The Screen Composer's Studio – Details, episodes & analysis

Ottawa born Lora Bidner combines her background as a singer-songwriter multi-instrumentalist as well as affinity for folklore in her music for the screen, which includes the BBC/Family Channel series Malory Towers, mini series Hogtown, feature thriller Don’t Click, and Family Channel series Ruby and the Well, which she co-composes with Rob Carli.  The four-time SOCAN Foundation winner completed a Bachelors of Music from Carlton and a Masters of Music Technology from the University of Toronto, and is an artist in her own right, who released the critically acclaimed To The North in 2015 and is currently working on a new album.

We talk about how she got her start singing and writing songs, the surprising film score touchstone that we both share as a favorite, the demanding high school program that got her started writing music early, and the winding educational journey where she overcame tremendous obstacles toward a career as a  singer-songwriter.  In the end, she returned to her first passion - scoring for film and TV.  Since then, Lora graduated from the Canadian Film Center’s Slaight Family Music Lab, where her formidable work ethic helped her meet the intense challenges of that program, preparing her for the real life pressures of being a screen composer.  We talk about the joys and struggles of her recent projects, how she manages the interpersonal aspect, and how folk music and her voice become part of her scores.  Lora’s new challenge is as a new parent, where she juggles the demands of motherhood with a busy scoring career.  She offers valuable perspective for anyone who is thinking about, or living, in that tricky balance.

www.lorabidner.com

Originally from the Netherlands, Lodewijk Vos’ approach to music making is very much his own.  One half of the scoring duo Menalon (with Joseph Murray), the Canadian Film Center grad has worked on TV shows such as Diggstown on CBC, documentaries including HBO’s The Slow Hustle and Mr. Tachyon for VICE TV, and films like Level 16 and The Void.  We talk about the wild new instrument/effects box he’s building, his roots playing rock in the Netherlands (but being more interested in the effects pedals than the guitar), starting as an in-house composer for MTV, his move to Toronto and the differences between European and Canadian mindsets, the power of working away from a computer screen, his world-traveling, site-specific modular synth explorations, committing completely but then throwing out film scoring concepts and hours of work, the power of documentaries, dealing with anxiety and fear, rejecting hustle culture, his meditation practice, and sound as healing.

www.lovosmusic.com

Called “One of the most compelling acts Canada has to offer.” by Time magazine, Sarah Slean has been beguiling audiences since she first appeared on scene in the late 90’s, when she was signed to Atlantic/Warner at just 19 years of age.  Her infectious combination of piano forward pop and cabaret, and her singular voice propelled her to acclaim.  The 4 time Juno nominee with 11 albums under her belt was classically trained and fascinated by sound and orchestration early on.  She wrote arrangements and instrumental pieces for her albums, and eventually went on to provide orchestral arrangements for the likes of Dan Mangan and Hawksley Workman.  A storyteller in the truest sense, she also works as a painter, a poet, a broadcaster, and even did a stint of acting for which she was nominated for a Gemini.  Now, Sarah is taking all of her talents and background and applying them to help tell stories for the screen.  In this endeavor she has already met with success, winning a CSA for Detention Adventure alongside collaborators Ari Posner, Amin Bhatia, and Antonio Naranjo.  Deeply philosophical and highly articulate, Sarah is able to speak about her work and life as an artist in a way that is both illuminating and inspiring.

www.sarahslean.com

Michel Cusson established his reputation as a formidable guitar player and composer in the early 80’s with celebrated jazz-rock group Uzeb, whose tours were cultural journeys which gave Michel the opportunity to meet and play with musicians in places like Senegal, Morocco, and Southeast Asia.  In the early 90’s, the group disbanded and Michel turned his attention to scoring.  Early hits such as the mob-thriller series Omertà established his reputation and led to many more series and films, as well as scoring on an epic scale for IMAX documentaries such as Wolves, Ultimate Wave Tahiti, and Volcanoes of the Deep Sea.  He has also been the composer and musical director for massive touring live shows, including the equine themed Odysseo and Cavalia.  We talk about the challenges and joys of working across all these mediums, how his jazz background translates to his screen composing work, and how he’s kept the spirit of improvisation and performance alive even during the pandemic, with his Michel Cusson en direct streaming shows on Youtube, broadcasting from his studio which he refers to as “the spaceship”.

 https://www.michelcusson.com/english 

 https://www.youtube.com/c/michelcussonmusic/playlists 

Todor Kobakov grew up in Bulgaria where at age 7 he was accepted into a music focused school so competitive that there were kids in the wings waiting to take your spot if you stumbled.  He began showing up to help out on the sets where his mother worked as a producer for the National broadcaster, sparking his interest in the intersection between music and the screen.  After high school, he moved to Canada and at age 20 completed a degree in piano performance at the University of Toronto, where he fell into a crowd of musicians including future indie darlings like Gonzales, Peaches, and Feist.  This led him to performing, producing, and arranging for artists like Stars, Metric, Sarah Slean, K-os, and many more.  At the same time, Todor was getting his foothold creating music for commercials and indie films, eventually landing a coveted spot in the Canadian Film Center’s Slaight Music residency where he would meet and work with iconic director Bruce MacDonald.  Now, he’s firmly established his reputation as a composer with films like Born to be Blue starring Ethan Hawke, and series such as Bitten, Ransom, and Most Dangerous Game, while his work on Cardinal has won him 2 Canadian Screen Awards.  

www.todor.ca

Suad Bushnaq has long struggled to answer the question “where’s home?” in simple terms.  The Jordanian-Canadian composer and polymath with Bosnian, Syrian, and Palestinian roots grew up in Amman, studied in Damascus and Montreal, spent time teaching in North Carolina, and now makes her home in Toronto.  Her work reflects her experiences and travels, as she explores Western and Middle Eastern musical traditions, and some of the places she’s lived both in times of war and peace.  She now splits her time between concert music commissions and her work as a film composer.  We discuss that dichotomy, how she balances being an artist and a craftsperson, her perspectives on studying in Syria and Canada, traditions of Middle Eastern music, and what changed for her during the Pandemic.  The Hollywood Music in Media award winner who Hans Zimmer himself has referred to as “an incredible artist” also talks about some of her biggest challenges, including the score for a demanding film that she worked on for almost 4 years.  The project concluded with a set of international recording sessions that saw strings captured in Damascus between bombings, while others tracked at Air Edel in London, North Carolina, and Toronto.  A mentor once told her never to second guess her gut instinct, and now Suad is making a home in music that is truly her own.

www.suadbushnaq.com

Brian and Caleb Chan bring a high level of emotional intelligence to everything they do, and believe that a focus on that growth is critical to success in both life and creative business.  When you understand that their attention to the inner world carries over into the work they do as musicians and storytellers, you realize it’s no accident that they’ve been so successful.  They also seem to avoid being pigeonholed, and their work spans from the horror of Sam Raimi’s 50 States of Fright, to the preschool fare of Hatchimals, to TV romances like A Homecoming for the Holidays.  The brothers have diverged and come together a few times over the years, collaborating all the while as they each followed unique but parallel musical paths.  While Caleb studied composition at the University of Toronto, Brian earned a Masters in Sound Recording at McGill.  Now, their complementary strengths blend beautifully, and by all accounts, they’re just getting started.  We chat about their early days in Hong Kong and Canada, how they work as a team, the joys and challenges of their diverse slate, and how a recent flurry of work has made them much more intentional about their approach, with an eye toward balance and sustainability.

https://www.chansounds.com

Janal Bechthold’s musical journey started not on the piano playing Mozart, but rather on the organ playing 50’s swing and Tangos.  Again sidestepping more well-worn paths, she studied music therapy at Laurier and spent years alternately in that profession, and as a church organist.  These activities were, however, both informed by and are now critical to her work as a musical storyteller - work which has now been recognized with an incredible 3 CSA nominations in 2021.  In our conversation, Janal describes her interesting musical upbringing, her work helping people heal using music, how she utilizes her diverse experiences in what she does as a screen composer, the issues and stories that link many of her projects together, the important work she spearheaded to push forward the conversation about women screen composers, and the holistic approach she’s taking to evaluate where she wants her journey will take her next.  Now, it looks like her relationship with the organ has come full circle, as she contemplates stripping the instrument down to re-contextualize it’s sound and her approach to making music.

Donald Quan sees his whole life, including his career and businesses, as an improvisation.  As a composer, he is known for his work on shows such as Relic Hunter, Mutant X, and APTN’s Moccasin Flats.  As a musician and recording artist, he has toured with Loreena McKennitt and Lighthouse, and recorded his own music at Peter Gabriel’s iconic Real World Studios.  His incredible studio, Q Music, once housed over 400 indigenous instruments from 6 continents, and he has collaborated with groups such as The Toronto Tabla Ensemble, Samba Squad, M-DO Kathak Toronto Dance, and First Nations choreographer Santee Smith.

In 2007, I was lucky enough to spend time as Donald’s apprentice, and throughout this conversation I recount memories of that challenging and formative time, and get to thank him for being a big part of my development as a composer and creative person.

We talk about his growing up in Toronto as the only Chinese-Canadian kid in his school, his early start in music and how he ended up at the nascent film scoring program at Berklee.  There, he learned the traditional techniques of pen and paper scoring, as well as old school analog methods of syncing music to picture.  It was, however, his interest in the emerging use of computers in music that would help him stand out and get him his first breaks in the industry.  During a performance in 2009, Donald suffered a near-fatal stroke and was without vital signs for nearly 20 minutes.  He miraculously survived, but would spend weeks in a coma, after which a long journey toward recovery began.  Now, over 10 years later, I help Donald restore some of his memory as I share stories of our time together.

Every time I chat with Peter Chapman (AKA Coins), I hear another amazing story, well told.  The pivotal moments in his life also connect in a narrative full of serendipitous events that have opened windows to let his talent shine through.  This multiple-Canadian Screen Award nominee started his diverse career producing hip-hop and electronic music, and got his breakout gig via the instructor of one of his electives, 8 years after attending the Ontario College of Art and Design.  That show was Durham County, and many more would follow: the sci-fi cult favorite Wynonna Earp (co-scored with Rob Carli), Bomb Girls, HGTV’s Leave It To Bryan, CBC’s hit, Workin’ Moms, and many more.  He’s also been a first call for developers, scoring games such as Guacamele 1 & 2, Little Big Planet Karting, and Soundshapes, among others.  We talk about how he left cassettes of his music in public bathrooms, the crash-course learning of first gigs, his airport-layover-created Beastie Boys remix that went hyper-viral and ended up being lauded by Maxim, Esquire, People, and Billboard magazine, how he bridged the gap between being an electronic producer to writing for orchestra, and why he thinks one of the keys to success is being able to take a good punch.