Mike Perjanik in 2011
Mike Perjanik (born in Dargaville, New Zealand c.1944-1945) composed the famous theme tune for Home And Away. He was also responsible for much of the incidental music heard on the show from 1988 until c. 2000. A prolific composer, he has written everything from jingles to film music. For many years he was a board member and chairman of APRA[1]
Music career[]
Mike moved to Auckland in 1963 when he was aged just 18 and began his musical career for proper there. As well as writing and producing for home-grown singers of the day, he toured with the late Gene Pitney. He moved to Australia in the late 1960s. In an interview from 2000, he said that "When I was younger you had to be everything. So I was an arranger, I’ve been a record producer for a long time, I’d score albums, I used to do a lot of commercials, write jingles. Jingles are a great discipline; it’s very hard to write a 30-second jingle that people can whistle in the shower, and that’s like mini-songwriting if you like, writing songs to order. And then I’d compose music for films, and I’d write television themes – which in a sense are songs.”[2]
Amongst many other ads, he wrote music for Arnotts Scotch Finger Biscuits, Johnson's Baby Oil, McDonalds and Wrigleys chewing gum. He also wrote the theme tunes for The Naked Vicar Show, The Restless Years (recorded and made a hit by Renee Geyer), A Country Practice, Rafferty’s Rules, Hey Dad, Kingswood Country, and Home and Away.[3]
Home And Away[]
In an interview with the New Zealand website audioculture, he revealed that when he wrote the theme tune to Home and Away he hadn't seen the show. All he was given at the time was a script and not a very good one at that [4] (scroll on to 23 minutes)