What happens when a college student is found dead at a party by her dorm hallmates and nobody has a clue who did it? This is the premise of the new drama series, In the Vault currently airing on Complex Networks’ go90 platform. The show’s score was released last week by composer Kevin Blumenfeld whose other credits include go90’s Play by Play and AMC’s The Walking Dead Webisodes. In honor of the release we decided to speak with Kevin about the show’s electronic original score and since October marks the month of the living dead, his work on The Walking Dead Webisodes.
The In the Vault main title theme is pretty powerful, and somewhat sets the tone for the show. Was that a lot of pressure to basically introduce viewers to what the vibe of the show was going to be? How long did it take to score that sequence?
TV main titles are a lot of fun. You’re given this great opportunity to establish the tone of the show. It’s shot so well by Andy Rydzewski and has such an ominous and foreboding feel to it. Ultimately it took about a day to write. It’s different from project to project, but for this one, we wanted to keep precise tempo with the cards, hitting each one and building as we go. We wanted to establish intrigue. Hopefully it worked.
In the first episode during the party scene there is a large palate of sounds in a very short period of time. How did you pick which melodies you wanted to use? Did the director have any input on that musical sequence?
The last scene in the first episode might be one of my favorites. You just don’t see it coming. I know I didn’t. It does a great job at setting up the series. Throughout the episode, we’re given sparse clues surrounding this mysterious dead body. There’s a melodic “dead body” motif that I have accompany these sequences. The only clue we have is this red scarf. As the episode progresses, we see the scarf exchanged between multiple characters, adding to the suspicion. As the girls are coming down the stairs at the end of the episode, the melody transforms from Liv’s melody to the “dead body” melody as Liv takes last possession of the red scarf. This led to the ultimate reveal. I was a lot of fun to write that cue.
All the music in the show is pretty electronic, was this a conscious decision? If so, why did you choose that tone?
Right, yeah that was very deliberate. Ben Epstien had a very specific music tone that he wanted me to find. It was a lot of fun. With electronic music, you’re given such a wide range of sonic freedom. There’s a lot of creative breathing room. But with that comes additional challenges of creating a brand new template. It’s a lot of fun.
Credit: Leon BosketWhat sort of preparation did you do before starting work on In the Vault?
For any project there’s a preparation period of building your sound template, creating sounds, melodies and motifs. It’s a lot of trial and error. I scored an indie film with Charles Hood a couple years ago called Night Owls. It had such a unique structure to it. Almost like a play. We must have tried a hundred themes and sounds, looking to find just the right music approach. Ultimately we found something that worked really well. Sometimes finding the identity of the music can take a while, yet other times you can find it almost immediately. In The Vault happened pretty fast. Everything just seemed to work right off the bat and everyone gave a lot of positive feedback.
How would you describe your musical style?
I’m not sure I have a specific style. I’m a piano based composer, but I feel most at home with an orchestral setting. In contemporary film scoring, there really is no rule book. If it works, it works. The primary focus here is conveying the music narrative of the film. Whatever it takes to achieve that goal and bring the director’s vision to life. Sometimes that encompasses various styles, while sometimes it means finding a new style entirely. It’s very rare to find yourself in that cozy comfort bubble. But that’s a good thing.
In both The Walking Dead Webisodes and In the Vault there are hints of a piano. Is this one of your ‘go to’ instruments?
Because the piano is my primary instrument, I have a bit of a bias towards piano based motifs. Before I write a cue, generally I’ll sit at the piano and use that as a starting point. While The Walking Dead Webisodes used some piano, In The Vault is a bit more deceiving. You might be thinking you’re hearing a piano melody, but it’s actually a cocktail of various synths and manipulated sounds. So while it’s not technically a piano, I can treat it like one.
The Walking Dead is a huge franchise. Were you at all nervous to work on the webisodes, given that Bear McCreary’s score for the show was so popular?
Honestly I was excited more than anything. The nervous bit came from the fast turnaround we had. It was two or three days to write and produce about 18-20 minutes of score. I just really wanted to get it right. We knew we wanted to immerse you in the world of The Walking Dead while having it be respectful of Bear’s score and sort of do our own thing.
Did you connect with Bear at all when beginning work on the webisodes? If so, did he give you any tips?
I had only met Bear once for a completely unrelated lunch meeting. I think this was about four years before The Walking Dead. I must have been 21 or so. He’s such a cool guy. He’s as nice as he is talented. Funny enough, the webisodes happened so fast, I never really had an opportunity to reach out. Sometime later I eventually reached out and we had a brief laugh at the coincidence of it all. He’s a very warm person and I’ve always found him to be very encouraging. To have even a small part in the awesomeness that is The Walking Dead was a huge thrill.
You can learn more about Kevin here: http://kevinblumenfeld.com/
