BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE
In the past month, Australian composer Cassie To has been nominated for an APRA AMCOS Screen Music Award. She has also been preparing for a London performance of Songs of the Reef, a work for choir, orchestra, and underwater recordings. Cassie’s career is varied, and since graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music she has travelled a path from concert music to advertising, documentaries to feature films.
In this interview, Cassie tells CutCommon about how she composed the Screen Music Award-nominated score to Finding X, a collaboration with science communicator Toby Hendy; and crafted her concert piece Songs of the Reef, a collaboration with marine biologist Steve Simpson.
Cassie, there’s a lot to congratulate you for right now — you’ve been nominated for a Screen Music Award, and soon have a piece being performed in London. I hardly know where to begin! You must be buzzing with all this activity.
Yes, feels like there a lot going on right now and it’s all happening at the same time! It’s a little overwhelming, but very exciting!
It’s funny, because this commission from Crouch End Festival Chorus [Songs of the Reef] has been bubbling away since the end of 2019, so it feels like this has been a constant for the past two years, but only now really hitting home that it’s getting performed very soon.
The nomination was a nice surprise, and it feels really good to be recognised for my music with the APRA AMCOS Screen Music Awards.
Let’s talk about the Screen Music Award nomination for Finding X. How did you get into working on short film, anyway?
For this particular film, I was approached by Toby Hendy, who had listened to my work on my website and asked if I’d be interested in scoring Finding X. This was great as she had approached me, had an idea of my music, and knew it would be a good fit for her film.
Whilst we we working on the score, she was able to direct me to specific examples of my work which she thought would work well, and we were able to establish a sound for the film quite quickly and easily.
When I first started finding work on short films, it usually consisted of me approaching directors whose work I resonated with, and saying hello or asking friends of friends who were making films — just trying to getting my hands on any project that needed a score! More and more though, it’s becoming a bit more balanced with directors and producers approaching me after listening to my work, either from films that I’ve scored, or music that I’ve released under the pseudonym No-kë.
I’m interested in how you’d describe the experience of composing for short film in comparison to your other mediums, such as advertising, television, and film. What are your considerations when composing a shorter work? How does this affect the themes you compose, or the way you respond to cues?
The experience for all three is quite different, although in my experience I’d say short films and television might have a little more in common than advertising. What I can say is that within all three, making sure the music hits the mark with storytelling and emotion is super important.
With advertising, as you only have such a small space of time to tell the story and emotion, everything has to be straight to the point — you don’t have time to be too subtle. Generally, this means simple themes and ideas are the most effective. You also have to keep in mind you’re generally selling a product, so your music has to reflect that product, its brand, and what that brand encapsulates.
I would say my approach to short films and television is quite similar, and the way themes and cues are developed doesn’t differ too much. The nice thing about short films is that the duration is shorter, so you can really sit with the score and develop themes and ideas with your director. Depending on the film, I also find you can be a little more creative and conceptual, particularly if the film is more on the art or conceptual side of things. But again, just depends on the nature of the work and what your director is looking for in the music!
Finding X is all about maths — as is music in many ways! How did you use the subject as an inspiration for your writing?
Funnily enough, with this score I didn’t delve too much into the world of maths! When writing some of the cues, I remember looking at cyclic and repeated patterns, which we thought was a nice tie-in to sine waves on the X and Y axis.
In regards to instrument choice, there were a few fun synths I added in to represent the mathematic elements of the film, as the rest of the score is quite organic and orchestral.
This award nomination comes around the same time as you have an orchestral work being performed in London. Songs of the Reef takes sound recordings from a marine biologist, and places them alongside your choral and orchestral music. What was it like to work on this music?
Working on Songs of the Reef really was an accumulation of very passionate individuals in all different fields, and I felt like my job as the composer was to bring these passions and expertise together in the music with a shared message of spreading awareness on the beauty and challenges the Great Barrier Reef faces.
Working on Songs of the Reef was also very much a learning process into the state of the health of reef, particularly how damaging human sounds are to the ecosystems, how the animals communicate to each other through sound, and an insight in to the vibrant Indigenous culture and stories that surround the Great Barrier Reef.
I had a few discussions with Steve Simpson, the marine biologist, who shared his library of reef and human sounds which harm the reef, which was a great start to the composing process.
I also reached out to Cherissma Blackman-Costelloe, a Gurang, Meeroni and Gooreng Gooreng woman, who is passionate about sharing the traditions of her family and the traditional custodians of the land. Cherissma kindly wrote two texts for the piece, the first celebrating Bhiral the Creator and the second a welcome song to the Elders of the Sea — the whales. So I had a lot of inspiration and resources to get me going on this piece!
Thankfully, I also had the support of Crouch End Festival chorus from conductor and director David Temple who was able provide great feedback throughout the composing period, particularly on composing for choir and childrens choir.
So again, lots was learnt from working on Songs of the Reef, and although it was quite creatively challenging at times, it has been an extremely rewarding experience.
It certainly sounds rewarding! When you take a step back, how do you feel about the direction of your career as someone who works across concert music and commercial music? Those are vastly different industries, yet you’re firmly embedded into both.
Depends what day you ask me! Right now, it’s easy to feel quite good, as there’s so much going on. But there are definitely times where I feel a little unsure in which direction I’m heading, where I should be spending my time, and whether I’m progressing.
A lot of the feedback I got when I started was to just specialise in one thing, but I feel like branching out has really helped grow my career, and I definitely feel like writing music for all these different mediums has fed into each other and made me a more well-rounded composer.
I treat the trajectory of my career in music for film and ads differently to my concert music, and have goals in both that follow their own timelines. I think I’d like to do a little more in the concert space, but find there are less opportunities to do so than, say, get your music on an ad or short films — so we’ll see!
Knowing what you know, how would you advise other composers who are looking to find their own path in the industry?
My first piece of advice would be to be patient!
I think it’s so easy to be swept up in the success of others, compare the quality your work to others’, and feel inadequate — I know I did, and still very often find myself doing. It took me a while to realise that it takes time to develop your skills and sound, and that it’s a constant learning path. Not everything has sound amazing! Even if you think you’re not ready, start putting your work out there, knock on lots of different doors, and have an open mind to different opportunities that might arise. You honestly never know where they might lead.
My second piece of advice: although I do a bit of everything at the moment, and write in a variety of different genres, I’d say it’s important to have a sense of your sound as a composer and what you’re good at, or stylistically what you love composing.
What I’ve found draws people to my work is usually the music I release that has had no brief, it’s just pieces I have written for myself that I’ve put out there for fun, most of these under the pseudonym No-kë. And what I find when I get approached for a job or show people my work is that these are the pieces that resonate with people more than any showreel or accolade on my resume.
In my experience, there’s nothing better than collaborating with a director or an ensemble, and knowing that trust is already there as they’re already a big believer in your sound.
Learn more about Cassie To’s music on her website, and check out all APRA AMCOS Screen Music Award nominees here.
If you’re in the UK, you can listen to Cassie To’s Songs of the Reef in Crouch End Festival Chorus — Adams to Elgar, 6.30pm October 23 in Alexandra Palace Theatre.
Images supplied.
