The ordinary coastal town Sandsborough is turned upside down when the Blunderbuss family arrives, a sword-fighting, rum-drinking bunch of pirates. While the respectable residents are appalled by the family’s ship-turned-home, guard shark and pet octopus, Michiel (12) becomes friends with the new boy next door, pirate Billy (13). However, Michiel might lose his new friend when the Blunderbusses’ archenemy Crooked Cornelius suddenly turns up, determined to lure the pirates back to sea…

“Scoring this movie was such a wonderful experience being reunited with my longtime collaborator director Pim van Hoeve again,” explains Matthijs about the music. “It’s not every day you can flex your swashbuckling muscles, so writing the music was a huge joy! I wanted to bring back the big orchestral pirates sound, created by composers like Korngold and Debney, and combine this with a modern day touch. And even though it is a children’s movie and there are some more gentle comical cues, the overall take on the music is pretty serious and somewhat dark and adventurous. To give the score a more unique pirate identity, I included the Nyckelharpa in my score. The Nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish stringed instrument with a rich and almost fiddle like sound that sounded to me prefect for this story.”

Dutch composer Matthijs Kieboom was born in 1985 in the city of Dordrecht. He started his musical education on the cello and the bass guitar before moving onto composition. His first feature film score was co-written for Fuchsia the Mini-Witch (2010). In 2011, Matthijs won the first place and the title of Transatlantyk Young Composer for 2011 at a competition created by Academy Award winning composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek. He later won the Young Talent Award at the Krakow Film Music Festival and had his music played at the closing gala. In 2013, Matthijs collaborated with DJ Armin van Buuren on the BUMA-winning score for I Love Ibiza, the top selling Dutch movie of the year. Previous releases with MovieScore Media include the IFMCA-nominated documentary Wild and Bloody Marie.