CREDIT CRUNCH YOUR CHRISTMAS - Disqo/Golden Sq
With the bailiffs breathing down Santa's neck this year, the boys at Disqo decided to offer the world a way of cutting down on the unnecessary luxuries and frills which traditionally populate the festive season. The result is 'Credit Crunch Your Christmas', and when they needed something extra special for the soundtrack, they came to us.
The user is presented with a traditional christmas scene consisting of six elements, which can be made cheaper or more expensive looking by turning the dials at the bottom of the screen.
We thought it would be wonderful to be able to do the same thing with the music. So we wrote a christmas carol consisting of six elements, each one linked to a graphical element in the scene and each with an expensive sounding option and a cheap sounding option. The user is then mixing their own economical christmas carol as they create their scene!
The elements are:
Roaring Fire ---------No Fire (Wind)
Salvation Army Horns-- Car Alarm(Horn)
Carol Singers---------Drunks + dog
Glockenspiel---------Out of tune piano
Sleigh bells----------Next door's drum and bass party (we're not invited!)
Christmas dinner-----Alive Turkeys
You can have a go yourself by visiting: www.creditcrunchyourchristmas.com
CASINO ROYALE - Sony/Media Catalyst
We were commissioned to create a dose of classic Bond via an interactive soundtrack around the high concept web-campaign for Casino Royale.
We had to create music which would build or suddenly shift in response to the user navigating the various games and challenges placed around the site.
The first of these was a poker game for which the brief was to create six John Barry-esque loops, growing in intensity as the game situation became more fraught:
In addition, we were commissioned to write a Bond-style theme tune for the title page, as at the time they were unsure as to whether they were to be granted the rights to use the official James Cornell song, 'You Know My Name'. Well, in the end, they did get the rights, but opted to use ours anyway.
The recording session took place at the old SARM East studio in Brick Lane, employing a five piece horn section, drums, and us taking care of the rest.
DREAMBOATS AND PETTICOATS
We have recently been asked to write some songs to be considered for a forthcoming West-end show. The show is to be set in the late 50s/ early 60s and the brief was to come up with some short, simple songs in the styles prevalent in that era (Buddy Holly/ Elvis Presley/ early Roy Orbison etc) with lyrics reflecting innocent themes such as teenage love.
Beaten Heart
Chemistry
Heart on a plate
STAR ALLIANCE - Disqo/Golden Sq
We were briefed to write a short soundtrack to reflect a day in the life of a businessman, condensed into 30 seconds. The first half is collage of office noises building towards a sudden moment of relaxation when he boards that Star Alliance plane.
TARANTELLA
Originally conceived as a song for our group 'The Mores', Tarantella seemed to work equally well as an instrumental.
NEW YORK APARTMENT
You can hear more from The Mores by visiting their myspace or their website