On April 19, MSNBC aired “The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of An American Terrorist,” narrated by Rachel Maddow, and featuring the voice and CGI re-enactments of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Written and produced by Toby Oppenheimer for NBC’s Peacock Productions from 45 hours of never-before-heard audio interviews with McVeigh, “The McVeigh Tapes” provides a gripping first-person account of the bombing on its 15th Anniversary.
Glenn Schloss and Erik Blicker of NYC’s “G&E Music” scored the two-hour special, working with Oppenheimer to soundtrack one of the darkest stories in American history, as told by the terrorist himself.
Having worked with Oppenheimer to score the HBO documentary feature “The Nine Lives of Marion Barry” last year, G&E welcomed the collaboration and the challenge. “It’s such an extremely dark story that, without music, would drag the viewer further down into that abyss,” explains Blicker. “The music is there to help carry you through the story as it unfolds, set you in an almost equalized space — certainly not uplifting but not entirely ominous either.”
Establishing the appropriate mood was a big challenge, says Oppenheimer. “We needed to set a tone that had an austerity to it without being creepy or sensational, or exploitative of the victims in any way. The music had to be low-key, but it also couldn’t all be dirge-like. It was tough — how do you create music that propels a story with energy without being upbeat or funky? And what kind of drum beat can you use if not rock or hip-hop or funk? But G&E did a great job! They came up with some variations on a kind of tribal percussion that worked really well, and found a variety of different ways to inject the score with energy.”
With no picture to score, Oppenheimer’s direction and guidance was absolutely essential throughout the process. The writer/producer setup at G&E Studios and they worked together to develop a musical palette. “We created a lot of atmospheric tones that felt organic, but also had a momentum and groove,” says Schloss, “And we found interesting voices using reverbs and delays to create this palette that would work across the project. Once we established that, we were able to write and supplement with tracks from our ‘Producer’s Tool Box.'”
Having Oppenheimer — the writer/producer and liason to the editors — right there in the studio with them, set the composers on the right track quickly so they were able to create a large volume of original music and fill in with tracks from the Producers Toolbox®. “They had some great library tracks, and that’s really important for getting the job done on time and budget,” says Oppenheimer. “But G&E went above and beyond and the project actually features more original music.
“It’s so comfortable working with Erik and Glenn, and sometimes spending hours in the studio together is way more efficient to getting that perfect mix of what I feel is going to work and what the editors want and need. And G&E really *gets it*, they get my taste and the needs of the project and they find the right direction. They did a great job.”
NYC’s G&E Music focuses on sparking positive collaborations between in-house composers, mixers and clients, which include Discovery, HBO, MTV, Nickelodeon, ABC, CBS, VH1, Fox, Saatchi & Saatchi, Grey Advertising, Nokia and Pepsi. For more information on G&E Music and its media division, Flavorlab, visit www.gemusic.com and www.flavorlab.com.
