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Exclusive Interview: BLACKOYOTE On “Money Honey” Soundtrack

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Exclusive Interview: BLACKOYOTE On "Money Honey" Soundtrack

The soundtrack from BLACKOYOTE for Isaac Knights-Washbourn “Money Honey” short-film is something that deserves your attention. Rich electronic sonic textures + hypnotic beats have always characterized his productions. Learn more right here.

1 — What is your personal philosophy towards working with soundtracks?

My favorite approach depends a lot on who I’m going to work with and the work itself. The most usual, and perhaps what I like the most is to enter a phase in which the film already has a structure and even some shootings. Then, with the director, I can analyze and propose the places where I think music can enter and how music should be. In these cases there is a great interaction with the director and his ideas and expectations. Sometimes it is more complicated, more hard work, but often the work is enriched and enhanced by the team’s ideas. The other way, which was how it happened with Money Honey, I compose the musical theme for the idea of the film and themes for characters and then where and how it enters is done by the editing team with the director. In this case it is a much free approach and more about creating music for ideas and sensations and less about creating to the image and movement. I like both very much. They are different challenges.

2 — Is this the first time you compose music for a film?

No. I have been making music regularly for video and film for many years. No as BLACKOYOTE alter-ego but with my real name. My first soundtrack was in 2011 for the short film Ínsua (http://www.jasg.net/Insua.html).

3 — How did your collaboration begin with the Director and Producers of the short film, “M0ney Honey”?

This was one of the atypical cases. My meeting with Isaac Knights-Washbourn was completely by chance. After a long day of work, I went to have a drink with some friends and I sat next to a friend of a friend from New Zealand. The conversation was flowing, he was in Portugal filming a documentary, and we had many common interests, especially in electronic music. He asked if there was a way to hear my work and said that one day he would contact me. I thought it would be the same as a lot of cases where people talk and to nothing happens. After a few months he sends me an email with the proposal. It was as random as this.

4 — Can you tell us more about the sonic elements that were involved in this soundtrack?

Isaac sends me references about the film’s environment and one of the things that caught my attention was that the film was going to be shot entirely on film, which would give it a natural texture from the analog that reports naturally for a sense of old. So sonically I tried to recreate that texture using analog synthesizers and arpeggiators, a well-textured reverb, and then that altered piano that always reports to the past. I tried to build a balance between old contemporary.

5 — What was the main source of inspiration for this project?

Usually what I do is listen to a lot of music and watch a lot of films that have this style that I want without much concern. It stays in the back of my head, growing. That way ideas come out more easily but without being too glued to the references. In this case I have an idea that I heard a lot of Aphex Twin’s Ambient Works Vol II and Dreu’s 1979 for example.


6 — Would you say this has been your biggest challenge so far?

Not even close. In a good way. Just because everything was very fluid and always fit naturally. My ideas effortlessly stuck to Isaac’s ideas. There is no merit in this. Just a great connection. So there was no special challenge.

7 — How long did the writing and preparation take?

Between the first drafts and the final versions it was about a month. It was a quick process.

8 — Why is this soundtrack relevant to the film?

I think that question would be better answered by Isaac but I think that music helps to put the viewer in the same spirit as the characters. More than a description, it helps to get the sensations. It helps to understand the anguish and the worrying spirit of the precarious situation that suddenly some families are in New Zealand because of the real estate pressure but through a teen skater’s survival instinct.

9 — Was there a brief for this project or they gave you full creative control?

Issac gave me complete freedom. He gave me directions of the aesthetic environment and things he liked but without imposed them. It was only agreed that it would be a theme for the film and variations for the characters. But it was all very fluid.

10 — Lastly, what new projects you got on the horizon?

The pandemic has spoiled a few plans. In the meantime, I finished the soundtrack for a feature film The Last Bath by David Bonneville, which has no release date yet. I would still go with some concerts from the previous album IO and start with a small tour of the presentation of the film-concert East Atlantic that I did in collaboration with the video maker Miguel C. Tavares. I hope that everything resumes with the coming of 2021.


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Hi, my name is Erick Ycaza. I have a BA in Advertising & Graphic Design. This blog is to provide you with daily music news and share my personal style.

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