Dave Andrews / Two13.Com

January 2012 - a whole new year

2012-01-17T12:15:00.000-08:00

January 2012! Unbelievable ...

A very 'Happy New Year' to everybody, and I hope the holidays were awesome, perfect and perfectly awesome.
Here we are in 2012, and so far everything seems to be moving in the right direction.

In terms of music, 2011 was probably my busiest year so far.
As well as a couple of short films, I completed two new feature film scores in the first half of the year:
Alex Chandon's supercharged horror opus 'INBRED' - and a traditional thriller called 'UNWELCOME' written and directed by Stefan Smith.

In the second half of 2011 - it was a pleasure to play some fantastic festivals in Belgium, Germany, Lithuania and Sweden, and also two European tours playing guitar for former Iron Maiden frontman Blaze Bayley.
In 2012, I'm extremely pleased to be playing guitar for Tim Ripper Owens!
Undoubtedly one of the best and busiest vocalists in the United States - and frontman of such incredible bands as Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force.

I'm working on the set for Tim at the moment, and I have also put pen to paper on a new album of original material, which should be finished and ready to go in the coming months.
Also currently getting some parts together for another full FILM4 FrightFest score in August.
Everything is looking good!

December 2011 - Tour dates.

2012-01-15T05:27:00.000-08:00

I always forget to write blogs on time!

Tour dates for December 2011

08/12/11 Nuneaton: Queens Hall

09/12/11 London: Camden Underworld

10/12/11 Birmingham: Route 44

11/12/11 Edinburgh: Bannermans

12/12/11 Glasgow: Ivory Blacks

14/12/11 Stamford: Voodoo Lounge

15/12/11 Bristol: The Tunnels

16/12/11 Swansea: Sin City

18/12/11 Antwerp, Belgium: Trix (with Sabaton)

Main support on most shows is Disarm Goliath.
Support for shows in Scotland is Dirty Rose & Deezil

November 2011

2012-01-14T10:19:00.000-08:00

INBRED continues to do very well at screenings and various festivals across the globe at the moment which is great news.
There have been some incredible reviews and reports about the film over the last five months, which seems to be knocking them dead every time.
I've been putting together a detailed blog about the scoring process on INBRED, which is available here soon.

The website is looking spick and span after a major redesign and overhaul by my lovely and talented friend, Nola.
She's been working very hard to get everything looking amazing, and I think she's done a wonderful job. Thanks a million Nola, you're the best!

I'm currently getting ready for a short UK / Belgium tour in December with former Iron Maiden frontman, Blaze Bayley - and meanwhile I'm plotting out a new album which is scheduled for completion early next year.
It's hopefully going to be very different, but more on that as it evolves over the coming weeks.

I'll be working on video and audio demos for the album very soon, which should be available here.

UNWELCOME (2011) Part 2

2011-10-21T06:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a long journey, but Stefan Smith's debut feature film 'UNWELCOME' is finally complete.

This is is not an easy film to categorize, but I've already spoken about the story synopsis in Part 1 of this blog (April 2011)

The story has elements of other sub-genres; home-invasion, isolation, kidnapping, psychological terror etc - all of which sounds like an assault on the senses, but in actual fact, the film shows restraint for the most part.

It is musically quite dark & claustrophobic, and rather minimalist, although it opens right up in key scenes which crank up the tension and terror accordingly.

I first met Stefan in 2008 on the set of A Day Of Violence, in his role as assistant director.

Later, in June 2009 - at the premiere screening of ADOV, we got around to a conversation about a film he was putting together at the time, which turned out to be UNWELCOME.

I think we started chatting about some of our favorite movie scores over a few beers, and it went on from there.

In those first conversations about the music for his film, I think we spoke about the overall soundtrack as being 'bigger' which we later discovered would not work with such a dark, smoldering story.

After the film had been shot, things went very quiet for quite a long time.

The film had been in post production for an extended period, and I was scheduled to start work on Alex Chandon's next feature film, INBRED.

At that stage, I had to pull out of the production as composer for UNWELCOME, because the two films were set to clash, and I'd been committed to work on Alex's film for almost a year.

Stefan advertised for a new composer for a while, but somehow I found myself back on the production again, and I'm glad I did. It's very strange how things happen.

I think that Stefan & I both learned a lot from the scoring stages on this movie.

It's always an interesting learning curve working together with a director for the first time. Everybody has good ideas about the way things should be done, and it can sometimes take a while until you click into each other's mindset, and develop a more instinctive communication.

Most film directors wear many hats. They can be involved with every aspect of the production from beginning to end, so I totally understand that ideas are firmly nailed down before many of the post production team ever touch the final edit.

It is also natural that any producer / director has very specific ideas about exactly how the score will eventually sound - especially if they have used a temporary music track, which is something that many film-makers often do. It's also something that many composers often hate!

A temporary score can be a good thing, because it gives you pointers, - but it can also be frustrating - especially if the editing stages have taken a long time.

The temp track can almost become like a fixed part of the movie, and often a composer is almost expected to emulate those established pieces of music (which are often from another very well known feature film) because they have watched the cut of the film a million times as it develops, and become quite accustomed to the dynamics of the edit with that score.

There were a couple of occasions of this during post production, but after some discussions and meetings we established that the film had it's own very specific identity.

We opted for lonely piano segments for many of the themes - and a more organic sound design for the body of the film - with lots of rumbling sub tones and sounds that you can feel in your stomach, even if there are no melodic passages evident at the time.

Stefan brought the (almost) finished movie over recently, and we watched it on a nice big screen.

By this point, the edit was very sharp, the music was nicely mixed, the ADR had been done and the sound design was mostly completed.

After a few editorial notes, and a couple of the usual last minute musical changes / fixes to the odd scene here and there, the film went back into the studio for the final mix and master, and is now complete.

Congratulations Stefan on a job well done. I'm looking forward to working with you again, and very much looking forward to seeing the movie somewhere out there soon!

Touring with Blaze Bayley

2011-09-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

During the last few months, I've been playing some European shows with ex-Iron Maiden vocalist & Wolfsbane frontman, Blaze Bayley.

Blaze was tearing up stages across the globe with Wolfsbane from 1984 - 1993.

He then took over from Bruce Dickinson as vocalist in Iron Maiden in 1994, and recorded The X Factor (1995) and Virtual XI (1998) - and from 1999 until present, he has been recording and touring as himself (Blaze, Blaze Bayley etc)

I've previously played as deputy musician for Blaze in 2009 on The Man Who Would Not Die tour through Italy, France, Switzerland and Belgium, and then a couple of UK shows (Birmingham NEC, Glasgow Garage) in 2010.

Sometimes, whenever a full-time band member was unavailable, I would be called upon to stand in and play shows, or blocks of dates accordingly on either guitar or bass.

On a few other shows, I was general roadie and did some tech duties.

This time around, I'm back on guitar, and so far this year, we have played some fantastic festivals and venues in Sweden, Lithuania, Germany, London and Belgium, and there are two further tours in September (Europe) and December (mainly UK).

The show in De Rots, Belgium (23rd September) is being recorded for a live DVD release, which will be available early 2012.

The European dates for September 2011 are:

15 Sep De Verlichte Geest (Roeselare, Belgium)

16 Sep Blue Devils Bar (Arras, France)

17 Sep Chez Paulette (Pagney Derriere Barine, France)

18 Sep Yukon Bar (Collombey, Switzerland)

20 Sep Graffiti Club (Lublin, Poland)

21 Sep Madness Klub (Wroclaw, Poland)

22 Sep Londoner (Gotha, Germany)

23 Sep Rots (Antwerp, Belgium)

24 Sep Fortrock (Hoboken, Belgium)

The December 2011 dates are:

08 Dec Queens Hall (Nuneaton, England)

09 Dec Underworld (Camden, England)

10 Dec Route 44 (Birmingham, England)

11 Dec Bannermans (Edinburgh, Scotland)

12 Dec Ivory Blacks (Glasgow, Scotland)

14 Dec Voodoo Lounge (Stamford, England)

15 Dec Tunnels (Bristol, England)

16 Dec Sin City (Swansea, Wales)

17 Dec BIG BASH (Somewhere in England)

18 Dec TRIX (Antwerp, Belgium)

It's a blast to be playing with fellow musicians Claudio Tirincanti on drums, Nick Meganck on bass, Steve Deleu on guitar, and of course Blaze Bayley on vocals.

Hope to see you somewhere out there!!

Update on Matt Bloom's short film 'Endless'

2011-05-05T11:40:00.000-07:00

Some quick news!

Really pleased to report that 'Endless' won the BEST HORROR award at the London Independent Film Festival 2011, from a jury headed by Robert Carlisle.

And so far it is official selection in the following international festivals:

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: London Independent Film Festival*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Cyprus Int Film Festival, Greece*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Bradford Int Film Festival, Fantastic Films*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Renderyard Film Festival, Spain*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Dead By Dawn Festival, Scotland*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Itzon Film Festival, Devon*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Loch Ness Film Festival, Scotland*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Limelight Film & Arts Awards, London*

*OFFICIAL SELECTION: Exploding Cinema, London*

More as it happens!

Unwelcome (2011) Part 1

2011-04-22T07:54:00.001-07:00

Over the past months, I've been working on the soundtrack for a feature film called Unwelcome, which is the directorial debut of Stefan Smith, and the first of two feature films scheduled so far for 2011.

Four friends travel to rural France to fix-up a farmhouse together, enjoy each other's company and generally soak up the beautiful weather out in the countryside.

On the ferry crossing, they encounter a rather intense fellow called Chris (Martin Hobbs) and his anxious girlfriend, Gill (Eleanor James), who later arrive unexpectedly at the farmhouse, and join the party.

Everything is just fine, until a drunken conversation goes awry, and the atmosphere becomes decidedly uneasy as the true nature of the uninvited visitors is revealed, and a unfortunate convergence of circumstance leads to kidnap and murder.

Although it does contain horrific themes and scenes, Unwelcome is more of a traditional thriller than a typical horror film.

Much of the musical emphasis here is concentrated on smoldering claustrophobia and quiet rage than on aggressive shocks and protracted terror, and we associate several leitmotifs with central characters Kate (played by Marysia Kay), Chris and Gill.

From the outset, as with any other film - the music can go in any direction, but after various discussions with Stefan, we decided on fairly melancholy piano signatures and minimalism for the majority of the movie - rather than trying to cram as much musical content as possible into ninety five minutes.

I can't really give away specific plot twists and turns just yet, but of course things heat up as the story progresses, and inevitably unpleasant things start to develop.

As this happens, we abandon our leitmotifs for some of the players, and as the story advances further into terror, the music takes on a much darker character.

Sweeter piano melodies are left behind and more dissonant sounds are introduced, and the music becomes more layered and complex during the last quarter of the film when some of our established themes combine.

Starring Marysia Kay, Martin Hobbs & Eleanor James, co-starring Emily Eaves, Ryan Elliot, and directed by Stefan Smith - Unwelcome is screening for two days during May in the Cannes Film Festival 2011.

Endless - The Finished Film

2011-02-03T07:36:00.001-08:00

A couple of months back, I wrote a little bit about the process of composing music for a short film called 'Endless' for award winning writer and director, Matt Bloom.

Endless is a completely fresh and contemporary take on the vampire theme. Starring Chris Geere (Band Of Brothers) - the 8 minute duration of the film plays in super slow motion, and is the story of a siege that takes place over 30 seconds.

Below is the full film, and be sure to check out Matt's other fantastic work at www.mattbloom.co.uk

Inbred Teaser Trailer

2010-12-16T09:56:00.000-08:00

Presenting a quick sneak peek at the long anticipated new British horror film from director Alex Chandon, Inbred. A demented horror film with nowt taken out, and featuring Jo Hartley (Dead Mans Shoes, This Is England) and Seamus O'Neill (This Is England '86, and Steven Spielberg's forthcoming WarHorse)

A disparate group of young urban offenders and their care workers embark on a community service weekend in the strange, remote Yorkshire village of Mortlake, which prides on keeping itself to itself, until a minor incident with some local inbred youths rapidly escalates into a blood-soaked, deliriously warped nightmare for all involved.

Inbred is coming in 2011!

Endless - A Completely Different Kind Of Film

2010-11-04T11:48:00.000-07:00

The last few months have been super-busy, with the London FILM4 FrightFest soundtrack in August, and 4 different short films since then.

The first of which is a beautifully stylish contemporary vampire piece, called “Endless” - and is produced and directed by award winning TV director Matt Bloom.

Endless is a completely different kind of short film.

It was shot from start to finish on a Phantom Slow Motion camera, and the results are quite simply stunning.

Often shooting at speeds of 400, 500 or 800 frames per second, - the film plays like an involving and intricate Alfred Hitchcock set piece, with stunning levels of suspense and dramatic energy in just 8 short minutes which absolutely draws you into the film from the outset.

Matt originally described the idea to me as ‘a whole horror film in car-crash slow motion, with endless moments of terror’ – so I was really eager to see how he had managed to accomplish such an alternative idea.

I have always been a huge Brian De Palma fan, and I don’t think anybody has really come close to the levels of drama and energy in some of his beautiful signature slow motion set pieces from films like Dressed To Kill, Blow Out and Obsession, - so I was really excited when I saw the rough cut of the film, because it reminded me of some of those very special sequences from some of my favorite films.

There is no dialogue at all, so from a musical perspective, it was a completely unique challenge, and a fantastic learning experience too.

Visually, the film is very strong, – so it became evident early on that it would be so easy to overcook the score, and we didn’t want to resort to obvious cheap (modern) gags like having a huge, ear-splitting “bang” on every single cut.

One of the most difficult things from my perspective was to blend subtle emotional sections with high drama, tension and dread - in such a short space of time, and without any dialogue to misdirect the proceedings.

Before work had started on the score, we swapped a stack of eclectic music back and forth online, and Matt had some strong ideas and musical references up front, which really helped in establishing a tone.

However, it was really interesting to see Endless take on a musical personality all of it’s own throughout the process, and I think the final score was quite different than either of us expected.

Endless, directed by Matt Bloom, and staring Chris Geere (Band Of Brothers, Casualty, The Bill) is coming in Autumn 2010

FILM4 FrightFest 2010 Track Samples

2010-08-24T11:53:00.000-07:00

Greetings folks!
It's almost that time again!

The clock is ticking, and on Thursday August 26th - FILM4 FrightFest 2010 will be here!
The UK's biggest and best horror festival is upon us once again - and for the fifth time, it's an honor and a pleasure to put together the music for the event.

So click on the MP3 player to hear some snippets and sample tracks from the CD for this year. The full album track list is also below!

Best wishes, and see you on Thursday!

Escape From New York: Cover Version

2010-08-24T00:18:00.001-07:00

Some love it, some don't - but Escape From New York is one of my favorite films of all time - and probably the first time I was utterly spellbound by a film soundtrack.

As a ten or eleven year old kid, I was blown away, and completely hooked from the very first second - as the main theme began to swell ominously over a black screen, right up to the last repeated sequence as the credits play out.
An eerie, brooding minimalist theme to introduce John Carpenter's bleak dystopian vision of Manhattan Island as a futuristic prison, and foreboding sections of music to perfectly compliment the apocalyptic narrative.

I'd wanted to put together a cover of this for years, but didn't get around to it for some reason. After all - what's the point?

But recently, I thought 'what the hell' - and I'm glad I did, because it was fun figuring out the parts, although I admit that picking out some of the subtler layers was way more complicated than I originally thought it was going to be.

All the same - it's quite a minimalist piece of music, and it would be easy to clutter it with unnecessary bits and pieces.

I have tried very hard to remain as faithful and true as possible to the vibe, sounds and layers used in the John Carpenter/Alan Howarth original version - while also trying to get a bit more clout into the rhythm parts, some extra guitars - and there's an additional little solo run in there too towards the end.
Incidentally, the version used on the film credits has some additional reverb, which was presumably added during the mix. The version on the original soundtrack album is completely dry, and doesn't sound anywhere near as powerful. I've gone the reverb route on this cover version for reasons of authenticity.

Out Of Sight - Out Of Mind

2010-07-08T04:10:00.000-07:00

Blimey – have you ever tried to capture a clean recording of something outdoors in Britain?

If you had, - you would probably notice a loud background rumbling after a while – which our ears seem to filter out, so we don’t realize it’s actually there.
I was recording a thunderstorm in the communal gardens, which we share with our neighbors, and I realized that there was a weird rumbling hiss, which was even louder than either the rain – or the infrequent thunderclaps I was trying to capture.

The microphones I were using were extremely good Rode stereo mics, so that wasn’t the problem – and I was recording in 24bit on an Olympus LS 10 – so there shouldn’t have been any quality issue at all.

There wasn’t any wind on the mic heads, so that wasn’t causing the issue – and then it occurred to me that the sound was actually car engines, and the sound of tyres on the surface of a road – I’d just never noticed it previously! It’s just there in the background – compartmentalized by our brains into a folder somewhere, named ‘Pay No Attention’ I had never noticed how loud or intrusive it actually was, - or how consistent.

So – I took my recording equipment, and set it up in the countryside to record some running water (or something like that) miles away from any major roads or motorways, - and of course – somewhere in the distance - a plane engine went by – then another, and then another. Deep, massive, rumbling engines that fill the air with sound for minutes - one after another, throughout the duration of the day.

Now I’ve realized that because I know it’s there, - I can hear it all the time – and it goes on consistently for about 20 hours a day.

A couple of months ago, when the Icelandic ash cloud caused flights to be cancelled for weeks across Britain – I realized that the noise pollution levels had dropped away a little bit, because there were no in or outbound passenger flights.

The skies were spookily silent. It was amazing!

On another occasion – I was standing at the very

end of Bournemouth pier, to capture some water sounds. The perfect place! I couldn’t have been any more out to sea unless I was in a boat. All was going well, until somebody on the beach cranked up a generator, and then another one started up a rickety van to move beach huts around! Unbelievable!

Motors, engines, fans and man made sound is everywhere, and we seem to have evolved in order to accommodate noise pollution, and literally refuse to realize that it’s even there – to the point where you can’t even record nature anymore.
The implications are ridiculous. It’s making me paranoid even writing about it!

Out of sight – out of mind!

Hammer Horror: Blood, Breasts & Giant Moths vs the new flesh!

2010-04-13T05:19:00.000-07:00

Way before the days of DVD or even VCR - the TV channels in the UK would often screen lurid double bills of horror pictures.

From the obvious 1930's Universal successes; - like Dracula,

Frankenstein or Bride Of Frankenstein - through to the more obscure 1940's titles - like Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man, House Of Dracula, Ghost Of Frankenstein etc - there was always something to look forward to throughout the week.

Although the black and white Universal horrors were fantastic and fun, Hammer horror films were always a lot more interesting to me as a child, because there was far more chance of seeing

bloodier, and more visceral carnage, and with any luck - some female nudity.

At the very least, there were sure to be the odd corset threatening to burst open if ever a Hammer scream queen either ran too fast, or screamed too loudly! Everything from Dracula AD.1972, Vampire Circus, The Blood Beast Terror and Twins Of Evil, to now rarer films like Crescendo and Scream Of Fear were shown fairly regularly.

Back then, there must have been some extremely cool people working for the television networks.

On Mondays, there was usually a Hammer double bill. On Wednesdays there was always a sci-fi duo - where movies like Mighty Joe Young would be paired with The Beast From 20 000 Fathoms, or This Island Earth would be screened alongside Forbidden planet.On Fridays - usually both Universal and Hammer aired on different channels - and midweek late-night screenings of eclectic 70s horror films were quite normal: Burnt Offerings, The Wicker Man, The Omen, Holocaust 2000, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, Death Line - and so on . . .

Much like the British sex comedies that promised nudity, rudeness and titillation, and usually delivered it all in a

respectably naive - but definitely appealing way, - there was always something naughty about a Hammer horror feature. Although they weren't particularly graphic by European standards - there was something completely unique and enticing about the lurid titles, garish artwork and the promise of some lusty macabre mischief which made them absolutely essential viewing.

It's only natural than some purists would regard Curse Of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) as the artistic pinnacle of Hammer's output, and seem to blankly disregard the later, more graphic and commercially exploitive films such as Vampire Lovers, Lust For A Vampire, Hands Of The Ripper . . and so on. Films which responded to the increasing demands for more blood, more sex and more excuses for female nudity. However, in my own biased way, I think that these later films perfectly captured the overall Hammer aesthetic - which at the time was all about providing the audience with exactly what they wanted: Glossy sexy horror mayhem in a loud and colourful package.

The days of video were still over a decade away - and the horror cycle had come full circle once again.Cinema audiences wanted to be entertained for 90 minutes, and Hammer were doing just that. Werewolves, dinosaurs, vampires, giant moths, Dr Jekyll becoming a semi-naked sister Hyde, ghouls, witchcraft and any myth or legend was fair game.

Unfortunately for studios like Amicus and Hammer, a film called Night Of The Living Dead (1968) came along soon enough - which fearlessly depicted scenes of graphic onscreen violence and cannibalism, racial and incestuous sub-text and the breakdown of society as a whole.
The Exorcist (1974) was right around the corner, which was to change the genre irrevocably with previously unheard-of use of bad language, and incredible scenes of blasphemy, crucifix masturbation, vomiting and the violent psychological breakdown of a 12 year old girl.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was also unleashed in 1974, which dragged the viewer further down into the traumatic horrors of necrophilia, cannibalism, torture, murder and screaming insanity.

Alan Gibson's Dracula AD.1972 was released in the same year as The Last House On The Left, - and the buxom gorgeousness of Stephanie Beacham or Caroline Munro was simply no match for the sexual violence and visceral affront of Wes Craven's assault on the senses.

Dracula AD.1972 and The Satanic Rites Of Dracula (1974) were riding on a fresh new wave of British camp hipness and 70's fashion, which took Dracula away from the fantasy of gothic castle sets, paranoid village taverns and Romanian forests, and into present day swinging London. But it was too late. The public had seen too much - and wanted much more . . .

Perhaps by way of retaliation to the aggression of the new wave of American cinema, - or possibly an attempt to go with the modern flow of the market, Hammer responded in 1976 with To The Devil A Daughter, based on Dennis Wheatley's novel of the same name - in which an American writer falls into conflict with some very organized Satanists headed by Christopher Lee, - and battles to save the soul of a young Nastassja Kinski.

The film features an extremely alarming and protracted scene of violent birthing, in which a pregnant woman - without the use of any anesthetic, has her legs tied shut, so the unborn baby (devil) has to practically rip it's way out of her womb - all accompanied by agonized screams.

A deliberately loud, aggressive and very uncomfortable scene, which goes on and on and on! Additionally, the film features unashamed outright full-frontal nudity courtesy of Ms Kinski - who could have been as young as 15 or 16 at the time. (Kinski has often stated in interviews that she lied about her true age to get additional work, and uncertainty remains as to whether she was actually born in 1959, 1960 or 1961)

Heavy material from the Hammer camp, but ultimately betrayed by a low budget and televisual tone.

The latter half of the 1970's brought with it a new cinematic age of bigger budget graphic mayhem, where previous social taboos were ripped to shreds, and shotgun blasted heads, scalpings, razor slashings, torture, satanism and violent murder were mainstream, and on the indie / drive-in circuit, things were really getting down and very very dirty.
Low budget film makers were looking for new ways to violate and revolt audiences.

In 1977, The Last House On Dead End Street set a new precedent in cinematic sleaze, with a snuff-film premise, and

extensive scenes of torture, disembowelment, razor-attacks and humiliation which left nothing to the imagination.
I Spit On Your Grave (1978) features a rape sequence that lasts for almost 30 minutes, and a now-legendary (offscreen) castration, axing, hanging exploitation finale.

The gothic fantasy world of Hammer horror films seemed to be over. Usurped by the public hunger for more extreme, more realistic, more outrageous and violent cinematic fare.

However in 1980, a whole new chapter was about to unfold, and television would never be quite the same again.

For the time being though, one thing is for sure, - nostalgic evenings of early childhood remain precious, and recent tides of forgettable cinematic flotsam and jetsam will never wash away memories of Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Ralph Bates Jenny Hanley or Linda Hayden.

So while 'torture porn' sub-genres burn themselves out in the most graphic depictions of brutality and human cruelty, - and while the modern horror film seems to be more like a test of endurance than an actual story . . . Hammer will always be king of the castle.

Oblivion - 2007

2010-03-11T04:30:00.000-08:00

Oblivion was the direct follow up to Oscuro, and was composed & arranged from May to August, - completed for the FILM4 FrightFest at the end of August 2007.

With a further thirteen thematic compositions to tie in with the festival, - the pieces were initially more ambitious than the CD from the previous year, although things didn't necessarily work out in quite the way I had expected.

Oscuro was my first attempt at putting this kind of material together, - and it went down pretty well, so I thought I'd go all out on the weirder aspects of the material for the second CD.

I had been making notes and scribbling down ideas about possible pieces for the CD for about a month before writing and production took place, - and at the time, I was reading Vincent Bugliosi's book, Helter Skelter - which is about the events surrounding Charles Manson.

The first piece on the album was a very dark and paranoid tune. Harpsichords, pianos and bizarre strangeness, all of which was supposed to suggest somebody's descent into madness, - or possibly the protagonist's twisted enjoyment of the journey into psychosis, - which was the overall subject for the whole CD.

At some stage during the proceedings, the whole thing needed a bit of a charge to cut through the weirdness, so (probably because of the period and story of Helter Skelter) a piece came together called Bad Acid, which was basically an all-out 60's / 70's groove, with a big, fat, dirty bass-line, and some insane Goblin-esque keyboard solos to fire things up.

The concluding piece on the CD is called 'Pale Broken Cables', which features an operatic vocal performance by a friend of mine, Emma Brown - who has a beautifully emotive & rich cadence to her voice, and also a tangible vulnerability.

Emma features throughout the CD in various guises, as a miaowing cat, giggles, moans and groans etc, however her vocal on this piece was genuinely fantastic.

Typically, the tracks that took the shortest time to write were the ones that seemed to work best.

'Pale Broken Cables' netted a feature film, - and another piece - 'Fire In Zero Gravity' featured on two documentaries, which wasn't so bad after all.

As well as that, it did well on the internet, which was a surprise to me, considering the overall tone of the CD.

Recording and sequencing.

E-Magic Logic version 6 had since changed into Apple Logic Pro 7, and there were plenty of new features to confuse, annoy and bewilder - but also some pretty cool ones too.

Most of the earlier pieces had been written using pianos and keyboards, and then additional layers of samples and external sounds were included later on.

The later pieces were a lot more experimental, and were my first experiences using loops. Before that - I'd been completely against the idea of using a loop to create a track, which is ridiculous, because there's so much amazing and incredible stuff you can do with them.

All of the sample and loop libraries used on Oblivion were created by the amazing sound synthesist, Ian Boddy. I'd be totally lost without his libraries.

Oscuro - 2006

2009-11-25T12:42:00.000-08:00

Story!

Oscuro was composed & arranged from May to July, - completed in August 2006.

It comprises of thirteen original instrumental pieces, soundscapes and dark ambient scenarios, tied together by a conceptual story of a little girl stranded in a weird dimensional netherworld of frightening magic, and bizarre situations.

This was the first album I had arranged and recorded by myself, because up until that point, I'd only ever worked in a band environment, or as a third party on other artists' work - although I had been writing similar material for a while.

The first completed piece on the album was Pays Des Miseres, - a 45 second piano intro which was actually written as the original demo tune, and I think sets the tone for the rest of the album, - as dark forces conspire and collude to manipulate our unwitting little protagonist into treacherous circumstances, and an uncertain future.

This album is really only half of the whole story, because there were stacks of things I had planned - but didn't get to do with some of the characters and settings, essentially because I ran out of time, and the pieces had to be finished by late August of 2006.

Recording!

Oscuro is quite a mixed bag, - weird sounds, watery guitars, electric pianos, field recordings etc, - all put together on Logic (version 6 at that time)

There is a lot of sequencing in there too, - which was mainly done in (Emagic) Logic Pro 6, however some of the parts were originally put together on a little handheld Yamaha QY 70.

I think one piece might also have Propellerhead Reason (version 3) rewired through Logic for some of the sounds.

Sequencing!

The first time I ever heard about sequencing was during some guitar sessions I did for a Sony PlayStation game, called Formula One.

In fact it probably put me off the subject for years, because at some point during the recording sessions, the engineer / producer Mike, suddenly declared 'we don't record anymore . . . we sequence!' - which I found very difficult to accept.

Years later - I began to understand the massive potential of sequencers, and bought the little QY 70, which was the perfect thing to learn about some of the basic applications.

These days, I can't get enough of it.

A full version of Oscuro with the missing pieces completed and restored is coming in 2010.

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival: Part 2

2009-11-10T02:54:00.000-08:00

So the Doha Tribeca Festival 2009 is now finished.

By all accounts, it was an incredible weekend - and if the thousands upon thousands of beautiful photographs, and hundreds of pages of awesome reviews, news & information are anything to go by - something very special happened in Qatar this year.

In the last blog, I mentioned a collaboration with Jamie Riordan on the Zoetrope trailer for the festival.

This piece was broadcast across the globe, in just about every possible media, - and I must admit I would love to be able to find out how many different parts of the world it has played, and to whom - but unfortunately, that's something I'll really never know.

The audio design went through various incarnations before the final sounds were laid in, and originally the ideas for the music score were vastly different. However I think the finished trailer is absolutely appropriate in terms of getting across the energy and vibe of the festival.

I also think Jamie did a great job of directing, and the piece really speaks for itself.

Working on this really reminded me that the powerful chemistry and energy created by image and sound really can represent the language of the world.

So here's the longer version of the Zoetrope trailer for the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.

Until next time - over and out!

The Doha Tribeca Film Festival

2009-10-03T03:05:00.000-07:00

For the past few weeks, I’ve been doing some work for the people over at the Doha Tribeca Film Festival, which takes place from October 29^th – November 1^st in Qatar

New York's Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) co-founded by Robert De Niro - joined forces with the the Qatar Museums Authority to announce the worlds first Doha Tribeca Film Festival which will take place this month in Doha, Qatar.

My friend Ben Robinson is currently in Qatar working with the organizers, and putting together various incredible media for the festival - and every now and then he gets in touch with a new piece of work.

This is fantastic for me, because I get the chance to work with him even if we are on different sides of the planet, and also because it’s a real honor to make a contribution to all the hard work Ben and company are doing for such an immense festival.

The first piece makes a little bit of history as the first short horror film ever from that particular region, and lasts just 60 seconds – but it’s a blast.

Directed by Noora Al Meadadi, It’s called Lunchtime, and you can see it here:

My contributions to Lunchtime are the beast / monster sound effects, some additional foley, and the overall music, but as you can see – the team out in Qatar have done a fantastic job.

Last week, I was working closely with Jamie Riordan on two official Doha Tribeca festival trailers, which will be screened on the TCM channel for the next couple of weeks, and on 35m across major cinemas throughout the Gulf.

This time around, my role was to put together an intense sound design and music score for the pieces, which combine live action, complex animation and intense photography, to produce some super-charged results.

More details about those next time, because official screenings take place some time over the coming week.

Have a great weekend!

Over and out.

Goodbye to FILM4 FrightFest 2009!!

2009-09-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

So . . . September is here at last, which can only mean that this year's FILM4 FrightFest is unfortunately now behind us - but it's definitely not going to be a dim & distant memory for some time yet!

Stacks days of amazing movies, and rare guest appearances from a variety of awesome directors, producers, actors etc, - and some truly special movie screenings once again made Leicester Square shiver with anticipation, fear & fright throughout five days across the August bank holiday weekend.

Without doubt, my favorite moment of all was the chance to see An American Werewolf In London - in Leicester Square - with none other than John Landis himself in attendance, on a massive screen in the Empire Cinema.

The print was perfect, and the sound was LOUD!

There was also a screening of Paul Davis' immense documentary, Beware The Moon - which is incredible & essential viewing if you're a fan of An American Werewolf In London, and features some of the best and rarest interviews, out-takes, unseen footage & an unbelievably detailed study of the genesis of the film from concept to modern classic.

I can't wait to see it again!!

This year's FrightFest score went out nicely, and could be heard playing between the movies each day in the theatre. Despite some last minute duplication issues on the sleeves, the run of CD's sold pretty quickly. Since then however - a new run of hard copies has been put together, and is available for sale, - and it will also be available on iTunes, Play.com, Amazon etc for download within the next 3 or 4 weeks.

The previous FrightFest scores from 2006, 2007 and 2008 (see pic below) will also be available sometime in the next month on iTunes etc, either as full album downloads, or individual tracks, but there are still (very few) original copies of each available at the time of writing.

There probably won't be any further runs of those particular albums in the very near future, so if anybody is interested in acquiring one of the remaining CDs, then drop me a line on Dave@Two13.com

Music for the London FILM4 FrightFest 2009 - some of the pieces

2009-07-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

Is there anybody out there?

Hello folks, and thanks for the emails & messages regarding the playlist of tunes this time around.

For interested parties, I've put together a few sections of the pieces for your perusal and perlustration - which are located in the little MP3 player right here:

Kicking things off this year is the full version of the FrightFest Podcast theme (without chattery teeth FX) - a piece which some of you should be familiar with if you follow regular inter-web transmissions from FF headquarters, - but there's also a pretty eclectic range of stuff from the weird & bizarre (Don't Wake Up & Beneath The Keep) to keys vs 6-string duals (Casting The Runes)

Something I wasn't aware of until recently was the existence of mythological bird / bat like creatures called 'gappes' in the labyrinthine maze of the London underground, and I had to consult the books for some verification of the details.

Taken from the London Underground Guide: Approaching trains sometimes disturb the large Gappe bats that roost in the tunnels. The Gappes were smuggled into London in the early 19th century by French saboteurs and have proved impossible to exterminate. The announcement "Mind the Gappe!" is a signal that you should grab your hair and look towards the ceiling. Very few people have ever been killed by Gappes though, and they are considered only a minor drawback to an otherwise excellent means of transportation."

So - forewarned is forearmed. Most people will be traveling to FrightFest X via the tube at some point, so I thought I'd pay some respect to these creatures, and feature them in one of the pieces.

There are a couple of other underground legends on the playlist, but I'll save those for next time.

Until the next blog, take care, stay safe & mind the gappe!!

Music for the London FILM4 FrightFest 2009

2009-07-14T05:45:00.000-07:00

Is there anybody out there?

It's that time of year again, and the 10th anniversary of the London FILM4 FrightFest is almost upon us.

From Thursday 27th - Monday 31st August 2009 - the premiere festival of fright will be at it's new home in the Empire Cinema, Leicester Square - and with over 40 movie screenings, amazing guest appearances from John Landis, cast & crew of An American Werewolf In London, Neil Marshall, Chris Smith, David Hess - and many more, there's sure to be something for every discerning horror aficionado.

For the fourth year running I'll be composing a playlist of new material which will be aired in the theater between the movies throughout five grueling days of fear, fright, mayhem, putrefaction and petrification!

There's lots of musical experimental shenanigans going on so far, and I thought I'd dig a little bit further down to the roots this time.

The pace is up a little more than usual, and there are more stringed instruments, more greasy organs, thicker bass-lines, more layers of moogs and synthesizers, buckets of sequencing, - but still plenty of spook and atmosphere to keep things eerie, dark and contextual, - with the occasional voiceover here and there, and a hint of 60s vinyl too!

The 4 pieces completed at the time of writing are pretty diverse, with another 9 to go between now & the end of August, and the tracks will range from strange, cryptic, dark and moody, to all out retro rock fusion, and will hopefully reflect the good vibes and energy of the FrightFest.

The intro track is quite thematic. I wanted to start the CD with a live dynamic this time around, so it was time to break out a variety of guitars - and make a very conscious effort to strike the right balance between electric and acoustic to really give it a fuller and more authentic 70s movie edge. Of course, a piece like that wouldn't be complete without a manic solo trade-off between strings and keys to grease the tracks, and keep things rocking and rolling along.

I definitely wanted less synthesis and more authentic natural sounds on this collection, so I've been investing some quality time up front into recording a miscellany of stuff I found in the attic with a Rode NT-4 stereo mic and a couple of little Behringer C-2 condensers - and then twisting torturing & squeezing the results into weird sounds.

There's nothing more satisfying than hitting inanimate objects with something, recording the results and bingo! An interesting new sound is born.
So far I've recorded old broken instruments, fire, kitchen utensils, weather, cats etc etc - and I'm sure there'll be plenty more before it's finished.

So, if anybody's listening - the candles are burning, the valves are smoking and the speakers might catch fire at any time.

Catch you next week for further info!

Boring gear list:

Mics: Rode NT-4 stereo / Behringer C-2 (pair)

Guitars & Amplification: Dean acoustic / Gibson Les Paul Standard / Bailey Electric / Engl Powerball / Laney Cabs

Pedals: Engl Z-5 / Boss Acoustic Simulator / Boss TU-2 tuner / Dunlop CFH Dime wah

Alesis stuff: MEQ 230 / 3630 Compressor
Behringer outboard: UltraFex Pro / V-amp Pro
M-Audio stuff: Black Box / Trigger Finger / FW 410 / Edirol PCR midi trigger
Apple Stuff: 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon / Mac Powerbook
Recording: Logic Studio / Audio Hijack Pro / Olympus LS 10

ADOV / Cannes / Stuff!

2009-06-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

As it says on the flier: -

Written & directed by Darren Ward (Sudden Fury, Nightmares) – A Day Of Violence is undoubtedly one of the most uncompromising & gritty features to emerge from the UK in 25 years. Influenced by British & Italian violent crime thrillers of the 70s, and with parallels to The Long Good Friday, and Lucio Fulci's The Smuggler (Luca il Contrabbandiere), it weaves a dark tale of life and death in the underworld.
Searing with force, and charged with unflinching horror & uncompromising dialogue – A Day Of Violence is here . . .

Alarming stuff!
So, after 16 months, hundreds of conversations, thousands of bullets, . . . . . millions (well maybe not 'millions') of hours writing music and making sounds - A Day Of Violence is finished, and all is looking positive.
ADOV Screened well in Cannes, and is earning good feedback from around the globe, however some territories were slightly alarmed about the levels of onscreen carnage. That didn't seem to put them off though, as the intention was always to release a toned-down domestic cut, and a strong uncut version of the film.

As Darren was putting himself about Cannes, and doing his thing with a variety of distributers, producers, actors & directors, he also unexpectedly bumped into Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel) - and as Eli is a big John Morghen fan - he took a copy of the movie home with him.
The legendary Giovanni Lombardo Radice (usually under the name John Morghen) has graced so many of the best & most notorious Italian horror movies & thrillers of the last 3 decades, and his ever expanding legions of fans hopefully won't be disappointed with his featuring role (and of course, his demise) in this film.
It was through Giovanni that I became involved with the production of ADOV, which is something I'm very grateful for, because not only did I unexpectedly get to score my first full feature - I also got the chance to fulfill one of my lifetime ambitions - to work on a film with the legendary man himself.

Work on ADOV has been very progressive, because it was scored whilst much of the film was still being shot, - and so over the months, we've all tried very hard to put together something which looks and sounds quite different.
The raw dark, edgy visual aesthetic is underscored with an ethereal dreamy quality, combined with darker orchestral sections, and synthesized electronic elements which hark back to the halcyon days of the late 70s & early 80s.

Obviously, the 80's was a fantastic and important era of discovery. Home video came along, and a whole new world opened up to anybody with even the most fleeting interest in movies.
Although we didn't know each other until the beginning of 2008, - we (Darren and I) grew up watching many of the same movies & TV shows.

During various conversations, we could refer to the films that we'd grown up with, and we identified that many of the films and TV shows of that time were very 'music-heavy' - which was part of their character & charm. So we decided to adopt that perspective for ADOV, and try to get back to our 80s roots.

Memories of the LWT or Thames Television ident (usually just before something cool started). The Sweeney, The Professionals, Hazell and various other gritty TV shows of the time still seemed to loom large in our collective influences.

Those influences - combined with being weaned on a diet of films like Dirty Harry, Death Wish, The French Connection, Night Hawks and dozens of Italian Cop thrillers pulled us like a magnet back to our past.
So many scores these days are quite formatted and generic. Popular music trends almost dictate that scores are heavy on percussive elements, and recognizable popular signatures.
Action scenes seem to rely on heavy use of garage drum rhythms with huge production - and less so on actual dramatic music, which is a great shame.
With ADOV, we made a conscious decision to lean towards retro, and away from current popular styles & sounds, - which was not only very cathartic, but also lots of fun to just open the gates, and let it all fly.
I did manage to spend a couple of days on set from time to time, and I've yet to meet many of the cast & crew, although I feel like I know the characters intimately. Some of them far too intimately.

We spent 3 final, intense days right here in my flat - mixing, tweaking & making last minute adjustments before Darren took the finished film away to the Cannes film festival, and I have to admit that after living with it for the last year and a half, and getting so close to the characters, I seriously miss working on it now that it's all finished.
The official artwork for ADOV is courtesy of master illustrator & graphic designer, Graham Humphreys - and as you can see, it looks absolutely fantastic.
People in the know will recognize Graham as the man behind some of the finest cinema art ever created, past and present.
More detailed information about Graham's incredible work coming soon.

A Day Of Violence premiered on Saturday 27th June in the Harbour Lights Picturehouse, Southampton.