With some regularity, I assemble a group of musicians in my basement studio to record soundtracks for films or audio pieces (under the Nadir Novelties banner, for the most part). I usually have a rough conceptual outline of how the song should feel and what parts need to happen, which we usually discuss back and forth for a bit. Then we improvise.
For the most part, I don’t edit or overdub additional parts. I’d rather solve problems by mixing things out or re-pacing the narrative than redo or cut the music, and for the most part this approach has been successful. I’ll often have multiple guitars and amps set up around the room that I (or whomever) can move between for different parts, in the hope that if something really needs more going on that this is an easy way to give it that.
There have been some interesting results:
Eine Kleine Bahn Musik: [audio:road_test.mp3]
Theme from the Kind of Bar I’d Like to Drink In: [audio:bar_music.mp3]
Team Canada is for Winners: [audio:bowed_guit-final.mp3]
We also took the show on the road once:
Theme from OUCH: [audio:ouch.mp3]
Outro: [audio:ms_outie.mp3]
This was fun, and might well happen again. The goal was to make background music that would blend in at a bar, but be engaging if you listened to it. It was also to record some tracks in a non-studio setting. I’m not a technically adept musician, so in order to make variations on a theme I find it much easier to play it live – that is, make the means and context of the recording different in order to add variation. Joe Frank’s radio shows make good use of this same concept: when he records a conversation over the phone they sound “real”, as though the people presenting them are talking about themselves, not going off of a script.
It’s interesting to me to listen to these songs without what will become their accompanying narrative. My goal in recording sessions is focused on their end use, but the musicians I’m working with don’t know what that’s going to be, so they’re going off of whatever cues I’ve suggested technically and emotionally. I’m lucky to work with some very skilled and creative musicians, who invariably surprise me with what they bring to these songs.
Eugene Chadborne made an interesting observation about how horror movie soundtracks often make use of modern composition techniques. Lots of sparse percussion and non-orchestral themes, howling, and assorted other isolated spookiness. In that context, this blatantly modern music is accepted by a very wide audience. The same audience would generally not be interested in that music as a live event. I’m okay with that. I think music that exists for a narrow audience when presented on its own but a wider audience when paired with something else is actually pretty interesting.