The Making of: “Epic Emotional Piano III” by Chris Haigh
Label co-owner Dan Graham chatted to Gothic Storm’s most seasoned and successful trailer composer Chris Haigh in the week we released the 3rd chapter to the coveted Epic Emotional Piano trilogy. They discuss the composition and production of his latest offering, but also reflect on his legacy within the label and his beginnings in the industry.
DG: Your album Epic Emotional Piano from 2012 has been Gothic Storm’s most successful album by a long way — an unexpected huge hit with international epic music fans with millions of YouTube views, is still a big seller on Spotify AND has remained one of our biggest albums for international TV promos since it was released. What inspired that album, what did you think about its massive public popularity and why do you think it became so popular?
CH: At the time I composed the first Epic Emotional Piano album, I was pretty new to the trailer music and production music industry, so I didn’t feel too constrained by what was syncable or licensable at the time, which was incredibly freeing.
All I had in my mind was to write very emotional, heartfelt and melodic piano tracks that mirrored how I was feeling about my life and past relationships etc at that time. It was one of the easiest and most enjoyable albums I’ve ever written (until this one).
As far as its popularity, it was a complete surprise to me. I can only imagine because it was such an intimate, personal album for me to write that people who listened to it somehow connected and maybe felt and heard the emotions I was feeling at the time of writing it. I still find it amazing that so many people found some sort of a connection with something I composed.
DG: After all these years, what inspired you to start Epic Emotional Piano 3 and what inspired its tracks? Did the pandemic have any impact on the music?
CH: I always wanted to compose a third album but it never seemed like the right time. If I started a third in the series, I wanted to be able to take my time with it and compose with the freedom of the first album. With the goal being to write tracks that echoed what was happening in my life at the current time and from that hopefully creating beautiful, emotive music that is both interesting and emotional to listen to but also useful for editors to use in their advertising campaigns and projects.
With the birth of my son, getting married and the world changing because of the global pandemic I was filled with lots of emotions from extreme happiness to overwhelming sadness, which helped a great deal with inspiring the writing process.
DG: How is this album different and how is it similar to the first in the series? How have you changed as a composer, producer and person in those 9 years and how has that affected the music?
CH: I guess this one has a few more hopeful and optimistic tracks than the first one with it being inspired by the birth of my son, my wife and my family surroundings but it also has some sombre, darker and melancholy style tracks, stemming from my personal experience of dealing with the current pandemic situation.
I feel the similarities lie in how I went about writing it, going back to that intimate, emotional way I composed the first album and trying to tell a story with each piece. Concentrating more on the melodic content than trying to make it fit into a specific box. For example not worrying about trying to make them big enough, production wise, to fit into the modern day trailer.
I guess over the the years I have learnt a few new tricks from a production side of things as well as having much more experience writing for live string players than I did when I composed the first album in 2012.
DG: What’s your favourite track from the new album and why?
CH: That’s a tricky one as I am genuinely super happy with them all and I poured as much love into each and every track equally.
But I’d have to say ‘When Stars Align’ as that was inspired by my wife and ‘A Gift Of Innocence’ as I wrote the melody and chords for that track just after my baby boy was born, obviously inspired by my son. I didn’t go back to the piano sketch for over a year, until I started developing it and realised it would be a perfect fit for Epic Emotional Piano 3.
DG: Whereas you mixed and I mastered the first album, this has been mixed and mastered by trailer music legend Toby Mason in Santa Monica, CA. What has he added to this album that we sadly can’t match between us?
CH: Well I think Toby just has the magic touch and ear for elevating tracks and taking them to the next level. It wasn’t easy passing, what felt like my children, to Toby but he really made them blossom and was happy to fix any slight changes that I requested to the final mix and master. He’s a true professional.
DG: Tell us about your writing process — how you start a track, choose which ideas to work on and develop the arrangements. How much of it is spontaneous and how much is planned out?
CH: It usually starts with sitting at my piano and experimenting with chords and melodies until I come up with a short motif that I’m happy with. I then work out where I want the chord progression and melody to go and start building the orchestration with strings and other instrumentation I think the track needs.
For a few of the tracks I had the melody in my head and sang it into my phone. I then worked it out on the piano at a later date from the recording I’d done of my terrible singing and built the track from there.
There was only one track that I started developing but didn’t think it was a good enough initial idea to keep developing. So that got put to one side.
DG: One for the composers: how much of the music is live players, and what samples and plugins did you use and why?
CH: The only live elements on this album are the strings, performed by the Vienna Session Orchestra. I subtly mixed some sample strings from Cinematic Studio Strings, Hollywood Strings and 8dio Adagio to thicken up the sound where required (mainly in the lower end).
For the Piano I used my go to piano and the same one I used for the first two albums, EWQL Piano, but added layers of Spitfires felt piano where I thought it was needed. Before I started writing the album I worked on getting a certain sound for the pianos which would be a reoccurring signature sound of the album, with only slight subtle changes where needed for a particular style of track.
I did this using QL Spaces reverb, NI Replika Delay with subtle EQ and stereo imaging.
For any minimal synths I used Omnisphere, Signal and Nova.
For drums and percussion I used many mixed layers of CinePerc, Damage 1 & 2, Storm Drum 2, Spitfire HZ Percussion LA and London.
DG: You started out with Gothic Storm the same year we started in 2010, wrote exclusively for us for a few years and even became a part-owner thanks to your contribution to the early development of the label (including pushing me to reach out to clients more and be a better salesman!). How has Gothic Storm changed since it began 11 years ago and what has it been like working with us? Any stories from the old days?
CH: Well first of all I feel extremely lucky and honoured to have had the opportunity to work with Gothic Storm from the very beginning and to help not only contribute to the library with lots of music but to help in the early days with ideas on how to push the label to be successful in the trailer industry.
But over the years Gothic Storm has gone from strength to strength with you and Sophie at the helm. I have nothing but praise and admiration for your hard work and dedication to the ever growing library of music under the Gothic Storm umbrella.
As for a story from the old days there are many I could tell but one of my favourites was when you and I went on a business trip to LA in 2014 to meet trailer clients and then on to Las Vegas to the NAB conference. After an amazing and successful LA trip we boarded a flight to Vegas and on arriving at our hotel (The Bellagio) we were informed at the front Desk that our room wasn’t available for that night. After a quick bout of panic we were then informed we would be upgraded to the luxury penthouse suite, which I can honestly say I have only ever seen hotel suites like the one we were upgraded to, in Hollywood movies!!
DG: What are your hopes for this album and your future as a composer?
CH: Like I have said previously this album is a very personal, emotional and heartfelt album that was written in the wake of many life changing things happening in my life. First of all I hope who ever listens to it enjoys the album and if it touches them in some way, that would be amazing. I’ve had many emails and messages from people telling me how my first two piano albums have in some way impacted their lives for the better. If this album can do the same for anyone listening then I feel I would have more than achieved my goal.
From a professional and licensing side I just hope editors feel it works and fits with any projects they are working on, be it trailers, TV adverts etc.
I think ultimately I just hope it is enjoyed, used lots by editors and when people listen to it they get a little glimpse into how I was feeling at the time I composed it.
As for future plans, I may start work on Epic Emotional Piano 4 haha.
Epic Emotional Piano III is available now for industry use with a full public release due in the coming weeks.
