Interview with Chris Haigh 作曲家专访 克里斯·海格
Author: Clothilde Lebrun
克里斯·海格 (Chris Haigh) 是一位英国作曲家，以与哥特式风暴以及 Immediate Music 等其他公司的合作而闻名。他的作品包括《 宿主》、《龙门飞甲》、《违禁品》、《 猩球崛起》、《未知》 和 《及时》的电影预告片； 以及《斯巴达克斯：诅咒之战》 和《美国恐怖故事疯人院》 等剧集的电视预告片 。
Trailer Music News：让我们从基本问题开始——您是什么时候开始作曲的，您是如何接触到预告片音乐的？
Chris Haigh：我三年前才开始专业作曲，但在此之前我已经磨练了很多年的手艺。我在大学里学过音乐，但在听到汉斯·季默斯为《角斗士》配乐之前，我对作曲并没有真正的兴趣。现在我知道这有点陈词滥调，但这是真正激励我的配乐。在我听到《角斗士》之前，我一直是一个影迷并购买了电影原声带，来自约翰·巴里、丹尼·埃尔夫曼、詹姆斯·霍纳、巴兹尔·波勒多里斯等作曲家，甚至喜欢汉斯·齐默早期为《雨人》、《雷霆万钧》等电影配乐驾驶黛西小姐。角斗士正是那个激发了我想要作曲的灵感。此外，我对这个配乐如何让我经历每一种人类情感很感兴趣，从它美丽空灵的主题到它黑暗、激进的战斗音乐，这让我设定了一个目标，希望让其他人在听我的音乐时像听那首配乐时，我有这种感觉。
我发现我真的很喜欢以任何形式为媒体作曲，这恰好是独立电影配乐。我开始与世界各地的许多独立导演和学生导演合作，并且似乎不断有人要求我提供好莱坞大片的声音。这对我来说似乎很自然，我喜欢制作宏大的史诗配乐。
然后我被介绍给像 Immediate Music 和 Two Steps From Hell 这样的预告片音乐公司，我完全爱上了如此短的作品中可以塞满多少能量和情感。当我的工作在下一个问题中得到回答时，我是如何进入预告片音乐的……哈哈
TMN：告诉我们一些关于你与哥特风暴的成功合作。你们是怎么认识的？
频道：好吧，这几乎完全是巧合。我从业内其他人那里听说过 Dan Graham，所以基本上是查看了他的音乐并在 MySpace 上添加了他，但是在添加 Dan 之后他给我发了电子邮件说他喜欢我的一些音乐并认为它具有预告片质量它。那时 Dan 刚开始创办 Gothic Storm，问我是否愿意为他的第一张专辑写几首曲子，我欣然接受了这个机会。三年后，我们仍在紧密合作，力求将《哥特风暴》做到最好。我相信有时你会在你的职业生涯中遇到某个人，这会永远改变你的方向。丹对我来说就是那个人，因为他真的把我置于他的羽翼之下并鼓励我，如果丹不联系我，我认为我不会做今天的事情。
TMN：是一起创作还是分开创作？
CH： 到目前为止我们还没有一起创作，但我总是把粗略的小样发给 Dan，他会提出我如何改进它们的建议，有时他也会和我一起做。你永远不知道我们将来可能会在某些方面进行合作。
TMN：除了 Gothic Storm，你还和 Immediate Music 合作过。这是一次有趣的经历吗？
CH： 是的，那太棒了！在我开始写预告片音乐之前，我已经欣赏了 Immediate music 一段时间，我从未想过我会添加到他们惊人的目录中，更不用说捷克爱乐乐团和合唱团在布拉格现场录制我的音乐了他们的专辑。Yoav Goren 是一个非常酷的人，对他所做的事情非常了解和热情，当我们在 Skype 上视频聊天，讨论如何让我的作品变得更好时，在他位于洛杉矶的工作室里观看他唱歌时非常超现实和鼓舞人心伴随着我在后台播放的曲目，并就黄铜线可以进入的位置提出建议等。为专辑Quantum现场录制的曲目听起来很棒，我等不及要发布给粉丝们听了。
TMN：你还为哪些其他公司工作过？
CH： 到目前为止，我工作过的预告片音乐公司有 Gothic Storm、Immediate Music、Sonic Symphony、Cavendish Trailers、Twisted Jukebox 和 1 Revolution Music。
TMN：你有一个特别的创作过程吗？
CH： 首先，每次我开始一张新专辑时都会有盲目的恐慌和自我怀疑，心想：“我到底怎么才能在规定的截止日期前做到这一点？” 然后当我冷静下来喝杯茶时，我开始弄清楚我想用每张专辑/曲目做什么或实现什么。例如，制作Epic Emotional Piano 的过程和我的想法与Massive Rocktronica 非常不同。Epic Emotional Piano 对我来说是一张非常个人化的专辑，我想让它在旋律上非常优美，同时保持它非常简约，我想尽可能多地为每首曲子赋予生命、情感和深度，主要使用钢琴和弦乐. 而大规模的 Rocktronica 是一张极具侵略性、宏大而残酷的专辑，使用摇滚吉他和电子乐作为主要音色。
我的过程要么以两种方式之一进行。我坐在钢琴前四处弹奏，直到发生一些伟大的事情（这可能需要几个小时，如果我幸运的话，几分钟），然后我从那里开发曲目。或者我有一个非常清晰的想法或旋律，我在几天前或几周前在手机里唱过，然后将其翻译成成品。
在为哥特风暴专辑创作现场乐器时，你还必须考虑到表演者的局限性，例如，在创作合唱部分时，你必须意识到没有它他们可以轻松达到的音符的现实限制伤害他们的喉咙或听起来沙哑，并在乐句之间给他们呼吸空间等。当只使用合成 VST 时，这不是必须进入您的作曲过程的东西。
TMN：到目前为止你最喜欢的位置是什么？
CH： 我肯定不得不说，到目前为止我最喜欢的安排是贾斯汀·汀布莱克的电影《及时》。这样做的主要原因是因为它是第一部预告片，我发现自己坐在电影院里随机观看了一部电影，而那部预告片闪闪发光。听到我的音乐在电影院播放一部好莱坞大片的预告片一直是我人生的主要抱负之一。此外，我的曲目出现在许多电视节目和幕后花絮中，所以这又是我第一次在家看电视并在令人惊叹的视觉效果下聆听我的音乐。
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw
TMN：你如何看待目前 dubstep 的趋势？
CH： 起初我并不热衷，但我逐渐喜欢上了 dubstep 和史诗音乐的混合方式，而且我意识到预告片剪辑师切入的效率有多么高。我个人认为它不会像经典的管弦乐/合唱风格那样有很长的生命力，但趋势一直在变化，就像在 dubstep 开始流行之前和现在一样，声音设计曲目与现在相当陈词滥调的Inception “布鲁姆！没有很多旋律或谐波结构。
TMN：Gothic Storm 的新专辑名为“Epicstep”，你为此创作了几首曲目。它听起来像什么？
CH： 嗯，我真的必须把所有的功劳都归功于令人惊叹的 Audio Android 和 Matt Welch，他们将我的管弦乐和合唱曲目重新混音成巨大的 dubstep/brostep 浪潮（现在称为 EpicStep）。此外，这张专辑中的大部分曲目都是由极具才华的 Rob Oxenbridge 创作的。
这张专辑听起来非常新鲜，令人惊叹的是如何扭曲和扭曲音频以创造出这些杰作。
TMN：你对未来有什么特别的计划吗？
CH： 嗯，我确定我会在未来许多年继续与 Gothic Storm 合作，因为我已经投入了很多，我希望看到它成长并成为最好的，我对 Dan 在掌舵人。我还想在未来继续与其他预告片库合作。
我可能会考虑在某个时候开始我自己的预告片库，但我觉得目前有太多的木制品，除非我能提供一些不同的东西，否则我不想进入那个领域。除此之外，我非常谦虚地做我热爱的事情，如果我能继续这样做，我将成为一个非常幸福的人。
TMN：你还有什么想和我们分享的吗？
CH： 我要感谢所有这类音乐的粉丝的大力支持。很高兴所有这些无名的天才预告片音乐作曲家现在有了观众和粉丝群。当您创作的音乐受到粉丝的赞赏并且作为独立的音乐作品被聆听和欣赏时，这也让所有的辛勤工作和深夜变得值得。所以感谢所有支持预告片音乐的人和像 TMN 这样推广它的网站。
TMN：谢谢克里斯。继续努力！
Chris Haigh is a British composer known for his work with Gothic Storm, as well as other companies such as Immediate Music. His credits include movie trailers for The Host, The Flying Sword of Dragon Gate, Contraband, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Unknown, and In Time; and TV trailers for series like Spartacus: War of the Damned and American Horror Story Asylum.
Trailer Music News: Let’s start with basic questions – when did you start to compose, and how did you get into trailer music?
Chris Haigh: I started composing professionally just over three years ago but I have been honing my craft for many years prior to that. I had studied music at college but had no real interest in composition until I heard Hans Zimmers score to Gladiator. Now I know this is slightly cliché but this was the score that really inspired me. I had been a fan and bought film soundtracks for years before I heard Gladiator, from composers like John Barry, Danny Elfman, James Horner, Basil Poledouris, etc. and even loved Hans Zimmer’s earlier scores to films like Rain Man, Days of Thunder and Driving Miss Daisy. Gladiator was just the one that inspired me to want to compose. Also I was intrigued at how this score could make me go through every human emotion, from its beautiful ethereal themes to its dark, aggressive battle music, which set me out on a goal to hopefully make others feel as passionate when listening to my music as I felt when listening to that soundtrack.
I discovered that I really loved composing for media in whatever form that came in, which happened to be indie film scores. I started working with lots of indie and student directors all around the world and seemed to get constantly asked for that big cinematic Hollywood sound. This seemed to come very natural to me and I enjoyed doing big epic soundtracks.
I then got introduced to trailer music companies like Immediate Music and Two Steps From Hell and absolutely fell in love with how much energy and emotion could be crammed into such short pieces. How I got into trailer music as my job is answered in the next question… haha
TMN: Tell us a bit about your successful cooperation with Gothic Storm. How did you guys meet?
CH: Well it was pretty much by pure coincidence really. I had heard about Dan Graham from someone else in the industry and so basically checked out his music and added him on MySpace, but after adding Dan he emailed me and said that he had liked some of my music and thought it had a trailer quality to it. At that point Dan was just starting up Gothic Storm and asked me if I would like to write a few tracks for his first set of albums, which I jumped at the chance. Three years later we are still working pretty closely to make Gothic Storm as good as it can be. I believe sometimes you meet that one certain person in your career that changes your course forever. Dan is that person for me as he really took me under his wing and encouraged me and I don’t think I would be doing what I’m doing today if Dan wouldn’t have contacted me.
TMN: Do compose together or do you work separately?
CH: Up to now we have not composed together, but I always send rough demo’s to Dan and he makes suggestions how I could improve them and sometimes he does the same with me. You never know we may collaborate on something in the future.
TMN: Besides Gothic Storm, you have also worked with Immediate Music. Was it an interesting experience?
CH: Yeah that was great! I have admired Immediate music for a while before I started writing trailer music and I never imagined for a moment that I would get to add to their amazing catalogue, let alone have my music recorded live in Prague by the Czech Philharmonic orchestra and choir for one of their albums. Yoav Goren is a really cool guy and is really knowledgeable and passionate about what he does and when we video chatted on Skype, discussing how my pieces could be made better it was very surreal and inspiring to watch him in his studio in L.A. as he sang along to my tracks playing in the background and making suggestions on where a brass line could come in etc. The track that was recorded live for the album Quantum sounds amazing and I can’t wait till it can be released for the fans to hear.
TMN: Which other companies have you already worked for?
CH: The trailer music companies I have worked for so far are Gothic Storm, Immediate Music, Sonic Symphony, Cavendish Trailers, Twisted Jukebox and 1 Revolution Music.
TMN: Do you have a particular creative process?
CH: Well first of all there is the blind panic and self-doubt each time I start a new album, thinking: “How the hell do I do this in the deadline provided?” Then when I have calmed down and had a cup of tea, I start the process of figuring out what I want to do or achieve with each album/track. For example the process and my mind set for Epic Emotional Piano was very different to Massive Rocktronica. Epic Emotional Piano was a very personal album to me and I wanted to make it extremely melodically beautiful and while keeping it quite minimalistic, I wanted to give as much life, emotion and depth to each piece as I could, just using mainly piano and strings. Whereas Massive Rocktronica was a very aggressive, big and brutal album, utilizing rock guitars and electronica as the main sound palette.
My process either works one of two ways. I sit at my piano and play around until something great happens (which can take hours or if I’m lucky minutes) and then I develop the track from there. Or I have a very clear idea or melody that I have sang into my phone days or weeks previous and translate that to a finished piece.
When composing for live instruments which I always do for Gothic Storm albums, you also have to take into account the limitations of the performers for example, when composing the choir parts you have to realize the realistic limits of what notes they can comfortably reach without it hurting their throats or sounding scratchy and give them space to breath between phrases etc. When working with just synthetic VST’s this is not something that has to come into your compositional process.
TMN: What is your favorite placement so far?
CH: I would definitely have to say my favorite placement so far has to be for the Justin Timberlake film In Time. The main reason for this is because it was the first trailer where I found myself sat in the cinema to watch a random movie and that trailer came on in all its glory. That has been one of my major ambitions in life to hear my music being play in a cinema for the trailer to a huge Hollywood film. Plus my track was featured in a lot of the TV spots and behind the scenes featurettes so again it was my first experience of watching TV at home and hearing my music over amazing visuals.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fdadZ_KrZVw
TMN: What do you think of the current trend of dubstep?
CH: At first I wasn’t keen, but I have grown to quite like how dubstep and epic music can be mixed and I realize how effective it is for trailer editors to cut to. I personally don’t think it will have the long life of say the classic orchestral/choral style but trends change all the time as just before dubstep kicked in the trend was and still is, the sound design tracks with the now quite cliché Inception “BRUUUUMM!” with not a lot of melody or harmonic textures.
TMN: Gothic Storm’s new album, for which you composed several tracks, is entitled “Epicstep”. What does it sound like?
CH: Well I really have to give all the credit to the amazing Audio Android and Matt Welch who remixed my orchestral and choral tracks into huge waves of dubstep/brostep, (now known as EpicStep). Also most of the tracks on this album were composed by the extremely talented Rob Oxenbridge.
The album sounds very fresh and is mind blowing how audio can be twisted and distorted to create these masterpieces.
TMN: Do you have particular plans for the future?
CH: Well I’m sure I will continue to work with Gothic Storm for many years to come as I have so much invested and I want to see it grow and become the best it can be, which I have no doubt of with Dan at the helm. I would also like to continue to work with other trailer libraries in the future.
I may look into starting my own trailer library at some point but I feel there are so many coming out of the wood work at the moment that I wouldn’t want to enter that arena unless I could offer something different. Other than that I’m very humble to do what I love for my living and if I can continue to do that I will be a very happy man.
TMN: Anything else you would like to share with us?
CH: I would just like to thank all the fans of this type of music for the great support. It is great that all these talented composers of trailer music of whom would be nameless, now have an audience and a fan base. It also makes all the hard work and late nights worthwhile when the music you create is appreciated by fans and listened to and enjoyed as standalone pieces of music is amazing. So thank you to all the people who support trailer music and sites like TMN that promotes it.
TMN: Thank you Chris. Keep up the great work!
