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Kid Moxie Spotlight: Celebrating Women Composers

Elena Charbila is an established actor, composer, producer and recording artist under her moniker “Kid Moxie.”

Kid Moxie’s music has been featured in numerous indie films, television shows and commercials, including a national Victoria’s Secret ad campaign. She collaborated with renowned Twin Peaks composer, Angelo Badalementi, recording a new version of “Mysteries of Love.” Entertainment Weekly called her a “cinematic popstar” and Vice described her sound as “eerie, celestial, odd and exquisite.”

She collaborated with 2019 Palm D’Or award winner and Greek director Vasilis Kekatos for Greek Vogue Magazine’s video campaign Gucci Resort 2020, starring model Winnie Harlow, and five mini-movies for the perfume line KORRES – all five scored by Kid Moxie.

Recently, Kid Moxie pulled double duty both acting in and scoring the music for Not to Be Unpleasant, But We Need To Have A Serious Talk, soundtrack released on Lakeshore Records. Her music video “Big in Japan,” from the soundtrack, premiered in Under the Radar, in which they called it a “dreamy, palpable neo-noir vibe.” Apple Music picked the soundtrack as one of its top 10 soundtrack recommendations.

Last year, Kid Moxie wrote and performed three of the original tracks for CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, released by Lakeshore Records. The soundtrack topped the iTunes soundtrack charts at number one.

We caught up with Kid Moxie to talk about her recent projects and what’s coming up next for this multi-talented artist.

 

SSM: You stated in an interview with Under the Radar that you began playing music when you were young. Can you speak a little bit about what pulled you in the direction of composing?

KM: It’s hard to trace exactly the why and the how as I started with classical piano at the age of 4 but at some point, while still in elementary school, I remember getting a lot of joy from combining my own notes instead of reading what was in front of me. I was probably also rebelling against the very structured and demanding way that I was being taught at the time. Perhaps it was my way of feeling “in control” of the instrument. I still feel the need of that kind of control. Composing your own music gives one a sense of freedom that feels invaluable to me.

 

SSM: You have such a unique and new-wave sound! Who are the artists or albums that inspire you in your music?

KM: Thanks! I love artists from all kinds of genres as long as their music creates an atmosphere I want to “live in”. I really like Burial, Grimes, Bjork, The Cure, Clint Mansell, Electric Youth, Trentemoller.

Some of my most cherished soundtracks that influence my sound are Blade Runner (Vangelis), Drive (Cliff Martinez), Twin Peaks (Angelo Badalamenti) and Three Colours: Blue (Zbignew Preisner).


SSM: You created the moniker Kid Moxie. How did you decide to create such an interesting and cool name?

KM: I wanted something that would sound playful and gender-less so Kid Moxie felt appropriate in that way.

 

SSM: Your tracks for the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack are awesome! Can you talk about collaborating on ‘Follow the White Crow,’ ‘Flying Heads’ and Simple Pleasures’ and the instruments you used?

KM: Cyberpunk was such a beast of a project and I was writing stuff at the time without knowing whether they would make the game or not. It was really fun for me to explore dark/industrial techno which is something I hadn’t really delved into in the past. I used both soft synths (I am a big lover of Arturia) and analogue instruments such as Moog Mother to create throbbing bass lines and Dreadbox Erebus for some of the drone sounds and screechy leads.

 

SSM: What do you have coming up next that we should know about?

KM: My next album titled “Better Than Electric” is due to come out later this year and I’m also writing the score for a film shooting in Greece that I’m really excited about.

Follow Kid Moxie on Instagram and listen below.

Soundtrack Available Now: [Listen]

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Five Facts – Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Original Game Soundtrack!

 

The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla game is out! Critics, gamers and soundtrack fans are loving the music in the game.

To celebrate game-titan Ubisoft’s assembling such a renowned team of talented musicians, including Jesper Kyd, Sarah Schachner and Einar Selvik, we wanted to list five cool facts about the music!

Check out five facts below and listen to the soundtrack, released digitally worldwide by Lakeshore Records on Nov. 13, 2020!

 

#1 Although Jesper Kyd and Sarah Schachner have worked on other Ubisoft game soundtracks, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the first time they collaborated on a title together.

 

#2 The ACV composers come from all backgrounds but have an interest in the Viking culture from the Danish Kyd who stated he saw this project as an opportunity to connect with his Scandinavian roots to Schachner who grew up with a full-sized replica of a Viking ship in her backyard, and for which her mom wrote a children’s book about called Yo, Viking!

 

#3 For the ‘Assassin’s Creed Main Theme,’ Kyd devised the initial vibe and melodic motif. Schachner expanded on the melody and structure, producing it into a full arrangement and Einar Selvik lent his voice.

 

#4 Some of the instruments used on the soundtrack include a Carnyx (ancient Celtic war horn), horse-haired bowed, bass and alto tagelharpa, tagelharpa cello, crwth (bowed lyre), animal hide drums, rebec, and metal drums.

 

#5 In interviews, Kyd and Schachner stated they wanted the theme to transport the listener to another time and place, filled with mystery and uncertainty, evoking Eivor’s journey – the drive, the bond with family, and the character’s search to find something.

 

Soundtrack Available Now: [Download/Listen]

 

Scores, Video Games

Interview: Jesper Kyd Talks Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Jesper Kyd is a BAFTA award-winning Danish film, television and video game composer. He is known for his experimental approach to crafting iconic music for blockbuster video game franchises and pushing musical boundaries.

Kyd has received top honors from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Critics Choice Film Awards, Hollywood Music in Media Awards and Game Audio Network Guild. His music is regularly performed worldwide, such as the Danish National Symphony, Krakow Film Music Festival and WDR Symphony.

His recent work includes Borderlands 3, State of Decay 2, TUMBBAD and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which had its soundtrack released digitally by Lakeshore Records on Nov. 13, 2020.

We reached out to Kyd to discuss all things music and his recent release for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

 

SSM: What or who inspired you to work as a composer? 

JK: When I was 13, I got a Commodore 64 computer. The C64 has a built-in analog soundchip which enabled a whole new level of computer music to be created. It was so impactful it created a new music genre that’s still around today, called Chip Music (chiptune), 8bit music or SID music (named after the SID chip inside the C64). Listening to C64 music composers as well as artists like Mike Oldfield, Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre were early influences at the start of my music-making career.

The projects I work on have also been a huge inspiration. I write a lot of music for fantasy and sci-fi genres as well as historical-inspired scores so creating atmosphere, a place to travel to musically, is one of my favorite aspects. Finding ways to create unique and original scores is what I look for, whether it’s a film, a TV series or game. It’s important to work with great people in a creative, supportive and friendly environment so a maximum level of creativity can be achieved.

 

SSM: You have been scoring video games since your teens. What are some of the biggest changes you have noticed in gaming music from when you started and now? 

JK: These days more bands and film/TV composers are scoring games, and writing music for games is much more desirable compared to when I started out. Back then composers often had total creative control on the music style and lots of input on the implementation of the music. These days there are audio departments responsible for implementing when and how the music should play and that makes it possible for composers who have never worked on game scores before to write music for games. But in general, things haven’t changed that much for me, since I work on projects where I’m hired to be creative and to bring something unusual or new to a project.

Other changes include bigger live budgets since AAA games often have music production budgets the size of AAA movies. For example, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was created by Ubisoft Montreal in conjunction with 16 other Ubisoft game studios creating content for the game.

 

SSM: Assassin’s Creed is such a successful franchise, spawning sequels, novels, action figures and a movie. Can you speak about how you began working on the initial project? 

JK: Sure, the first Assassin’s Creed game was shown to me through concept art at a video game trade show behind closed doors. I could hardly believe what Ubisoft was trying to achieve and no-one had attempted anything like this before. Assassin’s Creed helped give birth to a whole new genre of open- world games, where you could climb any building and go anywhere in the world. The parkour aspect really made for a whole new experience; it was like a platforming game in a realistic detailed open-world.

The first Assassin’s Creed was a huge challenge and we had to invent and figure things out as we went along. The foundation of Assassin’s Creed was created here and that included the music style which to this day uses many of the same building blocks we came up with for AC1. The first Assassin’s Creed was a huge blockbuster and these days the series has sold over 155 million games making it one of the most successful video game franchises of all time.

SSM: For Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, was there a specific tone you wanted to convey to gamers? 

JK: It was important that the score felt atmospheric and authentic to the time period. The vast open spaces in nature, from fjords to snow-covered mountain tops, from forests to rolling hillsides, it needed an open, epic and vast music style that gave a sense of scale. There was no comfort of city living, like many prior Assassin’s Creed games, this game takes place outdoors in rugged nature and at times hostile environments.

I recorded live instruments with a lot of air and used vintage equipment to help simulate instruments being recorded outside. Also, the Animus influences the music with a futuristic tone, meaning the live recordings are run through a lot of effects and filters to help remind us the game is played in a simulator.

 

SSM: What’s coming up next for you? 

JK: Right now I’m scoring a feature animation fantasy film which is a lot of fun to work on. So much work goes into a single frame of animation, which takes hours to render. It’s a totally different way to compose music compared to video games.

Check out the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla soundtrack below and follow Kyd on Instagram @kyd.jesper!

 

 

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Interview: Einar Selvik Talks Assassin’s Creed Valhalla

Einar Selvik is a Norwegian composer and founder of Wardruna, a project renowned for its innovative and genre-creating renditions of old Nordic songs.

Selvik merges the scholarly with pop culture by integrating old Nordic instruments, poetry and poetic meters in a contemporary soundscape. He lectures about his work with historical music at universities, such as Oxford, Denver, Reykjavik and Bergen. Selvik’s work is used by top Old Norse scholars to exemplify how music might have sounded in early Scandinavia.

Selvik and Wardruna contributed on History Channel’s Vikings soundtrack, in which Selvik also appeared as a singer on two episodes of the television series. He was awarded the Egil Storbekken’s Music Prize, which is a national award given to those who have made extraordinary efforts in Norwegian folk music, especially with older folk instruments.

More recently, Selvik was tapped to work on the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla game soundtrack with co-composers, Sarah Schachner and Jesper Kyd. The game is set in 873 AD in warring Norway and follows the Viking invasion of Britain. The full album is out now on Lakeshore Records. 

 

SSM: How did you get involved with the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla project?

ES: I was first approached by the musical team of Ubisoft through my publisher BMG in 2018. They were familiar with my work with Norse and Nordic music and had already been using a lot of my Wardruna compositions as temporary music in the game ad was interested in discussing a possible cooperation. I made an initial pitch with my musical ideas and we had some discussion over the phone before we decided to meet up in person.

A delegation from the AC music team came over to Bergen, Norway where I happen to be holding an acoustic “skaldic” concert in the royal medieval feasting hall “Håkonshallen”. This format of performance is in many ways very close to parts of the musical expression they wanted me to work on, so it was quite an appropriate occasion and backdrop to start planning our further collaboration on ACV!

 

SSM: The track ‘Vígahugr – Lust For Battle – Skaldic Version’ is awesome! Can you speak about your process with creating this track and the instruments you used?

ES: Thank you! It is in fact one of my favorite pieces from this whole material and also one of the songs I would consider as reflecting most authenticity in terms of the composition as a whole. The Norse culture was predominantly an oral society and so we clearly see that in the oldest song traditions we have here in the north, rhythms and melody are often guided by the (often) complex poetic structures.

The Vígahugr song gives good example of just that and also clearly reflect the tonality of ancient Scandinavian music. The lyrics is an excerpt of a poem composed by one of the most interesting Viking age skalds there was, Egill Skallagrimsson from the saga Egill´s Saga. They rather vividly express the rousing and build up before a battle, and if people think that Metal lyrics are brutal in nature, then they haven’t read much Viking age poetic battle descriptions, ha ha!

The backbone of the song is vocals and a seven stringed Lyre. Based on the historical sources we have; Lyres were the most common string instrument in Northern Europe in this time period and that is naturally also reflected in my work on the game. I also use bowed lyre (AKA Taglharpa, Haargigje, Jouhikko etc.) which is the earliest bowed instrument we have in the Nordic region.

The sources are conflicted on whether or not the instrument bow was used in the Viking age, but archelogy from both Ireland and Denmark suggest it was. Further, I have used bone flute as well as various percussion and animal-hide framedrum.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla (Original Game Soundtrack) - Jesper Kyd, Sarah Schachner, Einar Selvik

SSM: You have been involved with so many projects, from playing in the metal band Gorgoroth, fronting the Nordic folk project Wardruna to working on music for History Channel’s Vikings. What do you find is the most challenging part of the creative process for you?

ES: Yes, I´ve been very fortunate to get the chance to gain experience from many different types of musical formats and concepts. I guess one of the main challenges is to find the balance between being patient and working with deadlines. I like to let the songs take me where they want to take me rather than squeeze them into a predetermined shape or structure.

Not pushing it too much but still being pro-active. I generally like to take my time with my writing so when I started working the soundtrack on Vikings I really had to learn how to work faster without compromising the art itself. More instinctively and really tuning into my artistic impulses and intuition. I think that whole process helped me further develop my skills as a composer.

 

SSM: As someone who travels the world holding lectures and workshops about life in the Nordic region, what do you find is a common misconception about Vikings?

ES: Well, there are quite a few both positive and negative stereotypes and misconceptions out there. I guess the most common one is that the whole of ancient Scandinavian history has been named and defined by what a small number of people in the Nordic population did for a short amount of time. The word Viking is first and foremost a verb defining what some people did when they went off to sea, trading, raiding and warfare – which by the way wasn´t exclusive traits to the Norsemen.

They were, however, the best at it back then and dominated the period with their superior ships and fearless mentality – which again makes it very understandable why these Vikings have dominated the views on Norse history as a whole as well. Still, I would say that the old Norse culture has far more interesting things to offer than just warriors and warfare.

 

SSM: What’s coming up next for you?

ES: These days I am still doing musical work for AC Valhalla and also focusing on the new Wardruna album Kvitravn set for release in January 2021. The plan and hope are of course to start doing concerts again but with the current situation we have to plan for all sorts of scenarios depending on when the world goes back to some form of “normality”. If the concert restrictions are continued I will focus my time on writing music and studio work.

Follow Selvik on Instagram @einar_selvik!

 

 

Scores

Interview: Composer Kris Bowers Talks ‘Bad Hair’

Kris Bowers is a Grammy-nominated, Emmy Award-winning, and Juilliard-educated pianist and composer who creates genre-defying music that pays homage to his jazz roots with inflections of alternative and R&B influences.

Bowers’ work as a film and television composer is a testament to his versatility as an artist. He established himself at the forefront of Hollywood’s emerging generation of composers and consistently champions the art guided by multidisciplinary collaborations.

Bower’s recent work includes Showtime’s Kobe Bryant’s Muse, Netflix’s Dear White People, Showtime’s Black Monday, Netflix’s When They See Us, FX’s Mrs. America and 2019’s Academy Award-winner for Best Picture, Green Book.

We reached out to Bowers to discuss his recent horror score for Bad Hair with music by Kelly Rowland and director Justin Simien, released on Lakeshore Records with the film streaming on Hulu – just in time for Halloween!

 

SSM: What inspired you to transition into composing for film and television?

KB: It’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I actually told my parents when I was 11 or 12 that I wanted to start off as a performer in the jazz space and find a way to transition into scoring. Somehow, I’ve stuck to that plan haha.

 

SSM: Bad Hair is a horror satire set in 1989 about terror striking when a woman’s new hair weave takes a life on its own. This is also your second time working with director/ writer Justin Simien. How did your approach to this project differ or resemble the Dear White People television series with Simien?

KB: With this, it was really amazing to work on a full feature with Justin and see how our process of establishing and working with thematic material in the score can be applied to a feature. Justin is so incredible with not only his selection of temp music, but his trust in allowing me to interpret that in whatever way I want to musically. That it’s much more about the feeling than the sound, and because of the amount of time we’ve been working on Dear White People together, Justin and I have a trust that allows for a lot of freedom in the creative process.

SSM: With horror films, the score is so vital in creating the mood and tone for the audience. Can you speak about some of the instruments and choices you made when scoring Bad Hair? 

KB: We were really inspired by the horror movies from the 60s and 70s, so a lot of the score is very traditional in its instrumentation: strings, brass, lots of percussion, and choir. In addition to that, I went about adding a lot of analogue synths to the orchestral cues to give it an eerie/ambient texture. A lot of the sound-design elements you hear in the score itself are artifacts from tape delays and insanely long reverb tails.

 

SSM: What is the worst hair cut/style you ever received?

KB: I had a couple of instances of texturizing my hair when I was in middle school. Not the most fun process haha

 

SSM: What’s coming up next for you? 

KB: I’ve just finished a biopic about Aretha Franklin starring Jennifer Hudson and directed by Liesl Tommy, as well as a new TV show for Netflix called Bridgerton. I’m also currently working on the next Space Jam movie with director Malcolm D. Lee.

 

Check out the Bad Hair (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) and find Kris on Instagram @krisbowersmusic!