Tobias Zaldua

Mini Biography:

Tobias was raised listening to BBC Radio 4 and had to sneak a transistor radio into his bedroom at night to hear anything else. He started experimenting with sound at the age of 9, mixing dialogue from radio plays, news bulletins and short wave radio with electro beats using 3 tape decks, a microphone, a razor and some sellotape.After a Foundation Course in Art he went to Humberside University to do a degree in Graphic design. However having developed a love for cinema, particularly the films of Hitchcock and Lynch and the rhythms of dialogue in Film noir, he quickly decided to specialize in Film and Animation.Perhaps unsurprisingly Tobias could be found at all hours splicing film and video montages of anything available, thrillers, sci-fi, Hollywood musicals and original footage all became part of an increasing obsession with the magic of editing, and how it could all change with a frame or two.His first chance to cut someone else’s film came when he was approached by Mark Cairnsin the year above who was working on a live action/model animation graduation piece and needed an editor and a composer. In between cutting the film Tobias would dash out and cause some concern by smashing the iron gates of the equipment room with metal bars and then using these sounds for the surprisingly elegant soundtrack to Marks film “Upon The Land”.After graduating Tobias went to London where he quickly built up a reputation for getting the best from the material and leaving nothing wasted. Equally at home with the frantic energy of Spiritualized “Electricity” promo built from 20 hours of hypnotic tour material or with the elegiac “Woman” by Neneh Cherry, an edit based on the movement of characters hands and the sound of strings he soon built up around 200 music video credits.During this time he also worked at a digital televison station, ran a nightclub with friends and recorded four albums with his band “terry nation”, one of which “Amber” was recently re-released.At the end of 2004 Tobias was extremely pleased to be offered the chance to work on a film with Julien Temple having previously worked with the director on a Greenpeace commercial. The film was Glastonbury (2006) and involved editing a staggering 1500 hours of footage seemingly of every format and quality possible.His most recent project is a documentary feature again for Julien Temple about the life of Joe Strummer called Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007).

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