Dead Whisper Composer Nikhil Koparkar

This week the boys sit down and chat with composer Nikhil Koparkar whose ethereal soundscapes can be experienced in the new film Dead Whisper (In Select Theaters now, VOD July 9). Nikhil joins the boys to discuss his process, inspirations, incorporating unusual instruments into his scores, and the challenges presented with indie horror.

The boys also review A Quiet Place: Day one, The Exorcism, Tarot, Jay reviews MaXXXine while Correia and Jacob go on a MaXXXine inspired bus tour of Hollywood, and Jacob finally experiences Madam Web with a live riffing screening. Its all new on EYE ON HORROR!

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Episode Transcript

James Jay Edwards (00:24):
Welcome to eye on horror, the official
podcast of ihorror com. This isepisode 129 otherwise known as
season seven. Episode 10. I amyour host, James Jay Edwards,
and with me, as always, is yourother host. Jacob Davison, how
you doing? Jacob

Jacob Davidson (00:39):
Davison, okay, and happy to celebrate the most
patriotic day of the year,Return to the Living Dead day,

July 3. 5 (00:45):
30pm

James Jay Edwards (00:47):
Ah, yeah, there we go. We Yes, it is July
3. So yeah, we're recording onreturn to living dead day. Also
with us is your other otherhost, Jon Correia, how you
doing? Correia,

Unknown (00:57):
good, great. And I need to remind everyone that this is
not a costume, sorry, our Returnof Living now. I have to watch
Return of Living Dead today.

Jacob Davidson (01:08):
It's your patriotic duty, John,

Unknown (01:10):
I know, but it's also a Wednesday. I got work to do. I
got to do Star Trek Prodigy.
Season two came out. I mean, Igot, you know, it came out two
days ago. I got like, twoepisodes left, but I had stuff
to do.

Jacob Davidson (01:21):
Well, I've got a question for you. Okay, cool. Do
you want a party part of theday? Yeah, because it's party
time, yeah,

James Jay Edwards (01:30):
I can probably hang out for a few but
yeah, I gotta. I got an earlymorning tomorrow? Yeah? So
what's been going on? I thinkthe big release we've all seen

is A Quiet Place (01:40):
Day One. Yes, what'd you guys think

Jacob Davidson (01:44):
it was amazing.
It is by and far the best inthis franchise,

James Jay Edwards (01:48):
really. I think it is the worst, although
it's still good. I I did enjoyit, but I don't think it's as
good as the other two. It hasthe open world of the second one
with the limited characters ofthe first and I did like all
that. But I think I like a quietplace better when they're like
in the country and not in NewYork City.

Jacob Davidson (02:08):
Different strokes for different folks. I

Unknown (02:10):
guess I am the tie breaker here. No,

James Jay Edwards (02:14):
I was gonna say break the tie Correia. I

Unknown (02:16):
mean, come on, you guys know I don't like ranking and
all that stuff. Yeah, it's notthat

James Jay Edwards (02:19):
I didn't like it. It's just I don't think it's
the best. And of course, to me,the first Quiet Place is a
masterpiece. It is. I mean,yeah, so anyway, that's like

Jonathan Correia (02:30):
your favorite movie, next to Blair Witch 2.

Jacob Davidson (02:32):
So I could see that shadows. No, I

Jonathan Correia (02:35):
love Day One.
I with the Quiet Place series. Idon't have like, a ranking with
them, you know, I think they'reall good in the in their own
ways, like they're different

Jacob Davidson (02:44):
God bless Frodo.
I was insane.
enough from each other that,like, it's kind of like doing
different things with the withthe concept, which I do love.
And I gotta say, like, Day Onewas one of those ones where it
had, it had a I went and going,I just want, like, the the
premise, the concept, spreadacross set pieces and just
letting it be an alien invasionfilm with set within these

(03:07):
parameters of the franchise. Andthat's exactly what it was. It
was going it was set piece toset piece, action bit from
action bit. And it was donereally well. You know, they gave
you enough about thesecharacters to to really care and
worry about them without losingsight of, like, all right, cool.
We got to get back into doingsome Quiet Place shit in the

(03:28):
city. There's the tension insome of those bits. Like I had
it had me going with one ofthose, like, when your whole
body tenses up and you're justlike, stop, stop doing that
thing. No, it's, and it's in thetrailer, it's, it's the
everyone's walking bit that wasjust like, that was a butt
clenching of just like, get thefuck out of there. Nothing good

(03:50):
is gonna come out of this. Butthat's half the movie. I also
can relate to to the characterof Eric, because I am also just
a very depressed white guy whoinstantly vibed with a random
cat, and that cat and I are nowbest friends.

James Jay Edwards (04:06):
That cat is it's the leader in the best
animal Performance of the Yearright now, because that cat, I
mean, they say you can't traincats, but Oh, see A Quiet Place:
Day One, because that cat stealsthe show, and that cat
understood the assignment too. Imean, the character did, because
most cats Wow, and then or andthey'd be dead. But that cat was

(04:32):
like, Oh, I'm shutting the hellup.

Unknown (04:33):
Are you kidding me, dude, if my neighbor's cat, who
I hang out with all the time,Black Phillip was in that
scenario with me, we'd be deadinstantly. That fucker is
constantly chirping, and he isjust a he's not just He doesn't
just meow. That That dude howls.
I have heard that cat howl at myneighbor, Margo to let him in so
he could steal her cat's foodlike he is. He's black. Phillip.

(04:56):
He's a little. Devil, yeah,

Jacob Davidson (05:00):
no, he it's if, oddly, the performance by the
cat actually reminded me of theHusky from The Thing, you know,
very quiet and very coordinatedand moving from scene to scene,
and also getting intoshenanigans, like when it sneaks
into the construction site wherethe aliens are hanging out, you
know, just as a goof, andespecially I love Lupita Nyong'o

(05:26):
performance as frodo's owner,and just kind of her whole arc
in relation to that, yeah, no,just it was a great kind of
dynamic having this characterbe, you know, just kind of
having her pet as a companionfor a big chunk of the film.

Unknown (05:45):
And, I mean, we don't get big budget alien invasion
movies as often as we do, and soI really appreciated this, uh,
concept of it, of like, okay,cool. It's in this world where
everyone's quiet. How do you bequiet in New York? Yeah,

Jacob Davidson (06:00):
yeah. Like, I love that opening crawl where it
said that the average volumedecibel is 90, yeah, in New York
City is 90. And it's theequivalent of somebody
screaming, which, yeah, like,they and they do that, so build
up with all the noise andjackhammer and stuff. And, yeah,
it was very War the Worlds. Itreminded me when the aliens do

(06:22):
finally show up, and just, youknow, the chaos, and
particularly Steven Spielberg'sversion, where it's, you know,
just sort of a post 911 disasterfeeling. And just like the chaos
and everybody's, you know, justrunning around, nobody knows
what's going on. And, yeah, no,it's even though we've seen the
aliens before. The build up inthis one was so good. And also

(06:42):
this blow my mind that the moviewas directed by Michael
sarnofsky, the guy who directedNicolas Cage's Pig, you really
struck the emotional core again.

James Jay Edwards (06:51):
The first half of the movie kind of feels
like a war movie, like you said,you know, not just War of the
Worlds. It almost feels likelike a Saving Private Ryan kind
of a thing, you know, becausethere is a lot of chaos, and
you're put into the mind ofbait, of Lupita Nyong'o's
character for most of it, youknow, remember, this is day one,

(07:11):
so they're still trying tofigure out what the hell is
going on. And they show you, Imean, they kind of not really,
you don't really have to have,you know, seen the other two, to
understand it. But I think thatthey understand that you
probably have, because they showyou the the aliens right off the
bat. You know, there's no hidein the alien till the end, like
a lot of monster movies, do. Imean, you're seeing these dudes

(07:32):
right away. So, you know they'rethey, they understand that. You
know what they look likealready.

Jacob Davidson (07:38):
Well, they do a bit of a clever thing where,
like when the attack firsthappens, and like the meteors
hit with all the dust clouds andstuff. So you can only kind of
see the silhouette at first, butI mean, they do show them pretty
much in full after that. Ireally

Unknown (07:50):
appreciate how good of a balancing job that movie did,
because it's a balancing job ofdoing a big budget alien
invasion set piece, while also,you know, doing these in depth
character developments, whileeveryone's still quiet, showing
the aliens early, because youhave to, it's them invading.

(08:12):
It's the chaos of it. But theyalso don't over show the the
monster too much. I was that wasone of my big worries, was it
was going to be a showing a bittoo much of it, but it works the
amount of screen time everyonegets. I think it was a very
well, very well balanced outfilm that, you know, it could

(08:32):
have been little too muchaction, a little or too much
horror. If anything, I thinkthis is the Aliens of the quiet
place franchise, where it'slike, okay, cool. Previous
versions were more into horror.
This one's more on the action,but still keeps that horror
element in there. But myquestion to you guys, without
spoiling anything, what would beyour song?

James Jay Edwards (08:53):
Mine would be, Won't Get Fooled Again by
the WHO I you know, withoutspoiling anything, it has that,
yeah, scream that that, that isthe moment I think you're
looking for Correia.

Unknown (09:05):
wait, is that is the yeah at the beginning of the
song? Or is that mid? Becausethat's important too. It's

James Jay Edwards (09:10):
toward, it's kind of toward the end, yeah.
It's like, like, two thirds ofthe way through, yeah.

Jacob Davidson (09:14):
It kind of gets a bit to get there, not, you
know, see how that times out.
Jacob, big cliche, but I'malways a big Blue Osyter Cult
fan, so don't fear the Reaper.

Unknown (09:26):
I knew it. I was because when I was thinking I'm
like, I'm gonna ask thisquestion during the podcast, I
was like, Jacob's gonna say BlueOyster Cult. I love it.

Jacob Davidson (09:34):
How could I not?
Yeah,

James Jay Edwards (09:36):
so, but I thought, I thought he'd say
Godzilla though. Oh,

Jacob Davidson (09:39):
I mean, that's also good either way,

Unknown (09:41):
yeah? Just like have it come in on history shows again
and again, how nature points outthe folly of man. Yeah, I would
have, didn't I? For me, I wouldhave done the Bear McCreary
version if I was gonna go withthat song. But because that same
way you will about King of theMonsters. That's that cover
slaps it does singing, Oh, getout of here. Yeah, for me, it

(10:06):
was a hard question for me,because I've been listening to a
shit ton of Kylie Minoguelately, just like, like, an
insane amount of Kylie Minogue.
So, like, there's so manybangers in there with needle
drops and everything. But Ijust, for the bit, I'm gonna
have to go with 1989 Belgiumtechno hit, uh, Pump up the jam.
Yes. I mean, it's great. It's agreat song, and they played it

(10:28):
five times in a row at StanleyKubrick's funeral. And so I feel
like I have to give that homageto the favorite of Philomena
kunk, yeah. No, that wasdefinitely the bit

James Jay Edwards (10:40):
the other thing that I saw that is really
exciting. I saw MaXXXine. I

Jacob Davidson (10:48):
swear to God, if you spoil no spoilers, don't
even talk about any specificdetails. I'm going into this
shit as blind as possible.

James Jay Edwards (10:55):
Let me just say it is the perfect ending to
this trilogy. Okay, it wrapseverything up nicely, and it,
and it's weird, because just asyou would expect it, it takes
place in 1985 and it is like aan 80s, you know, crime drama
kind of a thing, and it playsout kind of the undercurring

(11:16):
theme is the Satanic Panic andand the Night Stalker, those are
the two things that are kind oflike always simmering
underneath, like there's alwaysthese picketers, you know, these
Christian picketers everywhere,and they talk about, you know,
movie violence, you know, videonasties, and they have news
footage of Dee Snider talking toCongress. And then the the Night

(11:39):
Stalker case kind of followsalong the events of the movie as
well. So it's, it's, it'spretty, pretty good at the way
they do that. But there I willtell you, this isn't really a
spoiler, but there's one scenethat will have every single male
watching it, cringing, and everysingle female standing up and
applauding. And I'll just leaveit at that, all right, because

(12:02):
you know, Maxine doesn't takeany shit. She's not your typical
final girl and but this cast, Imean, you probably know, but
like, everywhere you look,everywhere you look, Kevin
Bacon, Giancarlo, espy Espositois in it. Halsey is in it for
like a blink, someone as big ashouses. Sophie Thatcher is in it

(12:24):
for like, a scene. She's aspecial effects artist, um,
Elizabeth debecki is in it. Imean, this whole cast is just,
you're like, everywhere youlook, there's a familiar face.
So it, it's, it's on a bigscale. But, yeah, it is, it's,
it's awesome. Yeah, no, I'm

Jacob Davidson (12:40):
gonna see it as soon as I can at the VISTA so I
can see it on film. Yeah,

Unknown (12:44):
I have my ticket for The Alamo Drafthouse because
AAA24 was doing a thing wherefree ticket for opening weekend
for Maxine. So I used the moneythat I would have spent on a
ticket at Alamo to get thesticker pack like fake VHS tape
they did for Puritan two thatwould be fun, but Jacob and I

(13:05):
didn't see MaXXXine yet, but wedid get to go on a MaXXXine
themed Starline tour ofHollywood last weekend, which
was great. It's always great toget out of the house and hang
out with Jacob Davison. Andwe're officially locals. Now
we're transplants, but we'relocals. And I don't know, but
Jacob, you've never done one ofthose super touristy Starline

(13:26):
tours, right? No, for those whodon't know, the Star Line tours
are the, it's like, it's like, aLos Angeles staple, where it's
like a van, but with, like, thesides and usually the roof off,
and they drive around,typically, it's like, and
there's George Clooneys house,and over here is where someone
so The Black Dahlia gotmurdered. Like they have

(13:47):
different themes. And there'slike 20 knockoffs of these
things. And it's like, one ofthe most touristy things you can
do in Hollywood. Hence why Inever did it, because I hate
that shit. If I could avoidHollywood Boulevard, I will. So
it was fun going on this and,like, experiencing it, but it
was all tied to MaXXXine. So wewent to, like, the Hollywood

(14:10):
Forever Cemetery. They showedclips, and it was like 10 second
clips. It was, it was honestlythe perfect time amount of clips
where it's like, Hey, this iswhere they shot this scene. And
then they would show like, fiveseconds of it, and then it would
be like, okay, cool. That'sawesome. Saw Hollywood sign at
that point. They had a bunch ofMaXXXine billboards up, so we
went and saw them. But it wasreally cool because we also went

(14:33):
early on a Sunday morning, so itwas all just like, spooky locals
on the van. There was, like, notourists, so everyone was, yeah,

Jacob Davidson (14:41):
people are your shirts, that type of thing,
yeah? So

Jonathan Correia (14:44):
it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun.
Yeah, no, I dug

Jacob Davidson (14:47):
it. And even though it was touristy, you
know, I don't usually get to bedriven around Hollywood, so it
was kind of nice to, you know,have that for a change. And, you
know, it was a fun kind of crosspromotion. And just seeing all
the Hollywood sites, while also,you know, showing what and where
they filmed it, like they evendid a scene at the Hollywood

(15:09):
Cemetery. So we passed by theHollywood Cemetery, and we're in
the hills. They chose a clip ofthem in the hills, so just kind
of fun to see them. Also therare Hollywood movie shot on
location in Hollywood. Yeah,

Unknown (15:22):
it was really hard, because there's no there was no
windows, there was no siding,and so it was really hard to not
like, Hawk a loogie at theteslas. We were driving by,
though I had the window seat andI was just like, every time,
because you're, you're justslightly above those fucking
cyber trucks. I was like, Icould Hawk a nice big glue. But

Jacob Davidson (15:42):
behaved, yeah, the rowdy MaXXXine tour, that's,
I, you know, I

Unknown (15:47):
that's for the later night, uh, one when everyone's
had a few drinks. Oh,

Jacob Davidson (15:51):
and that's the other thing I'm so pissed
because I found out the nextday, the people who went on the
Maxine tour on that Monday gotto meet Kevin Bacon, and they
got tickets to the premiere thatnight.

Unknown (16:02):
The people that went on Monday, well, yeah, we had work,
but still, yeah, would haveloved to meet Kevin Bacon and
just ask him all the questionsabout Wild Things.

Jacob Davidson (16:13):
Sure, we all would. I'd ask him about
Tremors. Another

James Jay Edwards (16:16):
thing I saw that is, is a little more of a
downer, The Exorcism that newRussell Crowe movie. This is,
this is rough. What I

Unknown (16:27):
mean are exorcisms known as, like, real, feel good
movies like, well,

Jacob Davidson (16:33):
it's not in the sense of quality or the story
itself, quality,

James Jay Edwards (16:38):
well and the story, but it's the thing is,
The Pope's Exorcist was fun.
That was Russell Crowe. Knewthat he was making this cheesy
horror movie. This one felt likeeverybody was trying to be real
serious, and the movie is aboutthem. They dance around it so
they don't actually say it, butthey're trying to make the
exorcist. They're trying toremake The Exorcist, and the

(17:00):
film set is cursed, and that'swhere it goes wrong. Because if
they had just stayed with thecursed film set, that would have
been a cool movie, but theyturned into a possession thing
where, like, their lead actor isalways getting possessed, and
you're like, God, we've seenthis before. Show us the cursed
movie aspect. So, yeah, it wasfrustrating, but it there was,

(17:23):
there's no fun in it. You know,when you're making a movie like
that, you need to, it just needsto be fun, and you just need to
chew the scenery, and you justneed to just, you know, not take
yourself so seriously, and theytake themselves way too
seriously. So yeah, it's Andspeaking of rough, have either
you guys seen Tarot?

Jacob Davidson (17:44):
No? How did that end up? It's

James Jay Edwards (17:48):
rough. Thing is, it's pretty typical of what
it is. It's one of those cursedobject movies. A bunch of kids
get together and they have andone of them reads their fortunes
with Tarot cards, but they usesomeone else's deck of tarot
cards, which you're not supposedto do. And the tarot cards they

(18:09):
use are cursed, so they startdying by whoever by the car that
was laid last. And that part isactually kind of cool, the
monsters that that they createdfor this, like, they're like the
hanging man, the magician, thefool. You know that come after
these kids. Those are actuallykind of cool. The the makeup

(18:29):
monsters are kind of cool. Butthe movie itself, and

Jacob Davidson (18:32):
I would like to add that I do remember now that
the monsters were designed byhorror artist Trevor Henderson,
you know the guy that made, uh,siren head. It's because, yeah,
those monster designs werepretty badass.

James Jay Edwards (18:45):
Yeah, the monsters are cool. It's just the
movie itself is nothing that youhaven't already seen. It's just,
it's just so, you know, typical.
But yeah, the monsters are cool.
That's the best thing about it.
The the monster designs thatthat they came up with for the
cursed cards. But, yeah, itdidn't surprise me that they
didn't give it the push that youusually see horror movies get.

Jacob Davidson (19:07):
Well, that's too bad. And speaking of rough
was that AI generated script?
films, so I went to the DougBenson interruption last night.
You know, it's comedian DougBenson has some other comedians,
and they riff on a movie, and hedoes his thing at dynasty
typewriter, where anybody canbring a movie and they'll put it
on for the show. And the moviethat won last night was Madame

(19:30):
Web. So I saw Madame Web lastnight. That's what I did. How
It was it, like I said, it wasrough. It was very rough, like
just, you know, I mean,thankfully, you know, with Doug
Benson, the other comediansthere, it did make it pretty

(19:51):
entertaining, having them riffon it. But oh my god, this movie
is such a mess. I can see whyDakota Johnson just totally gave
up on I. Uh, the press tour, andwas just, uh, railing on it,
because it is just mind numbing.
Is just like, how did thishappen? Like, you just, like
watching it, you have toimagine, like, how these

(20:14):
decisions were made, because itis just insane. So like, Well,
for one thing, they remove theyit is official. They did remove
the My mother was studyingspiders in the Amazon line, etc.
But there's just so many otherincomprehensible scenes, like
not once, but twice. DakotaJohnson's character, whose name,
by the way, is actually namedCassandra Webb, because, you

(20:38):
know, it's like Cassandra,because you can see the future,
and Webb, because, you know,it's Webb, like a spider, uh,
she twice steals a car and hitsthe bad guy with her with a car,
because she doesn't really haveany other powers, except for
kind of seeing into the future,and nobody else has powers. And
also, the Patriot Act is a plotpoint in the movie, like a bad

(20:59):
guy steals, like Patriot Acttechnology, because it's 2003
and, yeah, Adam Scott is UncleBen, and he keeps talking about,
oh, my sister's pregnant. And,you know, the build up on that.
And don't say Peter. Don't sayPeter, exactly. And there's so
and there's so much Pepsimarketing, because, like they're

(21:19):
drinking Pepsis in, like anyscene where they're just hanging
out, and the Pepsi Cola sign isa plot point because she keeps
seeing an S in her visions. Itturns out the S is the Pepsi
Cola sign because she needs todrop the sign on the bad guy.

James Jay Edwards (21:37):
The Patriot Act thing is hilarious to you,
because it was Zosia Mamet, whoI love. She's like, the the tech
person of the bad guy, yeah,she's got this, maybe, I don't
know, nine screen set up infront of her that she supposedly
can see every CC camera in NewYork. You're like, come on,

(21:59):
yeah.

Jacob Davidson (21:59):
And also, let's say the other victim, the bad
guy is, like, this multimillionaire, super rich and
powerful, elite guy, and he onlyhas one henchman, like, it's
just, it's just her, Sasha, justhad a computer console and like,
he goes out in a weird knockoffSpider Man costume try and kill
these girls before he kills himfor reasons, and, yeah, and

(22:20):
Also, he just randomly kills orbeats the shit out of anybody
who's nearby before killing thetargets, like they're at a
diner, and he just punches someguy in a boo for a window. It's
like, what did that accomplish?
Is this, yeah, no, there's justso much to unpack. And you know,
again, they had some great rips,especially on the ADR, oh, my
God, there's so much ADR in thismovie. It's like, you can't,

(22:42):
yeah, like the AI stuff, likeyou think that their voices were
AI generated. Oh,

James Jay Edwards (22:51):
yeah. Now let's welcome in our special
guest this episode. We've gotNikhil Koparkar, who is the
composer of the upcoming, oractually released by the time
this posts, movie, Dead Whisper,how you doing Nikhil?

Nikhil Koparkar (23:05):
I'm doing great. How are you all doing?
Thank you so much for having meon

James Jay Edwards (23:08):
doing great.
Thank you for being here. Let'sstart at the beginning. How did
you get started in your yourcareer as a composer?

Nikhil Koparkar (23:17):
Sure. So you know, when I first moved to LA,
which was now 16 years ago,which is kind of hard to
believe. Honestly, I'd alwayswanted to get into music and I
wanted to score films, but Ialso like to play in bands, so I
was kind of doing a little bitof both at the time, and I did
that for about a few years, andI kind of started to realize,
you know, in a band situation,you're writing songs and you're

(23:38):
maybe releasing an album everyyear or two. Whereas in
composing, you get to tellstories through working with
different types of filmmakers,you get to work to picture, you
get to write themes away frompicture, and you're working on
multiple projects a year. So Istarted to realize I love
writing more than anything elsein the world. If I could do that
for the rest of my life everyday, that would be the dream

(23:58):
scenario. So it was around 2015or 2016 when I decided to kind
of make the full pivot toscoring for films, TV and games.
What kind

James Jay Edwards (24:07):
of bands did you play in?

Nikhil Koparkar (24:08):
So I played in a I started a band called Dream
Alive, which was, like a very,very influenced by, like, kind
of 1970s like three partharmonies and guitar solos and
and kind of like some Pragueinfluences, like Pink Floyd and
Rush and stuff like that. Soeveryone in the band was very
much into that style of music,and so we kind of wrote, wrote

(24:31):
that kind of stuff. So it'spretty different to the scoring
stuff, but that's,

James Jay Edwards (24:35):
I was gonna say, three part harmonies and
guitar. So was like the Eaglesor three part harmonies and
guitars. It was like KingCrimson.

Nikhil Koparkar (24:44):
That's actually a really good distinction. I
would say it's probably moreEagles than King Crimson. Okay,
this of the song structures wereprobably more like King Crimson,
if that makes sense, that'sawesome.

Jonathan Correia (24:55):
And I see, I see you've done quite a few
video games as well, working onlike. Avatar and League of
Legends. What would you say is,like, what are the big
differences between working on,like, video games and and doing
film and television?

Nikhil Koparkar (25:09):
Yeah, actually, there's a there's a huge
difference in the sense of thepacing of it. So TV is kind of
the opposite end of thespectrum, where, you know, when
I've worked on shows, I wasworking on shows almost
exclusively over the last coupleyears, and when I was doing
that, it was like an extremely,like, breakneck pace, you know,
there's edits coming right up tothe very end. You're constantly
trying to stay one step ahead ofthat edit. And, you know, it's a

(25:31):
large team, a lot of movingparts, and you have a lot of
quick deadlines. So sometimes anepisode will be scored in just a
couple days, and, you know, theinitial draft. So you have,
like, 45 minutes of music, youknow, done in a couple days. And
of course, that's that'simpossible for one person to do
on their own. You need a team tokind of help to bring that
across the finish line. Whereaswith games, you know, games are

(25:53):
a lot more of a slower pace. Andyou know, it depends on what
kind of game you're working on,like with the with the League of
Legends franchise, particulartrack I did for them last year
that is very much an establishedIP. It's very much like a very,
you know, kind of establishedmusical esthetic. And so try to
figure out how to writesomething that feels a little

(26:16):
different to that, but also fitsinto the mold of what they've
created is one one side of it,then the other side of it is
indie games, which is, you havea lot more creative freedom, and
you have a kind of a longer devcycle for a particular game. It
might be like three to fouryears. So, you know, brought in
at the very beginning,oftentimes. And so, you know,

(26:37):
when I've scored games, I'mgetting sketches from the
concept artists. I'm gettingrough sketches from like, you
know, and trying to write musicand themes to exemplify these
characters at an earlier stage.
So it's, it's a lot more of akind of a longer iterative
process, whereas, you know, TVis kind of like we need it
yesterday. So quite, quite,quite different from that
standpoint, I would say. So

James Jay Edwards (26:59):
when, when you do games, you're brought on
a lot earlier. This is kind offascinating me. It's, it's
almost like it might be anafterthought for TV, but for
games, you're in right from thebeginning. And I mean, even as
the developers are working,you're working the scores.

Nikhil Koparkar (27:15):
Totally, totally, yeah. I mean, in TV
there is, and you're seeing thismore now, where a composer might
be hired at the pre productionstage, so they haven't started
filming yet. And maybe, maybethe composer and the filmmaker
are having earlier discussionsabout things. Maybe the composer
is working on, like a theme ortwo, but that's about as far as
it goes. And then, you know,once they get once the composer

(27:37):
and the the filmmaker sit downand spot the the TV episode or
the film, then they kind ofreally dive into the weeds and
start with the scoring process.
So it's, it is starting to takeplace a little bit earlier, but
it's still, you know, a windowof a couple months, rather than
a couple years, if that makessense.

Unknown (27:54):
And you and you're not wrong when you say that, it gets
up to the point where it's like,no, the episode comes out on
Friday, and we just finished theend and on Wednesday. So we need
to go, and I've

Nikhil Koparkar (28:05):
seen it where it gets pushed all the way to
the dub stage where, you know,at the dub when they're mixing
in the music and the dialog andthe sound effects and
everything, and doing the final,final rendition of the of the
film or the the show, you willget a request from the dub
stage. Oh, could we have XYZ,you know, so there may be last
minute decisions all the way upto that point, which is pretty,

(28:26):
pretty wild. So it keeps you onyour toes, I guess at least. Oh,
man,

Unknown (28:30):
that's, that's insane.
I've worked on a few shows wherethey were, like, big, big
budget, like, you know, primetime shows, and then it's like,
Wait, we're filming this now,but that episode comes out in
like, a month. Like, they're,really gonna put all that
together, all the effects andeverything that's insane, like,
and they did, they would pull itoff. I'm like, Ah, that's, I
feel bad for whoever takes thefootage after us, because you
guys are have, like, a month ofjust, and that's just that one

(28:53):
episode. You know, there'sanother one that comes out the
week after that. So it's like,yeah,

Nikhil Koparkar (28:59):
it's at that point. I've spoken to a couple
composers who have mentioned,like, they would be driving on a
street in LA and they see thebillboard for something that's
like, coming out, blah, blah,blah, and they have the date
announced, and they haven'tstarted scoring it yet. It's
like, that's always a nervewracking experience. I'm sure I

James Jay Edwards (29:15):
used to get that all the time in film
school. I mostly I found myniche as, like, the sound
designer guy, which is the lastthing that gets done, and
usually, usually the sounddesign is in film school, is
also the composer. So I wouldget picture lock on a Tuesday
for something that would be dueThursday. I'd be like, Thanks,

(29:38):
guys.

Nikhil Koparkar (29:40):
Totally, totally, yeah, you know, it's
interesting too, when you know,when you think about in film
schools, especially, you know,people are still learning kind
of the processes, the variousprocesses of what goes into
making a film. And so you know,their understanding of music.
And sound sound design is alsomore limited. And so oftentimes

(30:04):
these things do end up being anafterthought. Maybe they're
thinking about it in the postproduction process, like, oh, we
finished the edit. Oh, crap. Nowwe need music and sound effects,
you know, and it comes thatthing. And so, so I think, like,
I've worked on student projectsbefore, earlier on in my career,
and it was, it was a lot ofthat, you know, it's like, can
you get this done in a coupledays? And, you know, you just
kind of say yes, and then figureit out. So, and it's especially

James Jay Edwards (30:27):
fun when they say, they give you picture lock,
and you work for a day, and thenthey say, oh, yeah, we changed
the edit. I'm like, Well, thenwhy did you call it picture
lock, if it wasn't reallypicture lock? Um, what is your
school? Are you a schoolmusician, or is it all just, you
know, self taught. What's youreducation in music?

Nikhil Koparkar (30:47):
Yes, I, you know, I just studied classical
piano growing up, so I tookpiano lessons and things like
that. But as far asorchestration and everything is
considered, I kind of learned onthe job, and I learned by just
kind of being self taught. Iused to go to a coffee shop. You
know, when I was, we teach pianolessons at the time, and this
was, like, maybe 10 years ago,and I would go to a coffee shop

(31:08):
in between, in between lessons,and I would take out a score,
and I would, I would belistening on headphones to the
score, and I'd be reading thesheet music, and just kind of
like pausing it and rewindingit, and like, you know, kind of
just like score studying, Iguess they call it. So I would
do a lot of that, and thatactually was really helpful. I
would go on, like, lot of a lotof great YouTube channels, like,
this is one called orchestrationonline, which has a bunch of

(31:30):
deep dives into, like, Let'sjust analyze this one passage of
this famous orchestral score,you know. And it's like, let's
see what the the violins aredoing, and in reference to the
flutes and the clarinets. Andlet's just look at that, you
know, for this episode, orwhatever it is. And so just
doing deep dives like thatreally helped a lot. And then a
lot of it was learning on thejob. So it was kind of, I didn't

(31:52):
get a chance to get an educationin it, like a formal education
in it. So yeah, it was, it was alot of, a lot of flying by the
seat of my pants most of thetime. YouTube

James Jay Edwards (32:04):
is so amazing for things like that, because
whenever I'm like trying tofigure something out, my wife
will always say, there'sprobably YouTube video, and 95%
of the time she's right, there's

Unknown (32:17):
so incredible. But it's about finding the well informed
one, because there's a few thatwill be not great information to
do things

James Jay Edwards (32:27):
but for the post book, or the ones that are
easy to follow too. Yeah, that'ssome will assume that you know
more than you do.

Jonathan Correia (32:35):
That's me with video game walkthroughs, because
I always hit that wall where I'mlike, Wait, how am I supposed to
do this thing? And I'll watchit. It'll be like, 10 minutes of
like, nothing going on, or like,them just talking. I'm like, no,
no, just, just tell me what thechest is, right? I just need to
find the chest. Or what is it?
No, that's a cooking recipesthese days now too. The SEO,
it's like 20 pages of abackstory, and then all sudden,

(32:57):
it's like, okay, so you addbutter to the thing. You throw
the curls in there until theypop

James Jay Edwards (33:03):
those the worst I've seen. There's a joke
going around where they say,I'm, here's my quick go to
recipe, and then they startcutting an onion that's, that's
not quick go to

Jonathan Correia (33:16):
especially in this day and age with the
availability of information andeverything you're we're seeing a
lot of more self taught peoplewho are coming up. And it's
really incredible how universalor accessible a lot of this
information that would wouldwould have been locked away
behind paywalls and stuff forfolks for many years, is now

(33:37):
readily available. Andespecially when it comes to the
film industry, everyone alwaysit's like, oh, well, how do you
get in it? It's like, there's somany different ways. Man, I know
people who have, like, decadeslong careers in the G and E
department, simply because theythe buddy asked them to, and
they showed up with, like, agrip and electric book. And

(33:57):
we're like, okay, they asked forthis. I mean, now with the
internet, they can look, I mean,that's, that's how I got my
start to be like, Oh, this outof the van. Okay, cool, yeah.
Well, I'm walking there. Let meGoogle search. What is this?

Nikhil Koparkar (34:09):
You know, to that point, I feel like it's
really interesting now, becauseyou're not just seeing
interviews with people like, Oh,when I got my first, you know,
100 billion dollar film, orwhatever it is, like, it's like,
well, yeah, but what happenedleading up to that? And now it's
become so much more neat whereyou can hear a different cross
section of people's experiences,you know, people who are just
kind of starting out and howthey got their first maybe

(34:30):
student film, or something likethat, and then and on the way
upwards. So I think that'sreally cool is because people
can relate to it more whenthey're just starting out. It's
like, oh, this person just maybea year or two ahead of me,
rather than 20 years ahead ofme, you know, in terms of, like,
career paths. So it's nice to belike the dots, I guess.

Jonathan Correia (34:49):
Oh, absolutely. And especially when
people bring up, oh, this is afirst time filmmakers movie, and
it's like, well, no, they havelike, eight credits before that,
like, but what about thosethings that led to. Yeah,
because those things is whatmade that thing happen. That's
where they learned everything,you know,

Nikhil Koparkar (35:04):
it's like the 10 year instant success, you
know.

Jacob Davidson (35:09):
And on the subject of film scores, do you
have any particular favorites?
Gosh, you

Nikhil Koparkar (35:15):
know, I feel like my answer changes all the
time, in the sense that, youknow, when I was growing up, I
was really into John Williams,and more the traditional kind of
orchestral scoring, like Iremember, I used to go to
sleepovers and, like, with myfriends and just watch, like,
Star Wars and whatever wascoming out at the time, early
90s, you know, and and then, andthen I and then I started

(35:36):
getting into more kind of, likethe the modern composers, one,
one particular composer I reallylike who has a unique voice. He
had scored the film Minari, the824, film Emile moseri. And you
know, I just love his melodicsensibility and kind of choosing
very non obvious choices in hisscoring. And like, when you hear
his music, you automaticallyknow who it is. So I always kind

(35:59):
of interested in people who arevery like, have a unique voice
that is kind of upfront andyeah, so I think he would
probably be one of the modernones that I've been listening to
a lot. Do you all have favoritecomposers or anything like that?
Or, oh

Jacob Davidson (36:14):
yeah, John Carpenter,

Nikhil Koparkar (36:15):
oh nice, yeah.
Or no,

James Jay Edwards (36:17):
my favorite, probably modern composer is Mika
Levy, Oh, yeah. I just lovetheir, their, I mean, you, it's
so, like you said, a voice. Iremember watching Zone of
Interest, and part of it, I kindof knew that they were scoring
it, because they're JonathanGlaser's go to but I had to stay
for the credit. Sumacle, yep,that was Mika.

Nikhil Koparkar (36:41):
It's fantastic.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Another

James Jay Edwards (36:44):
score I like to to find out if people have
ever heard is, have you heardthe score to Swiss Army Man,
actually, no, I haven't. SwissArmy Man, it's the Manchester
orchestra guys who do it, andit's Korea's laughing, because I
ask everybody this question,it's such an amazing score,
because it's all, there's alittle bit of keyboards, but
most of it is vocals, and it'sall just vocal harmonies the

(37:04):
entire movie, and, you know, andthey do things like, um, like
the Jurassic Park theme, butit's this, you know, lush vocal
harmony version. Or they'll dothat, um, where did you come
from? Where did you go? Wheredid you come from? But, but it's
like, this really dense, layeredvocal harmony version of it. You
should definitely check it out.
It's, it's really unique,

Nikhil Koparkar (37:28):
actually. Yeah, I would love to check it out
because, you know, I'm always onthe hunt for, like, new sounds,
new scores. And it's always,it's always a treat to do that.
I have bunch of friends who wejust passed scores back and
forth on the regular. So I'malways, always down to discover
more stuff. Thanks for therecommendation. Oh

Jonathan Correia (37:44):
yeah, I laughed, just because I love
that score so much. But it is attimes like you're listening,
you're really into it. Andbecause in the movie, they
reenact scenes from from othermovies, well, they're trapped on
this island, so the vocalsbecome that. So they'll start do
it. You'll go to thevocalization, to Jurassic Park
and other things. So it's, it'sa, yeah, it's a fun movie and a
great score. I got reminded ofJohan, Johan since not one of

(38:09):
his film scores, but he did thisalbum called IBM1401 A User's
Manual. And I guess, like, thestory behind it is he found,
like in his attic or something,these audio recordings that his
father did as audio recordingsfor the manual for this
computer. And so he incorporatedthis into a score. And this was,

(38:30):
I want to say, 2006 is when hedoes so it was before he got
into scoring. But even then,like, you could hear a whole
story throughout all of it, andit just randomly will at first,
seemingly random, just likethese audios of this, like, very
like British voice, just be likethe IBM 1401 compartment chamber
is connects to the bubble, andit's just, it's real good.

Nikhil Koparkar (38:52):
Sounds amazing.
I love Johan Johansson, so I,and I've heard, you know, a few
of his albums and things likethat. And I've just always loved
this style. I haven't heard thisalbum. I got to check it out.
That's That's amazing. Oh,

Unknown (39:05):
that was when I was listening to in college all the
time. And I was like, Man, thisguy should get into scoring. And
then, like, the next year, Ithink it was, like, all of a
sudden he was just, like,pumping out, like, movie after
movie. It was great. So I

Nikhil Koparkar (39:16):
got a chance to meet him very briefly at the
Theory of Everything they weredoing a screening for the
Society of Composers, lyricistsin LA. And it was amazing to,
you know, kind of hear his, hishis music in the theater. And he
was out there, like passing outCDs after the after the talk and
stuff. So he did like a Q and Athere. And so that was the first

(39:39):
time I really got introduced tohis music, and I was just like,
in love with that music. It'sfantastic. That

James Jay Edwards (39:45):
brings up an interesting question, Correia,
what you're saying that you knowyou wanted him to get into film
scoring? Is there anyone thatany any composers that you're
excited about who don't do whodoesn't do film scoring, that
you'd like to see get into it?
That's kind of a weird question,that that

Nikhil Koparkar (39:59):
don't do film.
Score. That's a really goodquestion I would have, I would
have said Tom York previously,or was it Suspiria that he did?

James Jay Edwards (40:10):
Yeah, yes, it was Suspiria. Yeah, right.

Nikhil Koparkar (40:13):
So I would have said him, because I've always
loved Radiohead, and I try tothink of who would be someone
else

James Jay Edwards (40:21):
that I would love to see Tom Morello do a
film score? Yeah, I think thatwould be really exciting. That
would be incredible. Yeah, Idon't know what kind of interest
he has in doing film scoring,but,

Nikhil Koparkar (40:33):
but you know, his his approach to music also
so much lends its like it's hisexperimental approach to music
lent itself to film scoring sowell, I'm surprised he hasn't
done it.

James Jay Edwards (40:43):
Yeah, I am a little too that's what makes me
think maybe he doesn't have aninterest in it, because you
would think that he would havethe opportunities

Nikhil Koparkar (40:51):
totally, of course. Yeah, let's,

James Jay Edwards (40:53):
let's talk about Dead Whisper, which is
what we're here to talk about.

Jonathan Correia (40:57):
Yes,

James Jay Edwards (40:58):
how did Dead Whisper come about? So

Nikhil Koparkar (41:01):
it's really interesting. Actually, I was, I
was, I'm friends with thefilmmaker, the director, Conor
Soucy, and we were having a beerover at at a bar in Sherman
Oaks, and he was talking aboutthis idea for the film. And he
was like, you know, it wasloosely based on personal
experience, the idea of griefand losing a loved one. And we

(41:22):
were just kind of talking aboutthat concept. And he was talking
about, you know, the idea of,like, what someone would do to
see their loved one again. Andhe kind of, like, kind of pseudo
pitched this idea to me at inthe bar, of like, oh, you know,
this guy gets duped intoboarding a ferry, and he falls
asleep and he wakes up andthere's no one on the ferry, and
he gets taken to this mysteriousisland where people only speak

(41:43):
in whispers, and he's offeredthe chance to see his his dead
child again. And I was like,that's an amazing premise. You
should totally do that, youknow. And I didn't talk too
much, you know, about itafterwards, until a few weeks
later, when he mentioned,Alright, I got a script
together. I'm ready, you know.
And he was getting ready toshoot it and stuff. So he kind
of like, moved really fast. Andit was approximately, I want to

(42:04):
say, a year to the day, thatsince that conversation that I
was working on the score for soit was, like, really pretty
fast, you know, and and so thiswas our fourth project working
together. So we, we kind ofalready had a shorthand in terms
of how we like to work with eachother. And there was always,

(42:25):
kind of a trust, already, atrust built in. And so he was
kind of like, go with yourcraziest ideas, you know. And he
let me kind of run with my, mymy kind of musical reaction to
the film. And it was, it was tothe point where, when we were
spotting the film, which is, youknow, for those in the audience
who you know, don't know, aspotting session is when the
filmmaker and the composer watchthe film together for the first

(42:48):
time, and they'll be talkingabout what music, you know, what
role music will play in thefilm, and what kind of themes to
explore, and where music cancome in and out, and where we
shouldn't have music, you know,which is sometimes equally
important, and he had a piano inthe corner, and so I would be
watching scenes with them, and Iwould immediately go to the
piano and try out kind ofinstant musical reactions. And a

(43:08):
couple of those themes ended upmaking it so it was just an
incredible experience of, like,real deep, close collaboration
with a with a trusted colleague.
And, yeah, that's kind of,that's kind of how it all came
about.

Jonathan Correia (43:22):
That's awesome. What were some of your
inspirations? Because with withthis film, especially, like, the
score, stands out a lot becauseyou're right with the spotting
there. It was just as loud whenthere wasn't music as if there
it was when there was, you know,there was a lot of moments where
I'm like, that's very quiethere. It's very like, it almost
encompasses the name tooperfectly. But the soundscape

(43:45):
that it was created, especiallyonce you get to the island and
some of the scenes out in thegrass, really kind of grasp you.
What were some of the influencesthere?

Nikhil Koparkar (43:53):
Well, it was interesting. You know, I, I, I
think all of us really loveelevated horror, like Hereditary
and things like that. I rememberI was reading an interview with
Colin Stetson, I think, who didthe score for that, and he was
talking about how so much of thebasis of the score was a
saxophone, and because he was asaxophone player, and I was

(44:14):
like, and I was listening to it,and it just sounds so creepy and
weird and not really like asaxophone at all when you
recontextualize it. And at thesame time, I'd been
experimenting a lot with likeinstruments from different parts
of the world. I worked on afantasy film a few years ago,
which was kind of Asian andIndian inspired. So it was a lot
about recontextualizinginstruments from, you know,

(44:34):
other cultures, and figuring outhow would they sound like as a
world building device. And so alot of those kind of ideas were
marinating in my mind. And youknow, for Connor, he was also
very influenced by more of thethrowback horror, like The
Shining or Rosemary's Baby. Sohe loved the idea of, like a
kind of a smooth, kind of slowsense of dread. And so we're

(44:57):
just kind of talking about allthese ideas. And. And in
addition to that, the idea oflike, you know, when Elliot
first gets to the island, wewanted it to feel like a grand
scale, almost like he, he lookssmall and insignificant in con
in contrast with the place thathe's in. And so with all these

(45:17):
ideas, I actually was justscrolling on Instagram at one
point, and as as one does, and Icame across a Thai instrument,
and I'm probably going tobutcher the pronunciation, but
it's spelled K, H, A, E, N,tying. I think it is called, and
it's like a vertical bamboo windinstrument. And you know, a lot

(45:39):
of the the scenes were filmedaround Cape Cod. So we wanted
sounds that evoke the wind andthe ocean and things like that.
And so, you know, I ended upkind of just buying it and
trying it out. And, you know,either having the sounds as is
in the film or even reprocessingthem and kind of making them
unrecognizable, and that formedkind of the connective tissue

(46:02):
that that was kind of presentthrough a lot of the cues. And
then, of course, we hadfantastic, you know, other
instrumentalists as well. We hadthe percussionist ball back love
before, who had done a lot ofsounds for A24 is green night
and for Netflix's Hellraiser.
And so he was doing veryunconventional stuff with the
percussion. He was like taking amallet and rubbing it on a drum

(46:25):
head. He had this metalinstrument called the Marvin,
which is like a series of coilson a metal, kind of a
triangular, I don't even knowhow to describe it, but it's
like this hollow triangularshape. And you know, you could
make weird sounds out of that,and kind of ancient Mayan
shakers and things like that,and so, yeah, we were just
experimenting a lot and tryingto figure out, like, how can we

(46:46):
make this feel kind of almostprimordial and ancient while
feeling recontextualized andmodern? It's kind of a weird
juxtaposition, but I think thejuxtaposition and the contrast
is kind of what makes it fun toexplore. I guess, if that makes
sense, long winded answer forthe process, but no,

Jacob Davidson (47:07):
I think that covers it quite nicely. And I
was wondering, just because, asa New Englander, and it being
set around Cape Cod, if that wasan influence in how you approach
the score? Oh,

Nikhil Koparkar (47:20):
absolutely. I mean, you know, my only regret
is I couldn't be there duringfilming, because I think it
would have been really cool tojust be there and, you know,
ingest the atmosphere. But Ithink, like, Connor captured the
atmosphere of it so well. Andthe cinematographer, Ben grant,
really captured, you know,helped to kind of bring that
world to the to the big screen,and so watching it was it, you

(47:42):
know, I had a visceral reactionto that. And just that idea of
like, you know, it would bereally cool to be able to have
fairy sounds. It'd be reallycool to have the wind and ocean,
but not necessarily just thewind and ocean, but how would an
instrument sound like if it wastrying to mimic the wind and
ocean? So even when we weredoing we recorded a 30 piece

(48:03):
string section with the fame'sorchestra in Macedonia, and that
was one of our things, is like,hey, let's just experiment for a
bit. And because we had the timeto actually kind of try out
ideas as well as, you know,record the written material. So
we're like, let's justexperiment a little bit. What
would the sound of wind andocean feel like for 30 string
players. Let's just record somestuff and see what happens. And

(48:24):
then it was, you know,reprocessing, that I was
reprocessing that, that Thaibamboo instrument, and I was
using something called a windwand, which, if you it's, it's
almost like, it's, it's like aseries of rubber bands on a kind
of a wooden contraption that youyou spin it really fast, and as
it starts to spin really fast,it has this weird, like eerie

(48:45):
humming sound. So, you know,just stuff that would kind of
put you in that place withoutbeing over. You know, I think
that was kind of what we'retrying to do, is like, what are
non obvious ways of ofrepresenting the place, the
location, kind of what thatsetting might have felt like. So
that was kind of the approach ofthe of the scoring process.

Jonathan Correia (49:03):
That's so cool. Because, yeah, when you
when you think Cape Cod, youdon't think of, like, Ty, it's
true. It's called Kerns, orthese humming band is true, is
and and you feel it too with thefilm. Because, like, I'm also
from New England, so I know CapeCod well. But, like, it doesn't
it. It looks like Cape Cod, butit feels ethereal. Feels very
different and very off putting.
So even when you're familiarwith the place, it's like, yeah,

(49:26):
it's something off here, andit's and it comes through.
That's awesome.

Nikhil Koparkar (49:31):
That's great.
You know, I think we were alsotalking a lot like, you know, it
is Cape Cod centric, but thenit's also this fish out of water
story, in a way, because he'sbeing taken to this unfamiliar
place, you know, this island andand, and so the idea of feeling
insignificant and feeling kindof lost in time was also
another, another thing that wewere trying to explore. And so,

(49:53):
you know, it was interestingwith that, with that Thai
instrument, because it kind ofachieves both ends. In a way,
because if it's used in one way,it could maybe represent the
wind in the ocean and that kindof a thing. If it's used in a
different way, you know, it'snot an instrument that on its
own, you know, even if you werejust listening to it, it's not
quite easy to place for theears. You don't think of it

(50:15):
geographically as like, oh,that's from Thailand. You know,
there's certain instruments Ithink that really evoke a
particular region, whereas thatone didn't. And that was kind of
the appeal. It's like you can'tquite place it, and then when
you reprocess it and you use itas world building device, it's
even hard. It's even moredisorienting for the listeners.
So, you know, it was kind of, itwas kind of trying to achieve
two opposite aims, thefamiliarity and disorientation

(50:37):
at the same time. And I thinkthat was kind of the through
line, is we were trying to findsomething that would achieve
both. Is everything

James Jay Edwards (50:45):
in it, to me, it kind of sounds the score
sounds synthesized. And it'sprobably because of all the
processing of these instruments.
Was it all basically liveinstruments that you process to
give it that, that etherealsound?

Nikhil Koparkar (51:01):
Yeah, actually, you know, I would say probably
the what ended up being in thefinal score was, like, maybe 60
to 70% live stuff, okay, whichwas wonderful because, you know,
in a horror score, especially,maybe you have one instrument
that becomes the, you know,centerpiece of the score, or a
couple instruments. But, youknow, it's very rare to get a 30
piece string ensemble to recorda, you know, on an indie horror

(51:23):
film. And that was actually inno small part due to this grant
that we got, which was fromSESAC, a Performing Rights
society for composers and NewMusic USA, which provides kind
of grants and opportunities forcomposers. And so they gave us
this grant called the RealChange Grant, and it allowed us
to have some funding for, youknow, proper mix and master of

(51:44):
the soundtrack album, and then asurround mix for the for the
score, and then being able torecord all these exotic
instruments and things likethat. So, you know, we really
had a kind of pick of the creamof the crop, like I'd worked on
for a composer named Lauren balfI'd worked on this series called
The Wheel of Time. And there wasa vocalist from that was the

(52:04):
featured vocalist in the in thatseries named Abby Lyons, who's
just a phenomenal vocalist, and,you know, so I got along really
great with her. And I was like,Hey, I'm working on this horror
film. Would you like to, youknow, would you like to try out
some ideas, maybe some texturalstuff, phrases and things? And
so we really got a chance to,like experiment from the source,
rather than take existinglibraries and then try to make

(52:28):
them sound different, which isalways, you know, that that is
its own challenge. I thinkbecause, you know a lot of
composers, they have samplelibraries, which you know may be
like, oh, you know, we don'thave enough money for a whole
orchestra, but we can kind ofsimulate it using these sample
libraries and get, you know,maybe 70% there, or something
like that. But when you'reactually going from the source,

(52:49):
you can really get a lot of,hey, why don't we try that and
see what happens? You know,what? Why don't you play that
the wrong way, the way it's notsupposed to be. What happens,
you know? And oftentimes that's,that's the that's the key
towards finding something thatfeels bespoke. And it was made
for the film like, you know,when I ordered that Thai
instrument, I played it myself.
I obviously have no skillsplaying this. It's, I have no
business playing thisinstrument, but playing it the

(53:11):
wrong way, quote, unquote, youknow, not like a professional.
Probably was did justice interms of creating weird sounds,
you know, or I was maybe notthinking about it in a
traditional way, because Ididn't know the traditional way.
So, you know, it's, it's, it'sinteresting. But yeah, a lot of,
a lot of it was in no smallpart, due to the talented

(53:32):
players that really brought somedifferent flavor and kind of
spontaneity, spontaneity to theprocess. So, and

James Jay Edwards (53:41):
it did, the grant help pay for the 30 piece
orchestra too. I was gonna saythere's, there's some budget
there,

Nikhil Koparkar (53:48):
absolutely.
Yeah, it did. And the good newsis, I think, like now, it's very
different to how scoring wasdone, say, 10-15, years ago,
where, you know, you booked anorchestra for a few days, and
you're recording orchestra forthe whole thing. Now it's become
a lot more kind of piecemeal, inthe sense of, like, hey, we
don't have the budget fororchestra for the whole, you
know, for the whole few days orwhatever, to really dive in. But

(54:12):
why don't we get a two hoursession? That way we can get the
most important cues covered. Wecan get some weird aleatoric
ideas that I can pepper inthroughout the score, and it
kind of provides that connectivetissue, right? And so you can
economize really well doingthat. And because it was a 30
piece string section, not a 40piece, which is kind of the
traditional size of a, you know,full size string section, we

(54:35):
could play the line between, youknow, having it sound massive,
but then also sounding exposed,which I think really works well
for horror film stringrecording. So, you know, it's, I
think sometimes the budgetlimitations can be liberating,
in a way, because it forces youto think of different ways to
achieve the same end. And theymight be a little bit more

(54:56):
unconventional than youinitially, you know, just.
Rather than just saying, like,Let's book it for a set number
of days, like, let's make themost of it in a couple hours and
see what happens so

Unknown (55:07):
but this is also why grants are so important and need
to be funded, because the theamount of times where we're
here, because we interviewcomposers a lot, where it's
like, Man, if I could have hadan orchestra with that, or if I
could have been able to hire afew more, like, you know, for
this, and this would have beencool, but, and so it's really
awesome hearing like, just, youknow, having these opportunities

(55:29):
be presented to be able toachieve that, and then also
still having it, like you said,in that scape of, like,
experimenting and all right,cool. So we don't have the money
for 40, so what can we do with30 and, like, do it right ways.
So cool here. Oh,

Nikhil Koparkar (55:43):
absolutely. I really think that, you know, the
score couldn't have come out theway it did without that grant. I
think it's like, like you said,you know, having the opportunity
to work with real people, youknow, trying to figure out ideas
together, there's no realsubstitute for that. And
unfortunately, you know, both,it's obviously, you know, I

(56:04):
think it's important to payeverybody fairly and make sure
that they, they're, they're paidfairly for their time. And it's
like, you know, that ends upbeing a decent chunk of money.
So trying to figure outopportunities to, like, make
that happen, especially on anindie project, is is difficult.
So I'm just really grateful forthat grant. It really, really
helped us push it over thefinish line.

James Jay Edwards (56:24):
So we're still trying to get Carrie
torgenson's Moth paid for hisscore, for for night watch. What
is, I don't know if you listenedthat episode, but we had, they
recorded a moth for his score.
What is what's next? What do yougot coming up? Yeah,

Nikhil Koparkar (56:46):
so unfortunately, there's a couple
projects I can't really say toomuch about.

James Jay Edwards (56:51):
We hear that all the time too,

Nikhil Koparkar (56:53):
but I am working on a really cool game,
actually, right now, and it'sbeen a little earlier on in the
process. I've been in thethematic writing stage, but it's
very influenced by, you know, Iread a lot of books, and I'm and
the game developer and I bothread kind of a lot of the same
stuff, so that's kind of how wefirst connected, is he wanted to
do a game that felt like how hefelt reading Stephen King's The

(57:16):
Dark Tower series. And also, Idon't know if you are all
familiar with Brandon Sanderson,a fantasy author who did this
thing called the StormlightArchive. It's very kind of like
epic in scope, using, you know,kind of influenced by a
confluence of different culturesand and he wanted this kind of
musical esthetic to feel likeyou don't know where one

(57:39):
cultural influence ends and theother begins. So it's been
really, it's kind of likeanother extension of that idea
of experimenting with exoticinstruments, seeing what we can
kind of recontextualize. So it'sbeen really a through line in my
career thus far. So I'm reallyexcited to explore that in this
game, and then that probablywon't be out for another I'm
sure, like three years orsomething, because it's, it's in

(57:59):
year one right now. So it'slike, you know, few here and
there, and kind of, you know,dipping toes in the water, type
of deal. We

James Jay Edwards (58:07):
already talked about, how early you
start working on video games. Sowhere can people follow you on
the socials to get as you canstart talking about some of
these projects, you know, sopeople can find out about him,

Nikhil Koparkar (58:22):
absolutely, yes. So you can, you can follow
me on all socials @NikhilKmusic.
That's n i k, h, i L, K music,also on my website,
NikhilKmusic.com, and I updatethat pretty frequently with
projects as well. So keep youapprised over there as well.
Okay,

James Jay Edwards (58:40):
cool. Well, Nikhil, thank you for joining us
this morning, and everybody seeDead Whisper it. It's in
theaters by the time this posts,it will be on VOD tomorrow by
the time this post. Sobasically, by the time you hear
this, you'll be able to see it.
So everybody go see it andlisten carefully to the score,
because it's a banger. Yeah,

Jonathan Correia (59:01):
see it in theaters, especially because I'm
like, we, you know, we got ourscreeners, but I can imagine
your score sounds amazing. Yes,through through

James Jay Edwards (59:10):
actual speakers,

Nikhil Koparkar (59:11):
there's definitely a difference, you
know, sitting in the theater andkind of hearing that surrounds,
you know, mix just like, youknow, kind of envelop you in
there. So, yeah.

James Jay Edwards (59:22):
So, yeah, thank you for joining us. And
everybody see dead whisper. Asfor us, you can find us on all
the socials as well, under eyeon horror or at ihorror com,
which is the site we call home.
Our theme song is by restlessspirits, so go give them a
listen. And our artwork is byChris Fisher, so go give him a
like. I'm gonna take a second toplug something I've been doing
my new podcast. It's called TheCryptiZoo. It's basically a

(59:45):
little you're gonna learn aboutcryptids at the cryptozoo, is
what it is. And the firstepisode just dropped. It's about
The Jersey Devil. So if youwanted to know about The Jersey
Devil, check out the crypto zooif you're not tired of my voice
and. We will see you guys in acouple of weeks. If you are
tired of my voice, you have twoweeks without it. If you don't
listen to cryptozoo and again,go see Dead Whisper and listen

(01:00:08):
to Nikhil score. So for me,James Jay Edwards, I'm

Jacob Davidson (01:00:13):
Jacob Davison,

Jonathan Correia (01:00:14):
I'm Jonathan Correia.

Nikhil Koparkar (01:00:15):
I'm Nikhil Koparkar.

James Jay Edwards (01:00:16):
Keep your eye on horror.