Dan Wool

Originally from St. Louis Missouri where he played in the punk rock band The Strikers, Dan Wool is a San Francisco, California, based composer, sound designer and re-recording mixer who has worked in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Bangkok and Anhui China creating scores for broadcast television projects, theatrical sound installations and more than 45 feature films, including seven films for celebrated cult film-maker Alex Cox (director of Repo Man and Sid & Nancy). He first gained notoriety as the principal composer in the soundtrack group Pray for Rain (original members Gary Brown, Paul Trupin, James Woody). From 2010 to 2021 Dan collaborated with film-maker and legendary special-effects artist Phil Tippett to create the score for Tippett's epic stop-motion feature film, Mad God. Dan has also worked extensively creating sound and music for international and domestic advertising and sound branding and also as sound designer for short films and documentaries, including several for the B.B.C. and Channel 4 (U.K.). As a music producer, and engineer, Dan has collaborated with international musicians such as Bernie Worrell (Parliament-Funkadelic), Philip Chevron and James Fearnley (The Pogues); Debra Harry (Blondie); and many Bay-Area artists, including All My Pretty Ones, Meredith Axelrod, essence, The Glowing Stars, Indianna Hale, Joe Lewis, The Mermen and Kally Price.

In other art forms, Dan has created scores and sound-design compositions for The Architecture and Design Museum (A+D Museum), Los Angeles, Amy Seiwert's Imagery Dance (Sketch Series), AXIS Dance Company, Liss Fain Dance, RAWdance, choreographer Sonsherée Giles, choreographer Alice Sheppard and Ballet de la Compasión. In 2018 his music and sound design work for Phil Tippett and Lucy Raven's experimental film Out There screened at MoMA (N.Y.C.). He has also worked as a sound engineer and sound designer on dance compositions with composer Beth Custer (Joe Goode, Jo Kreiter), composer Rob Reich (Circus Bella, Gaucho, Tin Hat). Dan has performed in composer Jem Finer's "Longplayer" installation sponsored by the Long Now Foundation at YBCA. For the years 2015 through 2018 he was engaged by the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swimming Team for ongoing composition and musical services.

In 2023 Dan was nominated for an Annie Award (International Animation Society Award) for Best Music in an Animated Feature Film for Phil Tippett's Mad God. Dan has twice been nominated for an Isadora Duncan Dance Award (Izzie Award) for Outstanding Achievement in Music/Sound/Text, in 2017 for his work with Liss Fain Dance and in 2013 for his work with AXIS Dance Company. In 2014 Dan received an award from Bay Area Dance Watch (Blessay Award) for "Best Dance Soundtrack"