A Brief Biography
NIGEL ANTHONY DAVENPORT SAWYER was born in July 1957 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The son of a dentist and housewife Nigel was immediately introduced to a very musical household. His father played piano well and Audrey his mother enjoyed listening to all forms of music — the house was never silent.
After primary school in the village of Shrivenham, Oxfordshire Nigel was incarcerated in a boarding school. He says, "It was seven years of hell — full of bullies and that wasn't just the pupils! A torturous constant régime of terror!"
However he was lucky to have an extremely creative music teacher. A blind man Bill Avery (an accomplished composer in his own right) encouraged Nigel and gave him access to a lovely Bechstein Grand piano in the music room. Soon he was writing his own songs and composing pieces which were performed by the school orchestra, also playing keyboards in school bands.
He learnt clarinet and saxophone to a high standard during his teenage years.
Having scraped some very low grade passes in exams Nigel spent a year at Bangor University in North Wales, where he spent much more time playing in a punk band "The Inadequates" rather than studying Psychology. As Nigel says, "We must have been the only bourgeois punk band of the seventies!"
Even though he just about passed the 1st year he was advised possibly to take a year gap and come back when more committed to the degree. Nigel loaded his keyboards on to a train and headed to London to "become a pop star!" Very quickly he found himself living in a squat in the Kings Cross area: "I suddenly found myself befriending and feeding very lonely street prostitutes and dodging dangerous drunks", he says.
This proved to be an extremely creative period in Nigel's life. Other squatters included a guitarist, a string quartet, and someone who was reconstructing a baby grand piano in his room (eventually it had to be craned out of a window because it wouldn't fit through the door!) Again he was in a house that was never silent.
After auditioning for countless London bands his first big break came when he signed to the Tony Hall group of publishing companies based in Carnaby Street, W1 as a singer-songwriter/composer. Very quickly Nigel began composing advertising jingles for both television and radio. He studied composition under Richard Arnell at Trinity College of Music and signed to RCA records as a solo artist (releasing a single ("The Last Love Song") which was a minor success. It was also during this period that he began to be introduced to television film producers/directors — TV documentaries have been a major area of his creativity for many years.
Nigel moved to Weymouth on the South Coast of England in 1989. He married and spent many happy years on and off the sea although still working out of London. Around this time he expanded into production and has had considerable success producing artists, bands, and composers. At present he is producing UK artist Misty Oldland in her album project Orange Fox (published by Chrysalis).
He is regularly commissioned to arrange for composers/artists/songwriters/choirs – and works with anything from string quartets to full orchestras to computers.
Nigel A. D. Sawyer is at present living in the University City of Oxford working on many varied and interesting projects both in the UK and America.