Tone death
Local fan of horror movie music writes second volume of interviews with composers.
J. Blake Fichera seems to be a modern Renaissance man. He has taught film studies at SUNY Purchase. He performs as a blues musician at clubs throughout the New York City metro area. He is a film and television editor, and has just published his second book “Scored to Death 2,” a collection of 16 interviews with composers who have provided the music for some of the most revered contemporary horror films.
“Sometimes it feels like I never have a day off,” he laughed, “but I’m doing what I love and what I dreamed to one day do back in the 1990s when I was a student in Shenendehowa.”
Fichera graduated from the high school in 1997. “My passions in school were equally music and movies. When my friends were listening to a lot of contemporary music, I was listening to film soundtracks, and I was heavily into the blues. There was a lot of good blues music in the Albany area at that time. I used to love Ernie Williams and his band.”
He felt the ‘90s was a perfect time for him to grow up. “There was a big independent film boom at that time with (Quentin) Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and Kevin Smith. My friends and I really got into those movies. I played hockey at Shen for four years, but when other kids were having fun at parties, my friends and I were making movies with my mom’s camcorder. That’s a big reason why I went to film school at SUNY Purchase.” His day job today includes cutting and developing reels of film to sell ideas for shows.
He had great fun writing both of the “Scored to Death” books, the first of which came out in 2016. “For the first book I was able to interview people like John Carpenter, the director of the ‘Halloween’ movies and Fabio Frizzi, the great Italian film composer. The new book features 16 more interviews with composers including Brad Fiedel (”The Terminator”) and John Massari (the camp classic “Killer Klowns From Outer Space”).”
Film scores have always been a big part of his life. “I think it goes back to my dad and his record collection. The idea of film music to just listen to and enjoy is something I did as a kid. I had no problem putting on the “Star Wars” score or anything by John Williams. My dad would also play them while we ate dinner.”
Fichera says music “is very important” to horror movies. “It’s much more active than the music for other films. Music creates atmosphere and that is everything in a horror film. Music is also used for red herrings, as well as a way to make you jump out of your seat.”
He said music can often take the place of the monster.
“The classic example is ‘Jaws.’ When we don’t see the shark, it’s the John Williams music that is taking the place of the shark in those scenes. We know it’s present. That also happens a lot in the ‘Friday the 13th’ movies, when we often don’t see the killer ‘til the final reel.”
According to Fichera, a scene is often not scary at all till the music is put in. “The shower scene in ‘Psycho’ is really just a bunch of random cuts. It’s not scary till you hear that music. The stabbing violin strings make it much more visceral. John Carpenter told me that when he first screened ‘Halloween’ to a film executive without the score, the executive didn’t like it and told him to go back and re-edit the movie to make it scarier. All Carpenter did was add music, and when he showed it to the same person, now the guy thought it was tremendously scary.”
He had so much fun interviewing the composers and discussing film and music in an analytical way, he launched a Scored to Death podcast.
“After I finished the first book I still wanted to continue interviewing composers, and there were so many more out there so I just started doing the podcast, which is kind of an audio version of the book. This podcast eventually led to the second book, which will be published on Dec. 1”
Having intensive conversations with successful soundtrack composers has influenced him as a musician. “It’s made me want to be more experimental with my music and try some different sounds. I would also love to one day try to compose a soundtrack to a film, but I would be very intimidated to attempt it. I’m not so sure I have the chops for that.”
Like many of us, he looks forward to the day when the pandemic ends. “When there is no more COVID, I hope to attend some horror conventions to sell my book, and as a musician I love playing at clubs and with other bands. Most of that has dried up. I also miss attending concerts and composers going around playing their music live with orchestras was getting to be a big thing.”
He said Carpenter had been doing that, and other composers, like Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman, were also getting big crowds. “I also enjoyed going to those large outdoor movie screenings with a live orchestra playing the score. That’s the best way to see these movies we all love.”