The Kinesigraph (from Brass) - Amanda Laven - The Kinesigraph
The piece of music we're listening to in the background is called The Kinesigraph. It's the solo piano soundtrack from a short film called The Kinesigraph, which is tied into the universe of the audio drama Brass. Today, we'll break it down and get into why and how it was made. You're listening to how I make music, where audio drama composers get to tell their own stories. Every Wednesday, we break apart a song soundtrack or composition and take a trip into how it was made. My name is Amanda Laven. I'm a composer and sound designer from the capital region of New York. And this is how I make music. I'm Amanda Laven, I'm a composer and sound designer living in Schenectady, New York.0:52 INFLUENCES I was the composer for The Kinesigraph, which is a short silent film set in an alternate steampunk version of 1885 known as the Brass Universe. The same universe in which the Brass audio drama and several stage plays and short films are set. My work is primarily chamber orchestral and electronic pop stuff for video games and audio dramas and films. I was basically born with a Nintendo Entertainment System controller in my hand. My dad used to be a hardcore gamer so I spent a lot of time playing video games growing up. I played a lot of Mario, played a lot of Legend of Zelda. So Koji Kondo, definitely one of my formative influences, and one of the reasons why I got into playing music and why I wanted to start writing music. And then Yoko Shimamura, as well, very big Kingdom Hearts fan. I played a lot of it growing up, and the music was definitely one of my favorite parts of that game. Yeah, so basically, I grew up listening to classic rock. It's what my parents listened to. So it's what I listened to. And then as I got a little bit older, became more of an angsty teenager, I started moving more into heavier stuff, hard rock, punk rock, nu metal. Still listen to it today, I'm still a sucker for nu metal. 3:33 PIANO SCORE I was specifically asked to write a solo piano score for The Kinesigraph, which was great because I only had about a day to produce the score. The Kinesigraph stars the Brass family, who live in an alternate version of 1885, in which technology has progressed, and King Albert is still alive. They are approached by an inventor who has created a device that produces moving pictures, and he's looking for an investment from the family. And they agree to invest in his device provided that they get to choose the subject that is filmed. The problem is, none of them can agree on what they should be filming! So I wrote a theme for each of these very different characters. So we have Lord brass who is an inventor and scientist. Lady Brass, a Sherlock Holmes-level detective. Gwendolyn Brass, a grade A con artist and master of disguise. And Cyril, Brass, master of martial arts and weapons. So in the end, we did it all in such a short amount of time. But it was kind of nice the way it worked out because at least it was done. And it was just a matter of finding someone to play it. And the producers did find a very lovely pianist named Jung-Sun Lee. And she was able to turn the score around in a really short amount of time, get us enough recordings that we were able to edit together a really good sounding score. And I was really happy with how it came out. If I recall correctly, it was recorded on an acoustic piano using mics rather than played directly into a DAW. 5:53 SOUND EFFECTS We live across the street from three sets of freight train tracks. They cause a lot of disruption they interrupt phone calls. Trying to record anything has to be done around both the trains and the traffic. I've got a couple of cats, so when it's close to mealtime, they'll start meowing or coming in wanting attention. And my partner plays electric guitar. So sometimes he'll start playing that while I'm trying to work on something it can be verSupport the show