The Making Of… “Trailerized Comedy Hip Hop”
The fourth instalment of our “Gothic Storm’s Comedy Works” launch albums focuses primarily on Hip Hop. Our writers were challenged to write tracks with excitement, energy, catchy hooks and modern hip hop beats that, whilst true to the genre, can merge with cool comedy trailers. We spoke to Sami J. Laine, João Gabriel Rodrigues and Andrii Yefymov about their writer and producing process.
With the hip hop genre front and centre for this album, did you take any inspiration from commercial music? Or was there another trailer/hip hop hybrid track out there you already admired?
SJL: I used to be a big fan of festival trap and that kind of music, so I basically channeled my inner DJ Snake and went to town.
JGR: 100% commercial music! I listen to the genre a lot.
AY: Yes, I’ve checked some fresh top notch commercial hip-hop tracks to refresh myself on the current trends. But by the end trailer music is trailer music, even though we can take some inspiration from the commercial world, we still have our own rules and forms here.
Was it difficult to combine subtle comedy aspects with hip hop whilst keeping your track feeling powerful?
SJL: Not really, since I basically just used the ever so popular air siren and gun sounds.
JGR: Not really — I was 100% in my comfort zone, if I may say so.
AY: Well, with hip-hop there is always a risk of falling into a big powerful dope swag sound. So yes, the balance is something to keep in mind while working on the track.
How did the composition aspect begin? Did you start with a more traditional hip hop track that was then transformed to fit the brief?
SJL: I started with a Trap — style drop and worked backwards from there, adding hits and trailer elements.
JGR: Yes, exactly that. First I would put together 8 bars of a beat and then start developing it with cool both percussive and melodic elements, until those 8 bars sounded FIRE AS F**K. And then have a track around that idea and those sounds.
AY: Yes, I started with the core beat and some signature synths and then transformed it into trailer action.
Can you imagine the perfect trailer campaign for your track?
SJL: Maybe a fighting film like rocky, or some spec ops war film.
AY: I can see two dudes unsuccessfully trying to rob a bank with toy guns. Ok, sorry, I know it’s boring… an overused cliche I guess. Any badass action comedy please!
What were your go-to instruments for your track? Was there anything that fit the brief perfectly from the off, whether it be live or an instrument library?
SJL: Big distorted 808’s (if that’s an instrument), brass stabs and lots of VITAL (wavetable synth).
JGR: I use a LOT of ANA2. But that’s for literally every brief, so I can’t say it was particularly the case here. For these briefs I tend to be as creative as possible, processing, chopping, altering every bit of audio and every tiny sound until it sounds fresh and cool and different. So more often than not I don’t really care about the source material, I just randomly and endlessly test a whole lot of stuff.
AY: One hardly can imagine hip-hop music without beloved 808 sounds — drum machine and the bass. So yes, these are 100% go-to sounds for any hip-hop related track.
