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Tuesday, August 21, 2012

INTERVIEW
Glockenspiel, Movie, Clef Note, Magic: That's The Sound Of Heather McIntosh Composing, Not Complying


Musician and composer Heather McIntosh.  Bridget Mullen
    
by Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com        FOLLOW                                            TWEET
Tuesday, August 21, 2012

*-correction

HEATHER MCINTOSH has a stream of consciousness that's infectious during our conversation.  Music, her food of love, is surely flooding her mind right now as she talks of her indie rock roots.  She is on the telephone from Los Angeles in late June, where she's been living for just over a year.  "I did move out to L.A. with the intention of doing film scores," she confesses. 

For several years the Athens, Georgia native, musician and composer has been part of the Elephant 6 collective, a group of bands she's contributed a wealth of music to, including her own signature band The Instruments.  Ms. McIntosh is a cellist for the band, and has played bass and other instruments on many road tours for such artists as Lil' Wayne and groups as Gnarls Barkley, Azure Ray, Animal Collective and *Elf Power, among others including Gammy-winning artist Norah Jones and the actor John C. Reilly and his band.

On this and numerous other occasions Ms. McIntosh is cheery and upbeat.  Her quick, effortless sense of humor and enthusiasm would put the most edgy individual at ease.  Offering self-deprecation at times, the hard-working Ms. McIntosh relishes music and any challenges it brings.  "I'll be on tour, and I'll be staying at a La Quinta hotel or something, and it's 5 a.m. and you're sending the tracks (you're working on) to someone.  There were windows where we were definitely trying to get those last cues in (for the film.)"  She pauses briefly.

"Work in your hotel room.  So far I've gotten no complaints," she says, laughing.

The musician and composer describes beats, notes and harmonies in an almost rhythmic way, as if devising an on-the-spot concerto.  Ms. McIntosh comes from a school of indie rock, a musical genre she absolutely loves.  She mentions indie rock several times.  She's been hard at work for two decades creating new sounds, working with new and familiar faces.  She sings the praises of numerous musicians she's worked with including Eric Harris and others.  "New musician buddies like Jeremy Thal* (a French horn player), John Lindeman.  It's great to have people that I know what they can bring to the mix.  I love to work with all these guys forever.  Indie rock."   

Ms. McIntosh first embarked on film composing a few years ago on the documentary "Examined Life", directed by Astra Taylor.  Ms. Taylor's documentary "was 100% cut when I got to it," Ms. McIntosh said, explaining her point of entry in the collaborative process.  Things were different when Ms. McIntosh worked on "Compliance", the psychodrama directed by fellow Athens native and friend Craig Zobel.  "Compliance" is her first feature film score.  (The film's music score soundtrack was released on iTunes last Tuesday.  "Compliance" expands to additional U.S. cities beyond New York on Friday.) 

Prior to the start of 2011 Ms. McIntosh and Mr. Zobel worked together, about a year before "Compliance" was completed.  "I played Craig some demos and saw some films with a similar energy and spirit (to his film).  We listened to the demos, a basic audio track recorded rhythm section, over and over, before the film was shot.  We passed the audio around on set.  When the film existed we all knew the music pretty well."  They discussed many ideas and ways to fit pieces of music Ms. McIntosh had into the film.  Ms. McIntosh showed the director numerous sketches of her music ideas.

The "Compliance" music score is undeniably effective.  As musical accompaniment to an intense drama it supplements, augments and undergirds such a harrowing theatrical movie experience without bringing attention to itself.  At times buoyant, at other times solemn and at still other times haunting, Ms. McIntosh's score plays like an elegy and a journey through a tragic point of no return.  The strings of her bass get underneath the story, the characters and the audience.  The opening and closing credit themes are clear, elegant and eloquent.


Heather McIntosh's debut feature film score.  Milan Records

Ms. McIntosh had lived for four years in New York City, where Mr. Zobel continues to live.  Ms. McIntosh described their collaboration on "Compliance" as "great" and, well, harmonious.  "Craig and I definitely knew the process, and it just felt like a good fit.  I loved working with him and I would try the music in a hundred different ways, really to be able to sit with it."  Ms. McIntosh sounded optimistic about a developing script she had received from Mr. Zobel.  "Hopefully (it) will blossom," she said, referring to the screenplay and another opportunity to work with the film director.

"Compliance" is based on true events taken mainly from a real-life incident at a McDonald's in Kentucky in April 2004 where a man claiming to be a police officer telephoned McDonald's manager Donna Summers and told her that her 18-year-old female employee had stolen money from a customer.  Ms. Summers was further instructed to detain her until police could reach the McDonald's.  In the meantime, the voice on the telephone ordered Ms. Summers to search her employee, then do progressively worse things to her. 

The film's subject matter -- specifically people doing things by auto-command from a remote authority figure -- both disturbed and fascinated Ms. McIntosh.  A big fan of Mr. Zobel's film, she recalled the experience she had at the Sundance Film Festival in January where "Compliance" had its world premiere.  "The energy of the theater (in Park City) was something I hadn't expected.  Just sitting in the theater was palpable." 

She gives out a long sigh.  "It's something that stays with you."

The composer's music for "Compliance" is also indelible.  The track "Detective Neals' Drive" operates as an unwinding and reviewing of the gravity of the film's events, a chance for the audience to reorder its psyche after absorbing "Compliance" and taking it in in total.  The track lasts some six-plus minutes but in the film it plays for about half as much time.  Ms. McIntosh played a glockenspiel, piano, bass, cello, percussion and more instruments for the "Compliance" soundtrack, and her team of musicians also contributed. 

Also on the soundtrack is the eerie and discomfiting "Becky's Lament", a tune whose taut strings feel distended, portraying the precise maelstrom swirling within the film's central character.  "Sandra's Walk", which begins with a the beat of a glockenspiel or xylophone before a cello is played, balances ChickWich restaurant manager Sandra's certainty with doubt -- the music illustrates the entry of corruption in Sandra as the character ventures down a road that becomes a horrifying slippery slope.  The drums beat, the strings are stroked.  The fires crackle and percolate.


Musician and composer Heather McIntosh.  Chien-An Yuan

Over the years Heather McIntosh has recorded lots of ambient sounds for her music, enhancing the aural experience.  "For me it's like an audio sketchbook.  I scoop out sounds that I like.  Electronic music.  I record everything.  On my first tour, in Scandinavia, I recorded sounds and created my own non-traditional sounds.  I've used random car sounds just being on tour in France.  It just sounds different.  And when I lived in New York City I did the same, recording train sounds in the subway.

"That's what made working on 'Compliance' fun -- a lot of sound design.  And the lines become blurry on where sound design ends and music begins."

There's no blur on this point: Heather McIntosh is an avid movie fan. 

"In my freshman year in college I saw the film "Naked".  I really liked the score for that film.  I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and I would sneak in to see art-house films.  One of the first movies I saw was "Poison" (Todd Haynes' 1991 drama).  I saw it by myself.  It was such a visceral film.  I was like, 16 or something like that.  It made my heart go so fast.  I never saw a film that threw you into different worlds so hard so fast."  While on tour with Lil' Wayne Ms. McIntosh would stay up watching movies.  

The effect of music on movies isn't lost on Ms. McIntosh.  "The goal is to really serve the story and the film and sometimes it does mean breaking the rules.  Or that there aren't any rules at all." 

Freedom and space to try new things in music has always been something Ms. McIntosh has relished.  She pauses for a moment, summing up the creative musical journey she has been on.  "All the aspects of all the projects I've worked on have added to the richness of my voice as a composer, and I hope to do more film music."

Early on Ms. McIntosh had a keen awareness of her station in life.  "I always knew I wanted to play music.  My mom taught me piano at 4.  I did start playing when I was a little squirt.  I started playing cello at 9.  I always had music in my life.  My mom used to play organ at the church.  I used to do cartwheels in the aisles.  I have always wanted to [play music].  I played clarinet for a while.  Either I wanted to be a marine biologist or a synthesizer player.  I took lessons in the fifth grade.  I love the computer aspect of it, the creation of different sounds."


"Just sitting in the theater (at Sundance in January) for "Compliance" (captured above during a San Francisco screening last week) was palpable," said musician and composer Heather McIntosh.  Omar P.L. Moore

The synthesizer formed Ms. McIntosh's early sound design and electronic music composition background -- the two aspects of her musical background she termed "so important."  Constantly experimenting with sound and beats within music to refine and enhance the aural experience augments Ms. McIntosh's work and have made her a popular musician and collaborator with many other talents.  The versatile, eclectic artist seems restless and relentless in her continuing pursuits of new sounds and musical sensations in her work.  "The public libraries are a lot better as a kind of fake film music school.  I find myself sponging in every book and referring, whether to classical composers or technique, or revisiting stuff studied in college and to figure out how to apply it to what I'm working on now."

(Listen: Opening credits theme for "Compliance", composed by Heather McIntosh)

The composer is asked about writing music.  "In 1998 I stepped away from a conservatory style or technique (that she learned in music school) and gave myself permission to be a writer.  It was kind of a great little light bulb."  Ms. McIntosh got "a great source of support from friends" who encouraged her to make records.  "I found I had a lot of room within writing music to add my own sounds when I worked with other musicians and that was very freeing."  She noted that writing music first is easier than writing lyrics first then music.  "I'll occasionally come up with a melodic line where I know the line would live.  It's more about the intention of the song.  I don't consider myself a songwriter so much as someone who writes music, I guess.  When you have the music written, the words just come naturally within the melody."

Though living in Los Angeles for a relatively short time Heather McIntosh loves it there.

"At first you hold on to "Beverly Hills Cop" images of what L.A. is and then all of a sudden you see how dynamic . . . the guts of the town is.  When I first moved out here I lived closer to downtown -- more like East L.A. -- it definitely has a different kind of guts.  I'm constantly amazed at how dynamic the culture is.  It's nice to meet people in gallery spaces creating perfect environments.  You've got Cal Arts right there -- all these people pushing different boundaries.  Everything I've ever loved comes from here.  I always get a kick out of saying, 'where did they shoot that?'  I often go to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery."

It's not too long before Heather McIntosh returns to introspection about her music career, which continues to thrive.  "It's hard to let go of your work but I've come to terms with facing it.  It's like a timepiece in your life.  I feel like it pushes me to make more and better music.  How you create things for that little window of time.  At the end of the day I'm still proud of everything I've done.  It's a progression in my life of everything I've done in music and adds to the energy of music.  In Elephant 6 a lot of people are picking up instruments and having fun with them.  Spirit is so infectious.  I do think that spirit will add to a better performance.  At the end of the day there's something to be said about energy.  It's good that I have both brains."

On the subject of Los Angeles the famed restaurant Musso & Frank is recommended to the "Compliance" composer.  "I'll have to check it out," she says with enthusiasm.  "I'm new out here, and I'm an avid reader of (Pulitzer Prize-winning L.A. food critic) Jonathan Gold and spend time finding every single-dollar-sign review I can," Ms. McIntosh says with a laugh.

Heather McIntosh can be found here.  Her original music score for the motion picture "Compliance" is now available on iTunes and Amazon.  Craig Zobel's drama "Compliance" expands its U.S. theatrical release this Friday to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and many more cities. 

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