**Songs and sounds made with a 1949 piano in a 1939 house with the help of 1980s synths. Plus: guitars, drums, and microphones tucked in tight spots*.**

*including the concrete stairwell.

Sounds by Spils

Starfish Space: music for satellites

Sub Pop / Alaska Airlines: analog synths for the win

PBS The Newsfeed: audio theme for Northwest news

PBS Art by Northwest: theme song for arts travelogue

Stoke Space: cinematic sound for a rockets on the rise

Seattle Times: anthemic rock for a site makeover

ExOfficio: dreamy soundscape for South Australia

Vanity Fair: audio identities for an iconic brand

Sound Stories

One hour to record this Sub Pop banger

A recent text from my friend Matt Olsen: “Hello! I need to record a very brief and simple synth melody for a video project I’m working on. Do you have an hour in your studio this week?”

The day of our session, Matt texted me his musical idea before heading over with the 20-second video clip — a non-sequitor scene from an 8-minute Alaska Airlines in-flight video that traces the history of Seattle record label Sub Pop.

I had assumed he would play and I would hit the record button, but it soon became clear that Matt intended me to play, fiddle with the knobs and recreate his acoustic-guitar-and-voice idea with my array of synths. With Matt as producer, I quickly sketched the idea out with tones that he found pleasing: analog, not-too-fancy, no reverb, and definitely not in tune. I offered to tune the final ascending swoop but Matt shook his head and said “No. It’s perfect.”

The entire session took 1 hour 15 minutes. Matt apologized for going over budget. P.S. there was no budget.

The full-length video will air on Alaska Airlines in-flight entertainment.

Breaking: New tune for Newsfeed

This seven second theme song, often referred to as a “stinger” in broadcast, took me nine compositions and one month to satisfy everyone involved. A personal record!

I was thrilled to work a second time with Cascade PBS (the first was for Art by Northwest) as they rebooted their then-weekly The Newsfeed as a 5-day a week show. A new theme song was in order. They went from using catalog music to this custom composition. And at least one PBS subscriber took note:

“I really like the change in the lead in music to the Cascade News Feed program.
The old lead in music was unpleasant and I would mute the entire program to avoid it.
Great change. Thank you.
Anne”

Music For Satellites

I spend many of my morning noodling on my 1949 Steinway console piano on the basement studio. I periodically post these pre-caffeine explorations on Instagram—and when a client contacts me about music I often head there first to recall a germ of an idea that I think may fit the bill.

That was the case for this Starfish Space theme song for their video series introducing their microwave-size Otter Pup 2 satellite that docks with bigger satellites as a repairman of sorts.

This was one of those rare times when my first musical sketch received enthusiastic thumbs up from the CEO, COO, CMO, and the creative team behind the videos and animation. Take your wins when they present themselves!

I was able to recruit Brangien (as is often the case, she was working upstairs) to help fill out the choir of ‘aaaaaahhhhs’ that culminate as the crescendo that sends the song (and Otter Pup) into deep space.

Audio theme for a video series about Northwest artists

Fifteen seconds. You’d think a tune that short would be easy, but a theme song that sets the tone of a series (without getting in the way) is a tall order.

That’s what I set out to do for the new Cascade PBS show “Art by Northwest," which covers artists across Washington state. The producers identified a song (just over 1-minute long) I’d written some time ago. They liked the vibe but needed the same feeling packed into 15 seconds. They also felt the vocal melody had too much personality (a possible distraction from the narration), so the producer wanted me to try it with a guitar carrying the melody.

I dug into the key elements of the pre-existing song: piano arpeggio, warm percussion brushes, and a distinctive melody (this time on a reverb-heavy Telecaster), and edited them into 15 seconds of crescendo/peak/resolve.
And with that, the audio theme for the Art by Northwest series was born — an intro that welcomes viewers to meet a new Washington-based artist in each episode of Season 1, with Season 2 already in the works. Thanks for listening!

How to "build" a rocket with a stove, a torch, and an iron.

Creating sound for the Stoke Space Technologies logo was a … blast. I combined a steam iron, a propane torch, and our 1989 Thermador gas stove — everything BUT the kitchen sink. The resulting sound collage fits perfectly with the logo redesign and animation by Lake & Pine Creative. Note: I did not have room in the ‘making of’ video to squeeze in my trusty 1984 Roland JX-3P synth (the sound of the data “chatter”), which I purchased in high school in Anchorage.

Stoke has the challenging work of actually going to space, but our household appliances are cheering them on!

Soundtrack for a book trailer

I read an early copy of The Eunuch (a wild and wildy imaginative work of NC-17 historical fiction) before writing this soundtrack for Charles Fischer’s book trailer video.

I quickly developed a bass line in the left hand, leaning on the chromatic half-step to impart a sense of intrigue and mystery. Next came the simple melody. Easy. But that’s where “easy” stopped and the trying-out-lots-of-other-ideas began. I kept coming back to the primary love interest in the novel, Sidhuri.

Around the 2:30 mark I expanded the melody into a leitmotif (a term I learned recently after attending the 4+ hour Wagner opera Tristan & Isolde). Sidhuri’s theme is like her, languid and exotic. The initial modal melody moves in off-kilter 3/4—then returns to earth, grounded in 4/4 time.

But it wasn’t all think-y. I pulled out my trusty 1974 telephone mic and recorded a boat load of feedback to create unease and tension behind the entire track. I howled and sang a few notes into the distorted telephone mic which you can hear under the 3 chapter cards which organize the video.

For the grand finale, I reversed a single low note on the Steinway (Jimi Hendrix would have flipped the 2” tape; I relied on software) so it would crescendo as the book cover appears in space. I sprinkled that with tambourine, strings, more telephone feedback and a final single piano note (this time in forward motion) and voila: Charlie has an author video for his debut novel, The Eunuch. Thanks for listening!

The Sound of Stoke

At the 0:07 mark of this STOKE Space Technologies video, a deep-throated choral voice enters the mix. To make this sound, I sang into a 1978 Bell Systems military telephone hooked up to an octave foot pedal, and ran it through a guitar amp (built by Seattle amp legend, Ben Verellen). The moody vocal sets the tone for the rest of the composition — piano, strings, drums, and a slew of clicks and whirs generated by my trusty ‘80s Roland synths.

It’s nothing compared to actual rocket science, but I’m amazed by the advances in multi tracking software in my lifetime (I use Logic Pro X) that allow me to make a little space magic in my home studio.

Thanks to Lake & Pine for the stellar visuals and to Stoke for building reusable rockets.