I put a few questions to Justin Melland, the composer for the Showtime series, "Dark Net", which premiered in January last year. Here's what he had to say about the series and how he does his work. Below is his bio:
Multiple award winning film composer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, Justin Melland primarily works in the demanding world of film and television, creating refreshingly inventive scores at his studio The Eleventh Laboratory, in Los Angeles, California. The Washington Post called out his score for THE KILL TEAM by Oscar nominated Director Dan Krauss as “A brilliantly spare and evocative soundtrack”. The Hollywood Reporter also wrote of his score for Showtime’s DARK NET “And the antiseptic visuals, coupled with the droning score by Justin Melland, suggest Laura Poitras' Edward Snowden doc Citizenfour with a slightly pulpier edge.” Recent projects Justin has scored are DARK NET (SHOWTIME) WATER AND POWER (SUNDANCE 2017), THE FORCE (SUNDANCE 2017), PARCHED (JIGSAW and NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 2017), EXTREMIS (TRIBECA 2016), BELIEF (OWN/DISCOVERY 2015), IN FOOTBALL WE TRUST (SUNDANCE 2015), THE KILL TEAM (TRIBECA 2014), THE REDEMPTION OF GENERAL BUTT NAKED (SUNDANCE 2011), LIFE 2.0 (SUNDANCE 2010).
And now for the questions:
What has been the most shocking thing you have seen on Dark Net? And why?
That would have to be season 1, episode 3: EXPLOIT. The whole episode was the most shocking thing I’ve ever had to score. But, the worst part of this episode was having to deal with victims of child pornography that are forced to do horrible things in front of a camera. This episode was just heartbreaking to work on. It’s hard to believe that people on Earth can be so heartless and cruel. It’s hard to score these things, because it’s very hard to see this magnitude of human suffering. The only thing that is easy about it is that I don’t need to have to search for the right emotion to put onto the score. It just comes flowing out with no end in sight. On these scenes, I got the music right the first time. There was no need for honing in on the tone. It was all so clear.
If there were to be a Season 3 of the show, fingers crossed, what new sounds or techniques would you like to use that you haven’t gotten to yet?
I would like to continue to push deeper into finding new ways to solve the emotional needs of the show. I want to create a pallet with sounds that no one has ever heard before, combine them with familiar ones, and use them to create beautiful and disturbing visions of a reality that seems more like a bizarre dream every day. I would also like to dive even deeper into creating sounds and pieces of music on my modular synthesizers for the show. The more time I spend with them the more I can’t imagine creating electronic sounds on a computer. There are so many wonderful colors to choose from. Also, I’ve really nailed down how to sync everything together with the film, so I can actually compose and perform the electronic music in real time while the film is playing. I’d like to continue to develop techniques like this.
When you all are scoring each episode of Dark Net, do you start at the beginning of the episode like the viewer would watch it or do you jump around?
If the show is ready for me to score from start to finish, then I actually do it that way. I like to move with the story arc as it is unfolding. I also continually develop my palette to as I move from cue to cue, so that by the time I get to the end of an episode, it’s evolved into a new place, picked up momentum and ideas along the way like a snowball. I’m actually not the kind of composer that starts with a gigantic palette full of every sound imaginable. I love to start with just a few tracks and sounds and then build it up as I go. Then at some point, I’ll have the sounds pretty locked in, and I don’t have to do very many adjustments to it from piece to piece, but it just change over time. That’s always why when starting a new episode, I always open the cue I did for the end of the show I just finished and “Save As” the first cue of the next episode.
What kind of equipment, software and instruments do you rely on most for scoring Dark Net?
My studio is a large collection of very personalized and inspiring instruments that are all oriented around a computer running Logic Pro. I have lots of guitars, exotic stringed instruments, a Guitarviol, and a nice collection of keyboard and modular synthesizers. I combine all these things together when making the score for Dark Net. The most heavily utilized sounds are the synthesizers. I just love working with them, especially modular synths. Once you get your brain around using these things, they afford you so much control that you can get completely obsessed with them and learning more and more. The more time you spend with them, the more you learn, and the better your sounds get. It’s such a marvelous world!
Since you started out, what do you think are the biggest changes that the film and television industry has experienced from your point of view as a composer?
Staying relevant and developing content that is actually interesting. There is such an explosion of content out there now, that it’s easy to get lost in the noise. The one thing that happens quite a bit, is that people aren’t developing ideas that are new, interesting, or groundbreaking as much as they should be. Too often there is just a rush to get something done and on TV, and they just want to follow a formula that works so they can maintain the status quo of the film studio or network. I am a huge fan of good shows but I, personally, need something that is going to blow my mind, and show me something I haven’t seen before (or turned off… repeatedly). So, I’d say the biggest challenge is that the film and tv industry needs to use more courage when greenlighting new projects, and really search harder for the next auteurs, and worry a little less about getting something safe up in the sky. This not to say that there isn’t great material out there, it’s just that I think there isn’t enough of it, and that in its place is a lot content that is not really that great.
From your unique perspective, where do you think the film and television industry is heading in the near future. Are there any new innovations that are in their infancy? In particular, what do you see as the biggest opportunities and obstacles you'll have to face as a composer?
I think we are heading into a very interesting time where I wouldn’t be surprised if people start to chip themselves so that they can watch TV from inside their own heads. They can choose to have an overlay come over their vision like VR goggles can do now. We are heading to complete immersion into digital imagery. I’m not excited about these developments at all. I feel like all of us are already too connected to devices and screens. I think the challenges of our industry is going to be figuring out “how far do we push this” before we’ve created a real life version of The Matrix? What are we doing, and why? Why are we all more interested in what is on the screen then our own lives? Is it still “my life” when I’m watching a story? Again, the challenges are going to be, can we use this technology, and still be a human? Or will it reduce us to “batteries” that keep the system going? What will it be like to write a score for “The Great Hypnosis Of Humanity”.
I’ll make sure when it’s my turn to score it, that it will be disturbing as hell.
To finish up, what are the most challenging, and the most rewarding parts of your job?
The most challenging part is being a single composer in a world where you don’t know what will happen next. I have no job security, no corporation hiring me for the long haul, no workplace health insurance, I’m my own entity fending for myself completely. The only way I get work is by appealing to the creative nature of other creatives who would like to collaborate with me. For the most part there is only one composer for each job. Meaning that for every one film there is out there, there is only 1 composer in the world that gets that job. That’s pretty specialized! So, the challenge is just navigating that world where there is no set way to do it, and no one regulating your methods. You’re only real feedback is whether or not you get hired to score something.
The best part is waking up every day and writing cool music. I work in the back yard of my house in NE Los Angeles, so my commute takes 7 seconds. I have a nice big studio full of fun things to make sounds with, and I design my entire creative process from scratch. I’ve been building my studio for more than a decade and at this point it sounds just fantastic. I can write, perform, record, mix and master all my own music right in my studio. The power of being able to do that, and do it so quickly is very intoxicating and exciting. I love my work. I also love that at the end of the day when I open my studio door, I walk out to see my small children playing in the garden and I can just go bounce on the trampoline with them.
Thanks to Justin for taking the time to answer these questions. He provided a great insight into the series and his work. Thanks for reading, and head down to the comments section below to share your thoughts on the interview.
