A few years ago I watched an interview with Jon Brion, where he spoke about the balance that he had found in his working/creative life. In the interview he said that the key for him was having different roles in different projects — working in collaborative groups, working to help someone else’s vision (e.g. being subservient to a film director) and working on his own albums where he had complete control.

This sounded great. I felt like I was scratching the itch for most of these areas — I teach a little piano, I write and perform with BC,NR and write songs for myself a bit. The final piece of the ultimate combo came two years ago when I was asked to write some music for a play.

Everything about the play was daunting — Chekhov with an incredible group of actors, director and crew. I would say this translated in the music I made: a little meek, trying cautiously to write what I thought I might be expected to write. It was an incredible experience though. Being allowed in the rehearsal room for a few weeks, seeing how the group explored the play and how the director understood Chekhov really blew me away. During this time and for a few weeks after I saw the world in the way that they analysed the play — every interaction I saw laced with layers of different nuances, understandings and misunderstandings. I felt really inspired and during the busy weeks of going to rehearsals and writing ideas for the compositions for the play, I also wrote a song called ‘The Big Spin’ (from Forever Howlong), which was inspired by an aspect of the play and is about an episode in my own life. With regard to the composition for the play, I decided that if I were asked to do something similar in the future, I’d try to be a little bolder.

A year later I was asked to write a piece for a film. It was an ideal proposal: the director let me read the script and asked me to write a piece with mostly free rein without watching the footage. I recorded a demo — a piece for piano and organ — and the director was pleased with the direction it was headed in. I then proceeded to record the real thing, but alas, the director felt that I had strayed too far from the demo and wanted me to re-record it.

We spoke a few times on how best to approach this re-record. We had a conversation where he explained to me what the film meant for him, and although I appreciated this, it made it almost more difficult. How to capture someone else’s feeling you really don’t know anything about? Is this a skill I might be able to develop or is it an impossible task for me?

Originally I had put into the piece my own take on what the film meant for me, but I think this wasn’t what was needed. In the end it boiled down to getting more solid notes on what he didn’t think was right from the recorded version. I re-recorded the piece earlier in November and am now in the process of giving it a rough mix, so I’m not sure yet if I have gotten closer to what he wanted. I guess every project and collaboration is going to be different, and it’s been really interesting trying to make this work, both on a musical level and a human-to-human level.