Andy Burrows

The world made it to Christmas Eve 2012 and we were all able to tune into the follow-up to Raymond Briggs’s enchanted story The Snowman, entitled The Snowman And The Snowdog. The 24 minute program sees The Snowman return to the screen with a small new snowy character in the shape of a dog with socks for ears. The crucial job of writing the soundtrack to this sequel, created 30 years after the original, was given to English film composer Ilan Eshkeri and former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows.

Burrows, who released his debut solo album ‘Company’ in December 2012, lends an orchestral version of his recent single ‘Homeland’ to the soundtrack along with co-writing the feature tune which accompanies the Snowman, Snowdog and young boy soaring this time over London instead of Brighton. ‘Light The Night’ does justice to the all so familiar illustrations and charm we remember from the original on-screen story. Maybe not quite so catchy and magical as Howard Blake and Aled Jones’s ‘Walking In The Air’, and there’s definitely a hint of Smashing Pumpkins's 'Tonight, Tonight’ in there, but the composition definitely helps the scene achieve its beauty, without which the story would almost certainly suffer. Likewise, without the warmth of Briggs’s illustrations I feel the song does not quite have the same impact.

The soundtrack also features guest appearances from Muse’s Dom Howard, Ash’s Tim Wheeler, Tom Odell, Guillemots and Emmy The Great.