The Pact II + 2013 wrap-up

We’ve got some catching up to do!  A few projects I’ve scored lately include:

The Pact II

This feature horror film is being released by IFC Midnight and hitting the festival circuit shortly.  I had a blast working with directors Patrick Horvath and Dallas Hallam.  They are ideal collaborators: sweet, hard-working, and creative as hell!  It was also a treat to work with producer Ross Dinerstein and team.  I’m a fan of their work (e.g. Jiro Dreams of Sushi) and they are total pros.

Here are Dallas and Pat playing a “vent hood” (a weird piece of metal traditionally used on rooftops).  We recorded some cool and very “stereo” sounds by super-close miking it while they tapped, scraped, etc.

My elite squad of musicians included Joe Mendoes (cello), Lauren Baba (viola), Pasha Tseitlin (violin), and Brandon Dickert (drums):

The score also featured chromaharp (but played with a pickle jar lid instead of picks), radiator cover (e.g. low metallic BOOOOMs- don’t tell my landlord I ripped it off the wall), and piano (many thank yous, Dory Bavarsky, for letting me record your beautiful baby grand):

Here are audio gurus Rob Chen and Joe Loera at Lotus Post locking in the sound mix:

The last step of the score was naming the 40+ cues.  "The Ghost Who Messed Up the Stuff" is probably the leading Grammy contender:

That’s all the PACT 2 news for now!

GRAY DOG

Another collaboration with the wonderful Celia Rowlson-Hall, which featured accordion, synthesizers, and more chromaharp.  I don’t have a clip since it is hitting festivals soon, BUT here is a kickstarter video for her debut feature film MA:

Check it out and consider supporting if you find her work as exciting as I do!

Natural Selection

This playful short by my longtime collaborator David Fishel features the amazing dancer Carlye Eckert.  It will have the honor of screening at Lincoln Center in NYC in February, and you can watch it online right now here:

http://dancesmadetoorder.com/dance-film/2013/06/natural-selection/

Breaking Bad parody (SPOILERS!  Don’t be stupid- watch Breaking Bad first.)

Directed by the talented Oren Brimer, who is now kicking ass at the Pete Holmes show- congrats Oren!

Oren moved to LA from NYC this year, and at his housewarming I found this in his bathroom.  That is some mega Comedy Nerd Cred.

Also, here’s Alex Wand deftly playing his National Steel Guitar for my BB-esque theme song:

First Dates with Toby Harris

It was a treat to create some “Planet Earth” style source music for this episode of First Dates.

In my opinion, it is among the best-crafted web series out there.  It’s rare to see this sort of tone pulled off so well (and consistently), but director Elliot Dickerhoof nails it.  And of course, actors Seth Morris, Joel Spence, and Anna Wenger are hilarious.

Check out the full series here.

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Happy holidays!

2 months in photos

It’s been a busy couple of months!  Some highlights in reverse order:

Composed a solo violin piece for an upcoming film by Jeff Lamb.  Here is the excellent violinist Barry Socher after our recording session.

Finally met VFX Wizard Mike Ritchie of Gloo Studios after five years of working together.  One of the nicest guys in the biz.

Found a new use for the first tie I ever owned: foley for an animation by Ahmad Al-Awadi celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid.

Rented some fancy API pre-amps…

and used them to record 7 songs in a single evening (!) with Brandon Dickert, a drummer of the highest caliber.

Recorded bass with Griffin Rodriguez - an inspiring engineer/producer/mixer (Icy Demons, Beirut, ..) and person.  He actually suffered traumatic brain injury in a bicycle accident not 2 weeks later.  As I’ve been mentioning on facebook, you can help support him here.  Get well soon, Griffin!

Drove into the mountains on my birthday and bought a chromaharp from a nice banjo player named Dave.

Joined the cult of cast iron.

 

Recorded a song for The Pact II with Pat Horvath and Dallas Hallam (more on that in a future post!)

Found out I am KILLING IT in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Back in July I visited Chicago, caught up with a lot of old friends and did a bunch of recording (thanks to engineers Dan Smart and Max Crowe).  I am humbled to have some truly world-class musicians involved… 

Nicolae Feraru, a Romanian cimbalom player I’ve been a fan of for years.  This year he won a National Endowment for the Arts Lifetime Honor National Heritage Fellowship, our nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.  Though I am exhausted in this picture, I was extremely excited to collaborate with him.

Blagoj Lamnjov, a virtuoso clarinetist from Macedonia.  

Long-time collaborator Max Crowe on guitars & bass.  (photo: Mikel Pickett)

I also recorded more vocals with my favorite soul singer on the planet, Hawk Colman, but we forgot to take a picture!  I can’t wait to write & share more about the project all this recording was for :)

Before the recording kicked off, I also…

Did live sound at the Museum of Science and Industry for my friends Eric McCoy & Justus Meyer as they interviewed neuroscientist David Freedman about his work with “categorization”.  I had a fun chat with David about James Brown, and enjoyed working with our cinematography/lighting team Mike and Leland.

Saw David’s band FuzZz (which consisted of him on guitar, another neuroscientist on keyboards, and KILLER rhythm & horn sections) with my friend and colleague Paul Lazarre.  Paul is an entrepreneur and science enthusiast, and conceived of the interview video in the first place.

Before Chicago, my buddy Rebecca Berdel and I saw Jordan Vogt-Roberts film “Kings of Summer” - a great indie film worthy of your support.

I also saw some truly inspiring concerts..

The otherwordly Harry Partch Ensemble (featuring the talented Alex Wand).

My friend Gina and I saw Björk!  One of my creative heroes… an Artist with a capital “A”.  I feel bad haven taken a photo after she asked the audience not to, but I promise my flash was off as to not distract anyone from the fireballs!

How’s that for a blog post?  'til next time…