Gelso: Everyone Deserves a Theme Song

Fernando Gelso on guitar for Canadian artist Jonathan Emile’s “Keep on Fighting”

The author is Technical Director at TNKR Podcasting, a longtime radio and music producer, and multi-instrumentalist who has performed at landmark events including the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

Do you ever feel like you have a soundtrack to your life?

Mine would feature the energy of rock n’ roll, with a mixture of classical strings, and synthesized saw waves for that ‘grab you’ hook.

Maybe you are the type to think of music while you are doing other things — a song you love pops into your head and it takes you away, to a different frame of mind. It’s that feeling that can set your mood for whatever task lies ahead.

We are big believers in audio branding, and there is nothing like an original score to set the right mood for an important media project; a well-produced podcast or mini-documentary can take you away to a place of deep reflection.

Choosing the right instruments

Maybe there’s something you’d like to say with music but never had the means; perhaps you don’t know much about music genres, don’t know how to play instruments, or simply never thought of your own soundtrack.

We’re proud to offer a service where you can confide in me to help you craft your theme song or set of audio branding elements (jingles or interludes for broadcasts).

Choosing instruments to match the branding goals isn’t a simple exercise. We’ll make it easy on those with little musical knowledge by guiding you through a series of goals and feelings; a rhythm, an intention that can be a powerful tool to convey important messages.

Music can not only transport you to another mindset but help define a moment, when executed successfully. A rif (short melody) is supposed to be catchy so that it can achieve an associated thought or feeling, creating the memory. A good memory that will enable listeners to retain information. It’s a holistic approach to sound design that makes listening experiences pleasurable and more likely to inform.

We’re currently working on a powerful ‘mission’ podcast project, a mini-documentary featuring a former diplomat reflecting on his time in conflict zones around the world. The music we’re choosing for this very serious and at times evokes feelings of violence, suspense, introspection. Instruments we chose to help convey this mood include strings, synthesizers, drums.

Any combination of sounds can lead to the perfect outcome. It could be a western-style guitar with a heavy EDM beat, reverse bagpipes sample, with the sound of air and rain in the far background — when I write this out, it sounds crazy but with the right creator-broadcaster team, it will turn out just right.

I play various instruments and my favourites for emotional moments are strings, synthesized soundscapes. For feelings of joy, I tend to pivot to piano, acoustic guitar, and news alerts often make me reach once again for my synth, piano, and remixing various samples from online audio services (think ‘breaking news’ alert sounds).

Instrument and technology selection is only the tip of the iceberg, and even the right choices initially can lead you down the wrong path. Matching a feeling to an instrument also depends on how the instrument is played. Composition is funny like that, which is why I often start from feelings and not the hardware, combinations of which are infinite. Conceptualization will vary from person to person, but that is what makes the process fun and an interesting experience for me personally, to get to know fascinating Canadians and building their broadcasting foundation.

Spend time with your subjects

Getting to know the subject or leaders of the organization is essential to building an effective audio brand. It must match the leader’s personality and the organization’s collective values — sometimes these distinctions can be complicated.

In order to attain the desired sound, we must probe the client concerning what they know of their musical tastes, their communications vision, musical instruments they connect with, instruments they may play, favourite songs, etc. The rest is a creative exercise that I do on my own over several weeks, and we’ll then present a rough draft; the work doesn’t end there. Next, we’ll be sure we agree on a musical direction before delving into typically two to four rounds of edits before we finalize our theme and complimentary elements. The more we can connect and understand each other in the first few meetings, the better the result.

Experimentation is key!  It’s like making a collage of your favourite genres in an original, proprietary way to take the content and message to the next level.