James Joshua Otto

I say it every single time but Amazon’s live football coverage never disappoints. Absolutely superb broadcasting - I wish they had more premier league.

Hahaha so fun to go up but also the classic mind blank when he asked about songs 🤣

Completely ludicrously brilliant evening watching @mrspencerjones.bsky.social at the @rondotheatre.bsky.social tonight!

Finished Black Doves on Netflix last night. Really loved it; snappy, stylish, satisfying storytelling. Such a smart score from the ever-excellent Martin Phipps too. Nice one @joebarton.bsky.social

Jet Lag: The Game (Nebula, also free on YouTube) and Taskmaster (C4). Both trivial challenges taken v seriously. Jet Lag is travel-centric, TM is structured as a comedy panel show.

Saw Wicked today. I have so many thoughts, but my headlines are: casting is spot on, new arrangements are great but the structural changes to a lot of the songs’ tags/codas/endings make them feel a bit less satisfying imho. Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, and Jonathan Bailey are flawless

Every day from now on, there is gradually more daylight until summer.

Ah, happy birthday! 🥳

Terrifying. Mine and my wife’s phone and my watch all went off just as I was getting the baby to bed 🫠

Couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly. Always great comms and presenters, too. Dan Walker and Clive Tyldesley on the Newcastle v Liverpool game last night 👌🏽

Lovely jumper!

Come on Radox, Bauble Bath was RIGHT THERE!

#copywritersunite

Then I turned around and was back in 2024 again, my 4 year old happily munching away on his pancakes, the 1 year old mostly chucking his on the floor.

Happy Saturday, pals. Hope you get some moments of everyday magic in your weekends, too x

It was like being in a time machine. More profoundly than maybe ever before I felt like I was a barista in 2013 again, and magically felt all those same bubbly feelings of excitement, joy, anticipation. It was a really proper transportation.

So, this morning, I opened the window next to the coffee machine because the air in the kitchen was getting a bit smoky with the cooking butter. Suddenly the smell of the coffee and pancakes combined with the sweet, fresh autumnal air to perfectly transport me back to that coffee shop in 2013.

It lasted 6 months before I switched to a different part time job, but this time of year often reminds me of that job, memories of which will always be imbibed with those feelings of excitement, anticipation - the innocent thrill of embarking on adulthood.

Often, I got given the responsibility of opening the shop (which I enjoyed) because we lived right across the street - so spent a lot of those wintry mornings surrounded by the wonderful sights, sounds, and smells of a cafe being prepped - ground coffee, frying breakfasts, surly head chefs.

That September, I got a part time job as a barista in the coffee shop across the road from our tiny flat. As much as it was useful to supplement my non-existent composing income, I also really wanted to learn how to make great coffee, so it was a win/win.

First, context. My wife and I got married in the summer of 2013, immediately after I finished music college, and moved to Bath. It was a whirlwind of emotions - the sadness of finishing uni, the joy of getting married, the excitement/fear/unknown of trying to figure out a career as a composer.

An iPhone portrait photo of my flat white from this morning. It’s a small 6oz teal mug sitting on a wooden countertop with a rosette pattern in the milk - actually quite a good pour, if I do say so myself - they’re not always this social media-worthy.

Making pancakes with my boys this morning and as I started to make my coffee, something magical happened.

Looking forward to it!

Another shout out - are there any #Bristol based #writers here?

#Fiction, #nonfiction, long/short #stories, published or not...

If so, do say Hi!

I am trying to get my writing practice up and running so would love to connect!

Wow, a glowing review! I’m increasingly excited to see it as more positive reactions come out

Watching Rivals. There’s a lot to love about it (particularly the sparkling score by Natalie Holt and Jack Halama). The cast are all wonderful, but man, David Tennant is brill, isn’t he? Just so watchable.

🤣 I’d watch that, tbf.

You’d think that the guy the BBC send to review the Wicked movie would know the story of the Wicked musical, right? Right?!

In case you were wondering: white choc digestives are better than gold digestives

A photograph of my Arturia MiniBrute 2S synth. It’s got rows of dials and glowing buttons and a few white patch cables in the far corner.

Today’s been a day of getting a bunch of synth pulses down to create a bit of a palette for a new project. Joyous

Hi! I’m James & I write music for stories, working across television, theatre, & advertising. I’m currently writing a Somerset-based ghost story musical, I’ve got music in two current advertising campaigns, & am writing music for a few different documentaries.

What do you do? Who should I follow?