Shawn Patterson

Shawn Patterson was born in the small rural town of Athol, Massachusetts, to blue collar working parents, Ronald and Joan Patterson. His father was a gifted musician playing several instruments including: saxophone, guitar, trumpet, and pedal steel. However, Patterson's very first draw to music came from watching comedian Steve Martin play the banjo on television during his Let’s Get Small Tour.

Patterson continued selling his own music where he could and soon was being asked to write original songs and bits of score for the show. Among several things, Patterson wrote a series of featured big band songs in the style of Frank Sinatra for the episode, “Ol’ Blue Nose” directed by Steve Loter and sung by Billy West.

Patterson was the score composer and songwriter for three seasons on the Emmy Award-winning series Robot Chicken and series score composer for the award-winning TV series, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera, directed by The Book of Life’s Jorge R. Gutierrez.

Patterson is also the score composer and songwriter on DreamWorks Animation’s The Adventures of Puss in Boots, a Netflix original series about the character Puss from the Shrek franchise.

Still not able to earn enough money to survive, Patterson moved on to The Ren & Stimpy Show as Operations Manager. Soon, however, he moved into the audio/post production department and began working as a music editor. Here on the show, Patterson spent 8–10 hours a day cutting music to picture and experimenting with various classical styles to not only continue to the show's tradition of music but to push it into new territory stylistically.

As The Ren & Stimpy Show came to an end, Patterson was already working as a freelance composer and songwriter. Billy West handed Patterson's demo CD out around Los Angeles and it soon found its way into the hands of Doug Langdale and Audu Paden, who hired him as composer for the animated series, Project G.e.e.K.e.R. in 1995.

Patterson himself guest starred as a pubescent Theodore in the Robot Chicken episode "Crushed by a Steamroller on My 53rd Birthday" on [adult swim] and as Sid in a 1995 episode of Ren and Stimpy on Nickelodeon.

He landed a job as a production assistant at the animated television show, Alvin and the Chipmunks, where in 1991, he sold his very first song for one of the albums of the series. The song was a rap song, “Rock The House”, of which he wrote the music and lyrics. At this time, Patterson was renting various people's small project studios to produce his own compositions and began writing for trailer houses writing the music for large international ad campaigns such as: The Fisher King, My Girl, and several others.

With $400 in his pocket and a few guitars in his backseat, Patterson drove to Los Angeles in 1990 to relocate permanently. He played some live gigs on occasion with friends he had met through Grove, but his priority was to build a small studio and begin producing his own music to get composing work.

In 1988, Patterson accepted a scholarship to attend the prestigious Jazz in July program and University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Patterson was hand selected out of many students to study privately and perform with the featured legendary educators and musicians, Dr. Billy Taylor and Max Roach. However, he never lost sight of his dream to compose music to picture and he wrote music for a few independent documentaries.

In 1986, Patterson left for Los Angeles to attend the Grove School of Music exploring his options of living in LA to earn a living in music. Prior to moving, Patterson worked a wide range of odd jobs around Massachusetts to sustain himself including: furniture assembly, a convenience store, and a plastic factory.

Upon leaving Berklee at the end of summer 1983, Patterson resumed playing in and around Massachusetts, teaching guitar lessons in local music stores and privately. He began studying with local legendary jazz educator and pianist Mark Marquis, who steered him to the Fitchburg Public Library with the instructions to start exploring their jazz record collection.

With the release of the Blues Brothers film in 1980, Patterson was heavily drawn to the influences of the film's soundtrack and band: Elmore James, Sam and Dave, and Booker T and the MG's. For the next four years, he was consumed by practicing and began writing songs. He played in and out of local bands until he graduated from Athol High School in 1983 and attended Berklee College of Music on scholarship at age 17.

On June 2, 1979, Patterson's father died after suffering a brain aneurysm leaving him, his two brothers and mother, Joan Patterson. As a result, Patterson devoted himself completely to music and his guitar playing. He was soon exposed to rock bands such as Van Halen, AC/DC, Queen and The Who.

Patterson was already a huge Superman fan and at the age of four years was watching black and white reruns of The Adventures of Superman with George Reeves. With great anticipation, he awaited the release of Superman in 1978 and was forever changed as a result of John Williams’ infamous score. Patterson then attended multiple screenings of the film just to try and absorb the music.

In June 1977, Patterson and his father attended a screening of Star Wars and this was the first time film music caught his attention and a career was born.

Shawn Michael Patterson (born September 14, 1965) is an American composer and songwriter. He has been working in the field of music for over 20 years. His most notable work to date is as the songwriter/composer for the song "Everything Is Awesome", written for the Warner Brothers feature film The Lego Movie (2014).