A little background, to begin. Film scores were a big gateway into music for me. I just loved listening to the instrumental stuff going on within the scenes, and I’ve gained an appreciation over the years for the power of music and picture to enhance one another. When I started watching anime and enjoying that medium, I found that the Japanese composers had the same great talent for melody and orchestration as the Hollywood composers I’d come to love; combined with quality, original storytelling, I’ve enjoyed anime as a source of excellent music ever since.

So, a couple of months ago, I was blown away by this music video for the song, “Shelter,” by Porter Robinson and Madeon. Instead of live-action, the video was an anime created by the Japanese animation studio, A-1 Pictures. The result was amazing, and I loved it if you can’t tell! I’m fuzzy on the history of anime being used in music videos as a whole (Daft Punk comes to mind), but this caught me as an incredibly unique achievement on a few levels. One, I really liked the song! It was catchy (definitely found myself humming it on repeat for a few days), and I felt it really fit the tone of the girl’s emotional journey throughout the story. Two, the video was just beautiful. The animation was gorgeous and it fit so much meat into 5-6 minutes! Seriously, between the story that’s told, the emotions conveyed, and the imagery that glues it all together throughout, the production team really knocked it out of the park. It’s a great work of art. Here’s a link for anyone who wants to check it out!

Finally, seeing an American artist get to go to Japan and collaborate with an animation studio there was just the ultimate in my book! One of my major dreams is to compose for a Gundam show, so seeing Porter go over there and do his thing was tremendously inspiring (I don’t know these guys or anything btw, so I’m sorry if addressing them in a more personal voice is throwing anyone off -laughs- They just seem very chill and accessible to their fans, so it feels weird to use last names and/or titles). Gives me hope that I can create an opportunity like that for myself in the future, just gotta keep working!

After the initial euphoria washed over me and I got to digest the video for a few days, I realized that it inspired some musical ideas of my own. I was interested in setting a little bit different tone for the imagery through a more acoustic, symphonic sound. I’m a composer for film, video games, and tv, so I decided to challenge myself to write a short score instead and let the picture inspire the direction of the piece. I guess I could’ve just done a 2-3 minute track, but this ended up being a lot more fun and I’m happy with the result.

First off, I’m pretty sure the general tempo of my track is much slower than “Shelter.” I was coming up with melody lines easy enough, but I had to drop the bpm down pretty low in order for the beats to hit on important cuts and still sound natural. That being said, injecting energy in order to drive the action along ended up being a little tricky. I added a couple different elements to address this, while at the same time honoring Porter and Madeon’s track. One of these elements was a little boopy square-triangle synth line to propel the melody forward and lock the listener a little more into the moving parts of this girl’s world; it’s subtle, but I think it adds a good layer and fulfills the role well. That synth can be heard throughout, but I also wrote some lines in the strings and percussion with repeating 8th, 16th, and 32nd rhythms, just to accentuate the illusion of a more uptempo feel. These can mainly be heard near the end during the climax.

I have a couple favorite parts in my piece that I feel match up with the visuals really well. The first one is a swell that occurs when she runs out into the field, specifically the progression that goes minor when she sees the swing and has her first flashback. I was feeling myself pretty good there, and then the other moment is when she’s sitting on this crystalline cliff with the wind blowing through her hair and the clouds blowing by. Leading up to that moment, all the other sections bow out, leaving just the violins by themselves for a measure or two until the piano comes back in to transition. It just ended up being a nice, intimate breather before the revelations to come. If you’d like to see how the track syncs up with the “Shelter” video, mute the youtube audio, cue it up at 0:51 in where she’s sitting up in bed stretching, start my track, and then press play on the video when the downbeat hits after the first two notes. Should be pretty close to how I was seeing it throughout the process!

Anyway, please check out the track and hit me up with your feedback! I can’t thank everyone who was involved with the “Shelter” video enough! This piece is my tribute to their awesome work, so go give it a watch and listen if you want to have your mind blown! If you need original music for a project that you, or anyone you know, are involved with, please feel free to contact me through the site or social media and I’ll be happy to talk with you! Thanks for reading everyone, take care!