As a point of reference, Declan cited ‘The Pine Barrens’ episode of The Sopranos, my favourite episode of my favourite TV show of all time. He may have said more after that but, honestly, I wasn’t listening, that was all I needed to hear.
What made this even more exciting to me was that Declan was only half way through writing the story, and Gavin Fullerton, who drew the book, was still sketching out the initial storyboards.
This meant I could score the soundtrack in parallel with the book being created. And that turned out to be a deeply cool experience. I’d send Declan sketches and sounds which he’d listen to while writing, and he’s send me rough pages which I’d read and try to recreate with sounds. I found the whole process fascinating, it all happened so organically. I’d sit in my little home studio, usually in the small hours of the night, fiddling about with pedals, and effects and ebows, it was a lot of fun.
Of course, Covid happened and the task of mixing and mastering the album had to be done entirely remotely via email and chat. Not something I ever want to do again to be honest…
Listen to the Bog Bodies sountrack
TRACK 1
He’s pretty quiet
I wanted to set the tone pretty quickly with the opening track. The book opens with scenes of Dublin, while words from the news pierce the silence. We meet the main character as he sets out on an unexpected journey.
A drone rises and pulses. A slow lingering, menacing intro. A beat fades in to set the rhythm of the car, the movement and thrill of driving dark, country roads at night. The repeating minor piano melody suggesting all is not what it seems…
TRACK 2
Someone had to pay
Track 2 starts with a gunshot. Immediately followed by a repeating, rhytmic bass note, the quickening heartbeat, the kind that thumps in your ears. Peppered throughout the track is the sound of footsteps in a wood and the creaking of trees. Most of these sounds were actually captured in Ticnock forrest, at the foothills of the Dublin mountains, where the book is set.
I really wanted the soundtrack to pay hommage to some the darker moments of Angelo Badalamenti’s score for Twin Peaks. The dissonant chords that stay with you. That showed up strongest in this track I feel.
TRACK 3
I know where I am
I wanted to create an uptick in tone for this one, no longer alone, Killian’s luck could be on the turn.
I’d bought a Ditto stereo looper a few weeks before this project took off so creating endlessly looping noises and glitches was very front of mind at the time. The distorted, buzzing of the loop is offset by clean, layered guitars and ebow strings.
TRACK 4
Time to go huntin’
Gerry & Keano aren’t leaving. The stereo panned piano notes ping like radar; the hunt is on.
The repeating clunking sound you hear is actually a car door with lots of reverb and delay applied. I really liked the idea of using sounds from the story to help to score it.
Again, with the synths and the muted piano… I know, I know…
TRACK 5
A spherical bastard
This title came from a chat I had with Dec, it’s a term coined by a Swiss Astronomer named Fritz Zwicky, but I mentioned it to Dec at some point and then it appeared in the book. Magic!
He used the term to describe people he didn’t get on with saying they were “bastards no matter what frame of reference you used”. It’s quite brilliant.
This track is my little homage to the great Ennio Morricone’s incredible scores for the spaghetti westerns, except Irish, so more like spudghetti western?
TRACK 6
We’re gonna be fine
A beacon of light and uplifting melody slowly fades in intended to cut-through the exhaustion the characters are feeling. The major piano chords and melody hint at a blossoming relationship and provide a slight uptick in tone compared to the earlier tracks, a simmering tension remains underneath.
Reversed loops like reflections run on repeat in the background outro. The song ends with a wave of phase.
TRACK 7
Don’t go out there
What had me hookxed was that Declan was only half way through writing the story, and Gavin Fullerton who drew the book was still sketching out the initial storyboards which meant I could score the soundtrack in parallel with the development of the book.
TRACK 8
Go on home now, love
The kicker…This was actually the last song I wrote but the first line I pulled out as a title when I read the final book.
I knew I wanted it to have a bright tone on the surface but get more melancholic the more you listen. The intrumentation was kept bare and simple. A keyboard, acoustic guitar and some strings, pads and ebow layers to add an etherial, ambience.
The second last page of the book pans out from the cottage and into the darkness of the night as we watch the moonlit mountain pull away from underneath us. That was what I wanted this song to feel like.
