Kim Kardashian

"I quite like the idea that Kim Kardashian isn't what you'd associate with me or where I'm from," he says.

Where he's from is the remote village of Ellonby in the northern fells. It has an old-fashioned air, much like Stephen.

He's well-spoken, polite and contemplative. Being a classically trained lover of classical music does not stop him branching into more modern areas, often while retaining his roots.

'Genre-bending' is the phrase he uses to describe this free and easy approach to traditional musical categories.

The Marriage of Kim K is a good example. It's a musical based on reality TV star Kardashian's brief marriage to basketball player Kris Humphries. It fuses Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with contemporary pop.

Stephen, 24, also directed it. The Marriage of Kim K was performed at last month's Edinburgh Fringe. The idea and lyrics came from one of Stephen's writing partners, Leo Mercer.

"I suppose I was quite sceptical when I started," says Stephen. "I was never massively interested in Kim Kardashian before. What I find most interesting about the show is, we take a well-known figure and try to work out who that person is. Kim Kardashian is a great example but we could have used anybody else.

"Fame can be a little bit vacuous. I don't begrudge her for her fame. She's a very savvy, clever businesswoman. The most damaging thing is, everyone feels they have to look like her. That can be quite poisonous. What she looks like versus what she's like as a person is something we investigate in the show.

"I really hope she catches wind of it. We're going to try and get her attention. I'd love her to come to one of the shows."

Stephen's music was based around Mozart's melodies and influenced by more modern composers, such as Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar.

A couple is arguing about what to watch on TV: The Marriage of Figaro or Keeping Up with the Kardashians . When they watch Figaro , we hear Mozart's music. For the Kardashians' scenes, Stephen composed electronic pop influenced by artists like Kanye West.

For scenes with the couple arguing over the remote control he wrote piano-based pop, with influences such as Regina Spektor.

Stephen says: "All my music was based on Mozart's melodies from The Marriage of Figaro . I drew on these melodies as a loose springboard then converted them into something contemporary-sounding. I kind of feel I was collaborating with Mozart!"

Hip hop, such as Kanye West, is a more unusual influence on a theatre production. "We wanted something contemporary, rather than drawing from musical theatre sounds. The Beatles were doing genre crossover 50 years ago with Sgt Pepper . Such a variety of sounds. You can learn a lot from that in theatre. A lot of pop music can be very experimental. But you feel constricted in musical theatre."

Stephen is determined not to be constricted by his musical background: the classical training and an upbringing listening to 1960s pop.

"I'm now drawing a lot of inspiration from modern artists. Most of what I listen to is post-2000. This is such an exciting time. There are so many styles of music you could be drawing on - you've got the biggest box of paints. But so much has already been done.

"One of the challenges I find as a composer is to do something new and true. If I was to write something that felt really me, I'm at home with writing folk music that feels like it could have been written in the 1970s. If I'm writing something that sounds new, it maybe doesn't feel like it's the true me.

"But I think I have to make some of my songs sound more contemporary. It makes you less lazy if you're actively seeking new inspirations rather than relying on what you know.

"When you write something new, you play it back and you can't tell that you wrote that. For some people that's a bad thing - every composer is meant to have their own voice. I think it's good to reinvent yourself."

Stephen has no qualms about using existing music to inform his own work.

"Sometimes I'll get an idea after listening to a song. A lot of the time I make a decision: what am I trying to do with this piece of music? I choose three songs I'm basing it on, or three artists or three composers. Some people accuse Andrew Lloyd Webber of plagiarism. He's doing what any composer does and drawing on what other people have written and making it his own. If you take three, you're definitely not plagiarising."

Stephen's versatility extends even beyond writing and directing. He also acts. The TV-watching couple in The Marriage of Kim K were played by him and his girlfriend, Amelia Gabriel.

"This way the characters' chemistry is already in place. We're very comfortable with each other on stage. Although you find when you're working with someone who's really close to you, it gets very confusing."

Did their on-stage arguments spill into real life? "I guess we would have real-life bickering about how the show had gone. But it was all very small-scale. We had a fun time. I really enjoy acting but it's not where I want to focus my efforts. I'm more interested in creating art than being the person to realise it."

Edinburgh was "a very intense experience". As well as Kim K , Stephen had another musical at the Fringe. He composed the score for The Inevitable Quiet of the Crash , whose lyricist is Katie Hale, from Shap. It explores love and life in London.

"That and Kim K are from different ends of the spectrum. One is a contemporary comedy, the other quite a dark drama about three women dealing with grief. It was a divisive show, because it was such an intense experience. Audiences
Kim Kardashian were forced to get on board with a grieving session. For a lot of people that was too much. A lot of other people felt really emotionally involved."

The Marriage of Kim K also divided opinion. Reviews have ranged from five stars to one. "It shows how different people's opinions are, how much of a Marmite show it is. This autumn I'm rewriting Kim K for a London production next year. The concept has a lot of potential but we need to work on the execution a bit more."

He'll be working with Leo Mercer, in a partnership which is not always as harmonious as their music. "The most stormy collaboration I've had is with Leo. What's good about Leo is, he pushes me to do more. I'll create something. He won't go 'That's good.' He'll go 'I think that could be changed.'

"I do often find him a bit of a contrarian. I sometimes think he just does it for the heck of it! He's very difficult to work out. But it's very rewarding. Through the collaboration he's become my best friend."

Another creative partnership is with Stephen's brother James. In 2015 they founded The Three Inch Fools. This five-strong troupe of actors travels the country performing a musical take on Shakespeare's plays. All the world's a stage: venues have included castles, gardens, market places, a pub and a medieval crypt. Stephen writes the music and has acted in the troupe.

Shakespeare touring group The Three Inch Fools "That's a really fun project. Shakespeare's plays were very visceral and physical. We tell his stories in a fast-paced way that uses songs and music. This year we took a whole section of script from Twelfth Night and made it into a song. The music enhances the drama. A lot of the time the role of music in theatre is between the scenes. We're trying to integrate the music into the drama."

Mix it all up - Stephen's genre-bending continues. His plans include writing more musical theatre, pop and folk music. And directing: his dream is to be a film composer-director.

He hopes to release an album of his songs next year, performed by artists he has worked with. No surprise that this will be "a very wacky, crazy, genre-fluid album with lots of different ideas."