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 was nominated for a Golden Globe for his work on The Fountain, and was nominated for multiple awards, including a Grammy Award, for his work on Black Swan.
Early life
Mansell was born in Coventry, England.
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. In 2014 he told Beat Magazine "I heard the Ramones and punk rock changed my life." 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. It was there that Reznor mentored Mansell and introduced him to Pro Tools.
Film score career
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, Aronofsky's feature film directorial debut. 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. 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 Fountains 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 Best Original Soundtrack (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. Nevertheless, Mansell's music from the film Moon was used in the film's trailer and was also used in the 2012 trailer of the computer game Aliens: Colonial Marines.
Mansell provided the scores for the films Stoker (also featuring music by Philip Glass) and Filth, which were both released in 2013.
Mansell's film scores have been sampled by such musical artists as Lil Jon, A$AP Rocky, Bastille and Paul Oakenfold.
Having no formal training in musical notation, Mansell constructs his film scores using the method he employs for writing rock music — drums, bass, guitar and vocal lines — in addition to employing an orchestrator.