Photek has contributed music to several film, TV and video game productions, such as Blade in 1998. He also scored Gang Related with director Allen Hughes.
Initially interested in hip hop, Parkes expanded his style with elements of soul and jazz. His first instrument was a tenor saxophone, but when a piano arrived in the family home his focus shifted to composition as opposed to performance. By 1992, he had switched from the saxophone to a sequencer. Within the next year he started to perform under the stage name Photek.
Early career 1993–1999
Parkes began his first forays into releasing music in 1993 under a plethora of different names. Some of the early releases include the jungle-styled tracks "Jump" under the name Studio Pressure[4] on Certificate 18, 'Dolphin Tune' under the name Aquarius[5] on LTJ Bukem's Good Looking Records and 'Pulse Of Life' under the name The Sentinel[6] on Basement Records. The first release under the Photek production name came in 1994 with Touching Down... Planet Photek, released on his own Photek label. Photek's breakthrough release in 1995 was the Natural Born Killadrum'n'bass EP for Goldie's Metalheadz. In 1996, Photek contributed one tracks on the Wipeout 2097/Wipeout XL soundtracks.
Photek's debut album was Modus Operandi in 1997, through Virgin Records.[7] In 1997, Virgin Records released Photek's "Ni Ten Ichi Ryu".[8] A year later, Photek released his second album Form & Function.[9] The album comprised four tracks that had previously only been available on limited release vinyl in the early 1990s, plus six remixes and versions by Photek himself as well as other contemporaries Digital, Peshay & Decoder, Doc Scott, and J Majik.
2000–2012
In 2000, Photek released his Solaris album, turning his attention from drum and bass to Chicago house and minimal techno. On the single "Mine to Give", he cooperated with Robert Owens to create a No. 1 Billboard single.[10]
"One Nation"[11] – the dubplate that had been available as a white label for over a decade, saw an official release on Form & Function Vol. 2. The newer productions on the album showed Photek using a broader sound palette, taking influence from his composition and soundtrack work by including orchestrated passages. There are references to a more rock and industrial sound.
After a four-year hiatus from releasing music under the Photek moniker, Parkes produced a series of EPs in 2011. He was invited to contribute to BBC Radio 1's 'Essential Mix' series in October 2012. In the same year, Parkes released the album KU:PALM.
Grammy nominations
Photek's remix of Daft Punk's "End of Line" for the Disney movie Tron: Legacy earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Remix in 2012. He received Grammy nominations in the same category for the following 2 years, with remixes for Moby and Bob Marley.
Recent activities
Now based in Los Angeles, Photek scored the second season of ABC's How to Get Away with Murder in fall of 2015, and continued recording of the follow-up to KU:PALM and various movie and computer game scoring projects. More recently in 2023, he has composed the Season 5 Music for Call of Duty Modern Warfare II.[12]
55th Grammy Awards (2013) – nominated for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical for "Lie Down in Darkness" (Photek Remix) Moby[16]
56th Grammy Awards (2014) – nominated for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical for "One Love / People Get Ready" (Photek Remix) Bob Marley & The Wailers[17]
