Welcome to the music room.

This week in the music ring.

I'll do everything is live as I, I can, even if it's in

my, I have mic set up all the time, stuff flying around all the time.

Uh, you know, you can see some stuff in the background, but literally in the

hallway, in our, in our hallway, just full of instruments every day as if, I'm sorry.

I'll keep it, put it somewhere

Hello, music rumors.

And welcome to another episode of the music room podcast.

The show where I chat with composers, songwriters, and musicians about what

they're up to before going back in time to find out how it all began.

Actually I say, I.

But if you go back and episode composer, singer, songwriter, and

musician, Charlotte Hatherley.

Yes.

The Charlotte handily.

Guest hosted and had a brilliant chat with composer, kali parody.

Who on top of scoring things like line of duty and the rising has toured with

Clint Mansell and Nick cave and the bad seeds well-worth listen that you can hear

it right there on your podcast app or.

At music, green podcast.uk.

In this episode, you're going to hear from a wonderfully inventive UK based composer,

Alex Baranowski, he's worked on everything from the BDC to ident and the hip BMC,

one comedy staged with David Tennant and Michael sheen to the delightful

BAFTA nominated the Windemere children for wall-to-wall and Warner brothers.

I'll introduce him properly in a bit, but rest assured it's a great listen.

So, so music stories.

Uh, Paul has picked up the worldwide rights to flora and son, John Carney's

musical load to motherhood that features a breakthrough performance by Eve Hewson.

The movie is Connie's first since his 2016 sensation sing street.

Remember that, which also premiered at Sundance and just like sing street.

It two features original songs by Connie and his frequent collaborator.

And music queen guest, Gary Clark.

Next.

I asked the music room group on Facebook to share some quick tips

with their fellow music reamers.

Uh, Janet Overfield says how to make your cello or Viola sound like it.

Isn't in a toilet.

Gently wide depth at around 2.5 to 3.5 K.

And gentle wide booster around 250 to 400 Hertz.

Someone here could have probably told me that if I'd asked, but working out slowly

for myself this week was quite satisfying.

That's great.

Nice little tip, Janet.

Uh, Mike Langley, you can make a banjo out of an acoustic guitar by sticking

a balloon inside and inflating it.

Till it touches the strings.

Play with caution.

There you go.

What a great tip.

If you don't have a banjo.

Ruben Cornell dip your master at 500 Hertz to make it sound more open.

Again, Very easy, very simple, very effective.

Thanks Ruben.

Bali Bali, man, this week's tip for me is try harder.

Uh, we can all do that.

Got.

Bali, uh, as a motivational device, I've bought a page two a day diary

and log everything I do in it at the end of the day, I think, oh, I've

done four hours guitar practice today.

And then realize I've been awake for 12.

So two.

Yeah.

Uh, Joe Kendall says play from the heart and don't be afraid to

hold notes outside of the timings.

As I'm finding this as sounding more raw and emotive this week,

that's absolutely spot on Joe.

Yes.

It's very easy to rely on the quantize button.

Isn't it.

But it's much better to pay from the heart.

Isn't it?

Absolutely.

Robin Sherlock Tomayo says, make rules, then break them.

Wow.

Great little tip that I don't usually like using presets, but made a point

of using some Arturia ones this week.

Freshen things up.

No end.

Why not.

Fantastic tips, everyone.

Thank you so much for those.

Alex Baranowski is a composer based in London.

He recently scored eight part series rain dogs releasing this year

and his ballet legacy variations with choreographer, David Dawson.

Premiered at the Dutch national ballet in December of last year.

Recent film scores include a Gaza weekend directed by Oscar nominated basil Kaleel.

For film for releasing in 2023.

And Ruth Wilson and Jude law produced true things.

As well as three series of hit BBC.

One comedy staged, starring David Tennant and Michael sheen.

BAFTA nominated the Windermere children for wall-to-wall and Warner brothers

and burial uh, world war II drama.

For altitude film, starring Harriet, Walter let's find

out how it all began for Alex.

And stick around as he'll be leaving at nighttime and a

piece of advice for you to find

Alex Barovsky composer, welcome to the music room.

I'm very happy to be here.

Thank you very much for asking me to come.

I enjoy your podcast very much.

Ah, that's always nice to hear.

Always nice to hear.

How are you today and, uh, what have you got going on

Very good.

Very good.

Um, well, I'm chatting to you.

No, it's lovely.

Um, how about yourself?

Hmm, well, I am, probably two thirds of the way through

a kid series at the moment.

based on, the wind in the Willows, which.

Lovely, really enjoying that.

Um, so I will be straight back to that.

Once we we've, uh, we've done, and you know, it's that typical mider.

Um, once everyone's happy with what they're doing, then it,

it really becomes a, a kind of a production line, doesn't it?

Of this comes to me, then goes back for notes, comes back

and onto post-production and.

it's mine.

I like that rhythm.

I like that rhythm.

When you've sort of, you've got the seams, you've got ideas,

you know what you're doing.

You still wanna sort of do, try and do new things.

No, it's lovely.

It's lovely.

And it does become, if it's well oiled, it does become a, an opportunity

to really hone in on little bits as well.

Um, the, I had some, extra little notes, some fine notes this morning.

Um, and the director actually wrote to me and said, I'm so sorry cause I previously.

Said, I was happy with this episode, but I've just noticed this, this, and this.

And I had to say to him, it's, you know, it's fine.

It's part of the process.

You

It shows the director's got a love for it.

It's not just sort of, especially with music, sometimes you find

people just going on need tot that on, put this on if that's, but

actually it's, it's nice people.

I, I, I feel, I find that really lucky when people actually

want spend time with crafty.

Cause that's what we wanna do.

We wanna make the best thing we can make.

Right.

That's,

Absolutely.

Yeah, very

much.

Uh, speaking of which, I had a couple with, the music room Facebook

group this morning, and I mentioned that we were meeting and chatting

and so they have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind,

Of course,

So Ruben Cornell, he says Hi asks,

Hi.

also, it's like a, like a Saturday morning phone in, isn't it?

Oh, Ruben's lovely.

Yeah.

Uh, how does your writing process work with surround

sound in a theater environment?

Because you've done theater work and you, you've done

wow.

We're getting, we're getting right.

Stuck into the

We, we are, yeah.

Straight in at the deep

Um, well, I'm, I'm, I guess to give a bit of background,

I'm, I'm very lucky that I do, I work in various bits of film and theater

and dance and adverts and working.

So, and, and theater is a thing that.

She started it all off.

When I first got moved to London, the first thing I did was meet with some

composers and I, I met this lovely, um, lovely composer called Adrian

Sutton, who gave me an assistant role at the National Theater.

Um, just literally just doing copying of schools with

surveillance, something like that.

And, , I adored every second of being in that building.

It was just sort of, it was just this, having been in this room on my own,

desperately trying to find work, get a job, do Australia, and meeting these

amazing people in this incredible room.

Um, and I learned about theater and I, this wonderful thing

of theater is where you can.

It's not like we're working on a film or a tv.

You're like, you can put a speaker wherever you want and you can make a

sound come out of it whenever you want.

It's amazing.

Um, so set.

Yeah.

So Ruben's question surround sound.

Yeah.

I, I'm obsessed with it.

I love it.

I've hidden speakers on the seats in theaters and put them in roofs and put

them in corridors and put them behind stages, above the stages outside.

On stage hidden.

Um, so you can put them anywhere and it's wonderful and it can help tell

the story and, and the one, sorry, you were saying you wanted to ask me a.

well, well, I guess the question in that context is did

you actually write in multichannel

Well, yes, so, so a lot of the time in theater, I'm

not just being hire as a c compos, I'm been kind as a sound designer.

So you sort of mix the two very, in a really interesting way

and it really changed the way I've worked in film as well.

And because you're sort of using sounds as musical, you know, making sounds

of music or making music at sounds.

And if you know you are going to be writing music for this, it's, it's almost

as simple as sort of writing steps.

So I want this to go out, this speaker.

I will make a stem of it.

I'll do this.

So you having knowing.

, I guess it's quite similar to writing a computer game.

Not that I've ever written a computer game, um, in that sort of way, but I

guess it's, it's writing ideas isn't, you're not writing a linear piece of

media that starts here and then in three minutes maybe you are writing

a piece that starts in a certain way.

And when an actor says a certain thing or something happens on stage, you can make

that as a cue and then the next queue will come along to add another layer to it.

Another, this, you could add some sound.

And you can just build up sound scripts.

There's, there's a, a very clever program called Q Lab, which is.

, um, both simply use that.

It's actually free to download just the normal stereo version so you can do,

it's, it's, um, yeah, check it out if you're interested to get to the theater.

But it's amazing because you, you can just play, audio files.

You can put fades in, you can send things to here, send things to there.

And it's a really, really simple system.

But most, most datas use, Q Lab.

Um, and so as a Samsung designer composer, I will sit in a, in a technical

rehearsal or even in rehearsal room before we've gone into the theater and.

Start putting things into this, into the queue.

I want a laptop and pay things through.

Um, so nor normally I'm quite organized, so I can, I've just, I did a show, at

the end of last year, called Orlando, which is on now in the West End.

Until the end of February and I, I'd sat in the rehearsal room and I wrote

lots and lots and lots of music.

It was a very big music show and sounds and we programmed everything really there.

So I knew before I went into theater where everything was

gonna go, I designed the space.

So we had surrounds, we had had speakers on stage.

I put a speaker in the roof.

This amazing theater.

It's incredible.

So when you have things like rain, you there was a, There was

a, um, Scene in Istanbul where we have sort of called to prayers.

And it's amazing putting this call to prayer, like through a roof.

And in the theater sort of, it's not coming out the speakers,

it's not coming behind me.

It's coming.

It's, and it's really amazing kind of just to,

Really

you don't really put it in words.

And I think as, as an audience like you, probably most people wouldn't really

notice cuz you're sort of, you're in it, you know, a theater show's done well.

You are just so absorbed into action.

You don't think, oh, that's a nice, I, no, I do because I sit in it like, like

we all watch films and think, oh, that was a nice music cue or a bit different.

Um, so yeah.

I, I love that aspect of, sound in, in theater.

Yeah.

um, yeah, use sound, use music.

Yeah.

Great.

Fantastic.

Sorry, that was a really long-winded

a, that's fine.

No, that's, that's it.

Is gold dust, honestly.

Getting people who actually have.

A wealth of experience to explain something like that

for listeners is, is wonderful.

So thank you.

And

Reen.

I hope, that answers your question.

But I have to say like theater is a, it's a bit of a mystic art.

Like a lot of composers.

In recent years, I've How'd you get in theater?

You know, you just meet people.

You know, I've, the wonderful thing, the wonderful thing about that was, um,

working at the National Theater, which is this wonderful, huge, big theater.

I was, I think I was 25, 14 years ago.

And, I met so many people, but all the assistants to the

directors, all the assistants to the designers, all the assistant

composers, we all knew each other.

And we went, made films above a pub for no money.

You know, we, we, we learned how to do it all.

And now all these guys, they're directing shows, they're directing

films, they're directing.

This is kind of how I'm quite lucky in being able to do so many different things.

Cause I guess you sort of meet people along the way and you think, I'll do that.

I'll do this.

Come on, I'll have a go at.

. Um, and it's, yeah, it's wonderful.

And that's what I really loved about theater is it just got me out and

meeting people, but not meeting people.

Cuz I'm a networking event.

I have to meet someone cuz I don't do that.

if I've ever go to one of them, I will go to the corner and I will

hide in the loo and Ill leave.

Um, because that's my, that's what's me.

That's your networking style.

yeah.

Any sort of, I hate, I'm terrible.

I'm terrible with all that.

Meeting greets as well.

But yes, it's sort of meeting people by accident and saying,

oh, you did that and it's great.

Oh, should we do this?

And let's, you know, let's catch up for a cup of tea and let's go for, you know,

go to the pub afterwards, after the show.

And like, it's, it's really amazing kind of having that little network

of people to do that in Yeah, in, in, and theater was my way.

Yeah.

Fabulous, fabulous.

Um, going over to another medium, of television.

Janet in the music room group, uh, Janet Overfield.

Hello Janet.

She asks about, uh, the series staged with David Tennant and Michael Sheen, um,

because it started during the pandemic.

How did the writing process.

Differ in that situation.

Cause everyone was kind of trying to figure out how to do

All a bit confused.

Were they

Well that sort of came about cuz the director, um,

Simon, who was actually in it and he wrote it, we were due to do a

theater show which got canceled.

And he was a bit niff about it.

And instead of, being like everyone else, like we were like, I was just

kind of complaining about it and going, oh crap, what we gonna do now?

He was like, right, I'm gonna write a sitcom, um, on Zoom about

a theater show that got cancel.

And that's how it came about.

So I got this call from Simon saying, GE Fancy, just, just try this pilot.

So he, he managed to convince, David and Michael to try this pilot.

We all work for free.

Just sort of just read, just, just try it.

Let's just, let's see an episode, see if it works.

It's lovely editor called Danage.

And we put it together and it was great.

It was really, really good.

Very quickly they managed to get the BBC to commission it said, right, you're off.

And it was then a very, very rush, like Right, we've gotta do it,

we've gotta get this out there cuz you know, who knows when the hell

long this pandemic's gonna last.

Like, we might all be out in a week.

So it was, it literally got to the point where I'd be given a cup on a.

Thursday night, I'd watch it and make notes and start writing.

And I'd have Friday, maybe morning and I'd get some notes back from the director.

And yeah, to, I'd record it live with a lovely, based town at play called

Ben Castle, who was based on, I, you know, it was all done on, on, you

know, email and zoom and so it'll all be mixed by the end of the night.

So I do have to do a, literally a whole episode in 24 hours and turn it

around and ready for the sound mix.

What if it was the Friday or, you know, like it literally was

like, no, it was no, no time.

But it was kind of fun and cool and so, so it was, it was just, the

idea behind it was to make it sound like it was made in a pandemic.

Like I, I, I wanted to have some big brush thing.

Like I wanted it to sound like, well, I've got a piano in here, so I have a piano.

I think a little quirky based cla No, let's do it like it sounds.

It was done in my back bedroom, which it kinda

And, and actually you didn't really need to imagine, did you,

because you were making it in a pandemic

Exactly.

Exactly.

Exactly, exactly.

So I, I just love the lofi of it.

I love the silliness of it.

Um, and it, it's been amazing how, how well it's come.

Like, you know, so many people ask me for the score to play the piano, so

I just put it up for free on Twitter.

I was like, great.

It's like you wanna play it, put it like play it.

Send me a video.

If you played it,

That's wonderful,

it, it was great fact.

We, there was an amazing video that did come true that was, um, this amazing

band of, music graduates and they did big arrangement of it with bubble

bass and clarinets and piano and touch with one of the guys and becoming my

assistant he'd been working with me for.

It's how it happens.

Wonderful.

Well, thank you Janet.

I hope that answers your question.

Uh, I've got my own question because, I think I was made aware of you with the

BBC two I dents, that were I'm sure a wonderful experiment in sound design.

But what really put you onto my radar was the film, the Windier Children.

Oh yeah.

is based on the experience of child survivors of the Holocaust,

a camp set up near Lake Windier and the score is suitably emotive.

What was it like to write that and how did the sound of the film come into being?

Oh, well that was, oh, I was, that was such a beautiful film

and it was really, so the, the film like about these Polish refugees that came

over from Poland to the late district and I, from all my grandparents were Polish

refugees who, they didn't go to the late district, but they ended up, in the uk.

After the war.

and it was really interesting cause I, my grandparents were

these amazing creative people.

My, my granddad was a, a poet, a musician, and, my grandmother

and a amazing oil painter.

And, they really, really wrote and painted about their experiences in the war.

And it was so moving to.

To read and to see these paint and, and to think of it in context and

sort of, and the film was very good at making that feel a bit more real.

And so I put my grandmother's paintings up and there's some really harrowing

paintings that she, she made of her time around there that's sort of half

abstract, half figurative, with sort of quite harrowing details that, um, I

need, I need to sort of work from this.

And, um, I use my granddad's instrument like, so that's this accordion

they obviously see on a podcast.

But I've got an accordion in my room that my granddad bought in, um,

in Italy, I think in So, so all my grandparents were, they were taken

to Siberia and they were taken to Siberian labor camps, prison camps.

And the only reason they were, Released is because, uh, Stalin switched sides

from, you know, obviously working with Hitler, invading Poland, and

he switched sides to the alley.

So he said, right off, off you go, you need to go and fight.

And they made them march from Siberia to Palestine to Italy.

So it, it really, really affected me thinking about their experiences and

experiences on the, on the children in the film, and I used, my granddad's

instruments and I, I, like I said, I, I put the paintings of my grandma around

the studio and I, I genuinely was sort of crying through writing a lot of cues.

It was, cuz it was, it was a really, so yeah, it was a

really emotional experience.

in a, in a way, adding to their creativity through time.

It's really, and it's, it's made me actually write, write more.

And I just recently released actually a.

A piece that a Canadian violinist, commissioned, um, called Debo.

I wrote a piece called Spring, which is based on one of the

poems that my, my granddad wrote.

They're all in Polish, but I sort, my is terrible.

So I have to use Google Translate and then get a family member to

sort of translate a bit better.

It was the most beautiful sort of, you know, he wrote it in Siberia when.

It must have been so bleak, like living through a Siberian

winter in a labor camp thinking.

And I, and I've heard his account, there's, he's a recorded account

of his on, um, Imperial War Museum.

It's, it's really incredible.

Um, and I remember talking to him about it and we was, we were really close and he

brought me my first violin when I was six.

He was, he had a choir into his nineties.

He was incredible.

Incredible man.

But no, it was, it was really wonderful.

It was like, it was, it was great.

Yeah.

Well, with that in mind, because you are actually going back in time

with your violin at six years old.

Uh, why don't we go back in time and, uh, find out how it all began.

If you are ready, I.

Wonderful.

Okay, so you.

Mentioned about, your grandfather buying you your first violin.

Was that the first time that you had experienced music?

Or was there a time before that that you can remember?

so, so that, that accordion that, um, I mentioned

that my, my grandma bought in Italy in sort of like forties.

I remember him playing it to me and sort of singing and, when

I must have been really little.

I remember it sort of towering over me and now it's.

Sort of, you know, I think, oh that's, but I remember it being this huge thing, this

huge special thing that lived upstairs and every now and again, he'd play it.

Cause I sort of spend my summers, with them, you know, summer holidays,

that was sort of my childcare.

I sort of realized, you know, sort of painting and listening to music and, and

that was, I guess that was really lucky.

And I kept quite unusual I guess.

But they, they really did a lot in that, Creativity and just sort of thinking,

well, of course we can be creative.

That's what we do.

It's funny, I sort see my kids and they, my, their seven year old comes in and,

well, of course that's what dad does.

He just does music for stuff, you know, , it's what?

There's no question for it.

There's no question that, you know.

Yeah.

I love it.

Yeah.

Yeah,

It's very lucky.

Really.

very much so.

What were the circumstances of him buying you a violin then?

What

was all that

don't, I don't know why he, he was always sort of like,

you, I think you need to pay the violin.

I thought, okay, great.

That, well,

Okay.

And I've still, I've got it like it's a little sort of

half size, quarter size little violin.

My, my kid plays in it now.

And then I ended up, it ended up not being the right violin to learn violin.

I think it was too small for even at six.

It was too small.

So I ended, getting another violin.

Um, and Jetta started, started lessons and

you enjoy that or

were you doing

it, absolutely loved it.

It's only when it got a bit and I got bit older and I had to practice and I had to

do that, you know, when you were 11, 12, 13, like, wow, I don't wanna do this.

But by then I'd sort of discovered the piano and I didn't really

wanna practice that either.

I'd, but I'd sort of loved to sort of just listen to stuff off the TV and try

and copy stuff, try and write my own, you know, really loved the piano and

discovered jazz, discovered everything, and then talk to the piano practice 20

minutes before the Planet two arrived.

You, did you transition from the violin then?

Did you, are we kind of doing them in

No, I kept, I, I think I kept playing it until I was about,

um, 15, 16, the violin, and then I sort of, the, the piano took over.

But it, I, I'm obsessed with strings.

If anyone's heard my music, they're probably

a little bit.

Yeah.

It comes across

Um, but that's why, and I genuinely can't

play it, but I wish I could.

Every time I meet people, you know, young composers who play things like violence

and cellos, just use it, use it, use it.

Cause I, you know, I wish.

I have tried.

I thought, you know what, if I just try a little bit and like add it, layer it

like no, no, it's just, it's just bad.

It sounds like some cat being,

With your piano then, you mentioned you went for lessons.

yeah, so, well, I think I started kinda lessons a bit later.

Maybe like nine.

Nine or 10.

Yeah.

I, and I loved it and again, my granddad sort of had lots of

instruments lying around like mandolins and guitars and accordions and so it's

just, I just love playing things and again, sort of string instruments is

sort of what I'm kind of obsessed with.

I love sort of playing, I've got lots of random string instruments as

well, and that's again, from, from that, like again, I've never had

lessons in all these Mandos and, all the stuff, electric guitars, but I.

Just trying and pretending and playing.

And then when, when I've gone traveling again, I've sort of

traveling with my, my wife resource lived in India for four months, so

of course I came back with a sit.

But again, it just sounds wonderful with adding some sort of thing to a,

Yeah.

And if you have a basis in, something strings like the violin or the guitar,

see guitars on your wall, then you've got a starting point, haven't you, of

Yeah.

Absolut.

And, you know, piano accordion, it's not too far a stretch, um, except

you're, you're kind of pulling the piano apart and putting that together,

Yeah, Absolutely.

It's all kind of the same thing, isn't it?

And then there's this wonderful thing called Melaine, which

makes everything better for me

Oh yeah.

whenever it comes to me trying to

spilling the production secrets.

anything.

Oh God, yeah.

But I, but again, I love it.

Like I'd rather do that than try and find a sample or try and find a thing at this.

That sort seems to be my ethos.

So if I'm not doing orchestral things, I'll do everything is live

as I, I can, even if it's in my, I have mic set up all the time,

stuff flying around all the time.

Uh, you know, you can see some stuff in the background, but literally in the

hallway, in our, in our hallway, just full of instruments every day as if, I'm sorry.

I'll keep it, put it somewhere, but

Fantastic.

So your grandparents clearly a massive influence on you early on.

Were there, you know, music teachers or other people, perhaps in school

or clubs or anything like that, that might have influenced you as well?

Yes.

I guess I, you know, I think it's, it's, it's having strong, strong people who

sort of really love doing the same thing.

I, I remember really loving music lessons as at secondary school.

I think it was only when I went to college, Doing a Apples.

I went to this really wonderful college.

There's, there's one, very famous composer alumni who went

there that I knew very well.

I knew of very well when I got there, who was hands immer.

So we sort of went to the same school and when, when they did a, um, a Dr.

Win about recently they interviewed.

Our headmaster was the same guy, and he's wonderful.

He's so supportive and wonderful.

And I've, I've gone back quite a few times to sort of talk

to students, things like that.

And obviously they couldn't get a famous guy come in.

Um, he was a bit too far, but then, um, and it was, he always

asked, he always knows what I'm doing and I, it's really wonderful.

And the, the teachers there, they're really supported.

Really wonderful.

That's kind of really where I really.

Cubase really learn how to get my way around a door, and really work out.

And that sort of gave me a love.

And I ended up going, leaving there and I went to liquid in Liverpool,

which is Paul Carney's old school, which he then turned into a sort of

music college and they did their music and dance and sound technology, which

I sort went and sound technology.

I thought, well, I do, I wanna go and do music or do I wanna go and do.

Of course it sort of helps, you know, understand how to record music and

still do music, but then I can sort of record my own music and maybe I can

make more money by having both things.

Um, so that was my thought processes.

So I sort of learned about technology and recording as well as the music and.

And that was really inspiring.

The people on there were wonderful cuz it's sort of going to a, a university

like that and Paul McCartney got literally rang up his mates and got people to

come in and, just give guest lectures.

There's a, we had an amazing guest lecture in Glen Johns who was the one

of that Leo, the amazingly dressed guy on the, like the get back documentary

doing You record all the, let it be.

And he sort of came and listened to our material and some diagram around how he

sort of invited the stereo technique.

And, um, just really amazing.

Like we have so many people like that come in and Paul himself like

gave us to degrees and sort of came in and did some master classes.

And so it was a really incredible time.

So the college and university, this sort five years of being so

inspired and that it, it's not about going, this is how you make a

guitar, this is how you make a thing.

They sort of said, look, these are the tools we.

And look, you can do this.

This is a compressor, but it's sort of, you know, you need to figure

out how you do this compressor.

How you wanna mic this guitarist.

You don't just say, right, you put on the 12th threat and it's done.

You go, well look, you can, you can tune it this way.

You can, you know, you see how resonant is.

Try micing it around the back.

Try doing this, try playing it in a bathroom.

Like we really learn all these amazing, just, it gave you so much creativity.

And that's something I do every single day now

was gonna say that it seems to be something that, you've kind

of put your own stamp on, and use.

I think as a, we both know as a modern kind of media composer, you need a ru

at least a rudimentary knowledge of recording techniques and stuff like that.

But to have that kind of background, to bring into your work,

It shows in your

work.

Definitely.

Oh, that's really good for you.

It was so useful.

And I think once I left the, you know, once I left Leper, I said I

went traveling for a year, you know, with, uh, went to India places,

um, bought lots of instruments.

But, um, when I came back, sort of letter says what I wanna do,

I wanna, I wanna write music.

Like, but how am I gonna do this?

I dunno, anyone, I don.

I don't have any contact, I don't have any money . So, I ended up moving in

with my then girlfriend, now wife's parents and her granddad had an, uh,

a house a couple miles down the road.

And this is in south, northern Liverpool, nowhere near where I'm from.

And, my mom gave, gave a bit, let me a bit of money to buy a, a Mac and I had

all these instruments and I bought a mic.

Um, and I just learned again, like, so I've, I'd sort of learned how to recall

in as studio situation and I learned again how to everything, how to write, how to

make a sound, what my sound was, what I wanted to say as a composer, what my.

What did I sound like?

How did I record?

How do I, so I spent, I literally spent like year, year in a quarter

doing that seven days a week.

And I was obsessed.

And this is the days before Twitter.

This is the days before.

You know, I didn't, I didn't have , internet access on my computer.

I was in this attic.

It's really cold with a gas heater, with a gas, c gas sort of heater.

But it was, it was sort of my little space and I adored that space.

It was my bad, you know, instruments, computer, and I, it was just

about learning my craft and that was the best year I've ever

had for myself, for my career.

Like learning what I do, like figuring out how I do it and

figuring out what plugins do.

And I, I, cause I was sort of, I, I went over to pros when I was at, at

Lipper and learned sort of pros and then that's how I, I, I still use Pros

now, sort of, I, I wanted to figure out how I could make things sound great.

And then I sort of bought some, I think it was the, the original East.

Gold library.

Um, which, you know, of course they had no lato things in those days.

They had nothing like that.

Um, and it was just, I just spent my time obsessing, how do I make this sound real?

How do I make this sound, the string sound interesting with, with

adding some guitars, adding some pianos, adding what, what can I do?

And I just, I, I've completely obsessed and I ended up putting

music on my MySpace, I think.

And I got people sort of contacted me saying, oh, can you do this,

film, you know, we know well, well, I say film was student film

stuff, so then I, I learned, you know, made all the mistakes on a student film

and like, I'd had the best time ever.

I loved it.

Um, you know, no money involved.

You don't even, I didn't even think about that.

But, it was, yeah, like I say, it was the best.

And I, I know I'm saying, as I'm saying, I know I'm saying this from a

immensely middle class, white male, p.

A position to be in this, because I know a lot of people don't have the

opportunity to go and spend a year living on someone else's dime without having

to, you know, after, like it's, it's a really, really privileged position to

be in, and I completely understand that.

And I, and I, I can understand why having done that, why it's so difficult

for people who aren't able to afford to do that, to, to get in this, because

look, it, it is this kinda interesting where, you know, you as, as we all

know, listen to this, however, Little long, we've all done this thing.

It it, it takes so much to do this.

Like no one, no one comes in.

He goes, oh, great.

You can read it now.

You've done it great.

Do you wanna come and do this?

Like it is, but that's what's kind of wonderful about it.

And, um, you know, it's, it's about learning and learning and learning.

And, and even in my twenties I thought, oh, I can score films now.

I've been doing this for a few years and, and it's looking back now like I.

There's so much I know now that I didn't know then that I, you, you

learning all the time and I'm sure in 10 years time I'll look back at

what I'm doing now and think, oh, you were so naive, You know, it's about,

it's about learning all the time

Yeah.

But then if you go into it, knowing what you're in for, I, I'm, I'm not sure many

people would actually decide to go ahead,

no,

See, for me, it was totally unexpected.

You know, the amount of graft and the amount of the, the amount

you have to really dig deep and think, is this really what I want?

You

I completely agree.

And, and, and we all have many moments like that.

And I remember, you know, thinking that now, like it really affected.

You know, mental health, you know, when you sort of go up for jobs and

you don't get them with this, and it's frustrating cause you then you move

to London and you can't pay the rent.

Like, it's just so, so, so hard.

And, and then, you know, you, you maybe find a way out, you know, I'll pitch

this advert, pay my rent for three months and then you don't get it and you, and

you just, all you can think about is not being able to pay your two months.

And so it's, it's a really really hard thing and it, you can see why

everyone struggles because we all struggle and it's what's really bad,

you sort of look at other people and you can compare yourself with them When

you think why it all looks so easy.

And even sometimes I look at my own.

Terrible website and go.

Got it.

It looks, looks quite impressive actually.

I mean, but it doesn't feel like that when you do it.

But everything looks, looks better on the, on the outside and I

think you need to remember that

and I remember sort of being in studios and, and seeing composers and who were.

Many, many wrongs above me and working on these incredible films, and it's

sort of being satisfying that they're having a really hard, difficult timing.

Okay, great.

Like I always imagined it'll be easy.

You just be drinking coffee and getting assistance to help, you

know, but actually, it's, it's not, it's a hard, the whole way through.

And that's, okay.

As long as we, we know that, I think it's not about taking your eye off the ball.

There's never a moment you can just go, yeah, I'm done Now.

Just

Exactly, and there's a massive responsibility on

your shoulders, isn't it?

You know, you get into a position where you think, yes, I've got a gig, I've got a

commission, and then you are responsible.

You know, you, you are . Then the sleepless nights start because, oh God,

you know, you gotta get everything right.

Absolutely.

And it's, and it's not something I think, I think, again, and I, I'm

guilty of it, I know when I was younger, but I think as a, when you

are as a young composer, you sort of.

You, well, I know I can do this.

I'm, why aren't I doing this?

But, but you think about it like you are as a composer for a film.

You're, it's the equivalent of being a CEO of a, of a multimillion pound project.

You know?

Or a head of department of a of a very, very big, you know, you

this, this just writing music is, you know, in charge of hundreds of

thousands of pounds of, of budget.

That, to go to orchestras, I, it takes so much experience and knowledge and.

No one gets given a CEO job when they're in their twenties.

And if they are, God help you because you know, like it's about working

on those smaller projects, isn't it?

And learning and figuring it all out bigger.

And they get bigger and

Yeah, so not to end on a despairing note , I ask, all of my guests

to leave an item and a piece of advice, in the music room for others to find.

So have you got an item that you'd like to leave in the music room?

So I was thinking about this and I was listening

to what other people left behind.

And I was thinking, so one of the most useful things is a little black book.

And in that little black book is people.

And it's not my people.

I'm not giving you a black book full of people.

I'm giving you a black book for you to fill with your people.

Cuz I think what you do is all about people.

Like we sit in our little rooms on our own most of the time and we, we write,

we, we want the stuff to come to us, but it doesn't, you know, we have to go

out and do it and I love writing music.

I love getting musicians to, to play and collaborate with.

And so I have a, a lovely, lovely group of people now that I sort of like, but at the

moment I'm like ringing up people saying, can you put this some cello on this?

Can you do this?

Can you write, you know, can you help me with this?

Can you do some, some surveillance things on this one?

I'm doing it and directors and people, like I said, that you meet assistants

when you are really young and they end up becoming their own directors.

And I, I was sort of starter when Facebook was really just in it, in its

infancy from, um, For the masses like us.

I remember, you know, before Twitter, and I remember sort of being recontacted

with all these, you know, people from Mays and school and going,

oh, you've worked in the BBC now.

Can I ever do

Yeah,

now even more connected, I guess so, and Twitter

getting some wonderful work and meeting wonderful people on Twitter.

I guess it's just about connections and not being on your

own and having a little book.

Remind you of all the, it doesn't have to be a physical, it can be in

your head, it can be, it can be in

your

no.

It's a, it's a physical black book.

and, and in

go

book, and it's a, and and to be fair, there's a little

black book of people that are, have not been particularly pleasant or not

be, you know, that I, I, I've been, I've been very lucky that I've had a

lot of positive experiences and there's been a few negative experiences, but,

you know, whether, whether it's people working with, whether it's a musician

being a complete ass about something, or it's about this, or it's about,

you know, no, no one's gonna, you.

I, I wanna try and be as fair and wonderful and you wanna be with everyone,

you know, but, but it's, you wanna surround people with you, be positive.

And it's about, it's about trying to figure out the way through it.

Fantastic.

Well that's going in.

Uh, what advice would you like to leave in the music room?

um, so I.

Said it before, but I think the, the biggest bit of advice is not comparing.

There's a wonderful quote, I, I dunno who said it, so I'm sorry it's not

mine, but like, don't compare your beginning with someone else's middle.

Like, don't look at other people and think.

Why am I not doing that?

Why am I not doing this?

Why am I, you know, I don't think, um, I'm young.

I'm young.

I need to get an agent.

I need to do this.

Like, you need to, like, you don't, you just need to keep going and meeting

people and finding avenues to write music, whether it's above a pub, whether

it's, whether it's just writing some library music, whether it's pitching

for some adverts, whether it's doing some theater, whether it's doing a load

budget doc, um, doing a dance piece.

Like I, I did it all.

That's how, I guess, I'm so lucky to work in so many.

Avenues now is cuz when I was a young composer, I just wanted to

meet as many people as I could.

So I met choreographers, I met, you know, documentary makers and theater

makers, and I just wanted to make as many connections as possible.

I was very lucky.

I had income by, you know, doing a theater job or getting the odd advert pitch and

doing, you need, you sort of grab your income from other wear or do other jobs.

So, yes.

So that's what it, my advice, you know, it's about trying to be you.

And it's not trying to, you know, we know, of course we get, we get

influences from here, there, and everywhere, but figure out who you are.

I always have this horrible analogy, which I always say.

Composers and I, there's, there's two types of composers.

There's one type of composer like, oh God, we need to get someone to do some music.

Like, you, you, you, you, yeah, you, you're great.

Done.

Well, there's other site where you go, okay, I really like what you do,

and I want you to come and do this because I really love what you've

done, and I think we all all start.

In the one, the first one we all start and just wanna be a composer.

But the, the, the aim is sort of get onto that side and go,

oh, people wanna come to you.

And the only way of doing that is by being you not trying to copy

someone, not trying to do this, like trying and just figure out your own

way of, of getting through stuff.

Alex Barovsky composer.

It has been a joy chatting with you.

Thanks for joining me in the music room.

Thank you very much for asking