Interview with The Unfinished
Here's an Interview we did Composer and sound designer Matt Bowdler known as The Unfinished. With Questions by Me and Adrian from Zensound.
What first got you interested in music?
Blimey, there's a question to start with! My earliest memories of music tend to be things like Abba and Boney M (showing my age there!). Whereas perhaps my first proper enjoyment and influences date back to the synth pop of the early to mid 1980s; Human League, Ultravox and then Pet Shop Boys.
Then I stuck very firmly with electronic and dance genres. I started buying house music vinyl in the late 80s with my pocket money, and progressed through rave, techno, trance, breaks... That's perhaps when I actually started wanting to write music. I bought myself a little blue box called a Yamaha RM1X with which to make the most rudimentary (or should that be terrible?) dance music.
Where it really took off for me was with Hybrid's I Choose Noise album in 2006. It made me realise what I truly wanted to do was fuse electronic and cinematic music, and I finally ventured into the world of computer music, whch was the only way I could even begin to realise such thoughts. I grabbed Cubase SX3, Miroslav Philharmonik and a whole bunch of free synths and sample packs!
And how did that shape what your doing now?
Without moving over to a computer-based set-up, none of what I do now would be remotely possible. It still took me a good five or six years to start doing anything seriously, and three years ago I took a leap into the unknown and decided to quit my job at Oxford University and move to London, to live with my then girlfriend (now wife) and pursue music as a career.
What had grown out of listening to Hybrid's music was a knowledge of hybrid orchestral soundtracks, particularly the work of Harry Gregson-Williams. It was a sonic canvas that really appealed to me, and I loved soundtracks like Man On Fire and Deja Vu.
When you hear new music that grabs you and inspires you, it also pushes you in new directions with your own music.
I think you're an amalgam of all your influences, so it may not seem obvious but somewhere in there, there's a little bit of Pet Shop Boys occasionally sticking out where you least expect it. That's why I continue to listen to so much new music, I think you need to keep your palette and influences wide, then simmer them down into what it is that makes your music unique... if you can. I've never bought more music than I do now. Thank god it's not all still on vinyl! I'd be sleeping in the garden to make room for it, if it was!
You're both a composer and sound designer.Do you favor one over the other? Or see them both as a necessity for what you do, as they do go hand in hand?
The madness of it is that I tend to favour whatever it is I'm NOT doing at the time. If I have a big sound design project on, I start to crave writing original music. And vice versa.
You have to love them both, or you couldn't find time for them both. Synth programming can be a difficult technique. You couldn't do it if you weren't inspired by it. Fortunately, what truly drives me on in my sound design is that I am essentially creating sounds for myself, for my own music. Not one sound I release commercially is something I wouldn't use in my own music. That is how I work. And the continued sound design pushes my music forward.
It's a symbiotic relationship. They need each other. For a perfect example of that, I've just released my first trailer music album with Gothic Storm. All the tracks on the album were originally written as demo tracks for my synth soundsets. Now, I've gone back and re-worked the sound design in greater detail, altered a few arrangements and melodies, and live strings have been added by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. So, the two things drive each other... music and sound design.
Having said that, I am trying to do more music writing projects this year, as last year was very much sound design focused. I get to do my first low-budget feature film score this year, which I am hugely excited about.
What's your favorite sound design project you worked on, commercial or commissioned?
I'm not sure I like playing favourites. I don't take on a project unless I think it's going to be rewarding, and that works for both commissioned and commercial. I will say that I have really really enjoyed putting together my latest (and as yet unreleased) soundset for Omnisphere, Horizon V. It's very much geared towards a sound I'm aiming for more in my music writing, blending organic acoustic sounds with crunchy analogue ones. My dream writing job would be for a Nordic/European detective series (like The Killing or Broadchurch) and that's what I've very much had in mind whilst putting Horizon V together.
As for commissioned projects, there's a couple of things coming up that I'm very excited about, but which are under NDAs at the moment. But, a truly wonderful experience for me was working on Need For Speed last year. It was a great moment to finally see my name in the credits of a Hollywood movie.
What is your favourite film or video game soundtrack?
That is an ever-shifting landscape. There are some classics, like Star Wars and Blade Runner, but I adore so much music it's nigh on impossible to decide on favourites. What I can tell you about is soundtracks that I've really enjoyed more recently.
Olafur Arnald's Gimme Shelter score from last year was terrific. As was Gone Girl by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. For games... Michael McCann's Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mirror's Edge by Solar Fields are two of my absolute recent favourites. Oh, and Greg Edmonson's work on Uncharted – gutted he's not doing the new one.
Okay. If I really HAD to pick an all-time favourite soundtrack (gun to my head!) it would be Monsters by Jon Hopkins. It's utterly beautiful.
You know that there are lots of synthesis methods nowadays: modular, subtractive, FM, spectral, physical modelling, sample manipulation and maybe more... Do you have a favourite synthesis method?
Boring answer but, it depends what you're trying to achieve. More interesting to me than the type of synthesis itself is the performance of the individual synth itself; how enjoyable is it to use? It's no coincidence that my two favourite synths for sound creation are the two I enjoy using most: Omnisphere and Zebra.
If I have ideas in my mind of the sound I'm trying to produce, I need to know that the synth I'm using can get me there. That can lead you into a slight dead end of using the same synths again and again, but fortunately enough enjoyable synths exist to keep things ticking over.
I'm particularly interested in working more with hardware, particularly for my own music needs. I have a Virus TI2, Analog Four and Juno 106 that really deserve more attention than I'm currently giving them. Hopefully a new, more organised, studio will help with that.
Do you have a favorite non synth instrument ?
There are definitely some instruments I return to in my music time and again. In particular, I love piano and cello. I'm by no means a great pianist, far from it, but fortunately I enjoy simplicity in my music, so I don't have to be.
There are also some ethnic instruments whose sound I adore. The duduk. kantele and erhu have been long-time favourites. I'm a really big fan of ethnic music and have long meant to work on a project utilising that more.
I also like crazy hybrid instruments like the stuff Diego Stocco makes with such care and panache. Such a genius.
Who do you admire as a sound designer?
Well, haha, I guess I can start with Diego Stocco can't I? What better way to create new sounds than to create new instruments?
Eric Persing, obviously, for all he did for Roland synths and then Omnisphere too, which is a terrific piece of kit. Then there's guys like Howard Scarr, John Lehmkuhl, Luftrum and Simon Stockhausen doing really cool stuff for synths.
But, in all honesty, I'm more interested in artists/composers/producers who make their own sounds for their own music, that's where my inspiration lies really.
What are your favourite artists from where you take inspiration?
There's loads. Right now, my biggest influences include Olafur Arnalds, Poordream, Geoff Barrow/Ben Salisbury, Gustavo Santaolalla, Harry Gregson-Williams, Jon Hopkins, Lamb, Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross, Bjork, Hybrid, Cliff Martinez, Celer, Hammock, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, and anything coming out of labels like Erased Tapes, Tympanik Audio and Ultimae.
I listen to a lot more electronic/independent music than film music these days, unless it's electronic film music! I find it a little more... honest. It's direct. From artist to audience. Whereas film music is kind of diluted by the medium of cinema isn't it? It's less personal. I still love film music and writing it. But, my musical needs are perhaps currently better served by non-film music. Let's put it that way!
Have these artists and influences changed or grown with time?
Completely. Generally I've held my influences that first got me into writing music. But, each month I hear new music from new artists, new composers, that I adore. So, it constantly evolves, as does the musical landscape.
I don't know if my musical tastes have changed, so much as grown with me. I can still dig a 90s rave or trance tune. But I'm unlikely to spend much time listening to either any more.
I've always enjoyed a simplicity in music. People who can convey complex emotions through simple ideas, that appeals to me a lot. And that sort of thing can span across the decades and the genres.
One thing that might be worth mentioning here is that it's not just sound that influences sound design. The visual, the emotional, both can have an effect. Sometimes the 'feel' of a movie, or a book, or something less artistic, like a view or an architectural space, can have an influence on sound design. Sometimes I like to think about how something that has no soundtrack might sound. Sometimes it's a question of putting yourself in an emotional place that suits what you're trying to do. It may sound crazy, but simply thinking can be just as effective as listening. Or even NOT thinking, just allowing yourself to be taken in by your environment; whether that's sitting in a café watching the world go by, or standing at the top of a hill knowing the world can't see you.
That may seem a little overly philosophical, but I genuinely believe everything you do and feel ends up in your music and your sound design; it's part of what feeds the integrity of what you do. If you do it honestly.
Can you talk to us a little about what you plan to release on 2015?
Haha, if I do that then I have to commit to it! The general plan is to release a new product every month this year, although I'm due to move house twice in 2015, so that might scupper those plans a little!
There should be new soundsets for Omnisphere (and Omnisphere 2!), Zebra and Zebra HZ, plus also a return to both Diva and Trilian. There have been some great new synths released recently such as Serum and Bazille, but I like to take time with a synth before I commit to releasing something, so no idea when (or if) they might happen.
Often what gets released as a commercial product can be influenced by whatever bespoke work I'm doing for other composers. For example, last year I was using Absynth a lot for some sound design for a US TV show's soundtrack. I enjoyed it so much, I ended up putting together a new soundset for Absynth, which was Nostromo.
I also really want to finally release a proper sample library. I have two main ideas, it's a question of finding the time to commit to them properly and also how well I can implement them the way I want to. I think they can both extremely useful and long-lasting tools, but... we shall see.
But the next soundset, in February, will be Omnisphere Horizon V.
So on your website I see a category bespoke can you tell us about that?Â
Yes, that's basically my non-public releases. I occasionally work on bespoke sound design for composers (such as Sascha Dikiciyan, Trevor Morris and Paul Haslinger). They approach me to make some fresh sounds for a soundtrack they're working on and I duly oblige.
It's an interesting experience. Tougher, in many ways, than the commercial releases, because then I'm just pleasing myself. A sound goes in if I like it and it fits what I'm trying to achieve. With the bespoke work there's an added creative mind judging the sounds, and so I have to work in a different, less selfish, way. Well, perhaps not 'selfish' but less introspective. The bespoke work is always collaborative. It can open new avenues, take you in directions you don't normally go. It all depends on who you're working with and why, and that really is the challenge – working together towards a single goal.
I also do co-production work occasionally, which is stuff like adding new synths, percussion or processing to someone else's work. It's quite different to sound design, in that you're seasoning someone else's work, rather than creating something from scratch. People know me from my sound design and music, so they trust my judgement on taking existing sounds just that little bit further. It's an intriguing process that I'd like to do more of in the future. It's kind of like the subtlest remixing!
Also can you tell us about the just released Massive Darkscore V?
Yes. I hadn't done anything for Massive for quite a while and decided to go back and have a play, see if there were things I'd not done with the previous soundsets that felt like unfinished business (if you'll pardon the pun!).
I enjoyed revisiting that digital sound. It's a bit dirty and that's sometimes what you need, in a world where everyone craves the analogue again.
Darkscore V is essentially about sounds that add some subtle bite and aggression to your tracks. There aren't too many huge, distorted sounds (though if you fiddle with the carefully programmed macro, such noise IS achievable). It's more about keeping things in the background, adding a little edge. I'm very proud of it and think people shouldn't dismiss Massive, just because some shinier new softsynths have come along. We all get old... but we can still be useful, haha.
Here's are Links to Find out more about the Unfinished
http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/
http://www.mattbowdler.com/
http://www.theunfinished.co.uk/shop/massive-darkscore-v/Â Â Â Newest Release
Here is also link to Zensounds website http://www.zensound.es/
