A way of life was a very exciting project to create music to. After much deliberation with the director, George Foote, he challenged me to create an intro piece which would leave people asking ‘what the fuck is this?’. The work of Jan Garbarek as a brass instrumentalist really stood out, particularly ‘the Scythe’, which is an incredibly evocative piece. After challenging my way through much self-doubt and belief that I wouldn’t be able to create anything near to that level, I started to write and thus the intro was formed.
I knew I wanted a slow, ‘andante’ piano to form the back drop of the film, as William is walking around the farm and cutting back to archive footage. Sonically farms are very interesting places, particularly in winter. There is a mood to them which I wanted to explore using more creative soundscapes which I put in alongside the piano.
For the ending I wanted to build a sense of tension and darkness as the film concludes on this note. William is coming to the later stags of his life and the future for his land and all his life’s work is uncertain, and this is a very challenging place he finds himself in. I built the tension using a variety of orchestral and electronic instruments crescendoing to this dramatic finale.
Initially working with the director, George Foote, we went down perhaps a more typical food film route with the score. It worked, it sat with the visuals and pace. But after some careful consideration the director of the project decided to go for more of a stripped back approach due to wanting to let the sound design standout in the initial few minutes. This was an interesting challenge for me, he still wanted me to score something for the opening, but in his words ‘flourishes’. It was a lovely little challenge and whilst there was a bit of figuring out to do we got it to a place of real subtlety which allowed the sound design to sing, but also the score to move things forward.
Following the intro I wanted to really allow the music to evoke how Hugo would feel as he goes about his daily tasks. I wanted the music to create calm whilst also allowing for a sense of heightened emotion as through the dialogue it is obvious that he is in a deeper, reflective moment in his life and tackling lager issues.
George’s idea for the kitchen scenes was to pick up the pace and build the energy in this moment, with a faster edit. I decided to use a staccato piano with driving baselines to carry this intention across audibly.