It’s a premiere! Welcome to the launch of The Saunton Incident - a new Semiphore piece exclusive on Substack.
Firstly: go watch. Secondly: let me tell you about how I wrote it, the video and what is a Saunton Incident?
Ok. Enjoy that? Let’s go…
Sometimes the most enjoyable part of composing is taking the risk. Scratch that - every time. If you’re not pushing forward and doing a least something slightly different then - artistically - what’s the point?
I’ve known for some time that I wanted to do a ‘tale of two halves’ sort of piece. One where there was very much a distinct story shift from a slow build into something big and loud. It also usually involves a tempo shift which in these days of precise click tracks is a little more tricksy.
Then one Thursday evening about 2 weeks ago, a bit of post-dinner piano tinkling led to an elegiac Debussy-style figure which I filed away into my ‘interesting’ folder. I kept coming back to it though, so the next day I added some lovely-sounding Slate + Ash strings to set it off.
Great. Job done. Nice little side piece that Brian Eno could knock out in his lunch hour.
But something was nagging at me. This sounded like the start of a story, not a full stop. I needed it to go somewhere else, a bit of a journey for the listener. This was my chance to do the ‘two halves’ and slay a prog-rock dragon or two.
‘Part 1’ was so subtle and calming that ‘Part 2’ needed to be the polar opposite. I wanted churn, movement, tempo change, drama and distortion. I wanted Paranoid Android.
Beatles beats.
One of my favourite ever pieces of drumming is Ringo Starr’s off-kilter loop on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. It’s completely mad and lord knows what it sounded like to the general music-buying public when it first came out.
It’s been sampled, cribbed and reworked countless times down the years, but I thought there was still time to get in on the action. Using a midi file mapped to various drum setups in Logic, I made the main loop the bedrock of Part 2 - it’s almost ‘falling down the stairs’ quality adding to the sense of disorientation, really setting up the mood of everything I then layered over the top.
Loop in place, it was time to give it some. For obvious reasons (if you’ve ever heard it), one of the sonic inspirations for this piece is ‘The Private Psychedelic Reel’ by The Chemical Brothers, which led me to add some old skool see-saw synths. Very much a conscious decision. Apart from that, stylistically I was led by the piece and my nose (or ears?). Some sections of Part 2 remind me very much of mid to late-period Doves, and when I added some guitars over the top of the track, I knew I needed some of their insistent pushing single-note work to help drive it along.
The ‘solo’ guitar at the end is very much - in my head - a nod to my favourite guitarist ever, David Gilmour. If it sounds like him at all is another matter, but I did more takes than probably necessary to get that languid slightly hesitant vibe.
I tend to give these tracks about a 3-day work limit now. Not because I get bored of them, but I’m very aware you can start over-polishing. I took a tad longer with this one due to its epic nature and there’s loads going on to get right. I could tweak and change it forever, but I’m really happy with how it sounds ‘alive’ - like it’s going to collapse under its own weight and emotion. Give me six months and I might change my mind though. Be back to fiddling with it.
The video.
Now, a big kitchen sink drama piece of music needed something visual to match it. I’d already dipped my toe in the water (pun intended) with the “The Minsk Curiosity Library” video, but this was longer and more dramatic.
I’m no video editor, but I’ve done enough brand spots and been involved with enough ad campaigns over the years to know my way around a narrative and story. What was needed here was some footage leg work - something simple, beautiful and otherwordly for Part 1, and then wild, chaotic and real-world for Part 2.
I found all of these via Artlist which has some crazy good footage on offer, then spending a merry few days compiling and going back and forth in Adobe Premier. Not my comfort zone, but gaining another skill - if only bare bones - to get the story across is always a bonus. I can see a real future for myself rolling my own videos - it’s all very well and good doing the music, but with the world so used to starring at screens all day now, the video era is with us - would be mad to not lean into that somewhat.
What is The Saunton Incident?
Great question. It’s a pat response to say it’s a touch impressionistic and you can take what you want from it, but my take? It’s a literal and metaphorical representation of a couple and the split second they realise it’s all over. When it can feel like something has died and gone forever.
In the video, the couple are in their own world, in love but then fighting, after which something terrible happens. The woman escapes with the realisation that the man is dead to her and in that moment is haunted by all the moments that led up to that point - good and bad.
There’s no happy ending. It all went wrong, but the truth of whether someone really died or just the relationship did will be left on the beach at Saunton Sands.
Where next?
Musical development is maddeningly non-linear. This feels to me like a big leap forward: tempo changes! Style and genre flip-flopping! Dramatic video!
However, I may do a new piece next week and it’s a step back or sideways. But there’s no reason to get worried about that - all development is development. If I stood back and asked if I could have done The Saunton Incident at Christmas when I started my MA, I’d have laughed at you. It’s just trying new things everyday until you look back and go, wow.
But how does it feel to you? A leap forward or just a slightly bonkers sideways shimmy? Let me know.
I’ve got a few more new ideas I want to try before June - when my album ‘Lighthouse Flag Compass’ is slated to appear - and anything of note I’ll be posting exclusively here on Substack first so make sure you hit that subscribe button!
The Saunton Incident.