# Clint Mansell

Clinton Darryl Mansell (/ˈmænsəl/; 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 Grammy Awards for his work on Black Swan.

## Early life

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. 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.

## Career
### Alt-rock career

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

### 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. 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. 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.
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 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.
Mansell created the film score for Moon, Duncan Jones's feature film directorial debut. Mansell won Best Technical Achievement at the British Independent Film Awards for Moon's score. In 2011 Mansell was hired to provide the score for The Iron Lady, but he was later replaced by composer Thomas Newman. 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.
Filmmaker Ben Wheatley, who was a fan of Mansell's music for the films Requiem for a Dream and Moon, approached Mansell about providing the score for his 2015 film High-Rise. Mansell also provided the music for Wheatley's subsequent works Happy New Year, Colin Burstead (2018) and Rebecca (2020) and In the Earth (2021).
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. Some of his influences include Philip Glass, Trevor Jones, David Holmes, and bands such as Death in Vegas, Mogwai and Unkle.

### Symphonic performances

Mansell has performed some of his film compositions live with the Sonus Quartet in the US, the UK and Australia. The Kronos Quartet, who performed "Lux Aeterna" for the Requiem for a Dream soundtrack, have also performed some of Mansell's work live.

### Publishing deal

In February 2019, Mansell signed a publishing deal with Decca Publishing, a division of Decca Records. This deal brought his catalogue of more than 650 original pieces, including his Pop Will Eat Itself work, under a single umbrella for the first time.

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 2000 | Birmingham Film and Television Festival | City of Birmingham Award | Pi | Won |
| 2006 | BMI Film & TV Awards | Film Music award | Sahara | Won |
| 2006 | Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Score | The Fountain | Nominated |
| 2007 | Golden Globe | Best Original Score | The Fountain | Nominated |
| 2007 | World Soundtrack Award | Best Original Film Score | The Fountain | Won |
| 2009 | British Independent Film Awards | Best Technical Achievement | Moon | Nominated |
| 2010 | Chicago Film Critics Association Award | Best Original Score | Black Swan | Won |
| 2010 | Critics' Choice Movie Awards | Best Score | Black Swan | Nominated |
| 2010 | Satellite Awards | Best Original Score | Black Swan | Nominated |
| 2011 | World Soundtrack Award | Best Original Score of the Year | Black Swan | Nominated |
| 2011 | World Soundtrack Award | Soundtrack Composer of the Year | Black Swan, Last Night and Faster | Nominated |
| 2011 | BMI Film & TV Awards | Film Music award | Black Swan | Won |
| 2012 | Grammy Award | Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media | Black Swan | Nominated |
| 2014 | Hollywood Music in Media Awards | Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film | Noah | Nominated |
| 2017 | Annie Awards | Outstanding Achievement for Music in a Feature Production | Loving Vincent | Nominated |

## Discography
### with Pop Will Eat Itself

* Box Frenzy (1987)
* This Is the Day...This Is the Hour...This Is This! (1989)
* Cure for Sanity (1990)
* The Looks or the Lifestyle? (1992)
* Dos Dedos Mis Amigos (1994)

#### Live albums

* Weird's Bar and Grill (Live) (1993) UK No. 44
* The Radio 1 Sessions 1986-87 (1997)
* Reformation: Nottingham Rock City 20.01.05 (2005)
* Reformation: Birmingham Carling Academy 22.01.05 (2005)
* Reformation: Birmingham Carling Academy 23.01.05 (2005)
* Reformation: London Shepherds Bush Empire 24.01.05 (2005)
* Reformation: London Shepherds Bush Empire 25.01.05 (2005)

## Film scores and soundtracks
### Film

| Year | Title | Director | Studio / Publisher | Notes |
| 1998 | Pi | Darren Aronofsky | Protozoa Pictures | |
| 2000 | Requiem for a Dream | Darren Aronofsky | Thousand Words Protozoa Pictures | |
| 2001 | World Traveler | Bart Freundlich | Alliance Atlantis Eureka Pictures IFC Productions Process Productions | |
| 2001 | The Hole | Nick Hamm | Canal+ Cowboy Films Film Council Granada Film Productions Impact Pictures Pathé | |
| 2001 | Knockaround Guys | Brian Koppelman David Levien | Lawrence Bender Productions New Line Cinema | |
| 2001 | Rain | Katherine Lindberg | Antena 3 Cappa Films Kinowelt Lolafilms Via Digital | |
| 2002 | Abandon | Stephen Gaghan | Spyglass Entertainment Paramount Pictures | |
| 2002 | Murder by Numbers | Barbet Schroeder | Warner Bros. Pictures Castle Rock Entertainment | |
| 2002 | Sonny | Nicolas Cage | Gold Circle Films Saturn Films | |
| 2003 | 11:14 | Greg Marcks | Media 8 Entertainment New Line Cinema | |
| 2004 | Suspect Zero | E. Elias Merhige | Intermedia Films Lakeshore Entertainment Cruise/Wagner | |
| 2005 | Sahara | Breck Eisner | Bristol Bay Productions Baldwin Entertainment Group Kanzaman Mace Neufeld Pictures Paramount Pictures | BMI Film Music Award |
| 2005 | Doom | Andrzej Bartkowiak | John Wells Productions Di Bonaventura Pictures | |
| 2006 | The Fountain | Darren Aronofsky | Warner Bros. Regency Enterprises Protozoa Pictures | Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score World Soundtrack Award – Public Choice Nominated: Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score Nominated: Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Score Nominated: World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Score of the Year |
| 2006 | Trust the Man | Bart Freundlich | Fox Searchlight Pictures | |
| 2006 | Smokin' Aces | Joe Carnahan | StudioCanal Relativity Media Blinding Edge Pictures Working Title Films Scion Films | |
| 2007 | Wind Chill | Gregory Jacobs | Blueprint Pictures Section Eight Productions | |
| 2008 | Definitely, Maybe | Adam Brooks | Universal Pictures StudioCanal Working Title Films | |
| 2008 | The Wrestler | Darren Aronofsky | Wild Bunch Saturn Films Protozoa Pictures | |
| 2008 | Dream from Leaving | Nathan Cox Rick Gradone J.T. Gurzi Pat Healy Rich Lee Settle Caitlin Strom Eric Watson | wonderwheel, llc | |
| 2009 | Blood: The Last Vampire | Chris Nahon | Edko Pathé | |
| 2009 | Moon | Duncan Jones | Stage 6 Films Liberty Films UK Sony Pictures Classics | Nominated: British Independent Film Award for Best Technical Achievement |
| 2009 | Farewell | Christian Carion | Pathé Canal+ Ciné+ France 2 | |
| 2009 | The Rebound | Bart Freundlich | The Film Department A&F Productions The Weinstein Company | |
| 2010 | Black Swan | Darren Aronofsky | Cross Creek Pictures Phoenix Pictures Dune Entertainment | Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Score Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Score Nominated: Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Film Music Nominated: Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media Nominated: Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Score Nominated: Satellite Award for Best Original Score Nominated: San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Score Nominated: St. Louis Film Critics Association Award for Best Music Nominated: Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Score Nominated: World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Score of the Year Nominated: World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year (with Last Night & Faster) |
| 2010 | Last Night | Massy Tadjedin | Gaumont Miramax Films Walmark Films | Nominated: World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year (with Black Swan & Faster) |
| 2010 | Faster | George Tillman, Jr. | Castle Rock Entertainment State Street Pictures | Nominated: World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year (with Black Swan & Last Night) |
| 2013 | Stoker | Park Chan-wook | Scott Free Productions Indian Paintbrush | |
| 2013 | Filth | Jon S. Baird | Steel Mill Pictures Film i Väst | |
| 2014 | Noah | Darren Aronofsky | Regency Enterprises Protozoa Pictures Paramount Pictures | Nominated: Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film |
| 2015 | Man Down | Dito Montiel | Mpower Pictures Lionsgate Premiere | |
| 2015 | High-Rise | Ben Wheatley | Recorded Picture Company Film4 British Film Institute HanWay Films StudioCanal | |
| 2017 | Ghost in the Shell | Rupert Sanders | Paramount Pictures DreamWorks Pictures | Composed with Lorne Balfe |
| 2017 | Loving Vincent | Dorota Kobiela Hugh Welchman | BreakThru Productions Silver Reel Altitude Film Distribution | Nominated: Annie Award for Outstanding Music in an Animated Feature Production Nominated: Polish Film Award for Best Film Score |
| 2018 | Mute | Duncan Jones | Liberty Films UK Studio Babelsberg Netflix | |
| 2018 | Happy New Year, Colin Burstead | Ben Wheatley | Rook Films BBC Films | |
| 2018 | Out of Blue | Carol Morley | Cannon & Morley The Electric Shadow Company BBC Films IFC Films | |
| 2020 | Rebecca | Ben Wheatley | Working Title Films Big Talk Productions Netflix | |
| 2021 | In the Earth | Ben Wheatley | Rook Films Neon Protagonist Pictures | |
| 2021 | She Will | Charlotte Colbert | Vertigo Releasing | |
| 2023 | Sharper | Benjamin Caron | Apple Studios A24 Picturestart FortySixty G&T Productions | |
| 2024 | Love Lies Bleeding | Rose Glass | A24 Film4 Escape Plan Lobo Films | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Showrunner | Studio / Network | Notes |
| 2004 | CSI: Miami | Ann Donahue | Jerry Bruckheimer Television CBS Productions CBS | Episode: "MIA/NYC NonStop" |
| 2011 | United | Chris Chibnall | Lipsync Productions World Productions BBC Two | Television film |
| 2016 | Black Mirror | Charlie Brooker | Netflix House of Tomorrow | Episode: San Junipero |
| 2018–2023 | Titans | Greg Walker | Warner Bros. Television DC Universe | Theme music & 12 episodes Composed with Kevin Kiner |
| 2019–2023 | Doom Patrol | Jeremy Carver | Warner Bros. Television DC Universe | Theme music & 13 episodes Composed with Kevin Kiner |
| 2022–present | Peacemaker | James Gunn | DC Studios (S2 onwards) The Safran Company Troll Court Entertainment | Composed with Kevin Kiner |
| 2024–present | Creature Commandos | Dean Lorey | DC Studios Warner Bros. Animation The Safran Company Troll Court Entertainment Lorey Stories | Composed with Kevin Kiner |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Director | Studio / Publisher | Notes |
| 2012 | Mass Effect 3 | Casey Hudson | BioWare Electronic Arts | Composed with Sascha Dikiciyan, Sam Hulick, Christopher Lennertz & Cris Velasco |

#### Short films

| Year | Title | Director | Studio / Publisher |
| 2002 | The Hire: Ticker | Joe Carnahan | BMW films |
| 2006 | The Big Forever | Robert Glassford Timo Langer | — |
| 2007 | In the Wall | Mike Williamson | — |
| 2007 | The Healing Syndrome | Michael Sheehan | High Tyde Productions |
| 2007 | My Mother | Elaine Wickham | Medb Films |
| 2009 | The Odds | Paloma Baeza | Abbot Vision Slate 9 |
| 2009 | Blue Knight | Mark Anthony | Man of Mistery Films |
| 2010 | Fragged | Devon Avery | — |
| 2014 | A Rose Reborn | Park Chan-wook | — |
| 2015 | Gaslighting | Elaine Wickham | — |
| 2015 | Deathly | Mike Williamson | — |