Interview with Field Collapse
Field Collapse is an experimental instrument builder and composer for film, television, and podcasts. His work regularly appears in Simultaneous Times podcast, as well as television shows such as Altered Carbon, Mythbusters, and the White Rabbit Project. When not working on production music he can be found recording and touring with the experimental ambient group Less Bells. He is also the co-owner of Audiobrat Production Music, a provider of library music.
Can you explain what library music is and how you came to compose for libraries?
It’s essentially the music version of a stock photo website. Library music is music designed for TV and film but it is more affordable because it is not specifically composed for the project. Years ago, I was working at a music store selling recording equipment. I met someone who worked in the business and gave them a demo that I had put together showing whatever meager range I was capable of at the time. Years later, the man admitted he came home and threw the CD in the trash only to pull it out and eventually give it a listen a full year later! He called me when he needed a particularly “modern” sounding electronic track and of course I lied and told him I had tons of that stuff laying around. That night I think I made ten tracks for him to choose from. If you get a chance like that you take it!
What are some of the ways in which composing library music differs from composing for podcasts and film?
In the library world, you never know what the music is going to be used for, so you can’t tailor it to fit the project like you can when you are working to picture. As with all music, you are writing to hit a certain vibe or feel but you are working with broader strokes because you have no idea where it’s going to end up. For me it’s very freeing, I can imagine the narrative or TV show that I’m trying to score. The main drawback is the library music world is more conservative. If you make music that is too weird it will never get used, whereas in the podcast world I can force people to listen to the weird stuff. Podcasts are especially interesting now because they are such a relatively new art form the lexicon hasn’t been canonized. It’s still up in the air what podcasts are supposed to sound like.
When composing music for accompanying spoken word what things do you have to keep in mind?
One of the main mistakes I see a lot of young musicians make it concentrating on the “lead” instruments. Playing too many notes and grabbing too much attention. Most people get into music because they WANT attention. You have to remember that the “lead” instrument in a film or podcast is the narration, and your music is there to support that, not to compete with it. You are basically setting a stage for the action to take place in.
What tips do you have for using music to heighten emotion in a story?
Well, I’m probably not the one to ask about this because I’m always experimenting with manipulating emotions and hilariously failing most of the time. In the old days, you would use key modulations and other music theory tricks for heightening emotions, and occasionally I still do but these days I am drawn to more technical tricks, like binaural beats and imperceptibly gradual tempo shifts that speed up or slow down the heart rate of the listener. I like these “subliminal” tools modern musicians have access to. I love finding manipulation techniques that haven’t been exploited yet.
What is the main difference between making music for storytelling mediums versus making stand-alone “music” records?
I have always been confused when people would buy the incidental music soundtracks from a film. Why would you want to feel like you’re in a furious action movie when you are in the kitchen making scrambled eggs? To me, stand-alone “music” and soundtracks are functionally different. Soundtracks will have musical cues that don’t make sense when applied to your normal life. Also a lot of my soundtrack work is structurally compromised when you take the action or narration away. I use silence a lot to emphasize or highlight important information or to make an emotion hit harder. That said, I do listen to the Beat Street soundtrack all the time when I am hanging out because I love to feel like I’m a breakdancer in 1983 Manhattan.
What tips do you have for using Foley and sound-effects?
Like I said, podcasts are a relatively young art form and the roles that Foley and music play have yet to be really nailed down. Right now, I am leaning more on the old “Radio play” model of the pre-television age when it comes to Foley. In the “old days”, they would only use sound effects when they were deemed important to the story. If you didn’t do this you’d obviously just be listening to constant footsteps and shuffling feet! I tend to be very conservative with Foley. You are much more likely to hear a gun cocking than an actual gunshot because the click of a cocking pistol heightens the tension. People’s imagination will fill in the sound of doors being opened and closed but I will give them a really CREAKY SCARY door if I want people to get excited about something. I suppose it’s like picking your battles. You can’t fill up the entire sound spectrum because it will just be a mess, be very careful about what you use that space for.
You’re also an experimental instrument builder, do you have any advice for using non-conventional sound sources in composition?
The reason I started building my own instruments is because I was sick of everything sounding so uniform. ANYTHING you can throw into a mix that makes people’s ears prick up will serve you in the long run, even if the track is supposed to be ignored! It’s not about attracting attention as much as sounding fresh and new. Perhaps more importantly, traditional instruments are usually designed to sit in the frequency range humans prefer to listen to, that being the range that our voice sits in. When making music that will live with narration you want exactly the opposite of this. You want sounds that sit above or below this range. I build a lot of instruments that are higher or lower in pitch than the traditional version. A good example is a “baritone” guitar or an “alto” flute. Anything to get the musical information out of the way of the spoken information. Make way for the ducklings!
What music theory tricks do you take into consideration when composing for podcasts?
I’m not traditionally trained but I have picked up enough music theory to make a nuisance of myself. However, I’m always conscious of podcasts being a new artform. I really feel like all bets are off because the “standards” haven’t really been set. It has its roots in pre-television “radio plays” but it also has a lot of internet-age influences. So I really feel like it’s an important time to stretch the roles music and Foley play to see what hits and what doesn’t. I’m always trying to experiment with the form which occasionally results in total failure but can also succeed in ways you were never expecting.
Jean-Paul L. Garnier
Jean-Paul L. Garnier lives and writes in Joshua Tree, CA where he is the owner of Space Cowboy Books, a science fiction bookstore, independent publisher, and producer of Simultaneous Times podcast. In 2020 his first novella Garbage In, Gospel Out was released by Space Cowboy Books and in 2018 Traveling Shoes Press released Echo of Creation, a collection of his science fiction short stories. He has also released several collections of poetry: In Iudicio (Cholla Needles Press 2017), Future Anthropology (currently being translated into Portuguese), and Odes to Scientists (audiobook - Space Cowboy Books 2019). He is a two time Elgin Nominee and also appeared in the 2020 Dwarf Stars anthology. His new collection of SF poetry, Betelgeuse Dimming has just been released and is available as a free download audiobook / ebook at spacecowboybooks.bandcamp.com. He is also a regular contributor for Canada’s Warp Speed Odyssey blog. His short stories, poetry, and essays have appeared in many anthologies and webzines.
Field Collapse
Field Collapse is an experimental instrument builder and composer for film, television, and podcasts. His work regularly appears in Simultaneous Times podcast, as well as television shows such as Altered Carbon, Mythbusters, and the White Rabbit Project. When not working on production music he can be found recording and touring with the experimental ambient group Less Bells. He is also the co-owner of Audiobrat Production Music, a provider of library music.