DOUGLAS PASHLEY
Composer | Producer | Playwright
ABOUT
Douglas began his musical training at the Royal Conservatory age four. He continued his studies at Malaspina College of Jazz, then complemented his studies in Classical composition and conducting at the University of Victoria, Canada. He completed his formal education in orchestration and composition with the renowned Cuban composer Sergio Barroso.
He spent the next 6 years as a songwriter/producer/arranger in Tokyo writing/producing for television, radio and a variety of artists. He recorded and released his first album “Bite the Bullet” on Fun House Records co-produced with Hiroshemi Shigemi.
Douglas moved to London, England in 1991 as C.E.O. Of Master Rock Studios, which became the home of 18 world number-one hit songs by artists including Soul to Soul, Jesus Jones, Right Said Fred, Eric Clapton, Brian Ferry and Simply Red. During his time in London, Douglas worked with Gus Dudgeon (the renowned producer of Elton John, Chris Rea, David Bowie and others).
In 1997, David Foster, Linda Thompson, Evan Kopelson and Douglas Pashley co-wrote the title track of the Warner Bros motion picture “Eraser”, staring Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Vanessa Williams. The song “Where Do We Go from Here?", performed by Vanessa Williams, won a BMI “Songs of the Year” Award for 1998.
In the same year Douglas released “Douglas Pashley”, co-written with his childhood friend Wyckham Porteous, on Ragged Pup Records, a label that Douglas co-founded with business partner Douglas Baxter.
In 1998 Douglas composed the music/arrangements to the musical, Pojken Blå, written by Christina Andersson which premiered at the Swedish National theatre in Helsinki .
From 2000 to 2004 Douglas was signed to Warner/Chappell Music as a staff writer. From 2001-2008 he produced/arranged/composed numerous albums for Finnish Artists including three platinum CD's for Tomi Metsäketo and #1 hit for British artist Gordon Haskell (the former singer for King Crimson), “As the Music Played” (a duet with Maarit Hurmerinta).
At the same time he wrote/composed/arranged 'Spin, the musical” for the Swedish National theatre in Helsinki. Spin premiered in 2005. Spin has since been performed in Swedish, Polish, Russian and Chinese. It was chosen to represent Finland at Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
In 2006, Douglas composed/arranged and recorded the score for the Danish film "Den Sorte Madonna", directed by Lasse Spang Olsen.
In 2007, Douglas co-founded VanGogh Records, an indie label distributed by Sony 2007-2010, with producers Niklas Nylund and Thomas Walstrom. VanGogh released CDs for Finnish Artists Osmo Ikonen, Essi Wuorela and Spanish artist D'Sanz.
From 2011 Douglas has been performing with the Douglas Pashley Trio with Tuure Koski on bass and Keith Hall on drums while creating a new full Stage Musical called “Snowball”. Snowball is the flagship production of Unique Entertainment, a company co-founded by Douglas in 2016 with partners Henrik de la Chapelle and Sami Päivike. Promoted by Nordiska ApS, Snowball will have it's world Premiere at Ouluhalli Oulu, as part of Oulu's 2026 European Cultural Capital celebrations.
CURRENT WORK
SNOWBALL THE MUSICAL
Snowball the musical is based on the Kalevala (Finnish Nordic Mythology) and the Santa Claus legend. Snowball the musical will combine VR, AR and MR with traditional theatre for a unique "Finnish" experience to be enjoyed by the whole family.