Kaladin Album

[saesaenorris]

@Steeldancer, Sorry for the late reply! There's a minute of silence between the Knights Radiant and the KR remix as a nod to the old school B-sides from the 80's. Back then, you'd have to hold the fast forward button down until the magnetic strip started to squeak --if it did, then you knew there was a "hidden" track on the album. Guess that doesn't really translate to the younger generation, lol. 

Fun fact for the remix: Mike called me the Saturday before we were to submit all our music to our mixer in London. I was in the grocery store parking lot when he calls and says, "I have this idea and you're not gonna like it but hear me out, cos then you'll like it, and I really wanna do it. I want to do a remix for the KR theme 80's style!" My stomach dropped at the cheesiness, but my mind went to the Thor Ragnarok soundtrack and told him if he made it sound like that, he could do it. Ever on the same page, that was exactly Mike's inspiration for it. As a joke, I have lovingly dubbed it Radiant Rainbow (cos the 80's were all about the rainbows).

I'm so happy you love The King's Wit! I go into a deep explanation of that one in a comment above this one (forgot to tag you to it). On another note, Rysn is one of my favorite tracks. It is the only song on the entire album that didn't require any rewriting or polishing. Mike was truly inspired when he wrote it. 

[Wyndlerunner]

20 minutes ago, saesaenorris said:

@Wyndlerunner, I'm so happy Warrior worked out and that we had the minutes available to add it to the album. We wanted this to feel like an authentic movie soundtrack, and I had several ideas for the "end credits" song. I was originally inspired by the song "Warriors" by Imagine Dragons. (We had actually approached Dan's people to get them to write an original song for the album, but we couldn't afford him, lol). At around the same time we started the Kaladin soundtrack, one of our composers, Richard Williams, was part of a band called TREN, whose primary focus was end-credit pop music. While they never got attached to any films, they built up a small but loyal following. I enjoyed their style and asked Richard if they'd be interested in doing a song for our album. They said yes.

Some fun facts about this song. Neither Richard, nor any members of TREN, had read the Stormlight Archive. The band was on temporary hiatus while one of the lead vocalists served an LDS mission. During that time, I met with Tayler, the lyricist and told her about the world, gave her some reference music to listen to, told her key phrases to use (and to avoid, for licensing reasons), etc. She initially wrote a beautiful song, with gorgeous lyrics, but it was more like a gentle folk ballad and nowhere near the direction I wanted. We shelved the idea for about a year.

Then, in the final days of our composing (in 2017), we realized we had some minutes to spare (we were contractually obligated to keep the total album running time under 100 minutes). We had already recorded our music and only had a few days before all our music had to be submitted to our mixer. Richard had finished his cues (industry-speak for "songs") and offered to have TREN do the end credit song, as Eliza was back from her mission.

They wrote this song in three days. There was some back and forth on the lyrics with me, but we ultimately went with Taylor's direction. I gave them a rough format to follow and they began to compose/record. All four members of the band were in different physical locations: The vocalists were split between Hawaii and Los Angeles, Richard was in Provo, and Nate (the mixer/drummer) was in transit between Idaho and Utah on a gig, whilst I was doing all this from my home in Provo. 

Taylor and Eliza recorded the vocals, and I directed Richard to arrange the music so it had a ton more energy. Nate mixed it. We started this on a Friday night and had everything submitted on time the following Monday. What you hear is the final result. I remember my nephew coming in and asking what I was listening to and he had said the opening sounded a lot like Pirates of the Caribbean (which it did), so I had to have Richard change his orchestration a few times to get it right.

They nailed it. I wanted something upbeat, aggressive, bitter and hopeful, something that could be blasted on the radio or while you workout and get you pumped up. They delivered in spades and I couldn't be happier with their rock ballad capping off the orchestral score.

That's really cool to get the story behind the song. The "Ending Credits" feel totally comes across. Were there any challenges composing your rendition of Shallan's Lullaby? Did you feel pressured by the fact that it's one of the more recognizable pieces of in-world music?

[Steeldancer]

21 minutes ago, saesaenorris said:

@Steeldancer, Sorry for the late reply! There's a minute of silence between the Knights Radiant and the KR remix as a nod to the old school B-sides from the 80's. Back then, you'd have to hold the fast forward button down until the magnetic strip started to squeak --if it did, then you knew there was a "hidden" track on the album. Guess that doesn't really translate to the younger generation, lol. 

Fun fact for the remix: Mike called me the Saturday before we were to submit all our music to our mixer in London. I was in the grocery store parking lot when he calls and says, "I have this idea and you're not gonna like it but hear me out, cos then you'll like it, and I really wanna do it. I want to do a remix for the KR theme 80's style!" My stomach dropped at the cheesiness, but my mind went to the Thor Ragnarok soundtrack and told him if he made it sound like that, he could do it. Ever on the same page, that was exactly Mike's inspiration for it. As a joke, I have lovingly dubbed it Radiant Rainbow (cos the 80's were all about the rainbows).

I'm so happy you love The King's Wit! I go into a deep explanation of that one in a comment above this one (forgot to tag you to it). On another note, Rysn is one of my favorite tracks. It is the only song on the entire album that didn't require any rewriting or polishing. Mike was truly inspired when he wrote it. 

Oh lol I totally forgot about this. That makes sense. Yeah, I love Rysn too. But Wit currently holds the honor of being my generic ringtone, while Assassin in White drums are what wake me up in the morning. I think the other cool themes are applied to my various family members and friends, including Rysn. 

[saesaenorris]

12 minutes ago, Wyndlerunner said:

That's really cool to get the story behind the song. The "Ending Credits" feel totally comes across. Were there any challenges composing your rendition of Shallan's Lullaby? Did you feel pressured by the fact that it's one of the more recognizable pieces of in-world music?

@Wyndlerunner Shallan's Lullaby was actually quite easy. I heard Alex Crandall's fan-made rendition on Youtube after Brandon gave it a shoutout on twitter. The moment I heard it (I've heard all the fan renditions), I knew that was the one that most closely resembled what I had in my head. I emailed Alex through Youtube and asked him if we could re-arrange and record his song for our album. He said yes. Sandra Schnieders did the beautiful arrangement you hear. We knew she'd be perfect for it cos she's worked with the likes of Danny Elfmann and James Newton Howard!

[saesaenorris]

@Nashan’Elin, Sorry for the late replies! Wandersail almost didn't get made! Mike (Michael Bahnmiller) was still composing it while he was on the flight to Prague (via Venice --I believe he finished it in an old Italian hotel while everyone was sight seeing). We recorded the orchestral bits in Prague in 2013 --but, I HATED what I heard. I wasn't able to give feedback or go through the polishing process. He hadn't written the flute part yet. There were just these chunks of music that didn't seem to sound all that great to me. The lack of flute sealed it's fate. 

He tried playing his midi version for me (the electronic music his laptop program created), but it was such poor quality, I told him it was an absolute no and his song wouldn't go on the album. A few years later, he sends me a mockup for a "different" song with much higher quality, and I had a suspicion that it was Wandersail, or at least a reworked version of what he wrote. It was exactly what he had written in Italy --just in a better format and I could finally hear what was going on in his head. It still lacked a flute part, and we hired a renowned Hollywood flautist to compose it. We instructed him to write the "echo" as if it were a duet.

It worked out in the end. This song is what won over my trust with Mike. If he had an idea, I'd let him run with it. Sometimes we'd have to shelf it or move it to something else, but I trusted in the quality of his work. Because the finished product was what was rattling around in his brain, I just couldn't hear it with the tools he had to work with. Wandersail ended up being exactly what we had wanted it to be from the start!

[Wyndlerunner]

1 hour ago, saesaenorris said:

@Wyndlerunner Shallan's Lullaby was actually quite easy. I heard Alex Crandall's fan-made rendition on Youtube after Brandon gave it a shoutout on twitter. The moment I heard it (I've heard all the fan renditions), I knew that was the one that most closely resembled what I had in my head. I emailed Alex through Youtube and asked him if we could re-arrange and record his song for our album. He said yes. Sandra Schnieders did the beautiful arrangement you hear. We knew she'd be perfect for it cos she's worked with the likes of Danny Elfmann and James Newton Howard!

The fan renditions are exactly what I had in mind. Thanks for being here to answer questions!

Edit: Radiant Rainbow is such a great name for that remix, and listening to it now I can see the Thor Ragnarok inspirations

Edited August 4, 2018 by Wyndlerunner
Had more thoughts

[HipsterStick]

Okay, okay, at first, I was really on the edge, because it's a lot more- contemporary than what I normally listen to (think Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams, etc...)

But the more I listened, the more I was like "Dang! They UNDERSTAND Stormlight Archive so much. It just- fits!"

Bascially, I'm really impressed. Favorite tracks? Tien, The King's Wit (Jazz flute! The day has finally come!), Wandersail, Warrior, and Oathpact Abandoned.

Edited August 4, 2018 by HipsterStick

[Herowannabe]

@saesaenorris thanks for taking the time to come add your insights in this thread! I hope that your health has improved and will continue to do/stay so!

It was cool and fun to read the background behind each of the songs. I’m very glad that Wandersail made it onto the album. IMO is the crowning piece of the album: the whole concept of an echoing flute-duet interspersed with the dramatic scenes from Wit’s story sounds incredibly challenging but you/Mike nailed it. Just perfect!

And of course Assassin in White, but I can tell how proud you already are of that one.  

On 8/3/2018 at 0:19 AM, saesaenorris said:

(Not sure how to reply to individual posts --feel free to teach me the ways of the 17th Shard forums!)

You’ve already figured out how to mention specific people using the @ symbol. You can also quote a specific post by hitting the “quote” button under that post, or quote several posts by hitting the “+” button under each one. You can also select part of a post and a “quote this” button will pop up, so you can just quote one part of someone’s post (like I’ve done here).