Songbird – My Soundtrack Experience
The story behind how a global pandemic opened up new opportunities for me as a musician at a time when the industry as a whole was on its knees.
It would be very easy for me to rattle off a bunch of horribly overused clichés about the global COVID-19 pandemic that we have all experienced in 2020, so I will try to avoid as many as I possibly can, but it is fair to say that we have all been affected, some more so than others, and we will likely continue to be affected for some time to come. Hope is on the horizon as a multitude of vaccines are now being delivered and maybe 2021 will see us re-emerge back into some kind of normality.
Beyond the tragic loss of so many people, thousands have been hurt in so many different ways, such as musicians and other performing and creative types. Without an audience, there are no gigs. With social distancing, large groups of artists cannot assemble. These necessary restrictions stifle so many of the creative industries, but when creativity is stifled, for whatever reason, art always finds a way. Bands have been delivering online performances, there have been virtual exhibitions and there has been an explosion in self-made audio and video content that may well change the face of the entire industry for years to come.
On a personal level, I have been INCREDIBLY lucky. My day job as an Instructional Designer has not suffered at all. The company I work for has been utterly brilliant, accommodating and compassionate and whilst some people have lost their jobs, many haven’t and demand for my work has actually increased. With so many people at home, online learning is booming. I’ve also been involved with a new online YouTube show on behalf of the Pro Synth Network, and have recorded seminars for various academic institutions as well as continuing my Sound On Sound podcast series.
But one particular ray of sunshine in this horrible world we live in today was completely unexpected and, most importantly and quite bizarrely, would absolutely not have happened if it hadn’t been for the pandemic. And I would like to share this with you now.
Back in October of this year I was contacted by Lorne Balfe. Lorne and I have only ever briefly spoken online, mostly about Fairlights for which we both share a passion. If you are not aware of who Lorne Balfe is, I suggest you Google him but, in brief, he is a hugely successful composer for film, TV, video games and commercials. Some of his most notable works include Mission Impossible: Fallout, The Lego Batman Movie, His Dark Materials, The Crown: Season 3, Churchill, Terminator Genisys and many more besides. He is an alumnus of the Hans Zimmer “school” and is now forging a similar path as one of the go-to composers in Hollywood. So, to get a call from Lorne is in itself very humbling and quite a shock.
Lorne asked a very simple question… “Could I send you a midi file and 2mx and see what inspiration comes your way?”
At the time, I was sat on my sofa at home, about to go and do my weekly stint on the Pro Synth Network show and I was both confused and excited. I wasn’t sure if he’d sent the message to the right person or if he thought I was some sort of accomplished musician, but I replied, “sure!” and waited for a response along the lines of, “Ooops, sorry, sent the message to the wrong person!”. Instead, he came back to me, proposed we do a session and to expect delivery of some files soon. And he also asked me what my fee would be.
Fee?? How on earth would I know what fee I should charge for something I’ve never been asked to do before!! Panic set in as this was very quickly becoming very real. Still convinced that this was some sort of mistake, I went and did the PSN show and then started scouring the web for what kinds of fees session musicians in this situation would ask. I ended up at the Musician’s Union site where I got some examples from and decided on a small, basic fee. I had no idea if this was appropriate, but I have to say that it was very encouraging to see this matter dealt with up front as there are literally thousands of examples of musicians being asked to do work in exchange for “exposure”, so this gesture spoke volumes about Lorne’s integrity.
Over the following week, emails were exchanged with a representative of Lorne’s company, information was mostly scarce, but everything was agreed, NDA’s were signed and I waited patiently for the files to arrive. We were given a deadline and so I decided to do my session after work one Friday evening. Our instructions were very simple. Listen to the pieces, be inspired and improvise. There was no right or wrong way to do anything. Just go with the flow. Once we’d got something, we were to record it and also film ourselves playing it. The latter part was an odd request, but more about that later.
The files eventually appeared the day before the deadline, which instilled even more anxiety in me. I listened through them and began to form some kind of idea of what might go well with it and grew even more anxious about my ability to deliver something worthwhile. I suffer terribly from imposter syndrome and it was never more present than it was throughout those 36 hours. Eventually, Friday came and I locked myself away in my “studio” and proceeded to improvise. We had two tracks to work on. One was a cue from the movie itself and the other, a more melodic piece, was supposedly destined for the closing credits.
It is worth pointing out at this juncture that we were given no inkling as to what the film was about, no viewing of any footage or brief of the plot. It was mentioned that it was the first film to be produced during the initial lockdown, and that because of all the restrictions, assembling musicians in the traditional sense was impossible which, in turn, gave rise to the concept of recording musicians remotely. But that was all we knew. We were very much working on just the music itself. I should also point out that I was not alone in this venture. Lorne and his team had assembled a collection of varied and disparate musicians from all over the world to participate, about twenty five or so in total. We all had different pieces to work on and, I guess, different musical talents to bring to bear.
And so I sat there, pondering what I was going to do. I had recently acquired a Yamaha FS1R, a synth I’ve long craved, and so I turned it on and started flicking through the presets for inspiration. The second piece’s working title was ‘Humanity’, and so I was looking to the FS1R’s formant shaping to maybe give me something that suited that theme and, sure enough, I happened across a preset that that required very little tweaking that both had a breathy, human aspect, as well as a cutting attack that would come through in a mix.
It also had a very Fairlight-esque quality to it, reminiscent of the classic SARARR patch, which I thought might please Lorne, given our shared passion. So I came up with a refrain with some variations here and there, and laid that down in the Logic session. But I felt there was more I could do and so I turned to a synth I have often said would have to be prised from my cold, dead hands, the Korg Prophecy. Again, I was thinking of more organic synth sounds and the Prophecy’s acoustic modelling is capable of some great stuff. I ended up picking a lovely comb-string patch that sounded equally synthetic and natural and again improvised something with it, this time a more lyrical part than the FS1R. After a few attempts, I decided this was the part I would film myself playing and so, lockdown-hair and all, I lit that section of the studio, set the camera rolling, hit record and went for it. I only made a couple of mistakes, which I was very easily able to fix in the edit.
With that section in the bag, I moved on to the action cue from the film. It was extremely atonal and highly rhythmic. Had I had my eDrums set up, I may well have attempted adding some synthetic percussion to it, but I was running out of time and so again, I went back to the FS1R and began picking characteristically FM metallic, scratching and scraping sounds that seemed to fit well. In the end, my work on this was less of a success in my eyes and I have since thought about a myriad things I could have done instead. But hey, that’s how it goes, I guess?
For the gear nerds, I also used another recently acquired piece of classic Yamaha equipment, namely my KX88 controller, for the FS1R parts, which was connected to my Mac wirelessly using CMEs brilliant new Bluetooth MIDI connectors, the WIDI Master.
And so, with both tracks done, I packaged the audio and video files up and delivered them. I promptly went downstairs and consumed wine!
Since then, it has been mostly quiet, with just a few emails confirming completion of the mix and release dates. We also were able to find out more about the film and here is the trailer. Be warned, should you venture into the YouTube comments, you will rapidly descend into any number of outlandish and outright bonkers conspiracy theories 😉
The two pieces I worked on are now titled ‘Songbird’ and ‘Time To Go’. Here they are for you to listen to, completely mixed with all the other musicians and Lorne’s wonderful composition…
And here is the promo clip that 14th Street Music put together of our collected video performances…
The most surprising thing to me when I first listened to the completed tracks was how much of my contribution featured, particularly in the ‘Time To Go’ track. The metallic crash at the very start that bubbles and morphs as it fades is the FS1R, which repeats throughout the track and the piece at the very end that repeats and slows to a stop is also the FS1R. For something that I didn’t think was good enough, I was amazed to hear it so prominently placed in the mix.
But the title track, ‘Songbird’ is such a lovely, haunting composition and both the FS1R and Prophecy can be heard throughout, which is immensely satisfying.
So, there you have it. I’ve been dying to talk about this for the last two months and now it is out for all to hear (and see). It was an incredible, if somewhat stressful, experience. I had never done anything like this before and was flying solo with little guidance. I kept telling myself that Lorne had told us all that there was no wrong and no right, but I couldn’t help but repeatedly analyse my work, trying to second guess what he wanted and if my work was acceptable. By the end of the session, having had no time to revisit and tweak, I sent it off and that was actually a great relief, knowing that there was no more I could do. If anything, that was one of the biggest lessons I learned. Go with your gut, be impulsive and honest to the score and be strong enough to let go.
The most amazing thing is that, during this terrible time, when more and more musicians are finding it increasingly difficult to work, the very thing that is causing that situation brought me and a number of others an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It sounds awful to speak these words out loud, or even write them, especially when you think about all of those who have lost their lives during this time and the people they left behind, but in certain places, seeping out of the deep gloom of this awful pandemic, some good things did happen, and I will always be eternally grateful that they did.
All that remained was for me to watch the actual movie and hear all the music in context, which I did this evening with my family and eagerly awaited the credits. I honestly didn’t expect to get mentioned as it was Lorne’s composition and we were just session musicians, doing what countless session musicians do. As the credits rolled, we all moved closer to the screen to see if we got a mention and as the music credits started, I saw the ‘Musicians’ heading appear and I got giddy with excitement. Imagine my horror when I noticed they had spelt my name wrong!
That’s showbiz, I guess!
If I am allowed, I may try and share my specific parts with you in another post and break down what I did. That might make a semi-interesting video. Let me know in the comments.
Songbird is out now on various Premium VOD services. In the U.K. specifically, it is on Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube, BT, Virgin Media and many more.