Sep 01 MCB Interviews Christopher Tin

Baba Yetu was originally composed as the theme song to Civilization IV and has received high marks throughout the gaming community.

"I knew it would be my first video game piece and I wanted to make a big impression," says Tin.  "So I really gave myself a lot of time.  It took me an entire week just to write the first four bars of the main theme.  That's a snail's pace in the film/TV/media world, but I strongly believe in honing my ideas to perfection." 

Aside from the beautiful arrangements, one thing that sticks out from the album Calling All Dawns is a consistent pulse. So much modern classical/world music for media uses rubato to strike emotion, but Tin keeps listeners involved rhythmically. 

"On a purely theoretical and conceptual level, a pulse is one of the most basic and primal things that we all experience in the world around us, starting from our own heartbeats," says Tin.  

I had a sneaking suspicion that the percussion parts on Calling All Dawns had more life than standard written parts, so I asked Tin what his process was - and how much improvisation he allowed.

"I start by sequencing out the approximate rhythms and grooves that I'm looking for, and then my excellent arsenal of percussionists--Greg Ellis, and the On Ensemble--come in and record those parts, but are given a lot of liberty to embellish and explore," explains Tin. "Usually with the lower instruments (taiko, surdo, frame drum, nagara) they'll stick pretty closely to what I've notated for them.  With the hand drums, shakers, and other miscellaneous percussion, however, they explore quite a bit.  Then I take it all back and do heavy editing in Pro Tools, sometimes rearranging passages and flourishes to create little moments.  Often for each type of drum, we'll record two tracks--for example, two tracks of ashiko on Baba Yetu--that we'll pan hard left and hard right.  Then in the editing process, I'll sometimes cut together little call-and-response dialogues between the left and right ashikos."

There are a wide range of sounds Tin looks forward to conquering.  "Electronica is one genre that I'm exploring at the moment," he explains.  "I formed a production duo with a producer friend of mine, called Stereo Alchemy.  Our first release, which we're still working on, is a collection of trip hop songs based around Renaissance and Romantic Era poetry--authors like Christina Rosetti, Thomas Carew, John Donne, and more.  As you probably know from Calling All Dawns, I like to work with existing texts."