Henry Daw

Henry Daw is a sound designer and composer who worked for Nokia (later Microsoft Mobile) between 2002 and 2015, creating many ringtones, alerts and UI sounds. His most notable contributions are creating the default brand sounds used on the Nokia N9 onwards, including updated versions of the Nokia tune. He was later brought to work on HMD Global's Nokia phone sounds. Since 2020 he has worked as a sound designer for Google, initially as a contractor before becoming a full-time employee in 2022.

He currently runs a sound design company, Oblique Sound, and has worked on the sounds for various other products such as Xiaomi phones, medical devices and navigational aids.

Work at Nokia
Relocating from Wales to Finland, Daw joined Nokia in November 2002 along with Aleksi Eeben and Hannu af Ursin, as Nokia needed a new team of composers to write polyphonic ringtones and alerts. In 2008 he relocated to London, England around the same time Tapio Hakanen took over Mikko Tillander's role as the team leader.

In 2011, Daw led a brand sound update, including updated versions of the Nokia tune and the default alerts. The same year, he led an Audiodraft contest where people could submit remixes of the Nokia tune, as well as a few contests for regional ringtones. This would later be followed in 2013-2015 by an ambitious project titled Sounds of the World which he led; this involved working with five music schools around the world, giving students the opportunity to participate in a contest for regional ringtones.

Daw left Microsoft Mobile along with the other composers in late 2015, and started his own company named Oblique Sound. Ben Lord, another ex-Nokia composer also based in England, brought him to HMD Global to work on another brand sound update, which involved him creating a whole new set of ringtones and notification sounds. Him and Lord also worked on sounds for Xiaomi's MIUI 10 around the same time.

Credits
See Henry Daw/Credits