We always hear about composers and their original recordings in the press. But there is actually just about as large a market for re-recordings and re-imaginings of soundtracks as there are original releases. And sometimes, all that is ever available, due to legal red tape or some other conflict, is these re-recordings.
BuySoundtrax (or BSX) Records is on the forefront of the re-recorded soundtrack market. While the label has made a name for itself as a retail entity, specializing in rare and limited edition pressings of Hollywood film scores, the company is also a wellspring of unique re-recordings that are often available only at its own website.
We managed to secure some time with composer/arranger Dominik Hauser, who spends a great deal of his time working to preserve bygone (and modern) movie and television music, while retaining his own sense of creativity and musicianship. Read on, as we discover the inner workings of this unheralded industry.
Tell me about your relationship with BSX Records. It seems like they keep you pretty busy throughout the year.
Yes, yes they do. I pretty much work with them fulltime, unless I have a prior “big” project. I was introduced to them through a friend of mine, Gregg Nestor, and back then, they made most of their money through selling soundtracks. But they were also thinking about releasing their own recordings, and after they saw what I can do with my MIDI studio, mixing with live instruments, we began the relationship.
And the longer we did it, the more live instrumentation was used, and it is now about 2/3 live and 1/3 MIDI – which is usually reserved for percussion and other things that aren’t that obvious. And everything thing is done from my home studio – I have a special recording booth where I record all the live instruments – it’s much more affordable that way.
It seems like they are leaning on you pretty heavily to compete with the Silva Screen empire of re-recorded compilations. I mean, you’ve got the SCIENCE FICTION’S FINEST, HALLOWEEN HORROR HITS from last year, the I WANNA DO BAD THINGS WITH YOU (TRUE BLOOD) EP, THE BOUNTY album, the upcoming SCROOGE album, and the countless MP3 downloads they make available from the website.
Yes they do, but part of that is, like I said, that I do work for them basically fulltime. They have a bunch of people they work with, now that they have been growing. But in the beginning, it was more of a commission-based relationship, and I didn’t have a whole lot of work at that time, so I was able to do more for them than other people. But the company did grow pretty fast, which was really exciting.
I think it is also a great opportunity to spread your name into other areas, like participating in the TRUE BLOOD EP and the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN EP, rather than relying on your own original material.
Oh, definitely. I enjoy any opportunity to take on another composer’s work. And it’s fun from a musician’s standpoint, because you learn so much – I’ve participated in over 300 tracks since I began working for BSX – and it’s really interesting to see how composers did certain things in different time periods, especially from the 1970s to today.
I think it’s a great opportunity for me to be involved in so many things, because as a composer, if you were to do a TV show or a movie, you would basically be doing the same style over and over again, as the project requires. I’ve done everything from the TWILIGHT films to the theme song for ALF – it’s so fun to do such diverse tunes; it keeps things interesting for me.
At what point during the arranging and recording process do you remain faithful to the original arrangement, and when does the artist in you take over? I noticed that on several recordings, especially on SCIENCE FICTION’S FINEST, you take some generous rhythmic, instrumental, and tempo liberties.
That is something I usually talk about with Ford [Thaxton, producer] and Mark [Banning, executive producer] on the front end. I always ask if they want a re-creation or an arrangement, because they usually have an idea of what they want me to do with it anyway. Sometimes, if it is something extremely well-known and has been recorded many times, I will usually do my own take on it. If it is something that is not widely available, I am more likely to do a reproduction of it.
Also, lately, we’ve been doing a lot of songs, and with them, I am much more prone to doing my own thing. It’s sometimes hard, because there are fans that won’t like it unless it is 100% the same, which is pretty much impossible to achieve anyway, because of the equipment used at the time, the studio, and group of people you are working with.
Whenever we can, though, we try to do approximated arrangements. For example, on SCIENCE FICTION’S FINEST, the “Star Trek: The Animated Series” theme has never really been available for sale, so we tried to do that one as close to the original as possible; so fans can actually have something to listen to from it. I was really excited to do that one.
And I was always a fan of Goldsmith’s “The Illustrated Man,” so I was glad to have an opportunity to play with that one. Another I really enjoyed was “TRON – End Title,” because it was so different from everything else that’s out there. It took a long time to transcribe from ear, because it is so against the norm.
I was going to mention TRON, in particular, because it seemed like you worked pretty hard to give it an authentic vibe, because it is a sound you really don’t hear in other scores.
Yeah, Wendy Carlos really did her own thing with that. At the time I did it, I thought it was really strange, because Wendy’s version used older synthesizers that were imitating an orchestra, with these weird brass sounds. And since I really couldn’t recreate it exactly, outside of the period sound, I actually used live instruments and manipulated it from that angle.
Do you find it easier to put your own style into the arrangements when the original is a simple theme, as opposed to a Hans Zimmer PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN suite that is wall-to-wall, dense sound?
Oh, definitely. I find that it is easier to work with something that has a very simple melody. Then it is fun to play with ideas like a counterpoint or a different bass-line. It is hard to change stuff that is very textural writing, especially with more recent scores, like “BATTLE: LOS ANGELES.” It is very hard to move away from that style but keep it close enough to where people will still recognize it. It seems like as time goes on, the melodies drift away more and more.
Well, the recordings I enjoyed the most of yours from this year were your original tracks from the MUSIC FROM AND INSPIRED BY THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN SAGA, because they took me back to the original Disneyland ride, as opposed to anything from the films.
Oh, cool. Yeah, I actually wrote those based on inspiration from the original ride, before Hans Zimmer’s crew came along. Personally, I like that original theming better. It’s more fun, has melody, and is very playful. The movie music is great, but it is much more action-centric and single-minded.
So what can we expect next from you?
We’ve got a compilation of music from SCROOGE, the 1970 film, for Christmas, with Robert Picardo singing as Scrooge! That is another one where I am not trying to do an exact replica of the original; I’m doing my own interpretation of the score. That was a really fun project to work on.
There is also going to be a Wild West compilation coming out, and I think we are going to do some things with James Bond in the coming year. We’re always working and trying new things!
Keep up with Dominik Hauser at his official website.
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