Going into the recording studio is always a favourite time for me. It means you are in the homestretch. Your idea is sold. Production is well under way. You get to take a break from the office to focus on the details. Plus, you’re surrounded by accomplished sound producers, musicians and voice talent.
Last week, we were at Dan’s Pet Shop scoring music to a video. This was a first for me. I’ve worked with musicians before but I’ve never sat in while they’ve jammed. It was weird. Usually you’re sent a selection of music tracks, you comment, they make changes and you’re done. This time we actually scored music to picture, so we were with the musicians while they worked through their creative process. It was pretty awesome, but because it was so different I actually found it quite hard. Giving feedback to real musicians is intimidating. Music is so subjective, what do you say if you aren’t totally digging what they’re playing? I struggled with this for the first bit and then I let go and gave direction as best as I could. When a piece was too loud or too big or just didn’t feel right I said it, and the musicians actually understood me. I’m not a musician, so my feedback was purely descriptive, I could pin point areas that I felt weren’t gelling or gave off the wrong emotion. Together we worked off each other and ended up creating a really great track that perfectly syncs up with our videos. It’s funny, our final piece turned out so much better than our first attempt. I’m glad we didn’t settle.
Once I got over feeling weird about giving feedback, we came to a great place. We even experimented with wacky instruments – like a Melodica, which is a keyboard that you blow into. So never underestimate collaboration, it always works.
Stay tuned for this new track…one hint, it’s THRiVEtastic!
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