063 Heroics - Erik Jourgensen - Halftone Comics

The piece of music featured in this episode is called Halftone Comics. It’s a light and cheerful comedy soundtrack that I wrote for the superhero audio drama Heroics, a story about a group of superheroes who decide to pivot and go evil. It contains a lot of live woodwind instrumentation and serves as a leitmotif for the story’s comic shop. My name is Erik Jourgensen. I'm a composer from Los Angeles, and this is How I Make Music.

IN THIS EPISODE

01:13 Influences included Ennio Morricone’s score for Once Upon A Time In America and Jon Brion’s score for Lady Bird.

02:20 On Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, there’s a comic shop called The Nerdist. I used to go there to watch comedy. I wanted this piece to capture the feel of just hanging out in a cool comic shop like The Nerdist. 

03:43 We were fortunate enough to be able to have live players on the Heroics score. Bassoon, sax, trombone, strings and guitar were included in the lineup. 

05:11 I wanted to avoid using sample libraries if possible. One of the challenges was creating a live sounding full series score without the budget for an ensemble on every track. 

07:26 The energy you put is the feeling the listener will get out of your music. 

08:16 For one of the basslines, I used a Fender Telecaster and pitched it down an octave because I didn’t have an electric bass at the time. 

08:34 I also pitched the bassoon up until it sounded like a flute or clarinet

09:16 There’s a cool trumpet moment which I achieved by first sketching the part by singing into an iPhone to see what comes out. This part was the first thing that came, and I immediately thought a brass section would sound exciting, fun and a little kitsch. 

10:02 To me, the rising chord progression has the quintessential superhero tone to them. 

11:02 I use a lot of analog gear. Listen to how the bassoon and winds sound through tape echo and spring reverb. 

11:36 When it comes to music, there’s a fine balance between repetition and variation. The Beatles, Beethoven all had this fine balance. 

SHOW NOTES

Listen to Heroics https://www.planetm.io/heroics/Visit Erik Jourgensen https://erikjourgensen.comFollow Erik Jourgensen https://twitter.com/erikjourgensenMUSIC CREDITS

Ennio Morricone - Childhood MemoriesLady Bird - Jon BrionLouisville Orchestra - Concerto For Wind Quintet And Orchestra (Lento)ABOUT THIS SHOW

How I Make Music is where behind-the-scenes musicians get to tell their own stories. Every Wednesday, we break apart a song, soundtrack or composition and investigate the insights into how it was made.

Subscribe to How I Make Music https://pod.link/1460793686How I Make Music https://howimakemusic.comContact How I Make Music https://johnbartmann.com/contactComposers: host an episode of How I Make Music https://bit.ly/host-an-episodeHow I Make Music is created by John Bartmann https://johnbartmann.com

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