In 2020, a month after the world had largely gone into lockdown, I heard from Rich McAfee - A friend from my hometown of Ross on Wye. He was deep in the production of an experimental horror short film No Hard Shells Crack? and wanted to know if I’d be interested in producing a score for it. I couldn’t express how excited I was to get involved, and I dropped everything to get to work.

The film is an allegory concerning the inability of the British public to follow guidelines during the COVID-19 lockdown and the subsequent strain put on the National Health Service. We discussed at length the themes of the film, visual and musical influences and potential approaches. Rich used Future Markets by Jonny Greenwood, taken from the film There Will Be Blood, as a temp track. This gave me a great idea of his thinking and what to aim for.

The first thing I did was establish a palette of sounds to work with. After listing out sounds that could be associated with the pandemic in the UK, I picked out those which I thought would be most effective. I needed to use handclaps, representative of Clap for the NHS, to keep the film moving forward and to maintain tension. I used the sound of a ventilator as the percussive anchor for the track, with the hiss and release always hitting on or very near the downbeat. I left the timing loose to add to the unease I wanted the score to convey. Then, I used a vicious cello as the principal instrument to refer directly to the temp track and included a muted acoustic guitar to add more percussive rhythm to the piece. Where I differed from the temp track was using more start and stop in the music, emphasising the dramatic beats in the film. At thefilm’s peak, the big reveal, I used a trombone sound with a phasing tremolo effect to disconcert and build terror.

Before I built the main score, I set myself a warm-up exercise to create a small piece that captured the mood I would be aiming for. I focused on the Clap for the NHS and produced a little nightmare scenario, with claps building to a crescendo. It helped me to get into the headspace required to create the final track.

I was thrilled with the result. It has flaws, but I feel the music effectively delivers what Rich asked. I’m pleased with my process, navigation of a new challenge, and the resulting clarity and speed with which I worked.
My most satisfying creative endeavour of 2020, for sure.