“I wanted to get music on the marketing campaign so bad it almost turned into a joke with some of my clients”
movie. Another was winning the Music & Sound Award for my music on the Mother! TV spot. And then bringing in enough placements to quit the day job and do this ‘full time’ (I only work a few hours a day.)”
: And you work on tracks together?
Rich: “The Mother! TV spot was a wonderful one and highlights the great working relationship
Vik and I have. We had released an album that I had used a cello on. That single cello sample had very organically together making the process very quick and easy. We trust each other’s musical intuition and knowledge which really brings the best out of our work.”
: How does the process of scoring a trailer usually work in terms of your brief, the amount of time taken and delivery?
Vik: “It varies a lot. Trailers are always last minute, partly due to the competitive nature of the trailer houses and internal competition. Everyone is trying to outdo each other on speed and quality so we are expected to deliver within 24 hours or sometimes on the same day. We are lucky that we won with the best music supervisors in the business so the briefs are always detailed and spot on.”
Rich: “It depends on whether it is custom or not. If it is custom it’s all about nailing the brief as quickly as possible and then hoping that the cut your track is on gets chosen. For the production music side of things we really do just look at what films are coming out and what might be called for. We then do our own thing with all that in mind.”
: And how does it vary when scoring a bigger film?
Rich: “This depends on the size of the project and who you are working with. I have had films where I have scored the whole thing and right at the last minute the director has then asked for me to re-score it again as his vision had shifted. Other times, the movie Tenku No Hachi for example, it can be a wonderfully simple process; they give me a list of the cues they want in what moods, what tempos and what instruments. I then write them and they get put in the film. Job done. If you can build the relationship with the creative decision-makers (directors/producers/