Tom McLeod accepts the Best Original Film award for 'Girl Vs Boy' at the 2014 Silver Scroll Awards at TSB Arena. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
As a university student, Tom McLeod remembers staring at an exam paper as it dawned on him a commerce degree was not his destiny.
He jumped on his motorbike, rode home from Palmerston North to Wellington and into a new life.
He hadn't quite worked out what that new life was going to be, but he did know he loved jazz music.
McLeod approached the highly respected jazz teacher Terry Gray about piano lessons. Gray first thought McLeod had left it too late to try and turned him away.
But when McLeod asked Gray a second time, he agreed to take him on.
McLeod threw himself into mastering jazz piano, without initially realising his teacher was also opening another door for him.
Gray was a respected writer of music for television. Mcleod, looking for a way to make a living out of his newly-honed skills, found he could do the same.
Fast forward a couple of decades, and McLeod is a multi-award-winning composer for film and television.
McLeod spoke to RNZ Concert's Bryan Crump from his home studio about the tools of his trade, some of his music for the big and small screens, and some of his music that is not - including his foray into opera with former Split Enz member Tim Finn, creating a music drama based on the life of Captain Cook's Tahitian navigator and interpreter, Tupaia.
They also found time to discuss McLeod's alter-ego, the lounge music crooner Tommy Love - yes, McLeod also has a great voice.
Photo: Supplied
Tommy Love and his big band were a regular fixture around Wellington in the early years of this century.
Crump recalls seeing Tommy arriving in some sort of Cadillac convertible for a Botanical Gardens gig many summers ago.
These days, McLeod is rather busy writing music, although he acknowledges that given Love made his debut 25 years ago, some sort of comeback gig might be in order.
Perhaps McLeod could lend Love his old motorbike?
