The Making Of… “Party Movie! — Fat Trailerized Club Bangers”
Part of the first clutch of albums from our brand new label “Gothic Comedy Works”. “Party Movie!” combines tongue-in-cheek dance floor bangers with powerful trailer production to create fun, exciting trailer tracks tinged with comedy. We spoke to writers David Chappell, Sami J. Laine, Alex Young and João Gabriel Rodrigues about how these tracks came together.
Were there any particular scenes from movies (of the party variety) past or present that you pictured whilst composing your track?
DC: The “All Day Boat Party” from The Inbetweeners Movie (2011), hence the track title!
SJL: Almost the entirety of “We are your Friends”
AY: I wanted to give my track the zany energy you find in the cartoons and slapstick comedy films from the 1930s so, I guess I was picturing a kind of ‘remixed’ Tom and Jerry cartoon whilst I was composing. Of course this isn’t the intended use, but I wanted to impart some of that vibe as I think it would work really well in a modern comedy context.
How did you approach composing for a comedy-focused brief, was it difficult to add comedic value whilst not being overtly cheesy?
DC: Not really, it was more focused on trying to create a good EDM track that also worked as a trailer track. The vibe comes pretty naturally just by the nature of EDM!
SJL: Most EDM has become so generic at this point that it wasn’t really hard to make it ironic/comedic. Just following the general tropes of house will get you there.
AY: This was a tough one! I think comedy music should support the joke (rather than be the joke!) so I tried to make my track impart a light and fun mood, but not funny!
JGR: Personally I found it very natural. Comedy is my favourite movie genre, and therefore there’s no other genre my brain is inherently more familiar with. So avoiding the usual traps (adding overly comedy sounds/instruments, for example) was fairly easy.
Can you imagine the perfect trailer campaign for your track?
DC: Any of those reality shows where a group of young people with luminescent teeth jet off to somewhere like Ibiza for booze fuelled shenanigans.
SJL: Probably something along the lines of “We are your friends”. Definitely party focused.
AY: Absolutely! My track has an electro swing vibe which is quite a quirky style, so I think it would sit perfectly with any campaign that is a little left field or unique. Something like The Bad Guys perhaps?
JGR: Fire Island.
Production was key to nailing this brief, since club bangers are traditionally quite powerful, was it difficult to merge this with trailer production elements?
DC: Yes actually! EDM and trailers are both so minimal, with very few but critical elements making up a track. It’s hard to have both without there being overlap.
SJL: It was surprisingly easy, being a former EDM and hardstyle producer. The only real issue I encountered was getting the big trailer hits to fit in properly with the kick and bass.
AY: Not too difficult I would say, Club bangers build energy over a long period whereas trailers are much quicker. I guess the trick was building like a club banger would, but super quickly to fit a trailer’s needs.
JGR: No, I am used to this kind of style.
Was there anything unique you included in this track that you haven’t done before? Either compositionally or in the production?
DC: I went for a tropical house vibe which is a genre I’ve never dabbled in previously.
SJL: Not really that i haven’t done ever before but definitely things i haven’t done in years.
AY: Definitely. Electro swing is tied to French House music from the early 2000s (think Daft Punk) which is no longer a modern style of electronic music. The challenge for me was joining jazz elements to current production styles. There was a fair bit of experimentation with help of the Gothic Storm Team but I think we came to something that really gels well and works in a trailer context.
JGR: Loads of distortion. And then some more.
