Karl Sölve Steven

Karl Sölve Steven – yeah, that’s the name you’ll see rolling through some of the wildest, quirkiest soundtracks out of New Zealand and Sweden lately. The guy’s been racking up awards left, right, and center, and he’s not slowing down. Lately, his fingerprints are all over “Uproar,” which, c’mon, you got Julian Dennison, Rhys Darby, and Minnie Driver all in one place? Madness. Then there’s “Never Look Away,” Lucy Lawless at the helm, and Karl teamed up with Jason Smith—this one actually landed at Sundance and SXSW, so it’s not just your average indie flick. Back in 2020, he cooked up the score for “Come To Daddy,” that twisted comedy-thriller with Elijah Wood. Critics went wild—Variety, Rue Morgue, the whole lot—plus it snagged the APRA Screen Music Award and made it onto the Film Music Institute’s Best Scores of the year. Not too shabby, right? Oh, and he’s the guy behind the music for “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A #@%!,” which just won another APRA award in 2023. The “Black Hands” series? Yup, he did that too, and picked up Best Original Score for a Series in 2021. 2024’s looking just as stacked—he’s teamed up with Ant Timpson again for “Bookworm,” bringing Elijah Wood back into the mix alongside Nell Fisher and Michael Smiley. Karl’s not just some guy fiddling with a laptop, either. He’s got deep roots in studio engineering, started young, and has produced more platinum records than you can count. Not to mention, the dude’s got a PhD in Ancient Philosophy from Cambridge. If you’re in Aotearoa NZ, you probably already know him as the storyteller everyone wants on their project.