Creating a film soundtrack was a bucket list thing for me for a long time.
As a kid, yeah, I scooped up on Top 40 radio hits, then proceeded on through the vast landscape of musical fascinations. But when I got to hit the movie theater as a wee lad, my eyes and ears tuned into the movie soundtrack music that was backing up the action.
Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Hans Zimmer - just a few of the film scoring giants that I’ve picked up on, and admired greatly, over the years. Their work has graced some great films and was inspirational in my pursuit of trying to find a project to write a film score for.
“I don’t care if it’s a drivers ed film. I’ll write some music for it!”. That was a familiar cry to anyone who would listen over the years, of my whining about wanting to score a film. Enter BVU digital media professor Jerry Johnson a few years back, and his project about the year that Disney came to Iowa,” Growing Magic”.
Jerry met me in uptown Storm Lake at one of our local favorite eateries, Better Day Cafe. We agreed to start initial talks about what his vision was for the movie, and what kind of feel that he wanted from the music. The storyline, set in the 1980’s in the funnel cloud of the farm crisis, was around a small town’s efforts to bring some Disney magic to liven some spirits up to those folks that were hard hit by economic woes brought on by the crisis. I was excited beyond belief after Jerry gave me his pitch and had an immediate thought about what the music will sound like.
“Even though it’s set in the 1980’s, I really don’t want any ‘80’s styled music. It wouldn’t blend well, I feel, with the thematic feel of the film. No drum machines, no synthesizers, or programmed patches that imitate horns or stringed instruments. Something stark, ambient, and minimalistic,” was my response back to Jerry. He agreed and was curious to hear what I was going to come up with.
So was I, now that I made that bold statement. Oh well, a guy has to start somewhere.
Mind you, I hadn’t seen a lick of a film clip on the documentary. But really, I saw this as a tale about a dark period in Iowa agriculture history where some folks were trying to bring some brightness into being. I went home from the meeting and started writing out some music and recording some basic tracks.
I love electric guitar when it’s processed to fit a mood. If it’s country, rock, metal, blues, pop, or some out-there offerings that no one else could stand except me, I’ll take it. The jazz guitar titan Bill Frisell just kept popping into my mind for a source to draw from. I had been following Bill’s music since the 1980’s, and I loved his chord structures, solos, and the way that he textured his guitar tones - reverb, echo and delay, and a nice, warm rich sound. So, Bill was going to be my benchmark in this whole hootenanny of a project.
I started experimenting with plugging in some effects pedals that I had in the studio stable. For the gearheads out there in the audience, I had found a couple of Roland digital delays from the 1980’s that I relied upon heavily for a sound source. As far as arrangements went, I don’t think that I used more than three tracks of guitar for each of the songs in the process. Again, for music heads, I tried to do a polychord thing, stacking a couple of chord forms on top of one another while recording, then adding a melody. of course, this doesn’t mean squat if it doesn’t fit the purpose and narrative of the film.
I dropped off bits and pieces of recorded music to Jerry at his office on campus. He invited me to watch a couple of scenes that needed some specific music. he wanted “The Mickey Mouse March”, but we could use the actual Mickey march music due to copyright snafus. Hmmm…okay. I had to write my version of that famous march.
Could I play a march paradiddle on a snare drum, add a bass in 2/4, then playing some erstwhile melody that faintly resembles the mouse’s song? Guess we would find out.
I recorded all those parts and sent the file over to Jerry. He said that piece would work great. Praise jeebus, and pass the ammunition.
When the premiere of the documentary came up, Mary and I went over to the theater at the BVU Forum to watch it. I must say that after Jerry and his team edited my music into the film, they made all my little musical bits and pieces work to fit the movie.
So, I can cross that endeavor off my list and felt pretty proud of being able to get an opportunity to do the work. I’m not going to even come close to challenging Williams and Herrmann in the film scoring department, but I had my small bit of spotlight in the sun and it turned out to help a friend complete a dream project of his.
As I tell my dog Ruby, as I pat her on the head - it’s all good, Rubes, it’s all good.
How cool is that?? Good for you!! ❤️🧡