About Laurence Wright — Ocarina Man

Laurence Wright

Ocarina Man

Film scores while you wait

Laurence Wright Biography

Laurence Wright – Film Composer

Laurence Wright is a composer of film scores for unusual films including such classics as Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind.

“His music just makes you smile,” says Bob Rogers, BRC Imagination Arts. “It captures a mixture of joy and whit that ingeniously embraces each heart beat of the story with the precision of a custom tailored glove. Larry is clearly an original.”

Laurence Wright’s music ranges from extremely contemporary to classic New Orlean’s jazz. He has composed in styles true to every era in the 20th century. Most frequently, Laurence is called to create scores authentic to the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s but with a contemporary twist. His more modern work has a timeless quality and sometimes a very contemporary sound.

Over his lifetime, the size of Laurence’s recording sessions has varied wildly. For some, he is a one-man band in which Laurence uses a multi-track recording system, playing all the parts himself. At the other extreme, Laurence’s score for The Water Engine was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (90 pieces). As part of that same project for Disney’s Epcot, Laurence also recorded Torture Test using the mechanical sounds made by his mother’s Cadillac as a percussion section.

Laurence’s website is named after one of his most popular tunes, “Ocarina Man.” Laurence plays his Ocarina in many of his scores. He is considered a master of that instrument.

Early Career

Raised in Newport Beach, Laurence attended Newport Harbor High School, but spent most of his time studying and playing music. According to one legend, it was a Saturday morning at 10:00am when a band leader who desperately needed a saxophone player for that evening’s performance called Laurence. The band leader asked if Laurence knew how to play the saxophone. Laurence’s honest answer was, “I don’t know, I never tried.” Laurence borrowed a saxophone, taught himself the basics and played the saxophone on stage that evening with the band.

Laurence’s first film scores came while still a student at the California Institute of the Arts School of Film where he studied directing and film editing under the legendary Sandy MacKendrick. In addition to several scores for fellow students, he created scores for two films that he also directed: Incident at the Handlebar Saloon, and Too Much Coffee and Not Enough Sleep. After graduation, his next major project was Model Railroading Unlimited narrated by Hans Conried for which Laurence composed the score in addition to editing the film and directing several sequences, including a musical dance fantasy which appeared in the original full length version of the film.

Professional Composer

One of Laurence’s most popular film scores was Meadowlark Lemon Presents the World, starring former Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon hosting an off-beat, but extremely sticky and charming educational film about the basics of geography. The film used unforgettable visual puns that caused young people to remember latitude from longitude, etc.

Closet Cases of the Nerd Kind may be Laurence’s most famous film. This ingenious parody of Close Encounters of the Third Kind features Stan Greiwe in the lead with voices by one of the most famous off-screen voices in Hollywood, Corey Burton.

For the World of Motion pavilion at Disney’s Epcot Center, Laurence provided film scores for Bird and the Robot, the Water Engine, Torture Test and several other attractions within the original General Motors World of Motion Pavilion.

Laurence’s music was also used in the off-beat and rarely seen feature film “Goodbye, Cruel World” starring Dick Shawn, directed by David Irving.