Gil Talmi Interview

Posted on 11th December 2024

Gil Talmi is an EMMY nominated film composer, sonic activist and recording artist with a passion for socially conscious films. Blending his traditional orchestral background with tasteful modular electronics and eclectic world music sensibilities, Talmi has created a signature sound that can be heard in many award winning productions worldwide including the music for Harry & Meghan, UNKNOWN: Cosmic Time Machine and The Great Hack. We join him upon the release of his brand new original soundtrack for Wild Wild Space, an HBO documentary about the intense rivalry between the founders of contesting space rocket companies.

Congrats on the release of the Wild Wild Space OST – can you tell us a little more about how the project came about and how you approached this score?

Thank you! I was introduced to the film’s director, Ross Kaufman, by our mutual friend Pedro Kos who has become a wonderful friend and collaborator since our work together on The Great Hack. From the getgo Ross and I connected around our fascination with the crazy state of satellites orbiting our planet. On our first meeting I even shared a satellite tracking app I’ve been using for years. Yes… I think a lot of us modular synthesists secretly wish we were orbiting Jupiter in our imaginary spaceships.

In thinking about all of these satellites orbiting earth, Ballet came to mind: this beautiful yet dangerous dance that these 11,000 + objects are engaging in at any given moment. I also had this idea of music from the Cold War: mild spy-like intrigue as the various companies compete for orbital dominance. So the music has components of a sardonic and at times comical ballet infused with the push and pull of competitive intrigue while blending modular synths, orchestral colors and heavy sonic manipulation. It’s a Wild Wild Ride…

How would you summarise the musical and sonic elements that contribute towards your signature sound? How do you balance this with the innovation needed to keep each of your projects fresh and unique?

I don’t know if I could describe my signature sound as a whole because stylistically most of my scores are quite different. I think the common thread lies in the tremendous (at times obsessive) attention to detail. I view every plugin and VST as a musician of the highest caliber. Nobody in this electronic orchestra gets to phone it in. EQs, reverb tails, volume automation, crossfades… I want all of them to perform like Yo-Yo Ma. So I think in listening to my music, one can find a great love for nuance and detail: from the sensitivities and sensibilities towards the subject matter to all the care put into production.

Unless it’s a fully orchestral score, I start each project with a completely fresh slate: no templates. My wish is for my next score to sound unlike my last one. I believe this approach in and of itself creates an inherent freshness and uniqueness. It’s not that I set out in my process to ‘be unique’; it’s that I work hard to avoid the temptation and pitfalls of repetition. I think this creates a space for uniqueness to enter naturally. So I start each project with 2 weeks of just playing in the sandbox, experimenting not just with melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements but also with the sonic world that the project is wanting to live in. This includes a lot of time spent with my modular system, live instruments and outboard gear as well as inside the box, creating numerous presets on VSTs and plugins. 

I like to come on board early in the scoring process and create multiple thematic suites for the film while the film is being edited. Some composers prefer mixing the score at the tail end of the process. In most cases, I prefer to produce and mix as I go so that by the time I’m finished writing a thematic suite, it is fully produced and ready to go, including live instruments. This way, as scenes are scored to picture later on in the process, each cue is also already fully produced and mixed. 

I don’t view individual tracks (or stems) as just being part of a larger whole. Oftentimes editors will fall in love with just a handful or even a single stem as they edit picture to music. So for me, each stem needs to be as self contained and functional on its own as possible.

During the first week or two of creating thematic suites, I usually work with my back to the computer. I give myself permission to take a vacation from being a ‘composer’. During this period I’m a musician, improvising, flowing freely with expression without editing myself. No commitment, no pressure. I find this process very liberating. 

Of course everything gets recorded and saved and after that first week I turn around and face the computer. Now I’m back to being a composer, taking all the material and fitting it into thematic structures that will best serve the film. This phase is all about commitment to ideas and seeing them through in much needed detail. 

So I believe my signature sound is a result of my creative process. It’s an attention to detail and nuance that is beyond genre or style. More on that later.

It’s clear from your portfolio that you have focussed on socially conscious projects to date, we’d love to hear more about how this has developed over the years? Have you turned down projects on principal in the past?

I have always felt a great pull towards social consciousness. I was an activist starting as a teenager and over the years this activism has morphed into what I have come to call sonic activism: contributing to social change through the use of music. 

I think documentary films can be incredibly powerful vehicles for effective storytelling and positive change. And, we have all seen and heard a score make or break a film. Independent filmmakers oftentimes don’t have the means to get the music their film needs and deserves. So over the years I have been hyper focused on helping tell stories that I see as meaningful and important, oftentimes pro-bono. My company, Konsonant Music, which I co-founded with Andrew Gross, spends a good amount of resources dedicated to helping socially conscious causes. We do this through original music, music supervision, licensing, post sound as well as extensive film music seminars teaching filmmakers (and composers) everything they need to know about music for film (that no one bothered teaching them).

Over the years I have turned down several projects that just didn’t resonate with me, including some big blockbusters. I have a couple of regrets around that but for the most part it’s a trajectory I have chosen for myself that feels deeply meaningful and necessary in our world. It’s my calling. It also allows me to collaborate with some truly inspiring humans who care more about creating positive change than about red carpet success.

We know you’re a big fan of our Devious Machines plug-ins (thanks!) – do you have any recent specific examples you can share, or any secrets / tips for fellow producers using our products? Any other recent bits of gear we should know about?

Yessss! I’m a very big fan indeed and use your instruments all the time. I say instruments because your plugins really are that: Stradivari of the digital realm. 

I love modular synthesis and the freedom of creativity that it allows and invites. In scoring films, a large part of the process is an ongoing need for efficiency in revising. This is one thing the modular platform does not excel at: once you’re done with a patch it is gone for good. This is where Infiltrator comes to the rescue. It’s the closest thing I’ve found to the modular sound processing eco system but with the ability to save, automate and tweak as much or little as needed. The variety and sonic quality of the filters, effects etc. is truly mind blowing. I often find that processing like this can result in something cold and inaccessible but with Infiltrator that doesn’t seem to be the case. The sequencing is just brilliant and the various modulation routings cover everything I need. And last but not least, your GUI (on all your creations) is perfect. It’s so easy, clear and flat out gorgeous. When I’m spending long days in the studio it’s important for me that my tools are accessible and effective. A confusing GUI often means I end up not using the plugin because I just don’t have time for digital armwrestling.

I recently scored a film in which Pitch Monster was one of the main tools I used. The creative north star for the film was that at no point could the score sound like an actual score: it had to be music without music. So the score crossed over heavily into sound design: all of the music came from the diegetic sound in the film. The automation tracks in the session are pretty crazy, using Pitch Monster extensively to ‘play’ room tones, boiler hums, neon buzzes and even distant trains. PM was able to pull this off without creating dreaded digital artifacts. The pitch tracking is as smooth as it gets and the different modes open up a world of inspiring possibilities. I was able to keep things realistic and clean when needed but also get really out there and messed up in some critical moments in the film. 

Most recently I’ve been having fun using Texture as a complex ambient drone generator. It’s one of those plugins that seems pretty straightforward at first but the more you play around with it, the more it becomes apparent what an incredibly complex and inspiring tool it really is. By layering multiple instances of Texture on top of each other using a single live string sample I was easily able to create these undulating textured drones that are infinitely shifting harmonically, melodically and spatially. It sounds and feels organic and alive. In listening to it, one could easily miss that it was created using a plugin starting with a single long violin note.

I love how the  Devious Machines architecture immediately invites deeper exploration: complex yet easy. And, if I’m in a time crunch, which is often the case with deadlines, the excellent presets provide great starting points while working under pressure. 

I’ve been using Gforce’s OB-1 pretty extensively on a Netflix show that I’m finishing up. It sounds so good: big and rich and multidimensional. Combined with Wave Alchemy’s Tapewave I think it’s as analog as digital can get!

Competition for aspiring film and TV composers is as fierce as ever, what advice would you give to musicians looking to stick out in a crowded marketplace, and ultimately “get the gigs”?

Here’s the short answer:

Networking events and festivals are important. Meeting people is important and meeting the right people even moreso (don’t get lost in this notion that just going to a lot of networking events will get you a gig). Get to know editors! So many composers focus on finding directors which is good but editors are the ones that can temp in your music as they edit. You want filmmakers to develop temp love with your music! Editors are also much more mobile, working on projects back to back throughout the year versus a lot of directors who sometimes wait for years in between projects.

And here’s the long answer:

In this day and age of TikTok fame and instant gratification it seems as if the goal has replaced the process in much of our culture. But to me, the process is the goal. The process is what makes us human. 

I have a lot of aspiring composers reaching out to me wanting a job at my company. What I’m discovering is that a good amount of people really want the job but not necessarily the actual work. Big statement, I know. But I think it’s really important for aspiring film composers to understand that the very essence of scoring for film is a very detailed affair. There’s just no way around it. There’s detail in communication with filmmakers about their extensive visions for their projects. There’s detail in thematic planning and proper execution. There’s detail in writing the music to picture, producing the music, tracking live musicians, mixing and delivering the final mixes as well as cue sheets and other deliverables.. There’s tremendous detail in revising cues correctly and efficiently. There’s detail in collaborating with others; filmmakers as well as internally with one’s team. And there’s a mind numbing amount of detail in tracking all of these details and staying on top of organization with everyone involved. Hey… that’s the gig!

I sometimes get the feeling that quite a few aspiring composers would prefer to skip the details and just get to the big gigs. But one of the most important things I’ve learned during my career so far is that for the most part, the big gigs don’t just fall in your lap. They are earned through paying one’s dues… detailed dues. For me that’s not a chore: it’s the art of honing one’s craft. To me it’s a right and a privilege, a practice and a gift. 

One has to understand that the craft of being a successful film composer is not just about writing wonderful music. Wonderful music is the most basic requirement to get you in the door. But once you’ve entered through that coveted door, what actually keeps you in the room? Again, attention to detail: whether it’s interpersonal communication skills, staying on top of schedules and deliverables or making sure that gorgeous Cello line is not poking through the mix under dialog. Production companies won’t entrust bigger budget projects to someone unless they have a track record of being able to pull it off: not just the music but the infrastructure and logistics. Our clients don’t just hire us because we write great music, they also hire us because they know that we’ll take care of them and get the job done right: it’s one less thing for them to worry about, from start to finish. 

So in my experience, what gets you the gig is knowing your niche and purpose and focusing wholeheartedly on your craft. It’s about the daily commitment to polish this diamond in the rough, to develop our own musical language that stands out from the rest in some way or another. It’s the daily sacred ritual of engaging in the process of creation: this is our authentic voice in this world. And, to connect with filmmakers on a deep human level about their projects and subject matters: a true connection from a place of empathy, active listening and authentic care that creates lifelong creative collaborations and friendships.

I still believe that quality attracts quality and success. This great love and appreciation for one’s skill set, expression and detail is inspiring and infectious and tends to attract the gigs that are truly right for us.

Follow Gil Talmi on the links below:

• Link
• Instagram
• Spotify