Composer Andrew Gordon Macpherson is busy. Whether he’s scoring the slime-filled alien invasion flick Kids vs. Aliens or Vice TV’s wrestling docuseries Tales from the Territories, produced by Dwayne Johnson, Macpherson always finds a way to bring innovative sounds to the projects he is working on.
Andrew Gordon Macpherson
His latest work can be heard on the new season of Vice TV’s Dark Side of the Ring, which continues to be Vice TV’s most watched series of all time. It explores the darkest stories from the golden age of professional wrestling and tries to find the truth at the intersection of fantasy and reality.
We spoke to the Toronto-based Macpherson about the diverse musical landscapes of Kids vs. Aliens, Dark Side of the Ring and Tales from the Territories.
What’s your scoring process like?
I read the script, make a bunch of demos and design some new synth patches. For Kids vs. Aliens, director Jason Eisener also sent me some music he was inspired by, so I checked that out. That was months before I got that film to work on, but I think it’s important to gather some sounds and textures when the film is just an abstract idea.
From there I do a spotting session to determine the ins and outs of each cue. I try to assess what the director/editor is communicating to me with temp music and dissect that, then I figure out what the main character themes or story themes should be. I break everything down into chunks of x (emotion) and y (verb), so I end up with a big list like “angry march, confident strut, confused limp” because for some reason that’s the easiest way to get to what I need to write. I think this is similar to how some actors prepare.
Kids vs. Aliens
Then I write each of those chunks on piano and start slapping them against picture, trying to hit any big moments of action or story. For Kids vs. Aliens, I started arranging and producing them into fully fleshed-out cues to bounce off of Jason. Then we jammed on those ideas together and, when approved, they went to my orchestrator to be prepped for recording with the orchestra, or I mixed them. Once the orchestra recorded them, I had some help editing the takes, but then I laid those recordings into my main session and started mixing. All the cues, down to stems, were delivered to the mix stage.
Kids vs Aliens is based on the short, Slumber Party Alien Abduction from V/H/S/2. Did you go back and watch the short to get musical inspiration for Kids vs. Aliens?
I was very familiar with the short and watch it every year, but it felt like Jason was going about this version in a very different style. There was a lot of discussion about whether or not I would contribute to the “horn” of the spaceship, and I prepared stuff, but ultimately, I just tried to stay out of the way of the sound designers. I knew our version was going to have a similar energy and terror though, so that helped.
Kids vs. Aliens
You used Cinemagic Scoring for some of the orchestral parts in the Kids vs. Aliens’ score. How did you get connected?
My daughter was born in in the middle of scoring Kids vs. Aliens, so I wasn’t going to be able to travel. I reached out and interviewed a few orchestras that had remote recording services available. Cinemagic was just a blast to work with and really helped make it easy for me and my orchestrator to get that volume of music recorded on time. There was 85 minutes of music and about half of that required the orchestra, so I was juggling chainsaws at times; Cinemagic saved my butt.
What are the benefits to using an orchestra in a film like Kids vs. Aliens?
Style-wise, Jason described that the alien civilization had some “ancient magic” about it, so I thought we might need to go in a bit more of a classic adventure/fantasy direction with the music, or at least part of it. And he had sent me some crazy folk wind instruments as inspiration.
Kids vs. Aliens
I wrote a little woodwind motif idea that was spooky and magical for each time we see the ship, and I thought the slime throne room needed low brass because it can be both regal and barbarian-esque. Then I had some emotional moments that could use the strings. Beyond that, I just wanted this movie to feel and sound as big as possible.
The wrestling docuseries Tales from the Territories takes place in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Did you feel that you needed to match that musical time period with your score? If so, what sort of instruments did you use to create that?
I wanted some of the cues to feel like North American radio in the ‘70s and ‘80s, so I did a lot of research into production styles and techniques of pop music from that era. One of the key instruments I got for the project and started writing a lot of the cues on was a Hofner violin bass (the Beatle Bass) with flat wound strings. It’s now my favorite guitar because everything I play on it feels like music from the ‘60s: Paul McCartney, James Jamerson or Carol Kaye.
Did you have a favorite episode to score from Tales from the Territories? Why did it stick out to you?
The Andy Kaufman episode was one of my favorite episodes to work on because it was great to get the inside scoop. I knew some parts of the story already, but it plays out as a longer continuous story, almost like a feature compared to the shorter, vignette-style stories in the other episodes. This allowed me to evolve some ideas over a longer time.
You have scored two very similar wrestling shows for Vice TV, Tales from the Territories and Dark Side of the Ring. Do these two shows have any similarities when it comes to their scores?
Creators Jason Eisener and Evan Husney like using a looping musical ostinato or arpeggio to draw viewers into the stories, much like you’d find in music by Philip Glass or Steve Reich or Tangerine Dream. There was a lot of that style of writing in both, but I tried to stay away from synthesizers a bit longer on Territories in favor of rock and country and symphonic instruments.
Is there anything you would like to tell us about your Tales from the Territories and Dark Side of the Ring scores that audiences might not know?
I try to do every episode of Dark Side like a different genre of cinema when possible, and Territories is more like trying to make hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s that also support the storytelling. I try not to get too complacent while also balancing new and interesting ideas with the show’s style, motifs and my own musical accent.
Is there an instrument that you gravitate toward with all your projects?
I pretty much always write with a MIDI piano and/or my Hofner violin bass and then start arranging for other things. The Moog Grandmother and the Prophet-5 find their way into a lot of stuff I do, as does the LinnDrum. I try to create unique musical ensembles for every project I do, but those seem to always sneak in.
You have worn many hats in the production world, including camera operator and editor. Does your knowledge of these other areas help when you are crafting scores?
I was never much of a cameraman, but I was an editor for a long time, so that informed some basic sense of what musical tops and tails always work. I studied filmmaking and storytelling at school and learned how to make efficient sequences from a directing, editing and sound perspective on a lot of TV and small projects over the years. That all informs my scoring.
I’m one of the last people that gets to create new material for the film, so it’s important that I think about the utility of each melody, motif and cue and how they fit in the film and make it better. I have a pretty good vocabulary and understanding of the classic screenwriting and storytelling structures that are around, so I think I can speak in that language and “translate” into music.
How to you think the composer industry has changed from when you first got into the business until now?
I’ve only been scoring full-time for about six years, but I noticed a big difference in the quality of music production tools when everything switched from 32 bit to 64 bit. I feel like the difference in sonic quality I could get “in the box” is drastically better compared to the first 15 years I was doing it. And there are master classes, a huge volume of info on YouTube and great digital tools at all price points so anyone should be able to find a toolset and workflow that works for them.
Andrew Gordon Macpherson
If someone were to listen to all of your film/TV scores one right after the other, what commonalities would they hear?
Superficially, you’d hear a lot of synth sequences and banging drums, but I hope people would hear the melodic themes I try to weave in and are moved by them.
Do you have any advice for people looking to get into the composing world?
There are a lot of technical skills you need to sharpen to do the job, so you need to work hard at that. But you should also put out music of you own and share your taste and style with the world.
Other than that, make sincere friendships with filmmakers and try to support them, work for free at the start and try to anticipate problems and solve them. It’s the best job in the world, but it’s a lot of work and very competitive. Don’t give up, and try to enjoy it.
