'Chernobyl' composer created entire haunting score from real power plant sounds — Transcript

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1. 0:00were you early on Chernobyl yes yeah I
2. 0:03mean I hadn't I so that process was was
3. 0:07quite different from this but I was I
4. 0:10basically I worked the music alongside
5. 0:13the shooting
6. 0:14so I basically the the filmed most of
7. 0:20the series in Lithuania and a power
8. 0:23plant has been decommissioned No so
9. 0:25right before they went there to shoot I
10. 0:27went there to record so I went there
11. 0:29with my score producer and Chris Watson
12. 0:31who records all of that David
13. 0:33Attenborough um
14. 0:36films and episodes and so he is like he
15. 0:40is like a master field recording
16. 0:41engineer and and it's just like it's
17. 0:44just it's such an experience to listen
18. 0:47with him so we went in there and full
19. 0:49you know full suits hazmat and
20. 0:54everything and um is that what you're
21. 0:56glowing
22. 0:58[Laughter]
23. 1:02yeah so um yeah so we went there to
24. 1:06record the power plant and and we worked
25. 1:10the score from those recordings so every
26. 1:13single sound in the score is made from
27. 1:15those power plant recording and know and
28. 1:18just Brad what you mean by that when you
29. 1:19say you were you banging on stuff and in
30. 1:22certain echoes or are you playing
31. 1:23instruments inside the power plant no I
32. 1:26was I was observing the power plant so I
33. 1:29didn't really want to I didn't really
34. 1:31want to play it as such but I just
35. 1:33wanted to go there and I wanted to I
36. 1:36wanted to experience what it feels like
37. 1:39to be inside a power plant because it's
38. 1:42this as the the same situation again
39. 1:44it's like how I'm in Chernobyl it's it's
40. 1:46like one of the biggest catastrophes of
41. 1:49our lifetimes
42. 1:50you know and it's and beyond our
43. 1:52lifetimes because the the facts of it
44. 1:55are going to you know be there long long
45. 1:57after we're gone and and it's you know
46. 1:59it's such a complicated story to tell
47. 2:01and you know how does that sound like
48. 2:04how does a catastrophe really feel like
49. 2:07and how does it sound and how does it
50. 2:09feel to be in that situation and and of
51. 2:12course this is
52. 2:13this is a scenario that's completely
53. 2:15alien to me and so just go in there and
54. 2:19you know wearing the clothes that these
55. 2:21people wear and you know just smelling
56. 2:23all the older smells and these like long
57. 2:27quarters that just go on for kilometers
58. 2:29of corridors and just take the you know
59. 2:32the women constantly cleaning the whole
60. 2:36power plant this is like there's so many
61. 2:37there's so many little nuances of
62. 2:40experiencing going there which which was
63. 2:44just so interesting to observe just kind
64. 2:46of building the character of the power
65. 2:48play yes exactly and and how does that
66. 2:51sound like you know so I just wanted to
67. 2:53go there and observe what a power plant
68. 2:56really is because of course we you know
69. 2:58we we associate certain sounds with with
70. 3:01nuclear disaster you know them and that
71. 3:04those emitters and and you know that's
72. 3:06kind of the sound of nuclear but but
73. 3:10there's so many other sounds that are
74. 3:12there that were just so interesting to
75. 3:14observe so I didn't really I didn't play
76. 3:15much I was mostly there I'm observing
77. 3:18and recorded in cording like hours and
78. 3:20hours and hours of material was your
79. 3:22idea yeah yeah this is what you do to on
80. 3:25any project or is this something new
81. 3:27that you wanted to try well it was um so
82. 3:30me and Sam Slater who produced the
83. 3:33square with me we were just like you
84. 3:35know talking back and forth like what we
85. 3:37wanted to do with it like how we felt
86. 3:40that it sounded like and and yeah so
87. 3:43this was I mean I don't know that for
88. 3:44every score obviously like you know for
89. 3:46otherwise I'd be you know following
90. 3:49killers or cartel it was it can be you
91. 4:01know complicated
92. 4:02I'm just shadowing guys
93. 4:05I'm sowing cocaine yes externally you
94. 4:12shake that bag but it was it was such an
95. 4:16interesting process because it's um you
96. 4:18know making music is and also just like
97. 4:23you know trying to you know reading
98. 4:26scripts and and you know trying to
99. 4:27trying to make music out of a story it's
100. 4:31so much of it and most of it is about
101. 4:34listening and to go into an environment
102. 4:38purely to listen and with you know like
103. 4:40Chris Watson is just like he is he has
104. 4:43the most profound listening presence you
105. 4:46know so his presence was so I mean he's
106. 4:49a type of person who can you know he can
107. 4:51record ants or glaciers or like whatever
108. 4:55alive were or that sound he can just he
109. 4:58can record it you know so it was just
110. 5:00such a profound experience to go there
111. 5:01with him and then to go through those
112. 5:04recordings again with with that with
113. 5:08with that feeling you know of just being
114. 5:12completely present for every single
115. 5:14sound and listening to every single
116. 5:16sound it was it was a little bit like
117. 5:18gold digging you know so yeah so the
118. 5:20kind of the big the big solo musician of
119. 5:25the score was this door which just made
120. 5:27these incredible sounds you know it was
121. 5:30it was a door to a pump room that I mean
122. 5:31we weren't like closing it and you know
123. 5:33moving it at all but we were just like
124. 5:35we just came up to this door with a
125. 5:37microphone and there were just like oh
126. 5:39my god there was all these high
127. 5:42frequencies they were just making this
128. 5:44like crazy crazy noises and then you
129. 5:46know the almost inaudible but like so
130. 5:48high-pitched they just really had to
131. 5:50like you know really had to focus to
132. 5:53hearing things I would I would just like
133. 5:55listen to this door for hours and hours
134. 5:57and hours and then I'd be like okay and
135. 6:00minutes like thirty five and 20 seconds
136. 6:03there's elected you know that that just
137. 6:05like okay oh my god there's a melody an
138. 6:06inner sight just like I take those
139. 6:08little snippets and and they would
140. 6:11become the melodic aspects of that sort
141. 6:13of course Chernobyl is out now on HBO
142. 6:19how did you get involved with the
143. 6:21project in general what was the
144. 6:24connection there how do you how did that
145. 6:29happen I think they just asked me to I
146. 6:35was just wandering around with the way
147. 6:37Nia