA, PWEI were signed in 1994 to Nothing Records, a label owned by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails.

Following PWEI's break-up in 1996, Mansell moved to New York, where he hoped to start a solo career, but struggled creatively.

He was invited by Reznor to move to an apartment in New Orleans owned by Reznor, where Mansell lived for three years, prior to settling in Los Angeles.

It was there that Reznor mentored Mansell and introduced him to Pro Tools.

Mansell also performed backing vocals on Nine Inch Nails' 1999 album The Fragile.

Mansell's score for the film won him the City of Birmingham award at the Birmingham Film Festival in 2000.

Mansell wrote the score for Aronofsky's next film, Requiem for a Dream, which became a cult hit.

The film's primary composition "Lux Aeterna" became a favorite in its own right.

A re-orchestrated version of the song, titled "Requiem for a Tower", was arranged by composers Simone Benyacar, Dan Nielsen and Veigar Margeirsson for the trailer of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Both "Lux Aeterna" and "Requiem for a Tower" have been used in multiple forms of media, including the film trailers for The Da Vinci Code, I Am Legend, Sunshine and Babylon A.D.; trailers for the video games Assassin's Creed and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King; advertising campaigns for such products as Canon PowerShot cameras, Molson Canadian beer; and on television such as in the series America's Got Talent, So You Think You Can Dance as well as a promo spot the series Flash Forward.

Mansell reunited with PWEI in 2005 for their "Reformation" tour, which included performances in Nottingham, Birmingham and London, England.

While still living in New York, Mansell was introduced to director Darren Aronofsky by a mutual friend.

Aronofsky was unaware of Mansell's previous work with Pop Will Eat Itself, however the two men bonded over their love of hip hop and their belief that "film music at the time was terrible."

Aronofsky suggested that Mansell write the opening title piece for Pi, Aronfsky's feature film directorial debut.

Aronofsky had intended to use pre-existing electronic music in the rest of the film, but due to a lack of funds, he found it difficult to acquire the rights to much of the music that interested him and Mansell was hired to provide music for the entire film.

In 2006, Mansell provided the score for the film Smokin' Aces and he received a BMI Film & TV Award for his work on the film Sahara that same year.

The following year, his score for the Aronofsky film The Fountain was awarded Best Original Film Score of the Year and the Public Choice Award at the 7th World Soundtrack Awards.

The Fountain's score was also nominated for Best Score in a Motion Picture at the 2007 Golden Globe Awards.

Mansell's score for Aronofsky's Black Swan garnered him multiple nominations and awards.

He was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media as well as for Best Original Sountrack (for Black Swan) and Soundtrack Composer of the Year (for Black Swan, Last Night and Faster) at the 11th World Soundtrack Awards.

The score was deemed ineligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Score due to its use of Tchaikovsky's original music from Swan Lake.

In 2014 he told Beat Magazine "I heard the Ramones and punk rock changed my life."

While living in Stourbridge, Mansell played in rock bands as a youth, and at 19 years of age he joined the band that became Pop Will Eat Itself.