Freshmade Music

Great article about Ennio Marricone

2014-03-17T12:33:00.001-07:00

"At times, he exhibited humility bordering on the absurd... At other moments there were the flashes of hubris..."

Read the article here

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/movies/ennio-morricone-the-film-composer-celebrated.html?_r=0

Freshmade Music and A Fresh Pair of Undies (Just In Time For The Holidays!)

2013-12-17T12:55:00.000-08:00

Jerome Rossen's Freshmade Music has once again partnered with New York’s SS+K communications agency, this time to provide the musical soundtrack while a beautiful model slowly undresses to show off really gross underwear. She’s urging men to upgrade their underwear.

Local SF Bay-Area jazz fans may recognize the sounds of Tom Griesser’s tenor saxophone.

You can see the spot at any of these outlets:

Huffington Post

NY Magazine

Creativity Online

Media Bistro

Tommy John

Help me get to 500,000,000 page views on YouTube!

2013-11-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

Check out the current Happy Tree Friends Halloween Episode. I’ve written the music for this one and bunch of other funny, twisted episodes. Right now the material I worked on is at 298,000,000. But please don’t show kids – it’s violent!

Happy Tree Friends – A Vicious Cycle

Updated website. Now with bigger broccoli!

2013-10-15T16:59:00.001-07:00

I just posted some new tracks on my website... www.freshmademusic.com - including some kid's songs with words (for other people to sing). Oh, and I made the broccoli picture bigger...

SF Ferry and Headlands

2013-07-01T13:36:00.001-07:00

SF Ferry and grid

2013-07-01T13:35:00.002-07:00

Collaborating With First Graders!

2013-06-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

In the Spring, I worked with 80 kids in the first grade, from Tam Valley Elementary in Mill Valley to write five songs based on character traits that the school promotes.

Here is a page with a rough live recording, lyric pages and sheet music.

http://www.mvschools.org/domain/416

Accordion on Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time

2013-06-20T16:41:00.000-07:00

Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time
Music by the esteemed Peter McConell
Accordion performed by Jerome Rossen
Thanks to IGN, you can kind of hear it here.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iE0FS8cOiA)

Politics 101: Can stalling and answering questions with other questions be a successful strategy for you?

2013-04-23T12:22:00.000-07:00

Have you ever stopped to wonder why politicians incorporate the strange practice of asking themselves questions, then answering them? I have. Have you noticed that some of these questions seem rhetorical, but they answer them anyway? Yes, they do. Have you ever stopped to realize that these politicians are saying a lot of words, and they make it seem like they are really trying to answer questions truthfully, but are really just talking, and talking without saying anything at all, and continuing on, and on without end and they might even sound sincere with their device of asking a different question, in order to avoid answering the first question, until you realize you don’t remember what they start answering, or asking in the first place, and you wish you hadn't even asked anything? Sorry, what was the question again?

Composer Says His Music is Key to Obama’s Victory

2012-11-07T12:59:00.001-08:00

Mill Valley – Composer Jerome Rossen of Freshmade Music has made the claim that his musical underscore was the key to delivering the crucial swing-state votes to yesterday’s Presidential win for Barack Obama.

In the video titled “For All”, where supporters share why they support Obama, Rossen’s underscore lends musical support to their message with a rhythmic piano counterpoint and a warm guitar texture. Rossen says “I’m from Ohio, so I really thought that I could help the Obama folks figure out how to deliver the 18-22 year old votes – with my music. What can I say? It worked!”

To see for yourself, the video is here:

400 Meter Burt Bacharach Medley

2012-08-01T14:07:00.000-07:00

Great to watch Ryan Lochte in the 400 Meter medley, but you should hear him sing his 400 Meter Burt Bacharach Medley!

Goodbye Roger Williams

2011-10-10T11:16:00.000-07:00

Roger Williams, Pianist Known for Sentimental Songs, Dies at 87

Hear his version of "Autumn Leaves"

What I'm Listening To...

2011-09-21T10:53:00.002-07:00

A few records I'm listening to - some new, some old

Steve Earle – I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive (2011)
Rootsy, folky songs from this amazing American songwriter, Earle and his music have been featured in TV shows Treme and the Wire, among others.

Andy Palacio & the Garifina Collective – Waitina (2007)
Infectious music from Palacio, a musician from Belize, features wonderful grooves that seems to define Caribbean. It's an intersection of many cultures, especially Cuban and West African.

Faithful - Marcin Wasilewski Trio (2011)
Wonderful trio from Poland featuring pianist Wasilewski, is easily the most reserved and sublime jazz that I’ve ever heard. Wasilewski has a wonderful touch and a great sense of time and melody.

Choice Cuts: Tasty Bites from Freshmade Music

2011-08-15T13:27:00.000-07:00

Hi there-

I’m beginning a newsletter of sorts to share what I’ve been up to recently.

As usual I’ve been working on a mix of projects. I'm including a few samples below, that are scored to video. Don't miss my listen page at Freshmade Music with some new music samples. Stay tuned for a cool (soon to be released) video that I'm scoring celebrating 10 years of work of a great SF director of photography, Tom Seawell.

Ongo
I worked on a fun, fast-paced animation for a startup called Ongo. I wrote and performed the music, then brought audio engineer Jim Lively aboard to add his magic with sound design and mixing.
Watch it here:

Are you in the Bay Area?
Shop local! Freshmade Music is your nearby, organic, grass-fed (among other things), sustainable, eco-friendly choice.

Google - YouTube
My music was featured in a Google video for YouTube, accompanying Russell from the Happy Tree Friends, as he learns about copyrights. This overly dramatic, orchestral music is my take on the classic animation style, which draws it’s inspiration from some of my favorite cartoons growing up, like Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry – created by composer Carl Stalling and others. You can watch this video here (My music comes in at 1:17.):

Happy Tree Friends
If you’re interested in watching/listening to the latest Happy Tree Friends episode, you can access it here. (If you haven’t seen the show, you should be aware that it’s not appropriate for little kids as it contains some extreme cartoon violence):

The High Line in NYC

2011-07-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

This is a great, short explanation about the High Line in New York City.
Robert Hammond: Building a park in the sky

Tom Petty to Michele Bachmann: Stop Playing My Song

2011-06-28T22:26:00.000-07:00

Tom Petty has asked presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann to stop using his song “American Girl” in her campaign. He “has reportedly issued a cease-and-desist letter to the conservative's camp” according to press reports.

Read the article here.

Dear Ms. Bachmann,

I understand you may be looking for some new music for your campaign. Here are some suggestions you may wish to consider:

Crazy – Patsy Cline
Crazy – Willie Nelson’s version (he originally wrote it)
Crazy Train – Ozzy Osbourne
Let’s Go Crazy – Prince
(Not) “Takin’ Care of Business” Bachman Turner Overdrive
U Don’t Know – Jay-Z
Don’t Know Nothing – Maroon 5
Runaway - The National
Go Away – Roy Orbison
The Longest Day – in honor of (the real) John Wayne

Sincerely,

Jerome Rossen

Customized Music Helps Ongo Hit the Right Notes

2011-02-09T14:35:00.001-08:00

Freshmade Music produced the audio for the “About Ongo” video, a fun, fast-paced animation created by veteran animator Tom Westerlin and his team of artists. I (Jerome) wrote and performed the music, then brought audio engineer Jim Lively aboard to add his magic with sound design and mixing.

Upon first listen, you’ll notice that the music isn’t particularly complicated, however I adjust the music’s role to actively support the story when necessary, or lay it in the background to set a mood.

The music track consists of three pieces – the outer space theme at the beginning, the second piece, the one that builds in tension to support the story, then the third happy “Ongo” theme. While it would be possible to provide a soundtrack for a spot like this with library music, I think that having a score unique to the action of the video serves the overall story much better. The area that is most noticeable is the 2nd piece of music (starting in a major key at around 0:04). As the “chaos” enters, the music shifts to minor at 0:12, then there’s a big transition at around 0:30. Having the ability to compose a piece just for this section allowed me to get the right amount of tension in the story at just the right time.

Another feature that you just wouldn’t get with library music – the ending is musically scored to picture. Also, the sound design contains a good portion of musical sound design, often cymbal hits or bells.

Walking Instructions

2010-08-16T16:39:00.001-07:00

Last Night at the Big Top

2010-05-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

After I finished college, I wanted to move to New York to become a rock star, so I needed a job that would help me put a little money in the bank. I ended up working on a cruise ship that did a couple of different routes in the Caribbean. Among one of the many characters that I met was a drummer named Jim. He was a nice guy, and really normal compared to most of the other cruise ship ilk. In my first couple of days aboard, he asked how everything was going, and I told him that I thought that this must be what a circus is like. He had sort of a funny look on his face and raised an eyebrow, and said, “Well, sort of.” And he proceeded to tell me about the circus that HE had played, the sort that is called a “Mud Show”. They’re called Mud Shows because they generally set up at the edge of a town in the dirt. And they don’t have the luxury of canceling due to rain. So if it’s been raining, and the dirt is wet, on with the Mud Show. Jim’s general sense was that the cruise ship thing was pretty normal – but if you want to meet some REALLY CRAZY characters, then you should work in a Mud Show. He had a theory that Mud Shows were the perfect place if you ever needed to placed in the witness protection program. You travel around a lot from town to town and you’re probably not going to run into anyone you know. In any case, the circus performers need to say goodbye to the town when the end of their run is over. That’s the Last Night At The Big Top.

What genre is your music? What music styles do you write?

2010-05-04T16:47:00.000-07:00

Yes! Well, sort of. I’m comfortable writing in any genre, with the caveat that my music is going to have my own personal “filter” on it.

My instrument is piano, and my training is in Jazz. That said, I’ve written and recorded lots of other styles, like guitar-driven surf music, disco and classical.

I create the music for a funny and very violent (did I mention funny?) cartoon called "The Happy Tree Friends" a project I've worked on since 2005. This requires me to write in numerous styles, sometimes in the course of 1 episode.

The Gear I Use To Compose Music For The Happy Tree Friends

2009-07-21T16:12:00.001-07:00

I’d like to explain a little bit more about the gear that I use – and I mean the instruments and software I actually use (though I’m always in the market for another Music Maker XT4 if you can find me one). I’m including some technical music and technical pro-audio information, in case anyone is interested.

One of my most important tools is my metronome. Since the music accompanies whatever action is on screen, the timing of the music is critical. When I compose for the Happy Tree Friends, I isolate one small section of video where the music will remain the same – it could be a 10 second portion or less, or more. I watch the video while playing a keyboard-controller-piano-thing that’s in front of my computer monitor. I either play along with the picture, or more likely hum along with what’s happening. It's probably not too pretty to watch. Once I hum a theme or decide on a feel for that section, I check what I’m humming against the metronome, and find the closest tempo in the audio software that I’m using. Very often, my music will need to adapt slightly slower or faster, and the actual metronome marking will be something like 123.45 bpm rather than 120 bpm. Thankfully, I can use the audio software to help me line up the music to picture. In the old days, I’m told that composers had to understand math and even actually cut and splice the recording tape they were using. I'll consider myself lucky that I didn't have to hone those skills!

So if you really want to geek out: for audio software, I’m currently composing in DP; and recording audio into ProTools HD. There are many other great pieces of software out there - these happen to be the ones I use right now.

Here is a partial list of some of the sounds I use. I plan to talk about orchestration and choosing instruments in a separate post. I use a bunch of current sound libraries for orchestral, jazz, world, drum and piano sounds, including Vienna Symphonic, Sonic Implants, East West, Garritan, and a handful of others.

I’m excited and generally inspired to have some great audio software and wonderful sound libraries to use with them. But those great tools are merely that – tools to help me compose. The actual composition happens with me sitting at the piano, or sometimes the “piano”. My goal is always to be so proficient with the tools that I’m working with, that the technology will “get out of the way”. It’s tempting to get lost in computer-land, sifting through sound libraries, or exploring the intricacies of software plug-ins, but when I’m composing, my focus needs to be on making actual music. Of course, that doesn’t mean that someone necessarily needs all (or any of) this technology to create great stuff. I’ve heard some wonderful music made on some pretty primitive homemade instruments.

No Moon, No Stars, Just Rain

2009-04-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

I was driving South on the 280 in the rain with my son - he was two or so. We were on our way to Target, his favorite store. He was at the age where he could find the moon in the sky, and he'd point to it and say, "Moon!" He was also just learning that the moon wasn't always in the sky - it's not always night - and even if it is night, the moon still might not be visible. So he's looking out the window, and there's rain and an overcast sky. After careful observation, he exclaimed, "No moon." I agreed with him. We decided to check to see if there were any stars. He exclaimed, "No stars." And we both verified, "Just rain." And here's what that sounds like.

Creating Music for the Happy Tree Friends

2009-04-01T22:14:00.000-07:00

I've had the great pleasure of composing music for the Happy Tree Friends for awhile now - the first episode that I worked on was in 2005. If you're keeping score at home, it was #49, "Stealing the Spotlight". Since that first episode, I've gone on to compose the music for the TV season, False Alarm!, the Ka-Pow! episodes and most of the new episodes that have been released via the internet. I thought I'd use this space to explain a little bit about how approach composing the music for the Happy Tree Friends, and perhaps answer any questions about the process.

I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Kenn Navarro and Jim Lively, who never fail to impress me with their insight and humor.

Creating the Music
When I create music for the Happy Tree Friends, I take my inspiration from the sugary-sweet design and bright cheery coloring of the characters. To me, this approach gives greater impact to the hard hitting sound design and extreme (and extremely funny!) shenanigans that the characters get into. I feel like the syrupy singable melodies allow the sound design to have greater impact and in turn, more humor. Basically, I try to create really sweet sounding music to contrast the painfully realistic sound design impressively created by Jim Lively.

I try to keep in mind that the music has to serve a bunch of purposes. Most of the time, I need to make sure I'm helping tell the story. Sometimes I want to accentuate the action and I try to add more impact to what's happening with musical jolts and stingers, for instance, when something falls out of the sky and one of the characters gets smashed to bit. I'll do this sort of thing especially toward the end of the episode when really bad stuff is happening. On the other hand, sometimes I do exactly the opposite - sometimes I want the music to be unassumingly light and happy, to set up a surprise hit - something that the character (or you, the audience) doesn't know is coming. And sometimes, the music just needs to sort of stay out of the way.

I like to play around with the "voice" of the music. I ask "does the music know what's happening next"? Sometimes, the music is omniscient and all-knowing, other times, the music is as clueless as Lumpy.

"But How Do You Actually Create the Music for the Happy Tree Friends?"
Here is the general process of creating a finished piece: Usually I have a conversation with Jim Lively about the episode, although sometimes we just talk about the title. And sometimes we talk about audio gear. I really like audio gear, and that conversation can last a pretty long time. Jim knows a lot.

At this point, I burn the animation to a VHS tape, then take it out back to my garage where I keep my Music Maker XT4 and an old RCA black & white TV. I put the video on in front of the "music making machine" and let it watch the episode a couple of times, then it usually makes some pops and whirring noises, then spits out some sheet music. (One time, I put an episode of "Three's Company" in front of the machine - you should have heard what it came up with!) By then, I'm usually pretty tired, so I take a nap, but not before I arrange for my neighbor, Mrs. Picklebottom to record the piece for me on a cassette tape. After my nap, I play the cassette recording over the phone to Jim and Kenn to see what they think. They usually say it's good, but that I should make it better. After my call, I put it in the "Orchestrator 2000", then take another nap. By then I'm usually hungry for some cereal. I usually wait until the next day to turn my music in, since I don't want the guys to think I'm working too fast.

Ok, so none of that was true, except the part about the cereal. I really like cereal. What really happens is that after I talk to Jim, I watch the episode a couple of times. By this time in the process, the episode will already have been animated to the timing of the voice-over session. Usually the visual stuff is mostly done. Sometimes there are some small timing changes.

Dancing About Architecture
While I watch the episode, I'll get a general idea of what the cartoon is about, and I put a temporary piano track together. This is a scaled-down version of the composition that hopefully captures what I'm trying to do - tell the story, stay out of the way, react to the action, etc. After I record this, I send it off to Jim and Kenn for a listen. Thankfully, these guys can "translate" the piano track into orchestra. This is where I can show what I think the music should do. Sometimes I ask Jim or Kenn some questions before I start composing, though I usually find that with this show, it's easier for me to compose something and use that as a starting point to ask questions. It's like it's easier to show them my questions with music, rather than try to explain it in English. English is good for some things (like ordering a milk shake, or calling your dog - though I imagine your dog wouldn't care if you spoke to it in another language), but it isn't very good at trying to explain what music should do. "Talking about music is like dancing about architecture." - Elvis Costello (maybe).