Benjamin Balcom is an artist, composer and sound designer that works primarily with voice, discipline recordings, archival audio and synthesis methods. He collaborates with artists, bands, musicians, creatives, administrators and fellow composers to create participating experiences all through varied media.
His work most just lately consists of the Sundance choice Azi by author/director Montana Mann, the award-winning Influence Winter by author/director Travis Beacham, in addition to further music contributions to Netflix’s documentary, The Menendez Brothers.
Let’s discover out extra…
How did you discover your method to composing?
I usually hear some composers discuss this singular second in life the place they realized that is what they had been going to do for a residing, however it’s been extra of a circuitous path for me. Music was all the time round rising up — my mom is a choir director, and my dad all the time had his guitar round and would improvise songs. I landed someplace in between.
I arrange a bed room studio and would play together with information for hours on finish. I discovered my means into improvised music and jazz, and in school studied classical music. I began writing string and horn preparations for bands, which introduced me into the recording studio. As soon as there I rapidly realized that what I actually wanted was to be within the engineer’s chair.
I simply began studying recording manufacturing engineering books and console manuals. I had a good friend who obtained me an internship, I labored my means into recording classes after which ultimately constructed my very own recording studio — principally classic Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies gear that was continuously on the verge of breaking down. I did that for about 12 years or so — recording and producing for a ton of bands/artists, which then led to me scoring a documentary for a good friend of a good friend. I assume I’ve simply all the time been very curious and have needed to determine the subsequent factor out.
What’s your course of for scoring? How do you start? Any explicit instrument as your go-to?
I attempt to begin with one thing apart from devices. My common start line is usually utilizing sounds which might be straight associated to the story,which then, by way of experimentation, an uncommon and fascinating phrase or texture begins to emerge. There are such a lot of melodies and rhythms on the planet round us, and I’m simply attempting to replicate that.
For instance, on the Influence Winter movie, Travis Beacham was so detailed, he handed alongside photos of the places he imagined the story would happen. There was one constructing that was an outdated WWII bunker. The very first thing I imagined was air raid sirens blaring, so I began trying into archival sounds and located a siren that felt proper. Inside 10 minutes of taking part in round with that, I had what would grow to be kind of the love theme for Influence Winter. It’s completely insane to assume a love theme might come from an air raid siren, however it simply labored. It was three notes, and if I performed some other notes it sounded completely terrible, simply horrible. I extremely doubt a listener would decide up on it, and it’s not the purpose even; it was my means right into a world that mattered. From there, I’d prepare it for strings, piano or no matter.
On one other movie, I manipulated archival wax cylinder recordings of a lady’s voice from the late 1800s. One other time it was discipline recordings of System 1 vehicles, and for one more, I manipulated room tones to grow to be a music component.
I’m at present engaged on one other movie the place my start line is completely manipulated animal sounds. It might sound loopy, however I believe it makes every venture distinctive originally of the writing course of after which it turns into fairly clear to me which conventional devices I can use together with these experimental sounds. The harmonies and melodies don’t essentially come from me, they only form of emerge from the method of exploring the story sounds.
You’ve labored on some distinctive tasks, together with the podcast Influence Winter. How does your work differ throughout a number of genres or mediums?
Working inside the narrative episodic podcast world positively has distinctive challenges. First, there’s a lot aural data that it’s usually tough to seek out locations and registers for rating. It’s usually fairly difficult to seek out area. Additionally, time is tough. After we started engaged on the primary episode of Influence Winter, we had been all actually excited as a result of it was the primary time we weren’t working to image and we had all of this freedom with time. We weren’t chasing cuts, determining methods to clean out rating to comply with an abrupt reduce or feeling a have to bump or accent something.
Nevertheless it turned a double-edged sword as a result of it created new issues in that we had three individuals adjusting the timeline: the director, the sound designer (Zach Goheen) and myself. We had been all adjusting the timeline after which we’d have to evolve to one another’s schedules as effectively. It took a minute to iron out a workflow however even by way of to the final cross there may be a observe so as to add/reduce a few seconds right here and there.
For Azi, we had been locked, and it was such a decent edit. It was form of a reduction after the fluidity of narrative episodic podcasts.
Stroll us by way of your inventive strategy to your rating on the Sundance quick, Azi?
Azi was fascinating in that the author/director and I met and we had been instantly on the identical web page about influences and tips on how to strategy the rating. Montana knew she needed piano to be featured, and my thought was to take these little buzzing moments by Dior Goodjohn and vocal sounds from manufacturing sound for the remainder of the rating. And that’s precisely what the rating turned. I remodeled Dior’s voice into synths, drums, basses, strings, and so on… it actually turned an prolonged exploration of her voice, which to me was the entire story — it’s all inside her head — what she’s seeing and feeling, it’s all the things she’s considering.
What are some previous tasks you’ve labored on that actually challenged you as a composer?
Each venture presents a singular problem in a roundabout way, and people challenges are inclined to sneak up on you. However one which involves thoughts is the Menendez Brothers documentary. For that movie I used to be serving to my good friend, Jimmy Stofer, by doing further music, and we had a particularly restricted period of time. For me it then turned a problem of how far we will take a handful of Jimmy’s preliminary sketches and how briskly can we make that occur, It was very a lot centered on creating new preparations and sounds with those we had available.
What about sound design? How does that examine and differ out of your work on the music aspect?
I’ve quite a lot of issue differentiating between the 2, and sometimes I believe I stray into what could be thought of the sound designer’s sandbox. The way in which one thing sounds is equally essential to me as what the sound is. Our audiences have an excellent ear for manufacturing, which is why determining the general sonic id of a narrative is so extremely essential. For me, probably the most profitable tasks from a sonic perspective have been those the place the rating and sound design seem to be they’re reduce from the identical material and assist each other — the place I’ve a incredible and collaborative relationship with the sound designer.
What are some items of expertise or devices you may’t reside with out or have a tendency to incorporate in your work?
That is one thing I’ve been reconsidering over the previous couple of years. Once I began engaged on Influence Winter it was throughout COVID, and my household and I had quickly relocated from LA to reside in a summer time cottage in Michigan in the midst of winter — it felt a bit of post-apocalyptic. I actually didn’t have a lot of something with me there, I didn’t have my studio, or any devices, and I truly needed to borrow an SM58 and a contact mic from a good friend.
However that limitation truly pushed me to assume extra creatively. I began amassing and recording every kind of issues — different-sized sticks I discovered within the woods, random objects like gasoline cans, pails, and scrap steel. I even snuck right into a building zone to seize the sound of wind blowing by way of huge cement culverts.
After that have, I started to appreciate how completely different my inventive path was — and I began leaning into that. I made a aware selection to not let anyone instrument or piece of music tech grow to be too central, as a method to pressure myself into new inventive instructions.
These days, I’ve grow to be rather more conscious of how essential the preliminary thought or start line is — greater than any particular instrument, template, or course of. So I start by writing down questions and concepts to assist information my means in.
However, if I needed to decide, I’d say a pen, paper and any kind of recording system.
