The Music Man
Winckel writing music for TV shows
SPRINGVILLE — As the reporter comes to his home, Henry Winckel is on the phone with his good friend Joe Gothard, who he collaborates with, and the two are talking about their next possible project.
It’s the nature of the business Winckel is involved in now as he’s always busy working on the next piece of music a TV show would want to use.
“I’m very fortunate that I’m doing something that I love to do and get money for it,” he said.
While you may haven’t noticed the music in the background that may last for a few seconds to a couple of minutes in shows like The Kardashians and Catfish, chances are you’ve heard music Winckel has written for those shows. Winckel writes cue music that’s used in scenes in those shows and in a show in which most of his music has been used, The Young and the Restless.
Winckel’s music has also been used in a show titled RIP Files, which is seen in Great Britain and Australia.
Winckel is a jazz musician who plays mainly the keyboard and other instruments and is a former reporter for the Recorder. He recorder a jazz album which took him two years to make from 2005 to 2007. Among those who contributed to the album was Jimmy Haslip, considered the greatest jazz bass guitarist in the world.
It was 5 1/2 years ago, Winckel decided to give writing cue music for TV show scenes a try although he really knew nothing about it.
Another one of his good friends, Roger Scott Craig, who plays the keyboard and lives in
Camarillo, pointed him in the right direction.
When Winckel showed Craig his recording equipment, Craig showed him his computer. Now Winckel has a computerized studio in his home in Springville.
Gothard, a guitarist who lives in Ohio, Craig and Mike Turner, a guitarist in Los Angeles, are among the musicians Winckel collaborates with on his cue music projects.
So because of the rejection and the collaboration, Winckel said there’s no room for egos in the business he’s in.
Winckel said it took him about three years to finally break through when it came to having his music played on TV shows. He was a jazz musician and since there wasn’t much of a demand for jazz music in TV shows, Winckel obviously got off to a
rough start.
But The Young and the Restless was one of those shows looking for smooth jazz, so Winckel’s music has been used a great deal by that show. Among his biggest fans of his music from shows like The Young and the Restless is Rose Hobar, John Candy’s widow.
But The Young and The Restless is now moving away from smooth jazz and wants more electronic dance music, so Winckel is learning that genre.
Winckel said he never stops learning in the business and is always trying to learn new genres of music including hip hop. “The more versatile you are the more successful you’re going to be,” he said.
He also made a name for himself with what’s known as tension cue music and that’s the kind of his music that’s been used by The Kardashians and Catfish.
There’s the kind of tension cue music for
shows like CSI, the kind of tension cue music Winckel does for The Kardashians and Catfish and the kind of tension cue music more for horror scenes.
He said the longer his music is played the more money he’s paid. So a show like The Young and the Restless generally pays more money because his music could be played for up to two minutes. MTV shows like The Kardashians and Catfish on the other hand only play his music generally for 15 seconds, although he did say repeats of those shows are shown a lot, which also increases his royalties.
As far as his music being used, Winckel said, “You just have to keep throwing stuff out there.” He added the rejections are like “an aspiring actor going for an audition.”
And again Winckel said he can’t let his ego get in the way because the TV shows will use his music any way they
want.
“It’s not how good the music is, it’s how well it fits in the scene,” he said. He also said he watches the shows to see what kind of music they use. “Doing your homework,” he said.
Another part of the business is Winckel doesn’t know his music has been used until he receives his royalty check and that takes about six months. A music library will inform Winckel a show is interested in one of his pieces.
Right now that’s the case with about a two minute cue music piece he’s written for another MTV show, the reality show The Challenge. The show wanted apocalyptic sounding music and Winckel wrote the show a piece titled “Hell Beast.”
He said the titles of the pieces are also important if he wants them to be used.
Winckel wrote the short piece in three sections so the show can
use any or all of the sections they want. He also added “demonic” voices to the piece and it crescendos to a sudden ending.
He said shows don’t want fade out endings but sudden endings to build the tension when they go to commercial. Winckel also noted due to time and deadline constraints music supervisors who make a decision on what music to use only listen to the first 10 seconds of a track. “That’s all the time they need to decide,” Winckel said.
So if a piece is written in which the best part of the music doesn’t begin until 20 to 30 seconds into the track, it won’t be placed on a show.
But again, while The Challenge is interested in Winckel’s music he won’t actually know if the show has used his piece until he receives the royalty check.
Also about the music, Winckel said, “you want to have the cutting edge sounds. You want to have the most modern sounds.”
He did mention the difference of what he does to shows like Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead, who have their own composers.
Winckel also said he competes with talented people in his business. “These guys know what they’re doing,” he said. “That’s what you’re up against.”