DANIEL PEMBERTON

October 20, 2010 | By Mark R. Hasan

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Known in North America as Huge Moves, Impossible Moves, and Mega Moves, Monster Moves (the original title of the Windfall Films series) is a British-U.S. coproduction above moving Big Things, and perhaps the folly of man in wanting to do the impossible, and figuring out a way to actually accomplish the deed, be it moving a house from one part of Vancouver to another by road and barge, transporting a decommissioned submarine across an ocean to its new owners, or taking a 100+ year old brick building with fragile ventilation conduits and lifting the bloody thing above ground in order to transport it to a new locale on university grounds.

Behind the scenes and part of the show’s success is the music of Daniel Pemberton, the BAFTA-nominated British composer who’s admitted love of composers such as Ennio Morricone have taught him there is no wrong way to score a film – it just needs to support the drama, and be fun.

In our Q&A, Pemberton – whose other best-known work is the music for the videogame LittleBigPlanet and TV shows like Peep Show (2003-2008) – talks about some of the more daring musical choices of the series, as well as what makes the show so special.

Mark R. Hasan: First the obligatory: how did you become involved in film scoring, and who are some of the composers you admire?

Daniel Pemberton: I started off making abstract electronic music when I was a teenager. I had an album out when I was 16 and I met a director, Paul Wilmshurst, through that. I wrote my first score for him while I was still at school, and we’ve worked together ever since, and now I have too many people to work for.
I like Ennio Morricone a lot, and then also John Barry and the usual suspects that always crop up. Of today’s lot, I like Alexandre Desplat for his elegance and simplicity, Michael Giacchino, and Mark Mothersbaugh.

MRH: I find Monster Moves to be an interesting (albeit unofficial) companion to shows like Building Big, because rather than dealing with the construction of massive projects (such as an obelisk, a suspension bridge), Monster Moves covers the quandaries and different kind of complexities in moving something across unnatural terrains or extreme distances.

That provides a different perspective for the composer, because the focus goes beyond the grandiose; there’s an element of insanity in forcing the impossible and actually pulling it off. Was that one aspect of the show that appealed to you, if not the diverse characters who were determined to realize their extreme goals?

DP: To start with, I wanted to make the music a lot more quirky and unusual. The company that makes the series, Windfall Films, is one of the greatest, truly independent TV producers left in the U.K. They’ve always encouraged me to do whatever I like, and I owe them a lot for that. But there was a run-in with the American co-financers who wanted the music more ‘by the book,’ so it went from being quite wacky to being a bit more straight ‘jeopardy’ music for the first series, which didn’t get me that excited. It wasn’t really until the second series with the songs that I started to have some fun.

MRH: I gather you score the episodes when they’ve been edited, but I assume “Deep Deep Down” was written prior to shooting. I wonder if you could describe how that particular episode (or the church episode, with “Here It Comes”) was approached by yourself and the director, because you’ve essentially got an entire town singling as they walk with their homes being transported down a snowy road to the town’s new location, with onscreen captions for the witty lyrics. It’s surreal, funny, and kind of epic, and the sequence is jaw-dropping.

DP: I honestly still can’t believe that has been shown on TV. They were moving a church and the series producer had this crazy idea about doing a big choral song to accompany it with the church’s choir. I played along, not really thinking it would ever happen, especially after we had to tone down anything musically unusual from the first series.

He’d ask, ‘How’s that song going?’ and I’d go, ‘Oh yeah… Erm, it’s coming along… Is it really going to happen then?’ and he’d go, ‘Yeah,’ and I’d not really believe it. But it did, and I wrote the song.

It’s really nuts. It got a mad response when it went out on TV. It’s such a strange unusual piece of TV that we started doing more of them. I actually think it’s a shame there’s not more stuff like that on TV. You can do anything with music; it can be such a powerful tool and it’s so rarely used to its fullest. I think with this it is. It’s crazy, over-the-top, but it definitely makes you smile. (I think you just need to watch the clip. Hearing me talk about it is very boring compared to just seeing it.)

Anyway, what usually happens is I write a theme and talk to the director, and then come up with some sort of phrase for the chorus. Then the crew comes up with a load of verses while they are shooting which I then rework and fit to the song. We then record it, or do a shit demo, and play that when they shoot. We haven’t really got a great system worked out due to budget/time/etc., etc., so it changes each time, depending on the set up.

MRH: The Brits have been very good in creating intelligent reality/documentary shows for the world market, perhaps because of a tradition of making purposeful documentaries, and I feel that your writing is similarly flexible: it conveys the heart of an episode, informing the viewer, but it also draws from a very broad range of music styles without turning the episode into something that’s commercially disposable – a common problem with reality and documentary shows on myriad specialty channels in North America. When you’re about to score an episode, what specific things do you adhere to, so that an episode’s integrity is entertaining and informative?

DP: I just think, ‘How can I have fun today?’ so when there’s an episode about a big submarine, I’ll write a big male voice choral track. I just sort of let myself have fun and try and evoke some of the storytelling and emotions of the episode into the songs.

I want to make things that will just excite anyone watching the show. TV and film music is so afraid of being bold these days, which I find a really shame. Listen to Ennio Morricone’s scores – they are mental and so in your face. I love that kinda of stuff. Obviously there’s a place for more subtle stuff, and I do that too, but sometimes it’s really good fun to just let it rip.

Ironically, U.K. docs and reality shows have been really good places to do that, as you don’t have the same dramatic structures and disciplines to hold you back as you do with dramatic work, and people let you do more what you want to do and not what they think the exec, who is second-guessing an audience, wants.

Also, recording live with a big choir and orchestra is great, great fun. The choir loves it. I turned up at a session a while ago, and as I walked into the studio, they said they still couldn’t get a song we recorded a year ago out of their heads.

It’s fun to work with words and phrases rather than just ‘oos’ and ‘ahhs’ for once. It’s silly, but also kinda emotional too. And you hear that stuff on Monster Moves; it’s the sort of show that’s the last place you’d expect to hear it, and it does blow you away, I think, if only for the surprise element.

I mean, I would look at the show’s soundtrack album, as I’m sure many of your readers may do, and think, ‘Why the hell would I want to hear music from that show?’ But you hear it and you’re like, ‘What the hell is this??’

MRH: Unlike American shows, the British productions tend to run as long as they need, so they’re not vulnerable to filler episodes just to deliver a 23 episode run with an aim to make the syndication minimums. Because dramatic and documentary series in Britain can run 6 or 9 episodes, does that make it easier for a composer to write and refine a score with less pressure?

I’m also curious to know if the smaller run of episodes per season allows one to work on several shows, knowing you’re not locked into a long and draining production schedule?

DP: I just finished a great BBC series over here called Desperate Romantics. We recorded it at Abbey Road, live orchestra, with a band attached. 6 episodes. 170 separate cues. All live, no overdubs. Glam rock bass guitars, saxes, strings, harps, the lot.

It killed me, it was so much work, but I was still really proud of everything I wrote. If it was 23 episodes, there’s no way I could have kept it up. I would have to start taking short cuts, coming up with different ways to cut corners.

The show had a real unique sonic identity as a result, and I think the relatively ‘small’ number of episodes was a part of that. If you’ve got to write, say, 680 cues, you’re not gonna do it all live. It would just kill you. You’d probably start using the same tricks – loops, drones, etc. – that you hear all the time, so it was nice to not have to do that. And it also meant that you can keep moving between jobs and stay excited. I did a number of other projects in the year, too, like this BBC Iraq War drama called Occupation (I think it’s coming to the U.S. later in the year) which was completely different stylistically.

MRH: Although you’ve scored episodes dealing with submarines, trains, Egyptian monuments, courthouses, and steamships, what are your three favourite episodes, and some of the music styles you were delighted to explore?

DP: My fav songs are “The Train from Bloemfontein,” “Heave Ho,” and “Gold.” They are just over the top, completely shameless big pieces of music. If you hear them, you will think, ‘What the hell?’ which I think is actually a good reaction these days. I wish there was more music that made me do that.

KQEK would like to thank Daniel Pemberton for taking time out during his busy schedule for participating in this Q&A.

For more information on Daniel Pemberton, visit the composer’s website.

Order the MP3 album HERE.

Visit the official Monster Moves/Windfall Films website HERE.

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CD: Little Big Music (2008) — Monster Moves (2005-2006)

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