30 Day Music Marathon
I set myself the personal challenge to write a piece of music a day for 30 days from the 9th of January 2018. I haven't set any restrictions to the style of music therefore allowing me the freedom to create whatever I choose fit. I wanted to do it as a means to practice writing material under pressure and quickly without it being substandard in quality; plus it is a good platform for me to promote my music and to build my composition portfolio.
Day 1 - Tiger Bay
This track was written for wildlife photographer -Dan Abbott's- up coming 5 vlogs, filming Tiger Sharks at Tiger Beach in the Bahamas. I used the ocean as an influence towards my sound creating big atmospheric spaces with use of reverb and delays. I chose piano as the main instrument which I feel represents the idea of water as is so often the case for example in the iconic music of 'Thomas Newman' in the films 'Find Nemo' and 'Finding Dory'. I also had in mind that this was for a vlog so I wanted to keep the energy levels high but with quieter sections that Dan could use to back the dialogue.
Day 2 - Meteor
I had Dan Abbott's Shark vlogs in mind for this one. High energy and contrasting sections was my aim to give Dan a variety of sounds to work with. I used a mix of real and electronic instruments with a contemporary feel to the production quality. Dan's aim has always been to reveal the shark's peaceful nature rather then the stereotypical aggressive portrayal. From 1:08 I created a calmer atmosphere using piano and strings to link with Dan's message.
Day 3 - The Isotope
Continuing on from the calming influence of the previous track I focused on atmospherics and soundscapes. The depiction of lying on a beach on a warm summers day was the imagery that I wanted to reflect on, taking the listener to a happy place uplifting the spirit.
Day 4 - Rumours
For this track I wanted to integrate real life samples, sourcing material from the likes of ticking clocks, flipping magazine pages, my voice (1:30-2:00) and (2:30-2:50), rattle snake and Indian meditation singing bowls. I built all these elements up to produce different aspects of the rhythms and flow exploring progressive house styles and trip hop.
Day 5 - Monolith
Inspired by action movie soundtracks particularly Junkie XL's score for 'Mad Max Fury Road', I wrote an epic cinematic trailer style track. I've always wanted to produce this style of music and have attempted it in the past but feel as though I have succeeded in doing so now. Mixing heavy distorted electronics with the classic huge Hollywood Orchestra.
Day 6 - The Master Plan
In a similar vain to the last track this one is Inspired by gaming soundtracks, from the likes of League of Legends, Skyrim, The witcher, Halo and COD. I wanted to gradually develop the piece using the same harmonic movement throughout but with dramatic changes in orchestration and feel with an unexpected twist at the end. The concept behind the piece was to represent the feelings and emotions expressed in the anticipation before and during battle.
Day 7 - Rain Drop
As the name describes, I was inspired by rain fall as I wrote this piece in my conservatory. The heavens opened and hammered it down on the roof, creating a powerful back drop to my composition. The piece took unexpected developments in the writing process beginning as just a soft solo piano piece and building into an upbeat dance anthem. The emotions I wanted to convey was that of self empowerment; picking yourself up when your down. The track builds on syncopated rhythms following a 3/4 metre that move in and out of beat in every bar.
Track 8 - E.A.C
Written for and inspired by my partner Evie while I stayed with her in London. The melody is representative of her character taking a motif from one of her favourite films to sing around the flat. She encouraged me to write something a little more stripped back knowing this might be a little more of a challenge for me using only piano, strings and clarinet.
Track 9 - Over The horizon
This is one of the only pieces that I have written just for strings (bar the clarinet at the end). It's structure formed of two halves (A and B section) The first minute being a slow moving wash of rich chordal voicing's with many suspensions and scrunchy harmonisations. very much delving down the style of cinematic string. The second half builds on one motif gradually developing into a huge wall of sound with the soaring melody cutting through on the Violins, and ending on a softer reharmonisation of the above melody.
Track 10 - Miracles
This track is written in memory of my Grandad Peter whose funeral I had attended the day before writing it. I wanted to emphasise both his caring and positive nature in the uplifting middle passage expressing the joy that he injected into so many peoples lives but also to have a moment of reflection in the sections prior to and afterwards. I hope the piece sends a positive and powerful message to anyone else who may have lost somebody close to them.
Day 11 - Bounce
This track is the first collab of my 30 day music challenge co produced with my good friend Will Heaton aka VVilhelm! The track all started with me laying down the sax riff which plays throughout the track and we built the track up around that anchor point. Will played in the bass line and synth parts which along with the drums really gave it that groovy bouncy feel that we were after. We look to further work on this track and release it as part of our up coming catalogue of material we have been working on under the name of VV_ZZ due for summer release!
Day 12 - Flow Motion
After getting the sax out for the previous track Bounce I was keen for it to make an appearance again. Inspired by day 4's track Rumours I wanted to write another progressive dance/ house track. Sadly this time I didn't have quite the recording set up as was available at Will's the day before... Instead I recorded the sax in my conservatoire with an SM58 mic balanced on my midi keyboard (lent mic stand to friend) and had to lean over at a right angle to get the sweet spot on the mic. If you like high energy dance music with catchy sax lines go check this one out...
Day 13 - Sorry Was It something i said
My first hip-hop stroke grime stroke all out jungle beat. When setting out to write this track I started out thinking I was going to go down the Jazzy hip hop route with the initial piano chords however that quickly turned to something a little heavier with a darker twist...
Day 14 - What We are
After so many days in a row of continuous writing I felt my creativity sapping a little bit so to help me with my lack of inspiration I flicked through the vimeo staff picks and found myself inspired by the visuals on a particular glitchy Si-Fi film. I ended up writing the track along side the visuals.
Day 16 - Spectrum
The piece was inspired by the likes of Max Richter, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hans Zimmer to name a few. I love the way Max can paint such a story with such a simple piano motif through lots of repetition. I wanted to start the piece in a similar way with a slowly evolving wash of sound that draws you in. Orchestrally speaking I feel its inspired by some of Hans Zimmer's work such as 'Time' focusing on one idea and building the textures of the orchestra around it. Similarly I love how a lot of Icelandic artists such as Sigur Ros build up thematic material in such an epic way gradually taking the listener on a journey.
Day 17 - Tea
Tea was written for a short film Directed by Will Garrood. It needed to be something none intrusive that would just help set the scene, complimenting the mood of the dialogue.
Day 18 - aerial ace
Aerial Ace has a commercial dance feel and if I had more time would have loved to accompany the track with some vocals preferably female going more in the direction of tracks like Cold Skin by Seven Lions.
Day 19 - Hanoi
Inspired by a film I saw about Vietnam. I studied Indian Hindustani Classical music whilst at university but other than that I rarely delve into the world music scene so I really enjoyed writing this track. I faced a few challenges in writing the piece as I only had virtual instruments at my disposal. I wanted it to sound as organic and natural as possible so to keep the authentic nature of the style. To create the main melodic line I used an alto flute sample instrument adding pitch bending to replicate that used in the Vietnamese flute the sáo.
Day 20 - Hop Skip Jump
This track was written with influences from my jazz background and my new found love for hip hop. It has a smooth jazzy neo soul vibe which would lend well to a soul singer and or rapper. I didn't have a chance to finish this track in time however I look to finishing it in the near future.
Day 21 - Vortex
I began this piece with the initial 80s synthwave feel like that of composer Cliff Martinez and the Stranger Things composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein. However this quickly turned to something a little more heavy almost dubstep influenced with the rippling rolling bass. I wanted to create a sense of mystery throughout the track something perhaps other worldly with dark and sinister under tones. The track features me on Sax and Will Heaton on Trombone.
Day 22 - The Wandering albatross
Having very little time to write a track that day I went for a short but sweet commercial style track. I wanted it to be playful and positive with an uplifting feeling perfect for an Andrex puppy advert or the like.
Day 23 - The fuzz
This track marked the final week of my 30 day music marathon! It's a smooth saxy track with an industrial hip hop tone to it! Inspired by a short film I saw on the subject of police brutality.
Day 24 - Lost souls
Lost Souls is one of my personal favourites from the 30 day challenge so far. The introductory piano part and outro really tied the piece together, painting a picture that both acted as the calm before the storm and the aftermath as we enter the quiet and tranquil eye of the storm. With the large majority of the mid section acting as a gradual build ending on a vast wall of sound mixing both orchestral and electronic instrumentation. The back bone element to the crescendo is the gradually rising distorted drums that seem to appear from nothing.
Day 25 - porcelain
Porcelain (nothing to do with the Moby track) was written to accompany a Flow Motion film I saw on Vimeo at Norwich cathedral. I was going for an uplifting positive track that had a fair bit of momentum and drive behind it. Unusually I wanted the instrumentation to be more minimalist trying to avoid it getting to dense. I was lent an acoustic bass guitar so wanted to make the most of having it. I took a versatile approach to using the instrument using it for many different functions. I did this by manipulated it with FX in different ways such as pitching it down an octave to add another fatter layer at 1:25 and playing very high up the range to mimic a guitar, like that at 0:14.
The driving force of this piece is the rhythmic element much more then say the melodic side. The track is full of syncopated rhythms and triplets.
Day 26/27 - Deaths door
Deaths Door is a horror soundtrack with a combination of influences from cult classics like Psycho and The Shining to more modern interpretations of horror soundtracks especially the work of Benjamin Wallfisch with such scores as IT and Annabelle: Creation. The piece was a fairly large project and had around 45+ tracks and took me two days to complete. Due to the sheer scale and length of the piece I let myself off having the extra day to complete it. Although the piece had some thematic material the main focus was the sound world and atmosphere that the piece created. I wanted it to take the listener on a journey and push them out of there comfort zone with the eerie sinister atmospheres created through both the orchestration and the sound design. The sound design was sometimes just as important if not more so then the orchestra itself, the glitching raw data sounds mixed with time stretched audio and deep sub bass anchors and glues the twisted muted trumpets and trilling chilling hum of the strings from 1:40 up towards the gritty climax at 2:16. At this point the driving force is now the orchestra.
day 28 - adventure is out there
A short and sweet piece written with the intention of being picked up by some form of advertisement with a positive get up and go feel.
day 29 - Evolving skies
Evolving Skies is a thought provoking, moody and futurist piece. I could imagine the piece being the back drop to a space voyage. The melody evolves from the simplistic piano line that opens the piece securing a sense of place and harmony. This is then embellished with the introduction of the arpeggiated cellos and violas which outline F major 1st inversion to F minor 1st Inversion chords. The piece then ascends to the soaring counter melodies in the Violins at 1:45. I used some unusual percussion to build the layers between 1:05 - 1:27. I used a rain stick to add an atmospheric wash of sound along with shakers and reverse floor tom and rim click rolls.
Day 30 - the final chapter
And here it is, THE FINAL TRACK (suitably named) I thought I'd end it all on a really filthy track so if you like dance music with a heavy beat hopefully you'll enjoy this!...It developed quite a lot as I wrote the piece but instead of scraping all the original ideas I had I wanted to create one coherent track that could move seamlessly from section to section. The track builds to a gritty heavy techno feel which on further listen is some what like the blade soundtrack. I really enjoyed creating the synths for this track It turned out to be a big experiment for me creating new sounds I'd never really approached before.