It’s the sweet spot between absorbing the brief and putting your own stamp on things. Music for picture, screen, visual media, can be powerful beyond expectation, but if there isn’t adequate space and permission to experiment and flourish, it can also result in a bundle of yawnsome cliches.
There are so many ways to think about scoring, and with the advancements in remote working, we’re in the best era for composer creatives to really go for it. Take your perceived image of a composer and what their working processes should be and throw it out – the reality is what you make it… see that boundary? Push it!
As independents, we need to be disruptors – be brave, take risks, consider colleagues outside of our regular sphere, and try different processes on every level. Also, take some license to be a bit cynical, or challenging, and speak your mind if something isn’t working. Don’t be stifled by someone else’s need to quantify things – fight against musical and process-based cliches.
For true creativity to happen you need to be able to make some mistakes, sometimes the wrong avenues end up being right. Get on projects earlier and experiment with sound a bit more to give it that individual character. Find ways to reinvent things, take risks, be brave… so many times it evolves into something amazing.
Both as a duo, and individually, we can safely (modestly) say we’re quite successful now. Over the years we’ve crafted a massive library of our own, our sound world, that we are always adding to and finessing. We add new things to our ecosystem in a sort of modular approach which has proven invaluable and a successful way to nurture and expand our offering as a reliable, quality business.
"Indie production companies are more inclined to take risks, even with our bigger projects we have successfully pushed and been happier with the results for it."
We’ve been a part of so many brilliant shows, big and small. Recently, our soundscape for BBC Earth’s The Green Planet charmed UK audiences, and the David Attenborough-narrated series launches Stateside on PBS on July 6. Making music for plants was even more delightfully bonkers than that we created for Dynasties, including the Meerkats special. It’s great to have had our soundtracks for these shows released by Silva Screen Records and getting wonderful feedback from fans and industry friends alike. We’re grateful for the recognition of our work with our collective awards nods incorporating the Emmys, IFMCA, World Soundtrack Awards, Royal Television Society, HMMA, and Wildscreen Panda Awards.
In creating these aural worlds, we mix up non-linear methods, improv material and more, making them edgy, interesting and different. While, on the whole, indie production companies are more inclined to take risks, even with our bigger projects we have successfully pushed and been happier with the results for it. We take this approach to everything we do – aside from natural history, we’ve got documentaries, thrillers and other features among our film and TV works, a few recent ones including Missile From the East, I Came By (with Isobel Waller-Bridge), The Beatles and India, SAS: Red Notice and more.
Coming up, we’re looking forward to becoming mentors and nurturing the creative minds and role models of tomorrow, investing in a composer landscape that celebrates difference – in people, talent and sounds for the screen.
Listen to The Green Planet (Original Television Soundtrack), out now via Silva Screen Records https://thegreenplanet.lnk.to/jMVXh7
Follow Benji on Twitter https://twitter.com/BenjiMerrison
