THE MAKING OF THE MUSIC
The music for The Tower explores the antagonistic dichotomy of the relationship between an experienced Sergeant Sarah Collins and a novice cop Lizzie Adama, 2 very different women.
The intriguing relationships between the characters served as strong inspiration for the electronic based score. The texture of the music is quite dirty, distorted and rich reflecting the contemporary, gritty aesthetic of London. It allowed me to return to my first love of synths. Strings, distorted piano and percussion under twisted and constantly shifting intricate synth textures all find their way into the rich pulsating score.
I wanted the presence of the tower itself to be felt looming over the character and story like a living breathing creature, so I imbued an deep sliding bass led ominous sound that is interwoven into the score whenever the presence of the tower most needed to be felt.
Overall the music is very dark, driving, and propelling but emotional connections and undercurrents were also very much present. The relationship between Lizzie and Kieran her boss led to a personal favourite theme The Affair - seductive, dark, and dangerous.
The music also tugs at Lizzie’s internal conflict. She’s consumed by guilt and anger and then brought back to the present and the tension and fear of the present situation which lent itself to heightened, propulsive music. I needed to bring out the relentless build-up of emotional and moral pressure on the characters which came out through a high pressure build up of rising pulsing beats and twisted synth elements.
Underpinning the whole process was a strong creative collaboration between Jim Loach (director), Patrick Harbinson (exec producer) and Damien Timmer (creative director).
Their trust created a safe space for musical experimentation always rooted in character and story. We strived to be honest to the story and the characters and it is a collaboration that I really cherished.
The score marks my debut TV drama and one which I am very proud of. Mirroring the gritty urban environment by EQing and mastering the cues with a subdued, dark gritty tone helped to evoke the bleached visual tone of London.
I dived deep into sonic experimentation using little known apps and synths trying hard to avoid cliches of synth presets and tropes. On a technical level, I enjoyed discovering and developing new techniques using granular synthesis, throwing samples of found sound into plugins to create new textures and sounds that hopefully make the score sound fresh and current.