It’s no argument that the music and sound of a film is half of the experience. So much of the tone, emotion, and character is conveyed through the music. Speedman is no exception!

Luke Thomas, Composer and Sound Designer for Speedman talks about his process in developing the Music for Speedman.

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Luke Thomas

When Joe first contacted me I thought - “oh no, not another animated-space-platypus-humanoid-superhero movie” but after watching a rough cut of the movie I was bursting with ideas and excitement.

Animation is particularly fun to work on as a composer and sound designer because you’re creating the entire sound of a world from scratch. And it took many months to hone in on what the sound of speedman should be.

Using the classic “superhero” musical palette of orchestra with a particular focus on brass seemed like a good foundation, providing comfort and familiarity for the audience that could then be subverted and warped. I also knew from the start we would be blending sampled / synthetic orchestra with just a select few solo session musicians to add some depth to the sound. Throughout the process it’s a constant balancing act of what you want the music to sound like in an ideal world but working within the resources and time you realistically have.

MUSICAL GENRES

The first demo I sent Joe was for the opening of the short and blended a marching band with a kind of cheesy / funky 80s sax to lighten the mood. But it became apparent the music needed to be a bit more straight faced and not hit the viewer over the head with quirkiness.

Work In Progress / Not Final

Also, even though it was just a placeholder saxophone sound, it didn’t really feel right for the aesthetic of the short and it was difficult to blend with the other instruments. So I decided to go back to the drawing board and experiment with some other potential instruments to throw into the mix.

Next I worked on some music for an action sequence. It again blended an orchestral sound but this time with vintage analog synths like mellotron and theremin. I specifically wanted analog synths because a clean / modern electronic music sound just didn’t feel right. It needed a hint of retro.

Work In Progress / Not Final

However the main melody on a theremin felt like it was again leaning too far into cheesy b-movie and it stands out like a sore thumb from the orchestra!

But rather than muting it entirely the theremin became more of a background element. This gave the more conventional orchestral passages a subtle strangeness that I felt was more balanced and fitting for Speedman.

The early stages of a project are often like this. Painting in really broad strokes and extremes then paring things down, going into the subtleties and details of the music once you’ve figured out

WORKING WITH LIVE MUSICIANS

Working with other musicians is one of my favourite parts of the process. I can lay out what I think something could or should sound like with sampled / synth instruments but a musician who has years of experience on their given instrument has a knowledge that I could never surpass.

They know what sounds good specifically on their instrument, they add their own personality and flair. And towards the end of a project I’ve heard the music hundreds of times - so having a musician who can offer their own perspective on the score is invaluable and as much as anything is a little burst of motivation to see the score through to the final mix.

Here’s an example of what an early demo with sampled instruments sounds like:

Work In Progress / Not Final

And then the final version with live flute and violin layered in:

By this point I felt like I had found the right balance of classic superhero orchestra and analog quirky b-movie strangeness. I liked the idea of the music starting more conventional then gradually warping as the short progresses.

Initially I tried very slowly increasing the speed and pitch of the music throughout the entire movie. But it was a total abomination.

But it gave me the idea to try out a slightly less extreme but similar approach. I asked violinist Jonathan Anderson to play a slow repeating string motif:

But that I could then speed up in my audio software later on in the soundtrack. So it has an intentionally superhuman and frenetic sound.

And there we have it - many revisions and experiments later - the music of Speedman. A blend of orchestra with some analog mellotron, subtle theremin, and live violin that has been sped up and processed within an inch of its life.

As well as Joe and Howard I would just like to thank the fantastic team who helped me get the music to the finish line.

Dora Kmezic for preparing crystal clear sheet music that the session musicians could work from, Jonathan Anderson for his violin and viola skills, and Luis Vilca for his wonderful flute playing.

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You can check out more of Luke’s work at https://lukethomasmusic.com/