WEBVTT - A Moment Behind the Scenes with Composer Chris Porter 0:00:05.670 --> 0:00:08.790 Hello, this is Chris Porter, creator of Solar. If you've 0:00:08.789 --> 0:00:10.980 listened through the show's credits, you might have noticed that 0:00:10.980 --> 0:00:13.180 I composed all of the music for the show as well. 0:00:13.710 --> 0:00:16.170 On the behind the scenes excerpt for This week, I 0:00:16.170 --> 0:00:19.020 spoke with Jenni Curtis, director and producer and voice of 0:00:19.020 --> 0:00:22.380 Allie and executive producer Bill Curtis to discuss the process 0:00:22.380 --> 0:00:25.860 behind scoring solar here. The three of us are discussing 0:00:25.860 --> 0:00:28.620 the four note main title theme and the significant hidden 0:00:28.620 --> 0:00:29.490 meaning behind it. 0:00:31.380 --> 0:00:34.770 The theme is incredibly powerful and it's four notes. 0:00:34.860 --> 0:00:37.350 I've said this before, but in the writing of it, 0:00:37.350 --> 0:00:40.470 in the conception of it, the sun is a force 0:00:40.470 --> 0:00:43.019 to be reckoned with, and it was definitely not to 0:00:43.020 --> 0:00:45.690 spoil anything. I made a ground rule from the get 0:00:45.690 --> 0:00:48.030 go that no one is ever allowed to control the sun. 0:00:48.180 --> 0:00:50.640 They can fight to use its power. That could be 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:53.190 a thing. But no one gets to say, Oh, I'm 0:00:53.190 --> 0:00:55.170 just going to take the sun's core. Like, No, the 0:00:55.170 --> 0:00:58.050 sun is an entity that we have to cope with. 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:00.630 So in the music, I wanted there to be that 0:01:00.630 --> 0:01:04.950 same sense of neither good nor bad, just something massive 0:01:04.950 --> 0:01:08.429 and unfathomable. So as a result, the main four notes 0:01:08.430 --> 0:01:12.420 are a EGF, which is not technically in major or minor. 0:01:12.420 --> 0:01:15.660 It's literally just four notes in a modal sentence. And 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:17.550 I can make it sound major. Minor if I had 0:01:17.550 --> 0:01:19.890 it in the C or C-sharp. The theme itself is 0:01:19.890 --> 0:01:22.619 just those four notes, and it exists kind of outside 0:01:22.620 --> 0:01:26.010 of any sort of modal rationale that we would need 0:01:26.010 --> 0:01:28.650 to think about. And in the scoring of it, I 0:01:28.650 --> 0:01:31.350 just wanted it to keep repeating and just get bigger 0:01:31.350 --> 0:01:34.440 and bigger with the bass getting louder and louder until 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:37.800 it just cut off and drifted out into space, which 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:40.320 was as much as I thought about the composing. And 0:01:40.590 --> 0:01:42.540 a lot of that came through in the orchestration of 0:01:42.540 --> 0:01:44.280 it where I was like, Oh no, this is the 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:46.710 sound that I'm hearing and this is the distortion that 0:01:46.709 --> 0:01:48.570 I'm hearing on it and this is the feeling of 0:01:48.570 --> 0:01:52.800 it spiralling out into nothingness. And that's where that came from. 0:01:52.830 --> 0:01:54.360 How long did the theme take you? 0:01:54.540 --> 0:01:57.240 Well, it's not like a continuous like I sat down 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.070 and was like, We're going to do this today. I 0:01:59.070 --> 0:02:00.870 would go over to my piano to do something and 0:02:00.870 --> 0:02:03.570 I'd be like, I want this combination of notes. And 0:02:03.570 --> 0:02:04.610 I knew I wanted to be simple. I didn't know 0:02:04.620 --> 0:02:05.670 it's going to be four notes, but I was like, 0:02:05.670 --> 0:02:07.620 I just need something simple. And I would just try 0:02:07.620 --> 0:02:09.960 some stuff and I'd be like, I'm not really hearing that. 0:02:09.970 --> 0:02:12.329 And then I'd go shower and then I'd come back 0:02:12.330 --> 0:02:13.890 and try a couple more notes. So it wasn't like 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.380 four days of intensive labour, but it definitely took about 0:02:16.380 --> 0:02:19.410 four days until I found that combination of notes. And 0:02:19.410 --> 0:02:20.850 then I was like, We're going to sit with that 0:02:20.850 --> 0:02:22.890 for a while. After a few days I came back 0:02:22.889 --> 0:02:24.810 and I was like, I think that's it. That feels 0:02:24.810 --> 0:02:26.470 really good to me. We're going to go with that. 0:02:26.669 --> 0:02:29.160 I want to talk about all of the various ways 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:31.740 you think of these themes and how you come to them. 0:02:31.740 --> 0:02:36.630 But I especially my absolute favorite cue in the entire show, 0:02:36.630 --> 0:02:39.540 which we hear a couple of times, is the human theme, which. 0:02:41.450 --> 0:02:44.300 If you go back and listen to. 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:47.089 We first hear it in three three with Jessa. Yeah, 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:50.420 and then we hear it in five. I want to 0:02:50.419 --> 0:02:53.809 know what you're calling a human theme. I wasn't interested 0:02:53.810 --> 0:02:58.429 in writing like, Jamal's song or like Wren's theme. 0:02:58.460 --> 0:02:59.960 Can you explain what the theme is? 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:04.130 Yeah. Like, a great example, obviously, is Star Wars, right? 0:03:04.370 --> 0:03:08.609 Where you hear the bum, bum, bum, bum bum. The 0:03:08.630 --> 0:03:11.810 da da da da da. That is the Luke Skywalker 0:03:11.810 --> 0:03:15.410 Jedi theme. It's called the Motif, oftentimes. And it's something 0:03:15.410 --> 0:03:19.280 that John Williams just mind blowing. He's the best at it. 0:03:19.940 --> 0:03:23.930 I just took the route of I don't want characters 0:03:23.930 --> 0:03:27.390 to have themes. I want my thematic material to have themes. 0:03:27.410 --> 0:03:29.690 So I wanted there to be like a distressed theme 0:03:29.690 --> 0:03:33.050 or programming a theme, different little tiny motifs. And they 0:03:33.050 --> 0:03:35.600 all had to be real simple and just spread out 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:39.650 like Simsek did get kind of a theme with the bum, bum, bum, bum, 0:03:39.650 --> 0:03:41.450 bum bum that you hear a few times. 0:03:41.690 --> 0:03:45.680 So the human theme, which is my favorite piece of 0:03:45.680 --> 0:03:49.490 music in this show, and it's probably because I lean 0:03:49.490 --> 0:03:51.560 into the emotion of things. And to me that is 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:55.640 the most emotionally gut wrenching piece that comes under some 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:59.180 of the most emotionally gut wrenching moments. But this was 0:03:59.180 --> 0:04:04.880 not something Chris composed originally for this show. So I 0:04:04.880 --> 0:04:07.220 want to hear the story of where the song came from. 0:04:08.150 --> 0:04:09.780 So this is actually a video you can if you 0:04:09.890 --> 0:04:12.170 dig around on Facebook and if you can find this video. 0:04:12.500 --> 0:04:17.120 My parents had moved down to Solomon's in Maryland, and 0:04:17.150 --> 0:04:19.640 in their time of finding a place there to live, 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.510 they had come across this beautiful art sculpture and garden 0:04:23.510 --> 0:04:26.659 park called Anne-Marie Gardens. It's just a gorgeous place to 0:04:26.660 --> 0:04:29.270 walk around because in the middle of the forest and 0:04:29.270 --> 0:04:32.330 the trees, they've just put artwork from different people. And 0:04:32.330 --> 0:04:35.060 sometimes it's massive sculptures and sometimes it's just little paintings 0:04:35.060 --> 0:04:37.490 that they've painted into the knots of the trees. And 0:04:37.490 --> 0:04:41.000 so it has this completely otherworldly feel of just walking 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.090 into some kind of fairy wonderland where there's art everywhere. 0:04:44.089 --> 0:04:46.520 And like, sometimes it's an upside down astronaut on a rock, 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:50.210 and sometimes it's like this gorgeous sculpture with these completely 0:04:50.210 --> 0:04:53.630 abstract figures. And at one point they had put a 0:04:53.630 --> 0:04:56.570 green upright piano in the middle of the forest, and 0:04:56.570 --> 0:04:58.910 it was not very well in tune because it was 0:04:58.910 --> 0:05:01.669 out in the woods for four months, but it was 0:05:01.670 --> 0:05:03.799 in tune enough that people could play it. And so 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:05.810 I was there with my family and they were like, 0:05:05.810 --> 0:05:07.640 you know, you should sit down and play something, come 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:09.350 up with something. So I was like, Well, give me 0:05:09.350 --> 0:05:11.870 a couple of minutes, because I'm not a very good improviser. 0:05:11.870 --> 0:05:14.180 I just kind of know the feel. And so I 0:05:14.180 --> 0:05:16.580 started just playing the one note over and over again, 0:05:16.580 --> 0:05:20.690 which again is both meant to be internally retrospective, but 0:05:20.690 --> 0:05:23.360 also the ticking of the clock in this particular moment, 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.520 because like pianos are nothing but mechanical. To me, that's 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:28.339 just the way that I feel about them. And I 0:05:28.700 --> 0:05:31.340 so I came up with this theme and I just 0:05:31.339 --> 0:05:34.909 played it and it's it's not very complicated, it's very simple, 0:05:34.910 --> 0:05:37.820 but it just had this nice, lilting quality. And at 0:05:37.820 --> 0:05:40.190 this point, this was very early on in the stages 0:05:40.190 --> 0:05:43.099 of even dreaming up somewhere. And my mom was like, 0:05:43.970 --> 0:05:45.529 That should be a theme. And so, like, it sounds 0:05:45.529 --> 0:05:47.299 like someone floating in space. And I was like, Well, 0:05:47.870 --> 0:05:51.860 we'll see, Mom. We'll see if that happens. Sure enough, 0:05:51.860 --> 0:05:56.810 when I started working on Jess's spiel about her other self, 0:05:57.260 --> 0:05:59.409 I was like, What was that video? What did I play? 0:05:59.420 --> 0:06:01.039 And I actually had to like, dig it up on 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:03.229 Facebook because my father shared it to Anne Marie Garden's 0:06:03.230 --> 0:06:06.529 Facebook page and I transcribed it for myself and I 0:06:06.529 --> 0:06:09.290 was like, This actually would work really well here. But 0:06:09.290 --> 0:06:11.480 then I was like, What? What is the theme? What 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.330 is the what is the theme representing? And it kind 0:06:14.330 --> 0:06:19.300 of became this thing of when someone. Finally breaks apart 0:06:19.300 --> 0:06:22.030 enough to show their inside self to someone else. It 0:06:22.029 --> 0:06:24.550 became that and what I called the human theme. But 0:06:24.910 --> 0:06:25.960 how do you get over it? 0:06:27.490 --> 0:06:35.900 I had to try. Really hard. I wish there was 0:06:35.900 --> 0:06:39.540 some words of wisdom or some catchy thing that inspired me. 0:06:40.670 --> 0:06:46.160 But there's not. There's only the simple decision that every 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:49.080 time I wake up. I do the best I can. 0:06:51.510 --> 0:06:54.839 Look, I haven't been through any kind of trauma like 0:06:54.839 --> 0:06:55.560 you've experienced. 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:59.100 So I hope not. Now, I hope you never will. 0:07:00.529 --> 0:07:05.540 But here's the thing to remember Every time your life changes, 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:11.030 for better or worse, you lose the other version of yourself. 0:07:12.410 --> 0:07:16.220 There's always the other you. The one that said yes. 0:07:16.580 --> 0:07:19.700 The one that said no. The one that wasn't hit 0:07:19.700 --> 0:07:20.600 by a drunk driver. 0:07:21.650 --> 0:07:24.530 So you, like, create a voice for the music and 0:07:24.530 --> 0:07:26.930 then you just start attacking your keyboard to try to 0:07:26.930 --> 0:07:29.720 see what comes up the way that it works for me. 0:07:30.590 --> 0:07:32.600 Especially because I wrote it as I would have a 0:07:32.600 --> 0:07:35.270 vibe in mind where I'm like, This moment needs to 0:07:35.270 --> 0:07:38.090 sound tense and hollow, and I can't really explain to 0:07:38.090 --> 0:07:40.730 you what a hollow sounds like to me, but I 0:07:40.730 --> 0:07:42.679 know it when I hear it. Not this moment that 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:44.810 I just played, but like there are some moments with 0:07:44.810 --> 0:07:46.850 Margaret where I was like, This needs to feel like 0:07:46.850 --> 0:07:49.880 something's ramping up, but it's unclear what I feel a 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:52.460 hollow sound here. And so then I would figure out 0:07:52.460 --> 0:07:55.550 musically what's going on to get to that point, and 0:07:55.550 --> 0:07:57.830 then I would go back and re orchestrate it and 0:07:57.830 --> 0:08:00.320 try to find the sounds that captured the vibe that 0:08:00.320 --> 0:08:03.980 I have in my brain. That's only a short clip 0:08:03.980 --> 0:08:06.230 of all the things we discussed in the solar panel. 0:08:06.500 --> 0:08:10.040 In the extended interview, we discuss the technicalities of music creation, 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.830 using music as sound design, and even more behind the 0:08:12.830 --> 0:08:15.470 scenes stories about the creation of solar. Check out our 0:08:15.470 --> 0:08:17.540 Apple Podcast Premium channel to hear more.