BACKYARD GOTHIC

Growing up, most people would have been aware of their local "haunted house" in the neighbourhood.

As a young child in what was then, a very different Jobstown in Tallaght back in the late 80's - early 90's. There was Wolfy's house. It was the house of a man that went mad, turned into a wolf and killed his family. It was said on nights of the full moon, you could hear him scarpering around the rooftops in search of his next victim.

Of course, as a child - the original story was much more convoluted and scary. Mainly due to my older sister's gift for embellishing upon it.

However it was a story that always stayed with me and recently, it resurfaced. My music has been coming to the fore in various places so why not take it to the next level? Why not create a short movie inspired by the above story, that will engage the viewer and I can add my own sonic touch to it? It's not hard to make a film, with a slight bit of know how and understanding of the various techniques, all learned through trial and error over the years - I'm confident. Not overly so. It's a low to no budget movie which will be heavily dependent on quite a bit of charity and goodwill but if I get my passion across (and guilt several family members) it is entirely possible. Full credit to family and friends, they are always game for my mad creative tangents. The star will be my young nephew, Paul. Who's cheeky, a lunatic and most important for the role -  has a big, huge heart. The premise is a well used one, hopefully with a fresh take: "What if your neighbour was a werewolf and, nobody believed you?" I'm feeling a fun Goonies meets Fright Night (the original) vibe

 I have fleshed out the story over the bones of the last year and created a poster along with soundtrack leifmotifs for the various characters. I'm looking forward to filming over the next month or so. Laois is an actual goldmine of beautiful and interesting locations that will be well suited to the story so am genuinely excited about getting this up and running.


HERE'S THE POSTER I CREATED, MAINLY FOR MY AMUSEMENT FEATURING OUR HERO IN A NO NONSENSE POSE,  CREEPILY WATCHED BY THE ANTAGONIST........

TOP TEN Result: The International Horror Hotel Film Festival Scoring Competition.

Celebrating a little victory is important!

1. It makes you feel happy.
2. It gives you motivation to keep going.
3. It builds your confidence.

And boy, is this true! To be specific, I came 9th (yet to be officially revealed) but judging by the number of last years highly commended numbering 20 outside of the top ten, I am gonna celebrate this like I made it to the podium!

I generally suffer from extreme self doubt when it comes to my work (I'm not complaining, I believe it helps me improve  every day) and this was a welcome and timely email to my inbox at a time when I'd been feeling a little jaded as regards to where I am and where I'm progressing - i.e work.

I actually submitted the work last year and immediately doubted the mix after sending it (I was right, I'm never happy) and kept half an eye on proceedings and then slowly..... forgot about it.

I received the email yesterday morning and scared my wife by almost somersaulting out of bed - she forgave me, don't worry. I'll post a link to the video here:Phil McClean - Horror Hotel Scoring 2019. 

Granted the awards presentation and subsequent screening is in Ohio, so unless I can grow money, I'll be celebrating in the Old World with a certificate and a tasty drop of whiskey come Friday when my next day off arrives. Until then I'll be grinding my teeth in retail hell and and cleaning up the loose ends for "The Last Illusion".

Thanks for reading. And more importantly, thanks for listening.

P.S. The above picture was taken by my favourite human, once upon a time in Vegas. In it I'm drinking the most expensive Jameson I ever paid for. It was the last time I felt this rich, albeit more for achievement than cash - but I'll take that anytime!

Cheers.

THE BATMAN

Here we go again, you're saying! Yep, here we go again. This piece has been a long time in the making. Over two years in fact. I produced more imperfect ideas of it but being limited as regards to my instrumental pallet, I was never truly happy with it. 

I originally had a different idea, utilising my nephew's vocals to produce a piece more in line with an early Danny Elfman sound. But over time, his voice started to break and it was obviously no longer possible to use it. I worked on other things in the background but this was a distraction and a half. It was always that piece I couldn't finish. 

So I decided to revisit it and work on it until my ears and fingers bled. It is now practically unrecognisable to the original demo idea scraped together, which I uploaded almost a year ago, having exhausted all avenues to find a replacement for my nephew's voice, which I obviously didn't. You can watch it here.

Between the instruments and the massive learning curve a year gave me, I think the resulting pieces are an interesting study between themselves. Some ideas were kept and embellished upon, others were dumped entirely. Suffice to say, I'm very pleased with "The Batman" and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed making it.

The Gunslinger (A Suite)

So I've finished "The Gunslinger" suite and I'm pretty damn happy with it!

Thematically, the pieces are similar as well as melodically, without being repetitive. Which is a big plus for me. It's the first time I've employed a brass section and am quite happy with it. I always envisioned a big brass "Old West" sound for this story, with a few little oddities - given it's otherworldly status.

Part I - Lots of fun!
 Big, golden era trumpet driven intro followed by a big driving rhythm courtesy of some celli, synth drums and 6 (!) French horns. I sprinkled on a little sequencer bass to add a modern edge towards the end.

Part II - Rather unexpected.
I originally wanted write a piece inspired by the Man in Black but straight in, I knew this was to be Jake's theme. Between the flautando violins, legato violas and the boys choir, it would only ever be Jake's. The choir was a big challenge as I wanted one to play off against the other without them actually fighting each other. Thankfully, it sounds well. The French horn immediately presents the piece as a direct descendant to Part I, along with the melody.

Part III - Difficult. 

I knew the Man in Black needed to be represented, as he is the first character mentioned in the book, though he doesn't make a hugely significant contribution until the later books. Is he an immortal wizard, is he a God, is he the Devil?? What is his game? And why is Roland determined to catch him? The piece, like him is hard to label. Hard driven sequencer with percussive bass, guitar, quanun, duduk and some brass, again to link it with the original piece. I wanted it to be mysterious, more than pursuit driven and hopefully I succeeded.

The Gunslinger

So have started on a new piece.

 I'm very inspired lately, as is quite obvious, and have to decided to strike while the iron is still hot. I've decided to create a piece inspired by Stephen King's "The Gunslinger".

Back in school, I borrowed the particular book on the promise from my good friend, Tom, that I would love it. He was right, I did! So much I read the entire saga that was borne from the original story and was hooked.

 I am aware (and very excited) for the forthcoming "Dark Tower" offering featuring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. As such, I have avoided any so called soundtrack snippets to the degree that I have no idea who the actual composer is and I don't want to absorb any thematic ideas from it, subconsciously or otherwise.

At the moment, I am approaching it as a standard western, but obviously - it's far from a standard western. I've earmarked a couple of instruments that I am looking at utilising, guitar with spring reverb - an old school western staple, muted trumpets and maybe a little choir thrown into the mix with some nice percussion.

The real work starts tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to starting such a DIFFERENT piece. Keep your ears peeled.