Producer 'toughens up' theme for new Hollywood film

A music producer has played down his involvement in helping "toughen up" an iconic theme tune for a new Hollywood movie, saying: "I just polished it off."

Phil Harding, of Bury St Edmunds, was involved in some of the most well-known hits of the 1980s and 1990s, having worked with everyone from Kylie Minogue to Boyzone.

He and fellow Suffolk music maestro Ian Curnow have now played a vital part in reworking Harold Faltermeyer’s Axel F for Netflix’s Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.

They were enlisted by Lorne Balfe, external, the Grammy, external award-winning film composer whose credits include Terminator Genisys and Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

Mr Harding said: "I am actually meant to be retired but people keep asking me to do things and it is difficult to say no when it is this big.

"Lorne has done a very good job of updating it and we just polished it off and powered it up for him in the mix.

"If you go back to the original it is quite open and very basic so what we have done is toughen it up with quite heavy drumbeats, guitars and a saxophone.

"Lorne has done most of what you hear on the new version but then we took about four days to round it off and mix it to the level it is now."

Mr Harding and Mr Curnow worked on the track in their professional home studio set-ups in Bury St Edmunds.

"As long as you are at the same quality that they are working to in Hollywood it is surprisingly doable," added Mr Harding.

"Lorne followed my career so he requests that 80s type of sound - he likes us to get the sound of the music in the movies to match the era.

"What he is trying to do is take us back to the mid-80s to the first movie but with an updated version."

Action-comedy Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, directed by Mark Molloy, sees Eddie Murphy reprise his role as Det Axel Foley as he tries to uncover a conspiracy.

"When I get home tonight I will be putting it on and I am hoping to see a credit on screen," said Mr Harding.

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