The Making Of… ‘Christmas Action Movie’
Ho Ho Ho…ly cow! Burning buildings, widespread devastation, villainous laughing and.. tinsel? Gothic Storm’s latest release combines classic charming holiday carols with the aggressive power of modern trailer music. We spoke to composers Paul Farrer, Andrii Yefymov, Wan Ying Chan, Rohan Stevenson & Carles Piles about the challenges they faced creating this adrenaline-filled yet undoubtedly Christmas-y album.
Did you imagine a particular action-packed festive scene whilst composing or did something else influence the mood of your track?
PF: Christmas doesn’t typically lend itself to the action movie genre. Die Hard and The Long Kiss Goodnight were the only one’s I could think of (although I’m sure there are loads of others), and both of these are brilliant pieces of cinema. Something about the image of the cosy familiarity of Christmas being blown apart by a tinsel covered hand-grenade makes it an ideal musical mash up.
AY: I’ve tried to imagine a certain scene… but I’ve spent too much time deciding whether Santa will be a hero or a villain 😅, so I quit the idea of imagining an action Christmas scene and just focused on trailerization of timeless classical melodies.
WYC: I was imagining action scenes that happened during the festive season.
RS: Well, I was shooting for action and adventure, but the track soon took on a life of its own and became thriller — quite a bit darker. I’ve long since learnt not to fight against the nature of the material. Far better to work with it. It may not be what you set out to do but it’ll be more convincing whatever you end up with.
CP: No particular scenes, I just tried to imagine an abstract scenario.
How difficult was it to get the right balance of overtly festive carols and hard-hitting trailerized action?
PF: My favorite pieces of Christmas music are all in a minor key. I love the association of musically feeling the chill of winter time rather than just the typical jolly warm festive traditions. So Carol of The Bells was the closest piece of Christmas music I could think of that might be easiest to slot into the familiar trailer music genre. Also it’s a really intensive, and full on choral work. Which makes it basically feel like a piece of rock music.
AY: To be honest I often work on custom tracks that combine much more incompatible things! So, working on these carols was more on the pleasant and enjoyable side.
WYC: It was fairly challenging as carols are usually cheerful, and action trailer music is usually suspenseful and energy-filled. Fortunately the original music is already in minor key and that helps.
RS: Actually it did prove to be tricky and I had a couple of false starts. I initially tried “The First Noel” which I still feel could be convincingly trailerized. Sometimes you can use “interjections” as a way of playing trailer material against the original material, and sometimes you can incorporate a melody or an ostinato (repeating figure) into the track to create build, which is what I did in this case.
CP: Quite difficult in my case, in fact a collaboration was needed regarding the hard-hitting side.
Is it more challenging to arrange a well known melody around trailer music than composing original melody?
PF: I think mainly you are aware that you want to do the original work justice and approach it with credibility, but you also want to try and bring something new to a piece that will have been covered numerous times by people way more talented than yourself.
AY: It depends… if talking about these Christmas classics, which have been remixed and reworked thousand times by other composers around the world, of course it’s not that easy to come up with a fresh approach while holding the trailer excitement.
WYC: Personally, I find arranging a well known melody around trailer music easier than composing original melody.
RS: Not necessarily, though some things lend themselves to be trailerized more than others.
CP: I think so. A well known melody may bring all sort of pre-existing feelings to the listener, feelings that need to be turned into specific modern trailer music feelings instead.
Although there might not be many to choose from(!), can you imagine an ideal usage for your track?
PF: I’d like the perennial question of ‘is Die Hard a Christmas movie?’ to be answered by using this piece in a re-release trailer.
AY: Might be something a kind of “A hero saves the Christmas” scenario.
WYC: Action/adventure movies that are set in or outside of the festive season.
RS: Krampus might have worked well for this. Fatman, Black Christmas, or some ironic comedically serious application to animated Christmas Adventure such as Arthur Christmas.
CP: Just any fast paced Christmas scenario would do, I believe.
Finally, did you use any special festive instruments to maximise the cheer/action?
PF: Carol of The Bells is based on a traditional Ukrainian folk song. I was really lucky to be able to work once again with the amazing Ukranian composer Andrii Yefymov who brought his invaluable production skills to the piece. Also using real strings really lifted the track. But obviously the answer you are looking for is sleigh bells. lots and lots of sleigh bells. Some traditions are worth upholding…
AY: I assume that it’s almost impossible to get the special Christmas vibe without a sleigh bell sound :) But when it comes to the action…. Big percussion and shiny strings are the way to go.
WYC: I specifically did not use bells to keep it as general as possible.
RS: I used the tubular bell as one might use the piano in the traditional trailer opening of a single piano note. Tubular bells and sleigh bells feature.
CP: Yes, jingle-bells and celesta, but not on a prevalent part, just to add some “festive strokes” to the palette.
