Hello folks, not had a blog post for a little while so here's the skinny. I've been knee deep in Uni work, which is quite fun. Recently I've been working on two commissions as part of my Applied Project module: the first is a piece for a dancer and the second is a soundtrack to a short film. Once both are finished I'll blog about them in full, but for now I want to talk about something I know a fair bit about: songwriting.
I've been songwriting since I was 16 years old. Every time I learnt a new chord (hey, E minor!) I'd write a song that incorporated it. Sure these early efforts were mostly rubbish (with a few exceptions - more of that in a minute) but it was a useful well to learn guitar and songwriting simultaneously. One of these early songs was called "God Sure Can Play Guitar", a little country ditty, using the chords of C, F and G, and all about how God is a decent guitarist so he forms a band with Jesus, St. Peter, Angel Gabriel and the Devil (who "came down from Georgia cos he plays the saxophone" - perhaps my first "reference"). Writing a song is a very personal experience and i seem to be only able to write songs about things I actually can relate too. Sometimes these are fantastical things, like God..., but sometimes they're about feelings and whatnot. My "feelings" songs tend to focus on the baser negative feelings, such as lust, greed, jealousy and more-often-than-I'd-like-to-admit, self-doubt. These subjects are quite ethereal so I tend to latch them onto more tangible subjects such as a bus driver or having your bike stolen.
Anyhoo, it's entirely possible that I've written well over 150 songs in my lifetime, with perhaps 30 of them being lost to the ages, but quite a lot have stayed around for years, often cropping up in multiple bands with different musical arrangements. One of my favourites, "Want To Be Wanted", began life in my first uni band in 1998 (though it only got performed as an acoustic solo number), and became a firm favourite in the next band, The Baker Street Irregulars and has since been re-imagined as a cha-cha in Pterodactyls.
So yeah, let's listen to some of that music. Here's the album Love, Extinct released last year as Pterodactyls. It was mostly recorded after the band had split up, but there's some great songs on there.
Now what does this have to do with writing music for film, TV and video games, I hear you ask? Well, quite a lot. First up, TV and film often ask composers to write a full song to accompany their product, perhaps something that will show up in the film sung by a character or even a song to market the film against. Secondly, it's a display of my abilities as a competent composer; there's more to a song than just the lyrics and so forth, there's a huge amount of arrangement that goes into a song, sometimes more than a musical cue.
In Songwriting Pt. 2 we'll look into genres of songwriting and how I've approached them. Laterz.
Tuesday, 12 April 2011
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Good Moon Rising
Busy time in Elbisso world. Second year of Music Practice is ramping up; we have a weekend festival to organise in May and I have the unenviable position of Event Director... though for some reason I seem to be taking on more and more jobs as the days go by. Anyhoo, plenty to be doing, but I managed to get a free day last week and coincidentally a request for a piece of Games music came up from the UCLan Games Design students, this time from Richard Warner.
The game is called Luna, an action game set on a distant mining moon, whereon a seismic disaster has prevented our hero from returning to the surface and he has to traverse the deep chasms and tunnels for the moon to reach salvation. Along the way, various indigenous lifeforms attempt to eat our hero and were it not for our hero's drill and flamethrower, he'd surely perish.
Richard asked for a 2 minute piece to accompany the title screen of the game. He likened the style to the soundtracks of Moon and Sunshine. Here's my piece:
Luna by elbissopmiry
I used mostly minor chords with the occasional diminished 5th to give a sense of foreboding doom! Originally I decided to have the second section become more upbeat, as if an enemy had just appeared on screen and the music ramps up. Now this definitely wasn't what the client had requested and to be honest it was a bit of cheek trying to stick it in the there, but I felt brave that day and submitted the piece anyways. Now that I look back on it, it's a useful lesson in dealing with client-commissioned pieces: DO WHAT THEY ASK YOU TO. Simples.
Anyway the client wasn't going for the upbeat section and requested an extension of the first 1:20, with new instrumentation. A sampled wok sound was been added throughout, together with a short bassoon line at the end which seemed to do the trick.
I'm incredibly pleased with this one, it's akin to the atmospheric soundtrack from Borderlands (a favourite; if you've read post 1 you'd know that) and along the lines for the kind of soundtrack I'd like to be working one. You never know Luna might end up getting made, and hopefully I'll be able to expand on the work.
The game is called Luna, an action game set on a distant mining moon, whereon a seismic disaster has prevented our hero from returning to the surface and he has to traverse the deep chasms and tunnels for the moon to reach salvation. Along the way, various indigenous lifeforms attempt to eat our hero and were it not for our hero's drill and flamethrower, he'd surely perish.
Richard asked for a 2 minute piece to accompany the title screen of the game. He likened the style to the soundtracks of Moon and Sunshine. Here's my piece:
Luna by elbissopmiry
I used mostly minor chords with the occasional diminished 5th to give a sense of foreboding doom! Originally I decided to have the second section become more upbeat, as if an enemy had just appeared on screen and the music ramps up. Now this definitely wasn't what the client had requested and to be honest it was a bit of cheek trying to stick it in the there, but I felt brave that day and submitted the piece anyways. Now that I look back on it, it's a useful lesson in dealing with client-commissioned pieces: DO WHAT THEY ASK YOU TO. Simples.
Anyway the client wasn't going for the upbeat section and requested an extension of the first 1:20, with new instrumentation. A sampled wok sound was been added throughout, together with a short bassoon line at the end which seemed to do the trick.
I'm incredibly pleased with this one, it's akin to the atmospheric soundtrack from Borderlands (a favourite; if you've read post 1 you'd know that) and along the lines for the kind of soundtrack I'd like to be working one. You never know Luna might end up getting made, and hopefully I'll be able to expand on the work.
Monday, 21 March 2011
Mental Mental, Chicken Oriental
Wow, two followers! It's all going well here in Elbisso world. The sun is shining, the grass is growing and music is being a-made.
But first, let's look at another of the pieces I made for Vic Goldsmith, the games design student who enlisted my services. Here is the second piece I made for her, simply called "Oriental Loop".
Oriental Loop by elbissopmiry
The brief asked for level music for a game about a aged Japanese bloke who is shrunk down and has to make his way through a bamboo garden, fending off spiders and jumping fish and so forth. The designs for many parts of the level had Japanese elements and it was clear that this needed to come across in the music also. The piece needed to be about a minute long and be able to loop indefinitely.
The approach I took made use of the pentatonic scale: a five note scale found in many cultures, including Oriental. The pentatonic is also useful as it has no leading tone, it seems like it starts on any one of the five notes and this allowed the loop to have no need to resolve, making a transition too obvious. I used a Japanese Koto sound and improvised for around 2 minutes and took the best parts to form the basis of the piece. I originally had a much longer flute section in the middle of the piece, and intended to find a flautist to perform the piece live, rather than a sampled flute, however the client preferred some of the other sounds in the piece, especially the marimba sound, which she described as "fun", and more appropriate to the game. A second pass at the piece allowed me to use repeated simple patterns on the koto, marimba and a heavily effected guitar sound. A tip I learned from a Video Games Composers' blog about layering allowed the listener to hear something different each time the piece loops. I added a bass drum that played throughout the piece and occasional percussion hits to add interest.
In addition, the client wished the piece to be more "bouncy": a simple fix was to add a low cello part that bounced along under the track. I used this to imply chord changes and once again adding more interest.
Finally, as this piece will accompany a video, sound effects were also necessary: running water and bird song are already added to the track and once I have the video, further sound effects such as the sounds of the character movement and such like will also be added. I'll add the video once it's all done!
But first, let's look at another of the pieces I made for Vic Goldsmith, the games design student who enlisted my services. Here is the second piece I made for her, simply called "Oriental Loop".
Oriental Loop by elbissopmiry
The brief asked for level music for a game about a aged Japanese bloke who is shrunk down and has to make his way through a bamboo garden, fending off spiders and jumping fish and so forth. The designs for many parts of the level had Japanese elements and it was clear that this needed to come across in the music also. The piece needed to be about a minute long and be able to loop indefinitely.
The approach I took made use of the pentatonic scale: a five note scale found in many cultures, including Oriental. The pentatonic is also useful as it has no leading tone, it seems like it starts on any one of the five notes and this allowed the loop to have no need to resolve, making a transition too obvious. I used a Japanese Koto sound and improvised for around 2 minutes and took the best parts to form the basis of the piece. I originally had a much longer flute section in the middle of the piece, and intended to find a flautist to perform the piece live, rather than a sampled flute, however the client preferred some of the other sounds in the piece, especially the marimba sound, which she described as "fun", and more appropriate to the game. A second pass at the piece allowed me to use repeated simple patterns on the koto, marimba and a heavily effected guitar sound. A tip I learned from a Video Games Composers' blog about layering allowed the listener to hear something different each time the piece loops. I added a bass drum that played throughout the piece and occasional percussion hits to add interest.
In addition, the client wished the piece to be more "bouncy": a simple fix was to add a low cello part that bounced along under the track. I used this to imply chord changes and once again adding more interest.
Finally, as this piece will accompany a video, sound effects were also necessary: running water and bird song are already added to the track and once I have the video, further sound effects such as the sounds of the character movement and such like will also be added. I'll add the video once it's all done!
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
It's an Elf, man!
Ok, so time to talk about some of the video game music I've done so far. Some of it belongs to games, some of it does not, but we'll start with one that does. This first piece is the title screen music to a game created by Games Design student Vic Goldsmith. The brief asked for a piece about three minutes long and similar to a Danny Elfman/Tim Burton theme. Here it is!
Horror Theme by elbissopmiry
So assuming that lovely piece of code worked, you'll have heard the track. I listened to quite a few Danny Elfman tracsk, but the ones that influenced me most were Beetlejuice, Nightmare Beofre Christmas and Tales From The Crypt. I *ahem* borrowed a few elements that I thought made those tracks work and jumbled them all up together. Namely the driving piano bass, the high pitched strings and the odd chord pattern. I used elements of what I believed made a good Elfman theme, such has oompah brass lines, rising vocals and vaudevillian accordian. I also tried to represent a number of the characters in musical forms, e.g. the accordian is the mime character... you know, because all mimes are French and the music box is our hero character, the doll-girl.
Anyway I enjoyed making it and I hope you enjoy listening to it. Hopefully I'll be supplied with a short video to accompany the song soon.
Horror Theme by elbissopmiry
So assuming that lovely piece of code worked, you'll have heard the track. I listened to quite a few Danny Elfman tracsk, but the ones that influenced me most were Beetlejuice, Nightmare Beofre Christmas and Tales From The Crypt. I *ahem* borrowed a few elements that I thought made those tracks work and jumbled them all up together. Namely the driving piano bass, the high pitched strings and the odd chord pattern. I used elements of what I believed made a good Elfman theme, such has oompah brass lines, rising vocals and vaudevillian accordian. I also tried to represent a number of the characters in musical forms, e.g. the accordian is the mime character... you know, because all mimes are French and the music box is our hero character, the doll-girl.
Anyway I enjoyed making it and I hope you enjoy listening to it. Hopefully I'll be supplied with a short video to accompany the song soon.
Monday, 14 March 2011
Content, Content, Content Pt. 2
Ok, so we've got off to a good start so far. Time to get stuck into some video games music.
Click this link here to head off to my Video Game Music Soundcloud set.
Here you'll find 5 lovely pieces I've created. I'll go into more detail about each of them in new blog posts, but I just needed to get the link in here for all to see... erm, hear.
Click this link here to head off to my Video Game Music Soundcloud set.
Here you'll find 5 lovely pieces I've created. I'll go into more detail about each of them in new blog posts, but I just needed to get the link in here for all to see... erm, hear.
Link's Awakening
Here's some handy links I've found for the budding games composer:
First up a blog by a friend of mine all about games and such like, it's Gainboy! Here you'll find lots of chat about games, old and new, along with some fun stuff about TV shows and films and blog-owner James' unhealthy love for Don Draper.
Then we're off to FreelanceMusicComposers.com, specifically the Video Games Composers section (my profile should be there soon) where you can find a bunch of composers for your games! Use me though, I'm great.
Finally we'll stop in on Leon Willett, who is an awesome composer and his hints and tips on composing for video games have been end of help to me so far.
More links as they come, folks.
First up a blog by a friend of mine all about games and such like, it's Gainboy! Here you'll find lots of chat about games, old and new, along with some fun stuff about TV shows and films and blog-owner James' unhealthy love for Don Draper.
Then we're off to FreelanceMusicComposers.com, specifically the Video Games Composers section (my profile should be there soon) where you can find a bunch of composers for your games! Use me though, I'm great.
Finally we'll stop in on Leon Willett, who is an awesome composer and his hints and tips on composing for video games have been end of help to me so far.
More links as they come, folks.
Content, Content, Content Pt. 1
Well it's been exactly one day since beginning the blog and I've had exactly no reads because there's nothing here worth shouting about yet.
That is all about to change, right now!
I have various musical ventures dotted around the magic interwebs and it's time to collate them all into one area for all to see and hear.
First up it's my (most recent) band, Pterodactyls. Click the link to hear the musicks. Pterodactyls was a self-proclaim spaghetti-punk (or mexican-wave) band that enjoyed a few gigs, but really took off when I decided to produce material on my own. At the above link you'll be able to hear some material recorded with the original musician and some that is entirely me. Not only did this give me free reign on the songs, but also gave me first have experience producing my own work to a high standard.
The Western genre, both in film and music, is one that petered out in the 1970s when Star Wars and it's ilk became the film of choice for young men. Gone where the days of the spaghetti western, John Wayne and sharpshooters, replaced with lasers, spaceships and aliens. Sure Star Wars had themes lifted from westerns and we've seen a few great Western films in recent years (Appaloosa and True Grit spring to mind) but it's a niche genre to say the least. Pterodactyls aimed to bring back some of the sounds and styles used in westerns, particularly those scored by Ennio Morricone, and I'm hoping we achieved that goal.
The release of Red Dead Redemption saw a return to the classic western genre in video games and it's soundtrack is a great homage to the great composers of the genre. Wide soundscapes, mariachi trumpets and buzzing guitars are all in attendance.
It's definitely a genre I feel comfortable in and you never know, RDR could just be first in a long line of great Western games and perhaps one day I'll be working on one of them.
That is all about to change, right now!
I have various musical ventures dotted around the magic interwebs and it's time to collate them all into one area for all to see and hear.
First up it's my (most recent) band, Pterodactyls. Click the link to hear the musicks. Pterodactyls was a self-proclaim spaghetti-punk (or mexican-wave) band that enjoyed a few gigs, but really took off when I decided to produce material on my own. At the above link you'll be able to hear some material recorded with the original musician and some that is entirely me. Not only did this give me free reign on the songs, but also gave me first have experience producing my own work to a high standard.
The Western genre, both in film and music, is one that petered out in the 1970s when Star Wars and it's ilk became the film of choice for young men. Gone where the days of the spaghetti western, John Wayne and sharpshooters, replaced with lasers, spaceships and aliens. Sure Star Wars had themes lifted from westerns and we've seen a few great Western films in recent years (Appaloosa and True Grit spring to mind) but it's a niche genre to say the least. Pterodactyls aimed to bring back some of the sounds and styles used in westerns, particularly those scored by Ennio Morricone, and I'm hoping we achieved that goal.
The release of Red Dead Redemption saw a return to the classic western genre in video games and it's soundtrack is a great homage to the great composers of the genre. Wide soundscapes, mariachi trumpets and buzzing guitars are all in attendance.
It's definitely a genre I feel comfortable in and you never know, RDR could just be first in a long line of great Western games and perhaps one day I'll be working on one of them.
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