The Making Of: “Trailerized Gospel 2”

After the success and plaudits gained from its predecessor, our new album “Trailerized Gospel 2” continues the heartfelt and visceral emotions conjured from brand new gospel choir recordings (arranged by Jules Rendell and sang by the magnificent gospel choir, Get Gospel), combined with the power and finesse created by our incredible trailer composers.

We asked Amadeo Lopez, Wan Ying Chan, Andrii Yefymov, Emmanuel Rousseau & Guy Jones how they approached their new compositions, what it was like working with these new, powerful gospel recordings and what inspires them through the whole process.

How did the these gospel choir recordings guide your new compositions, and how did you go about complimenting the emotion they already conveyed?

AL: I think the songs sound amazing already, I just needed to reinforce the core emotion of each song. For example: Swing Low is emotional by nature, so I went in that same direction but aiming for a huge sound.

WYC: The choir recording is so powerful that I had to make sure my arrangement is not overpowering but aiding the emotion of the choir, hopefully bringing out the meaning of the words.

AY: When I listened to these recordings for the first time I thought “wow… and what am I supposed to do with this?”. I mean, the parts are so well arranged and perfectly performed, it sounds fantastic on its own!. But then I put my composer hat back on and looked at it from perspective of being used in movie trailer. So the challenge was not only to give the songs a more trailer friendly structure and form, but also to enhance the impact without destroying the natural emotional power. So I decided to go with percussion as a driving force (although, to be honest, in the final version I’ve removed almost half of percussion lines….). Also of course, the orchestra, big and lush string pads supporting the vocals, some woods for counter melodies and punchy brass for ultimate emphasis.

ER: For me, the first step was to edit the structure of the choir recording so it follows the architecture of a trailer, before adding a single virtual instrument. These choirs were the main element of the piece, so I was convinced they needed to work on their own first. When the edit felt right, it was — as often — a process of trial and error to make the orchestra exist around them. But my personal rule was : as soon as the orchestra starts to “eat” the choir and steal the show from them, I would back off a bit and make sure those beautiful recordings remain the central piece of the puzzle.

GJ: There was so much emotion in the whole arrangement that was provided by the Gospel Choir. What this meant is I wanted to enhance that emotion without steam rolling it with too much with over the top sound design that would take away from the emotion already created.

One of the hardest things to achieve in music is an effective emotion. I already felt an emotion listening to these stems and to me my job was just to support that.

— Check out this awesome behind the scenes studio session clip:

Did you imagine a particular cinematic moment whilst you were writing?

AL: Yeah of course! I always try to imagine a particular moment/mood. Especially in atmospheric parts such as the intro or interlude. A good example is in my version of “Oh Sinner Man” at 1:30.

WYC: Not really a cinematic moment but I imagined what promised land in “Deep River” would have meant and tried to convey in my music the excitement and desire to get there.

AY: No, not this time… perhaps it’s because I don’t often work with choral music, but the pictures in my head were too abstract. It’s more about emotions than particular scenes.

ER: For some reason, the general mood of the track quickly became inspired by the Disney universe, so I kept that in mind during the writing process. Scenes of adventure, light, vast landscapes, initiatory journeys. Oh wait, that’s the Lion King!

GJ: I wanted to keep the uplifting hopeful nature of the vocals while bringing in a bit of darkness. The vocals are quite intense and dark, so I wanted to reflect that in the music. I mostly pictured dark American dramas that tell stories of hope and stories of great human resilience.

How much of your cue was live instruments and what were your go-to instrument libraries for everything else?

AL: It was all in the box for this project (except the choir of course). I have my secret sauce for the brass.. strings I always use a blend of Cinematic Studio + Vista. Percussion and sound design varies on each project.

WYC: No live instruments for this cue. My go-to libraries are LASS, EWQL Hollywood Brass and Cinematic Strings.

AY: I always bring some live aspects to my tracks. At least something, a little finger snap recorded live perhaps. This time my live parts (aside from brilliantly recorded choir) were dedicated to creating textures. I’ve recorded some very subtle violin and cello bowings and blended it with sample libraries.

So I must admit my track is mostly created with samples. My go-to orchestral library is Spitfire BBC orchestra. I love the sound, details and versatility of these strings! Whatever I do I always end up using BBC orchestra for at least 70% of strings… brass is more tricky… I still come back to old and much loved Metropolis Arc 1 for brass. Percussion for me always starts with Damage 2. Of course there are many other layers and additions, but Damage 2 is my percussion core.

ER: Apart from the amazing choir recording, it was all virtual! I was looking for something empowering and cinematic without being too over the top and aggressive. Most of the strings are a blend between Musical Sammpling’s Soaring Strings and Audio Ollie’s Nashville Scoring Strings — I adore those two libraries and use them super often, especially Nashville. Brass are almost exclusively Orchestral Tools Berlin Brass, which is and has always been my go-to brass library. There are just subtle additional layers with Metropolis Ark 1 and JXL Solo Trombone — also from Orchestral Tools — which can be pretty useful to give the brass section a nice push.

GJ: I always sneak a bit of my live cello in there but for the rest of this cue I focused heavily on sample libraries. JXL Brass, Hans Zimmer Percussion Pro, SubLab, Jaeger Strings, Mammoth Audio Sound Design and Spitfire Studio Strings.

What type of movie trailer do you see as an ideal usage for your cue?

AL: Anything dramatic or emotional for “Swing Low” and “Oh Sinner Man”, also I imagine them working really well in a superhero movie I think/ I wish haha.

WYC: Maybe social documentaries, or soul-finding adventure movies.

AY: Honestly I don’t know… perhaps some deep emotional drama or historical drama. Something with a really deep emotional impact.

ER: I’d love a good Disney movie, thank you!

GJ: There’s a darkness and an edge to the lyrics. Mixing this with an uplifting high end trailer sound makes this a great fit for any big drama focused on human struggle and hope!

Did you take any inspiration from other cinematic composers when writing?

AL: Hmm not really. The choir was already a big big inspiration since they and the arrangement Jules Rendell did, are amazing!

WYC: Many of the Gothic Storm composers are my inspiration!

AY: No. This time I decided to use my imagination and pure inspiration. The choir parts are so great and inspiring themselves!

ER: I am definitely guilty of not listening to enough music when I’m composing. Listening to music from the outside world tends to pull me away from the little universe I’m trying to picture in my head when writing. It would be wrong to say I didn’t take any inspiration anywhere, but it’s much more of a passive process, things I’ve admired and/or studied which are now a part of my imaginary museum.

GJ: Always a tricky question but for this particular cue I was listening to a lot of Gareth Cocker (Ori and The Blind Forest) and John Powell (How To Train A Dragon) I wanted to implement my slightly edgier style of writing into the big family adventure sound.

Trailerized Gospel 2 is out now for industry use with a full public release to follow.