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 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!

@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, 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.

THE ASSASSIN IN WHITE This is one of my personal favorites. I think you all can tell how much more familiar with the story I was by how specfically the songs fit. Some are more thematic and others, like AIW, fit the choreography better. This is due to the fact that when we started, I had six weeks to read the book (I read it in a few days), break down the structure into a story format, come up with basic choreography/physicality, visuals, and create a musical soundscape/themes that fit the visuals we created on our end. We also had to compose, arrange, print, and edit all the music as well in that same time frame. We wrote about 14 songs in 2013 and recorded those in Prague, and used those to fuel our Kickstarter (so we could, at the very least, mix the recordings properly and record our solo instruments). The Kickstarter was successful and we opted to create a second disc of music, totalling 31 tracks, with the majority played by live orchestra, choir, and soloists, which more comprehensively told Kaladin's story and addressed his subplots. AIW is concisely written on Brandon's part and was very easy to break down and block. Other battles --The Tower, Kaladin's use of the Parshendi bones as a distraction, etc. --are broken up across hundreds of pages, told from multiple points of view, and have several backstories and side plots interwoven, so I admit, I got a bit muddy with my direction on some of the later battle sequences. In fact, when we got home from Prague, upon a re-read, I realized we didn't write the moment where Kaladin says The Words! (16 Seconds Pre-Death is the first song of the second batch of music we wrote, and what spearheaded such an ambitious Kickstarter.) Caleb Blood wrote AIW and he did an AMAZING job! This is the email I sent to him. It's still rather vague, but was enough for the composer(s) to go on. This is roughly how I would give my initial notes to each composer for our second batch of composing. We'd then video chat a few times to talk specifics until the song was laid down. Take a peek at how I described AIW to Caleb, who has never read the books: "Hi Caleb, I'm so excited that we are able to write more music for our KALADIN album! Your songs, Alethi Codes of War and This is Not How It All Ends have both been great hits and we get a ton of positive feedback from our listeners. I, personally, have yet to grow sick of listening to either song. I understand that you're down to write two more songs for us. And I'm so happy about that. I've picked two songs that should be quite versatile for you. You've already done a jig to show your fun side. The two songs we're giving you are called 1. The Assassin In White 2. Tien We'll focus on The Assassin In White first (aka AIW). THE ASSASSIN IN WHITE The Assassin In White is the Inciting Incident that sets off the entire series, where the Alethi king is assassinated by the very poeple he just signed a peace treaty with, which sparks a fierce war. Here's a rough sketch of the scene (remember that this story takes place on the planet of Roshar): The Alethi kingdom (very similar to the Qin dynasty in China) has just struck a peace accord with their biggest enemy, The Parshendi. (The Parshendi is a race of creatures who communicate via song. They are humanoid, but with an exoskeleton similar to crustaceans. Like ants and bees, they are a hive mind; but they also have individual personalities and thoughts. The Parshendi attune themselves to different Rhythms --the rhythm of war, rhythm of grieving, rhythm of curiousity, etc. And they hum those rhythms small melodies to express their thoughts.) The Scene We open on the night that the kingdoms meet to sign the peace treaty, They have gathered in the Alethi capital to celebrate. The Parshendi play on large taiko drums and smaller drums to express their joy. The drumming can be heard throughout the king's residence. Amidst the celebration, a man (a foreigner) dressed in white is armed with a special blade (called an Honor Blade) which gives him unique powers --he can control gravity; what objects it affects, which direction it flows, how heavy it is (he can make things stick to other things for a short while). He is powered by something called Stormlight, which fuels his blade and his powers. This man is called Szeth and he is a slave, forced to assassinate people for his master. He hates what he does, but he's very good at it. So Szeth makes his way through the celebration and works his way through the palace, avoiding guards where he can. He comes across two guards and we see him demonstrate his powers. He runs on walls, pushes guards/weapons/furniture towards the guards and away from himself. He pulls weapons and directs them to hurl towards the guards. He is a bloody mess and cuts his way towards the Alethi king's quarters. The king is snuck away by his guards and before Szeth can get to him a forbiddable foe steps into the hallway: an Alethi Shardbearer. (Shardbearers are armed with magical armor that is also fueled by Stormlight, and this Shardbearer also uses a Shardblade, a rare item that, while not quite as powerful as Szeth's honor blade, it comes pretty darn close). Szeth and the Shardbearer face off in a tight and ferocious battle. Szeth gains the upper hand and deals a mortal blow to the Shardbearer, who falls from a balcony and is impaled on a wooden spike. The Shardbearer's armor melts away with his life essence and it is revealed that the Shardbearer is the king himself, Gavilar Kholin. Szeth, saddened by what he has done, floats down to the dying man and takes his hand. Gavilar grabs Szeth and whispers something in his ear --a final request. The king dies and Szeth honors Gavilar's last request. Szeth grabs a piece of wood and uses the king's blood to write a message to his brother: "Brother, you must find the most important words a man can say." Szeth leaves the dead king and flies out the window, horrified by what he has done, but obedient to his master. --- AIW SECTIONS So that's the scene. It's a LOT of fun, musically. It's a relatively short song (2:30 if you can swing it; If you need more time, let me know, we can stretch it out another minute if need be), so we'll keep the sections simple. Section 1. The celebration: Szeth roams the palace Section 2. The Fight pt.1: Szeth comes across the guards, the warmup to the fight. We're introduced to the concept of Stormlight fighting, gravity changes, etc. Section 3. The Flight pt. 2: A guard falls from the cieling and lands on a spear. The pace changes dramatically. Szeth vs a boat load of guards Section 4. Szeth vs. the Shardbearer: The Shardbearer shows up, the fight is on equal ground. Intensifies. Section 5. Gavilar's Death: Szeth deals the mortal wound, Gavilar falls, Szeth floats down, Gavilar dies, Szeth leaves, we focus on the message Szeth wrote. MUSICAL REFERENCES FOR EACH SECTION I'll give you quite a few musical references to draw upon, so you have an idea of where my head is at for this song. These do not need to be literal. Try to make them your own. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. If it's easier to chat on the phone than it is to email, I'll make myself available. I know this can be a little tricky when you don't have a picture to write to, and when you aren't familiar with the source material. I know I'm giving you a lot of information and apologize if it's overwhelming. I'll try not to vary my musical references too much, so you have an idea of the soundscape and structure I'm going for. SECTION ONE - THE CELEBRATION This should only be acoustic drumming. But the drumming should be upbeat and have several layers to it. Please listen to MSB by Saor Patrol to get a feel for it. It's five drummers (you don't have to use the same drums; your choice of instrument is up to you; although the book describes something akin to large taiko drums. DRUM TAO is a great reference for the use of taikos; I've attached a youtube video of them below). DRUM TAO 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE6N_QD99C8 DRUM TAO 2 (this is a long clip, you can just skim it for inspiration) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnGWX0ede08 The drums should be layered and play off of one another. It's not a single drum keeping the beat. It's several drums playing off of one another. Note that the drums should be used for Sections 1-4. While they acknolwedge the celebratory drumming happening in the story itself, they should really be dictating the action and reflecting the emotional and physical stakes. So The Celebration can have a bit more humor and be upbeat but not super dangerous sounding; but when Szeth happens upon the guards, the song should transition into [Section 2] something more dangerous, like a standoff, where each side is testing the other's weaknesses. Section 3 will yet again transition into a full on fight, with no hesitation, but it should reflect Szeth's absolute skill and his ability to just slaughter an entire honor guard. Section Four should reflect the equal footing between the two swordsmen, and the fighting should be in earneest. The drums can and should stop (or at least dramatically slow down and change in their expression) when Szeth deals the death blow and Gavilar falls. Section 5 does not need to have drums, or at the least, they should not be the star instrument. The strings (and possibly horns) should take over at that point. SECTION TWO/SECTION THREE - THE FIGHT PT. 1 and THE FIGHT PT. 2 So we should start to add in some Stormlight (synth drops and synth bassline beats) to reflect Szeth's fighting style vs the Alethi acoustic/primitive powers. There's a lot of tension and suspense prior to Szeth attacking the guards, and when he does attack the guards, there's quite a bit of shock and awe to the use of his powers. Once he pins a guard to the ceiling and directs a spear to point at him, the guard falls and then the fight is truly on. The guards know they're outmatched but fight the good fight any way. They've got the numbers, but it's like bringing a knife to a gunfight. We do have a sound for Stormlight. It is a deep Synth drop. It can be heard distinctly in Richard's songs Highstorm and The Tower. Both are attached below. Feel free to ask me questions if you're unclear about anything. The more Szeth uses the Stormlight, the more the synth should be used for the baseline drum. Once the Shardbearer enters the fight, the song will turn truly electronic and synth will be the primary sounds. (see musical references below). Please reference the song Tower & Power from the King Arthur soundtrack for the overall feeling of these sections. Tower&Power stretches out quite a bit, but all the transitions and musical cues/ideas are in there. The first 2 minutes strongly reflect what's going on in Section Two (The Fight Pt 1). At around 1:58, the pace picks up quite a bit and lots more instruments/synths join in and that should reflect the transition into Section 3 (The Fight Part 2). 3:10 to the end really captures the essence of Section 3; I love the tempo increase and would like thing to speed up a LOT right up until the moment when we see the Shardbearer enter the fight. SECTION FOUR - SZETH v. GAVILAR *note that I am limited by how many songs I can send you per email; so the remaining songs will be sent in an email directly following this one. The song The Darklands from the King Arthur soundtrack also uses an element that we will be using to represent something called The Thrill. (The Thrill is bascially a dark element of the devil and is the blood rush associated with war; it is a revered quality among the Alethi). Gavilar will be drawing upon the Thrill during this fight. It is represented by an electric guitar --shredded, wailing, harmonics, you name it. Have fun. It should be very primal and not quite fit in to the fantasy aspect of the genre. Use it sparingly but effectively. The song The Darklands demonstrates it beautifully starting around 0:30. The whole song captures the danger and ferocity of the fight. (Whereas the Power of Excalibur song captures the heroism; so a good blend of these two songs' overal feel would be ideal.) As the fight becomes less even, you should draw more from The Power of Excalibur from the King Arthur soundtrack (starting at around 0:55) The Power of Excalibur from the King Arthur Soundtrack perfectly captures how this section sort of resets and finds new footing as to Stormlight users faceoff against each other. It should be synth heavy in the bass line, with some acoustical drum references to show that the match isn't quite even. The strings and horns shouuld show the gallant effort put forth by Gavilar and suggest that he is brave and heroic but will die nonethless. (Also, keep in mind that Szeth HATES shedding blood but is being forced to. This act of murder haunts him for the rest of his days.) Please incorporate Gavilar's melody as referenced by the cello and strings in THATH (0:30 - 1:01 and 2:02 - 2:25) Your song should escalate on that note of Gavliar's bravery but should should suddenly stop with the deathblow. (around 2:28 - 2:44 will give you an idea of how I want this transition into Section 5 to sound.) SECTION 5 Gavilar's death should feel tragic but not overly emotional. It should bring the song down and focus on Gavilar's final breaths and heartbeats. The song should end with a sense of unfinished business as we focus on the message Szeth writes for Gavilar. A good song to reference (although it is lengthy and should be used to give you a sense of how this section should feel overall) is Lady of the Lake from the King Arthur soundtrack. The cello is an important instrument as it signifies grief on our soundtrack and represents Gavilar's widow. There are layers of grief here because Szeth is the one who is grieving "onscreen" at what he has done, but we will reference Gavilar's death often throughout the album. Please reference THATH (0:30 - 1:01) for Gavilar's melody (not the second melody from THATH which is too stirring for this moment). FINAL THOUGHTS So I know this is a lot to absorb, but hopefully the musical ideas all tie in together and aren't so varied that they clash with one another. If you have questions, feel free to hit me up any time. I look forward to hearing what you come up with. I specifically asked for you to be the one to write this piece. I know you'll nail it. It's always a pleasure working with you. Thank you for your time, talent, and patience as we attempt to write music in a new and rather unorthodox way! xoxoxo, Sae Sae"

Hi Everyone! I've been living under a rock this past year, but finally am getting around to being back on social media. I'm so glad you all are loving the music! I'll try to address all the comments. (Not sure how to reply to individual posts --feel free to teach me the ways of the 17th Shard forums!). I'll probs break up my responses over a few different replies to avoid one long post. KING'S WIT - I'm so, so, SO happy you all dig The King's Wit. My whole team thought I had lost my dang mind when I told them I wanted to use a jazz flute trio with beat boxing, lol. While Richard wrote the bassline and chord progression, the rest was imrpovised in the studio at my direction. It was a blast to create! I had a feeling that, despite breaking the fantasy soundtrack genre, this take on the song would work. Hoid is a worldhopper from a different time and place, so it made sense to me to bring the swagger and flair of a jazz flautist (all hail Katisse Buckingham, who co-wrote this in three takes --and he was separated from the other musicians and had to record it in his own studio, with me giving direction long distance, over the phone). I can't tell you all how happy I am that you understood where my head was at with this song!