The Making Of… “Cute Crazy Heroes 2”
With the launch of “Gothic Storm’s Comedy Works”, the time seemed right to create the sequel to the popular “Cute Crazy Heroes”. Our writers took on the challenge to write and produce more music for fun, action packed animations full of excitement and cheerful twists. We spoke to Gregory Tan, Amadeo Lopez, João Gabriel Rodrigues and Andrii Yefymov about their approach to this specific brief and the challenges it presented.
This was quite a focused album brief, was there a specific film or film franchise you thought about whilst writing your track?
GT: Honestly, there wasn’t any specific film or franchise I had in mind. I just wanted to make tracks that sounded really unique and fit the brief requirements at the same time.
AL: Not a specific film but I had in mind the animation comedy genre.
JGR: Lego would be the obvious answer. But I have also thought of the upcoming Minions: The Rise of Gru.
AY: I had some kind of random set of Disney-ish pictures in my head.
Trailer tracks in this style need to be dramatic but also playful, was it difficult to find a happy medium? And was this mainly achieved through composition or production?
GT: It wasn’t too difficult to find a happy medium at least for me. What I spent more time on was finding the balance between trailer music intensity/elements and comedic elements (sort of like — how much of each to put into the tracks before it takes away from the overall essence or deviates from the brief too much). I found myself questioning what actually makes a track comedic and why. I guess a lot of it boiled down to the choice of sounds and the arrangements (the deliberate pauses, sudden starts/stops etc.), so I’d like to think that the production part was a little trickier to handle than the musical composition for this album. I found a lot of parallels between horror and comedy music though it might seem like they come from opposite ends of the spectrum — the magic lies in the pauses/stops as well as the sounds chosen for the build leading up to it.
AL: Yeah like every trailer track needs to have some drama, in this case I think I achieved it by using aggressive synths.
JGR: Both, but I would say production was key in my case, since I blended modern and orchestral elements in this track.
AY: Yes indeed. This edge of drama / playfulness is quite thin. I feel like the key to this balance is in both composition and production. For example, you definitely want to have a brass section for heroism, but not that DARK braaaammy brass. String ostinatos could be played Con Sordino for a more delicate sound. And of course you’d better add some synths for a modern vibe.
Whilst the overall brief is quite specific, there were multiple musical genres to pick from, why did you choose the genre you did for your track? Was it something you were already comfortable with?
GT: For my first track — Cartoon Heroes, I leaned towards a hybrid orchestral base because that’s something I’m quite comfortable with. Plus, the hybrid orchestral genre is pretty much a staple in motion picture advertising so I thought it would make sense to go down that route. For Fool’s Gambit, I went with a more oriental orchestral palette because oriental hybrid trailer music is already quite rare compared to what’s out there, so having an oriental comedic hybrid trailer track would make things even more unique. We often hear editors wanting new and unique material to work with, so I thought I’d give this a try!
AL: Yes, I love playing with synths and finding character in the bass and leads.. This kind of tracks has a lot of it! And yeah of course I felt comfortable with this genre.
JGR: It wasn’t my intention to write for this brief but and a couple of last minute rejections meant I would either write something myself in a day or two, or have to delay the release (again!). So I just went with what felt most comfortable to me — EDM inspired banging trailer tracks.
AY: Of course, if there is a chance to use orchestra, I will use it at first. So even with this brief I’ve chosen the blend of orchestra and pop music.
Can you imagine the perfect trailer campaign for your track?
GT: For Cartoon Heroes, I suppose it would have to be some cheesy heroic animation or parody of a superhero series! For Fool’s Gambit, I guess some kind of wacky spy/agent show like Rush Hour that takes place in an Asian country would work!
AL: I can imagine in anything that it’s animation/action or action/comedy.
JGR: Minions: The Rise of Gru.
AY: I can imagine a nice cartoon about heroes fighting villains in a fairy kingdom. But honestly, editors and trailer music supervisors might know better! :)
