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Voodoo Ray
06 Feb 2015 : Paul Byrne
Ray Harman composed the score for the award-winning Terry McMahon feature 'Patrick's Day' - in cinemas now
Happily caught between rock and a hard director, Ray Harman found there was life outside Something Happens when he turned to film composing. Paul Byrne finds out where, why, when and how he got the beat.

Having tasted fame and whiffed fortune when his band, Something Happens, signed with Virgin in the mid-1980’s, Ray Harman had to go looking for new sensations when even a solid gold classic such as Parachute couldn’t quite break the band in America. Or the UK. Or anywhere else.

Luckily for the cherubic guitarist with the neat line in power pop-licks, there were other avenues for his musical lust, Harman turning to film composing in his small home studio in sunny Wicklow - the garden patio of Ireland, thanks to some dodgy county planning.

If you want to know just how far Harman has come, you only have to check out Terry McMahon’s powerful ‘Patrick’s Day’, currently playing on a nice big screen near you. In the meantime, young Harman took time out to talk with IFTN’s Paul Byrne...

PAUL BYRNE: How did you first get into the soundtrack game, and did you always have secret ambitions for this kind of career?

RAY HARMAN:‘When Something Happens started to gig less and I started looking around for a day job, I really wanted to keep writing music above all. I love performing, and I certainly didn’t want to give up that kick you get from composing either. So I tried to figure a way to make a living from it - advertising, short films, TV themes. I tried everything and was lucky enough to meet people early in the process who took a chance and allowed me to learn on the fly with their work. I learned gradually how music works with film. Until then, even though I was a musician, I never ‘heard’ music scores when watching a film, unless it was a featured song, for example. It made me appreciate how hard-working a good score can be. Everyone says Eddie Vedder when thinking about ‘Into The Wild’, but, in fact, Michael Brook wrote the bulk of the score you hear - or don’t hear…’

The mark of a great soundtrack is that it emphasizes the scene without necessarily being noticed. Is that a difficult balance - you’re there, but not THERE?

‘Yeah, it’s a tricky balance. That ego conflict causes many brain spasms. Really though, there is no better feeling than writing something that somehow lifts or emphasises a scene, even if it is very subliminal and nobody spots the cue. That’s when you know you’ve done a good job.’

‘Alexandre Desplat’s score for ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is a brilliant example of doing this well. The score is full of funny jokes but you need to watch the film twice to get them all. It carries the film along in a lovely, gentle but energetic way that is just a joy.’

Who are your inspirations? Do the icons such as Bernard Hermann, John Barry and John Williams hold sway over young pups such as Trent Reznor, Chris Martinez and our own David Holmes?

‘Coming from a pop background, I am drawn towards melodic stuff. All these guys you mention are fantastic and a lot is learned from listening to how they approach a film. Let’s say their different approaches are inspiring, in that they show you that there are no real rules, and there are a million ways the job can be approached. Mica Levi’s score for ‘Under The Skin’ is totally weird and brilliant, a great example of Tabula rasa…’

Ooh, Latin - fancy! And what about making your mark? Do you want people to notice, hey, that’s a Ray Harman soundtrack?

‘Is that Latin?-That was actually one of my brain spasms….’

‘Of course, any recognition is good. I’m pretty happy just being re-hired though! I get a huge sense of achievement just helping to get a film or TV show work effectively. I’m long over wanting to be a pop star! It’s lovely getting quiet emails from people around the planet who happened to notice your music in a show. That’s enough to tame the ego…’

The move from full-scale orchestras to one-man and his electronica machine - hooray, or has something been lost?

‘No, this is a very, very good, democratising thing. In reality, as soon as a composer has even the tiniest budget to hire musicians that is what they will do. The advent of software to write and record music is the reason many composers, including myself, can have a career. And in reality, everything you write in your home studio is visualised for a band or orchestra to play ideally.’

‘Also, in a line of work where you are constantly trying to re-invent and be as unique as possible, maybe formal education can be a tiny brake and the oddness that comes from the untutored approach actually fits better, if it is somehow accessible and syncs well.’

Do you look outside of soundtrack composers to recharge your batteries?

‘Very much so. Everything is interesting. Except Andre Rieu.’

My mum begs to differ. The copyright need to replace tracks by the likes of Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones with original material when it comes to international markets and DVDs, etc - do you deliberately try and move as far away as possible from, say, Gimme Shelter, or do you need to be somewhere near that Delta devil voodoo again to make the scene work?

‘That is a tough job. I know what a hangman must feel like - damned if you do…’

‘So, there is no point trying to do a knock-off copy. Nobody will be happy. Your knock-off won’t sound as good as the original and will be sort of creepy. The composer won’t be satisfied, as he doesn’t get the creative input. The audience wonder, have they heard it before...?’

‘So, the best approach is often to just try wildcard ideas that create the same emotional impact. It might mean a complete 180-degree sound change but if the integrity of the scene is retained, then all is good. So, what seems like a simple replacement issue can become one of the harder tasks as you need to come up with lots of these options to see what works best.’

In 10,000 words or less, out of your own work, what’s the one you’re most proud of, and why?

‘I’m proud of everything that got approved! I’m proud that I haven’t been found out yet… I’m proud of little shorts like ‘Rubai’, features like ‘Patrick’s Day’, and docs like ‘Here Was Cuba’. The one that sticks out at the moment though is Alan Gilsenan’s ‘A Vision: A life of WB Yeats’. It's a beautiful meditation on WB Yeats. It was done incredibly fast, with a tiny group, and was assembled in an unusual way; voiceover first, and then images and music. You can hear the end result here.’

As with John Barry, Lalo Schifrin and so many others, do you plan on composing stand-alone pieces that are just the soundtracks swirling in your head?

‘I have a split music personality in that sense -any stand-alone ideas tend to be songs. Though my film music career tends to nudge these towards the dramatic. Somewhere between Sparks and Monserrat Caballe.’

Ooh, Spanish operatic soprano - double-fancy! Lastly, what do you find yourself listening to most these days? Feel the need to seek out new sensations, or happy to luxuriate in the familiar?

‘I meant the caribbean island but..’

‘Both I guess, I will never get tired of hearing new music. The upside to the turmoil of music industry upheaval is the vast amount of new music being made and available to all. Humans are endlessly inventive …'

‘Sometimes I do find myself drawn back to The Posies’ Frosting On The Beater or Van Halen 1. Guitars, man. Loud f**king guitars….’

Oh, and is there anything else you want to share with the group?

‘Yes. I have no plans to write a book, I am constantly astonished anybody stays in Ireland with the weather and taxes, and I am always up for doing short films or low/no-budget projects If I have the time. Don’t be afraid to call!’

‘Patrick’s Day’ is in cinemas now. And Ray Harman is waiting by the phone.

Check out IFTN's past interviews with:





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