Dead Whisper Composer Nikhil Koparkar

This week the boys sit down and chat with composer Nikhil Koparkar whose ethereal soundscapes can be experienced in the new film Dead Whisper (In Select Theaters now, VOD July 9). Nikhil joins the boys to discuss his process, inspirations, incorporating unusual instruments into his scores, and the challenges presented with indie horror.

The boys also review A Quiet Place: Day one, The Exorcism, Tarot, Jay reviews MaXXXine while Correia and Jacob go on a MaXXXine inspired bus tour of Hollywood, and Jacob finally experiences Madam Web with a live riffing screening. Its all new on EYE ON HORROR!

Follow us on the socials: @EyeOnHorror or check out https://linktr.ee/EyeOnHorror
Get more horror movie news at: https://ihorror.com

Transcript

Copy

James Jay Edwards: 0:24

Welcome to eye on horror, the official podcast of ihorror com. This is episode 129 otherwise known as season seven. Episode 10. I am your host, James Jay Edwards, and with me, as always, is your other host. Jacob Davison, how you doing? Jacob

Jacob Davidson: 0:39

Davison, okay, and happy to celebrate the most patriotic day of the year, Return to the Living Dead day,

July 3. 5: 0:45

30pm

James Jay Edwards: 0:47

Ah, yeah, there we go. We Yes, it is July 3. So yeah, we're recording on return to living dead day. Also with us is your other other host, Jon Correia, how you doing? Correia,

Unknown: 0:57

good, great. And I need to remind everyone that this is not a costume, sorry, our Return of Living now. I have to watch Return of Living Dead today.

Jacob Davidson: 1:08

It's your patriotic duty, John,

Unknown: 1:10

I know, but it's also a Wednesday. I got work to do. I got to do Star Trek Prodigy. Season two came out. I mean, I got, you know, it came out two days ago. I got like, two episodes left, but I had stuff to do.

Jacob Davidson: 1:21

Well, I've got a question for you. Okay, cool. Do you want a party part of the day? Yeah, because it's party time, yeah,

James Jay Edwards: 1:30

I can probably hang out for a few but yeah, I gotta. I got an early morning tomorrow? Yeah? So what's been going on? I think the big release we've all seen

is A Quiet Place: 1:40

Day One. Yes, what'd you guys think

Jacob Davidson: 1:44

it was amazing. It is by and far the best in this franchise,

James Jay Edwards: 1:48

really. I think it is the worst, although it's still good. I I did enjoy it, but I don't think it's as good as the other two. It has the open world of the second one with the limited characters of the first and I did like all that. But I think I like a quiet place better when they're like in the country and not in New York City.

Jacob Davidson: 2:08

Different strokes for different folks. I

Unknown: 2:10

guess I am the tie breaker here. No,

James Jay Edwards: 2:14

I was gonna say break the tie Correia. I

Unknown: 2:16

mean, come on, you guys know I don't like ranking and all that stuff. Yeah, it's not that

James Jay Edwards: 2:19

I didn't like it. It's just I don't think it's the best. And of course, to me, the first Quiet Place is a masterpiece. It is. I mean, yeah, so anyway, that's like

Jonathan Correia: 2:30

your favorite movie, next to Blair Witch 2.

Jacob Davidson: 2:32

So I could see that shadows. No, I

Jonathan Correia: 2:35

love Day One. I with the Quiet Place series. I don't have like, a ranking with them, you know, I think they're all good in the in their own ways, like they're different

Jacob Davidson: 2:44

God bless Frodo. I was insane. enough from each other that, like, it's kind of like doing different things with the with the concept, which I do love. And I gotta say, like, Day One was one of those ones where it had, it had a I went and going, I just want, like, the the premise, the concept, spread across set pieces and just letting it be an alien invasion film with set within these parameters of the franchise. And that's exactly what it was. It was going it was set piece to set piece, action bit from action bit. And it was done really well. You know, they gave you enough about these characters to to really care and worry about them without losing sight of, like, all right, cool. We got to get back into doing some Quiet Place shit in the city. There's the tension in some of those bits. Like I had it had me going with one of those, like, when your whole body tenses up and you're just like, stop, stop doing that thing. No, it's, and it's in the trailer, it's, it's the everyone's walking bit that was just like, that was a butt clenching of just like, get the fuck out of there. Nothing good is gonna come out of this. But that's half the movie. I also can relate to to the character of Eric, because I am also just a very depressed white guy who instantly vibed with a random cat, and that cat and I are now best friends.

James Jay Edwards: 4:06

That cat is it's the leader in the best animal Performance of the Year right now, because that cat, I mean, they say you can't train cats, but Oh, see A Quiet Place: Day One, because that cat steals the show, and that cat understood the assignment too. I mean, the character did, because most cats Wow, and then or and they'd be dead. But that cat was like, Oh, I'm shutting the hell up.

Unknown: 4:33

Are you kidding me, dude, if my neighbor's cat, who I hang out with all the time, Black Phillip was in that scenario with me, we'd be dead instantly. That fucker is constantly chirping, and he is just a he's not just He doesn't just meow. That That dude howls. I have heard that cat howl at my neighbor, Margo to let him in so he could steal her cat's food like he is. He's black. Phillip. He's a little. Devil, yeah,

Jacob Davidson: 5:00

no, he it's if, oddly, the performance by the cat actually reminded me of the Husky from The Thing, you know, very quiet and very coordinated and moving from scene to scene, and also getting into shenanigans, like when it sneaks into the construction site where the aliens are hanging out, you know, just as a goof, and especially I love Lupita Nyong'o performance as frodo's owner, and just kind of her whole arc in relation to that, yeah, no, just it was a great kind of dynamic having this character be, you know, just kind of having her pet as a companion for a big chunk of the film.

Unknown: 5:45

And, I mean, we don't get big budget alien invasion movies as often as we do, and so I really appreciated this, uh, concept of it, of like, okay, cool. It's in this world where everyone's quiet. How do you be quiet in New York? Yeah,

Jacob Davidson: 6:00

yeah. Like, I love that opening crawl where it said that the average volume decibel is 90, yeah, in New York City is 90. And it's the equivalent of somebody screaming, which, yeah, like, they and they do that, so build up with all the noise and jackhammer and stuff. And, yeah, it was very War the Worlds. It reminded me when the aliens do finally show up, and just, you know, the chaos, and particularly Steven Spielberg's version, where it's, you know, just sort of a post 911 disaster feeling. And just like the chaos and everybody's, you know, just running around, nobody knows what's going on. And, yeah, no, it's even though we've seen the aliens before. The build up in this one was so good. And also this blow my mind that the movie was directed by Michael sarnofsky, the guy who directed Nicolas Cage's Pig, you really struck the emotional core again.

James Jay Edwards: 6:51

The first half of the movie kind of feels like a war movie, like you said, you know, not just War of the Worlds. It almost feels like like a Saving Private Ryan kind of a thing, you know, because there is a lot of chaos, and you're put into the mind of bait, of Lupita Nyong'o's character for most of it, you know, remember, this is day one, so they're still trying to figure out what the hell is going on. And they show you, I mean, they kind of not really, you don't really have to have, you know, seen the other two, to understand it. But I think that they understand that you probably have, because they show you the the aliens right off the bat. You know, there's no hide in the alien till the end, like a lot of monster movies, do. I mean, you're seeing these dudes right away. So, you know they're they, they understand that. You know what they look like already.

Jacob Davidson: 7:38

Well, they do a bit of a clever thing where, like when the attack first happens, and like the meteors hit with all the dust clouds and stuff. So you can only kind of see the silhouette at first, but I mean, they do show them pretty much in full after that. I really

Unknown: 7:50

appreciate how good of a balancing job that movie did, because it's a balancing job of doing a big budget alien invasion set piece, while also, you know, doing these in depth character developments, while everyone's still quiet, showing the aliens early, because you have to, it's them invading. It's the chaos of it. But they also don't over show the the monster too much. I was that was one of my big worries, was it was going to be a showing a bit too much of it, but it works the amount of screen time everyone gets. I think it was a very well, very well balanced out film that, you know, it could have been little too much action, a little or too much horror. If anything, I think this is the Aliens of the quiet place franchise, where it's like, okay, cool. Previous versions were more into horror. This one's more on the action, but still keeps that horror element in there. But my question to you guys, without spoiling anything, what would be your song?

James Jay Edwards: 8:53

Mine would be, Won't Get Fooled Again by the WHO I you know, without spoiling anything, it has that, yeah, scream that that, that is the moment I think you're looking for Correia.

Unknown: 9:05

wait, is that is the yeah at the beginning of the song? Or is that mid? Because that's important too. It's

James Jay Edwards: 9:10

toward, it's kind of toward the end, yeah. It's like, like, two thirds of the way through, yeah.

Jacob Davidson: 9:14

It kind of gets a bit to get there, not, you know, see how that times out. Jacob, big cliche, but I'm always a big Blue Osyter Cult fan, so don't fear the Reaper.

Unknown: 9:26

I knew it. I was because when I was thinking I'm like, I'm gonna ask this question during the podcast, I was like, Jacob's gonna say Blue Oyster Cult. I love it.

Jacob Davidson: 9:34

How could I not? Yeah,

James Jay Edwards: 9:36

so, but I thought, I thought he'd say Godzilla though. Oh,

Jacob Davidson: 9:39

I mean, that's also good either way,

Unknown: 9:41

yeah? Just like have it come in on history shows again and again, how nature points out the folly of man. Yeah, I would have, didn't I? For me, I would have done the Bear McCreary version if I was gonna go with that song. But because that same way you will about King of the Monsters. That's that cover slaps it does singing, Oh, get out of here. Yeah, for me, it was a hard question for me, because I've been listening to a shit ton of Kylie Minogue lately, just like, like, an insane amount of Kylie Minogue. So, like, there's so many bangers in there with needle drops and everything. But I just, for the bit, I'm gonna have to go with 1989 Belgium techno hit, uh, Pump up the jam. Yes. I mean, it's great. It's a great song, and they played it five times in a row at Stanley Kubrick's funeral. And so I feel like I have to give that homage to the favorite of Philomena kunk, yeah. No, that was definitely the bit

James Jay Edwards: 10:40

the other thing that I saw that is really exciting. I saw MaXXXine. I

Jacob Davidson: 10:48

swear to God, if you spoil no spoilers, don't even talk about any specific details. I'm going into this shit as blind as possible.

James Jay Edwards: 10:55

Let me just say it is the perfect ending to this trilogy. Okay, it wraps everything up nicely, and it, and it's weird, because just as you would expect it, it takes place in 1985 and it is like a an 80s, you know, crime drama kind of a thing, and it plays out kind of the undercurring theme is the Satanic Panic and and the Night Stalker, those are the two things that are kind of like always simmering underneath, like there's always these picketers, you know, these Christian picketers everywhere, and they talk about, you know, movie violence, you know, video nasties, and they have news footage of Dee Snider talking to Congress. And then the the Night Stalker case kind of follows along the events of the movie as well. So it's, it's, it's pretty, pretty good at the way they do that. But there I will tell you, this isn't really a spoiler, but there's one scene that will have every single male watching it, cringing, and every single female standing up and applauding. And I'll just leave it at that, all right, because you know, Maxine doesn't take any shit. She's not your typical final girl and but this cast, I mean, you probably know, but like, everywhere you look, everywhere you look, Kevin Bacon, Giancarlo, espy Esposito is in it. Halsey is in it for like a blink, someone as big as houses. Sophie Thatcher is in it for like, a scene. She's a special effects artist, um, Elizabeth debecki is in it. I mean, this whole cast is just, you're like, everywhere you look, there's a familiar face. So it, it's, it's on a big scale. But, yeah, it is, it's, it's awesome. Yeah, no, I'm

Jacob Davidson: 12:40

gonna see it as soon as I can at the VISTA so I can see it on film. Yeah,

Unknown: 12:44

I have my ticket for The Alamo Drafthouse because AAA24 was doing a thing where free ticket for opening weekend for Maxine. So I used the money that I would have spent on a ticket at Alamo to get the sticker pack like fake VHS tape they did for Puritan two that would be fun, but Jacob and I didn't see MaXXXine yet, but we did get to go on a MaXXXine themed Starline tour of Hollywood last weekend, which was great. It's always great to get out of the house and hang out with Jacob Davison. And we're officially locals. Now we're transplants, but we're locals. And I don't know, but Jacob, you've never done one of those super touristy Starline tours, right? No, for those who don't know, the Star Line tours are the, it's like, it's like, a Los Angeles staple, where it's like a van, but with, like, the sides and usually the roof off, and they drive around, typically, it's like, and there's George Clooneys house, and over here is where someone so The Black Dahlia got murdered. Like they have different themes. And there's like 20 knockoffs of these things. And it's like, one of the most touristy things you can do in Hollywood. Hence why I never did it, because I hate that shit. If I could avoid Hollywood Boulevard, I will. So it was fun going on this and, like, experiencing it, but it was all tied to MaXXXine. So we went to, like, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. They showed clips, and it was like 10 second clips. It was, it was honestly the perfect time amount of clips where it's like, Hey, this is where they shot this scene. And then they would show like, five seconds of it, and then it would be like, okay, cool. That's awesome. Saw Hollywood sign at that point. They had a bunch of MaXXXine billboards up, so we went and saw them. But it was really cool because we also went early on a Sunday morning, so it was all just like, spooky locals on the van. There was, like, no tourists, so everyone was, yeah,

Jacob Davidson: 14:41

people are your shirts, that type of thing, yeah? So

Jonathan Correia: 14:44

it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun. Yeah, no, I dug

Jacob Davidson: 14:47

it. And even though it was touristy, you know, I don't usually get to be driven around Hollywood, so it was kind of nice to, you know, have that for a change. And, you know, it was a fun kind of cross promotion. And just seeing all the Hollywood sites, while also, you know, showing what and where they filmed it, like they even did a scene at the Hollywood Cemetery. So we passed by the Hollywood Cemetery, and we're in the hills. They chose a clip of them in the hills, so just kind of fun to see them. Also the rare Hollywood movie shot on location in Hollywood. Yeah,

Unknown: 15:22

it was really hard, because there's no there was no windows, there was no siding, and so it was really hard to not like, Hawk a loogie at the teslas. We were driving by, though I had the window seat and I was just like, every time, because you're, you're just slightly above those fucking cyber trucks. I was like, I could Hawk a nice big glue. But

Jacob Davidson: 15:42

behaved, yeah, the rowdy MaXXXine tour, that's, I, you know, I

Unknown: 15:47

that's for the later night, uh, one when everyone's had a few drinks. Oh,

Jacob Davidson: 15:51

and that's the other thing I'm so pissed because I found out the next day, the people who went on the Maxine tour on that Monday got to meet Kevin Bacon, and they got tickets to the premiere that night.

Unknown: 16:02

The people that went on Monday, well, yeah, we had work, but still, yeah, would have loved to meet Kevin Bacon and just ask him all the questions about Wild Things.

Jacob Davidson: 16:13

Sure, we all would. I'd ask him about Tremors. Another

James Jay Edwards: 16:16

thing I saw that is, is a little more of a downer, The Exorcism that new Russell Crowe movie. This is, this is rough. What I

Unknown: 16:27

mean are exorcisms known as, like, real, feel good movies like, well,

Jacob Davidson: 16:33

it's not in the sense of quality or the story itself, quality,

James Jay Edwards: 16:38

well and the story, but it's the thing is, The Pope's Exorcist was fun. That was Russell Crowe. Knew that he was making this cheesy horror movie. This one felt like everybody was trying to be real serious, and the movie is about them. They dance around it so they don't actually say it, but they're trying to make the exorcist. They're trying to remake The Exorcist, and the film set is cursed, and that's where it goes wrong. Because if they had just stayed with the cursed film set, that would have been a cool movie, but they turned into a possession thing where, like, their lead actor is always getting possessed, and you're like, God, we've seen this before. Show us the cursed movie aspect. So, yeah, it was frustrating, but it there was, there's no fun in it. You know, when you're making a movie like that, you need to, it just needs to be fun, and you just need to chew the scenery, and you just need to just, you know, not take yourself so seriously, and they take themselves way too seriously. So yeah, it's And speaking of rough, have either you guys seen Tarot?

Jacob Davidson: 17:44

No? How did that end up? It's

James Jay Edwards: 17:48

rough. Thing is, it's pretty typical of what it is. It's one of those cursed object movies. A bunch of kids get together and they have and one of them reads their fortunes with Tarot cards, but they use someone else's deck of tarot cards, which you're not supposed to do. And the tarot cards they use are cursed, so they start dying by whoever by the car that was laid last. And that part is actually kind of cool, the monsters that that they created for this, like, they're like the hanging man, the magician, the fool. You know that come after these kids. Those are actually kind of cool. The the makeup monsters are kind of cool. But the movie itself, and

Jacob Davidson: 18:32

I would like to add that I do remember now that the monsters were designed by horror artist Trevor Henderson, you know the guy that made, uh, siren head. It's because, yeah, those monster designs were pretty badass.

James Jay Edwards: 18:45

Yeah, the monsters are cool. It's just the movie itself is nothing that you haven't already seen. It's just, it's just so, you know, typical. But yeah, the monsters are cool. That's the best thing about it. The the monster designs that that they came up with for the cursed cards. But, yeah, it didn't surprise me that they didn't give it the push that you usually see horror movies get.

Jacob Davidson: 19:07

Well, that's too bad. And speaking of rough was that AI generated script? films, so I went to the Doug Benson interruption last night. You know, it's comedian Doug Benson has some other comedians, and they riff on a movie, and he does his thing at dynasty typewriter, where anybody can bring a movie and they'll put it on for the show. And the movie that won last night was Madame Web. So I saw Madame Web last night. That's what I did. How It was it, like I said, it was rough. It was very rough, like just, you know, I mean, thankfully, you know, with Doug Benson, the other comedians there, it did make it pretty entertaining, having them riff on it. But oh my god, this movie is such a mess. I can see why Dakota Johnson just totally gave up on I. Uh, the press tour, and was just, uh, railing on it, because it is just mind numbing. Is just like, how did this happen? Like, you just, like watching it, you have to imagine, like, how these decisions were made, because it is just insane. So like, Well, for one thing, they remove they it is official. They did remove the My mother was studying spiders in the Amazon line, etc. But there's just so many other incomprehensible scenes, like not once, but twice. Dakota Johnson's character, whose name, by the way, is actually named Cassandra Webb, because, you know, it's like Cassandra, because you can see the future, and Webb, because, you know, it's Webb, like a spider, uh, she twice steals a car and hits the bad guy with her with a car, because she doesn't really have any other powers, except for kind of seeing into the future, and nobody else has powers. And also, the Patriot Act is a plot point in the movie, like a bad guy steals, like Patriot Act technology, because it's 2003 and, yeah, Adam Scott is Uncle Ben, and he keeps talking about, oh, my sister's pregnant. And, you know, the build up on that. And don't say Peter. Don't say Peter, exactly. And there's so and there's so much Pepsi marketing, because, like they're drinking Pepsis in, like any scene where they're just hanging out, and the Pepsi Cola sign is a plot point because she keeps seeing an S in her visions. It turns out the S is the Pepsi Cola sign because she needs to drop the sign on the bad guy.

James Jay Edwards: 21:37

The Patriot Act thing is hilarious to you, because it was Zosia Mamet, who I love. She's like, the the tech person of the bad guy, yeah, she's got this, maybe, I don't know, nine screen set up in front of her that she supposedly can see every CC camera in New York. You're like, come on, yeah.

Jacob Davidson: 21:59

And also, let's say the other victim, the bad guy is, like, this multi millionaire, super rich and powerful, elite guy, and he only has one henchman, like, it's just, it's just her, Sasha, just had a computer console and like, he goes out in a weird knockoff Spider Man costume try and kill these girls before he kills him for reasons, and, yeah, and Also, he just randomly kills or beats the shit out of anybody who's nearby before killing the targets, like they're at a diner, and he just punches some guy in a boo for a window. It's like, what did that accomplish? Is this, yeah, no, there's just so much to unpack. And you know, again, they had some great rips, especially on the ADR, oh, my God, there's so much ADR in this movie. It's like, you can't, yeah, like the AI stuff, like you think that their voices were AI generated. Oh,

James Jay Edwards: 22:51

yeah. Now let's welcome in our special guest this episode. We've got Nikhil Koparkar, who is the composer of the upcoming, or actually released by the time this posts, movie, Dead Whisper, how you doing Nikhil?

Nikhil Koparkar: 23:05

I'm doing great. How are you all doing? Thank you so much for having me on

James Jay Edwards: 23:08

doing great. Thank you for being here. Let's start at the beginning. How did you get started in your your career as a composer?

Nikhil Koparkar: 23:17

Sure. So you know, when I first moved to LA, which was now 16 years ago, which is kind of hard to believe. Honestly, I'd always wanted to get into music and I wanted to score films, but I also like to play in bands, so I was kind of doing a little bit of both at the time, and I did that for about a few years, and I kind of started to realize, you know, in a band situation, you're writing songs and you're maybe releasing an album every year or two. Whereas in composing, you get to tell stories through working with different types of filmmakers, you get to work to picture, you get to write themes away from picture, and you're working on multiple projects a year. So I started to realize I love writing more than anything else in the world. If I could do that for the rest of my life every day, that would be the dream scenario. So it was around 2015 or 2016 when I decided to kind of make the full pivot to scoring for films, TV and games. What kind

James Jay Edwards: 24:07

of bands did you play in?

Nikhil Koparkar: 24:08

So I played in a I started a band called Dream Alive, which was, like a very, very influenced by, like, kind of 1970s like three part harmonies and guitar solos and and kind of like some Prague influences, like Pink Floyd and Rush and stuff like that. So everyone in the band was very much into that style of music, and so we kind of wrote, wrote that kind of stuff. So it's pretty different to the scoring stuff, but that's,

James Jay Edwards: 24:35

I was gonna say, three part harmonies and guitar. So was like the Eagles or three part harmonies and guitars. It was like King Crimson.

Nikhil Koparkar: 24:44

That's actually a really good distinction. I would say it's probably more Eagles than King Crimson. Okay, this of the song structures were probably more like King Crimson, if that makes sense, that's awesome.

Jonathan Correia: 24:55

And I see, I see you've done quite a few video games as well, working on like. Avatar and League of Legends. What would you say is, like, what are the big differences between working on, like, video games and and doing film and television?

Nikhil Koparkar: 25:09

Yeah, actually, there's a there's a huge difference in the sense of the pacing of it. So TV is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum, where, you know, when I've worked on shows, I was working on shows almost exclusively over the last couple years, and when I was doing that, it was like an extremely, like, breakneck pace, you know, there's edits coming right up to the very end. You're constantly trying to stay one step ahead of that edit. And, you know, it's a large team, a lot of moving parts, and you have a lot of quick deadlines. So sometimes an episode will be scored in just a couple days, and, you know, the initial draft. So you have, like, 45 minutes of music, you know, done in a couple days. And of course, that's that's impossible for one person to do on their own. You need a team to kind of help to bring that across the finish line. Whereas with games, you know, games are a lot more of a slower pace. And you know, it depends on what kind of game you're working on, like with the with the League of Legends franchise, particular track I did for them last year that is very much an established IP. It's very much like a very, you know, kind of established musical esthetic. And so try to figure out how to write something that feels a little different to that, but also fits into the mold of what they've created is one one side of it, then the other side of it is indie games, which is, you have a lot more creative freedom, and you have a kind of a longer dev cycle for a particular game. It might be like three to four years. So, you know, brought in at the very beginning, oftentimes. And so, you know, when I've scored games, I'm getting sketches from the concept artists. I'm getting rough sketches from like, you know, and trying to write music and themes to exemplify these characters at an earlier stage. So it's, it's a lot more of a kind of a longer iterative process, whereas, you know, TV is kind of like we need it yesterday. So quite, quite, quite different from that standpoint, I would say. So

James Jay Edwards: 26:59

when, when you do games, you're brought on a lot earlier. This is kind of fascinating me. It's, it's almost like it might be an afterthought for TV, but for games, you're in right from the beginning. And I mean, even as the developers are working, you're working the scores.

Nikhil Koparkar: 27:15

Totally, totally, yeah. I mean, in TV there is, and you're seeing this more now, where a composer might be hired at the pre production stage, so they haven't started filming yet. And maybe, maybe the composer and the filmmaker are having earlier discussions about things. Maybe the composer is working on, like a theme or two, but that's about as far as it goes. And then, you know, once they get once the composer and the the filmmaker sit down and spot the the TV episode or the film, then they kind of really dive into the weeds and start with the scoring process. So it's, it is starting to take place a little bit earlier, but it's still, you know, a window of a couple months, rather than a couple years, if that makes sense.

Unknown: 27:54

And you and you're not wrong when you say that, it gets up to the point where it's like, no, the episode comes out on Friday, and we just finished the end and on Wednesday. So we need to go, and I've

Nikhil Koparkar: 28:05

seen it where it gets pushed all the way to the dub stage where, you know, at the dub when they're mixing in the music and the dialog and the sound effects and everything, and doing the final, final rendition of the of the film or the the show, you will get a request from the dub stage. Oh, could we have XYZ, you know, so there may be last minute decisions all the way up to that point, which is pretty, pretty wild. So it keeps you on your toes, I guess at least. Oh, man,

Unknown: 28:30

that's, that's insane. I've worked on a few shows where they were, like, big, big budget, like, you know, prime time shows, and then it's like, Wait, we're filming this now, but that episode comes out in like, a month. Like, they're, really gonna put all that together, all the effects and everything that's insane, like, and they did, they would pull it off. I'm like, Ah, that's, I feel bad for whoever takes the footage after us, because you guys are have, like, a month of just, and that's just that one episode. You know, there's another one that comes out the week after that. So it's like, yeah,

Nikhil Koparkar: 28:59

it's at that point. I've spoken to a couple composers who have mentioned, like, they would be driving on a street in LA and they see the billboard for something that's like, coming out, blah, blah, blah, and they have the date announced, and they haven't started scoring it yet. It's like, that's always a nerve wracking experience. I'm sure I

James Jay Edwards: 29:15

used to get that all the time in film school. I mostly I found my niche as, like, the sound designer guy, which is the last thing that gets done, and usually, usually the sound design is in film school, is also the composer. So I would get picture lock on a Tuesday for something that would be due Thursday. I'd be like, Thanks, guys.

Nikhil Koparkar: 29:40

Totally, totally, yeah, you know, it's interesting too, when you know, when you think about in film schools, especially, you know, people are still learning kind of the processes, the various processes of what goes into making a film. And so you know, their understanding of music. And sound sound design is also more limited. And so oftentimes these things do end up being an afterthought. Maybe they're thinking about it in the post production process, like, oh, we finished the edit. Oh, crap. Now we need music and sound effects, you know, and it comes that thing. And so, so I think, like, I've worked on student projects before, earlier on in my career, and it was, it was a lot of that, you know, it's like, can you get this done in a couple days? And, you know, you just kind of say yes, and then figure it out. So, and it's especially

James Jay Edwards: 30:27

fun when they say, they give you picture lock, and you work for a day, and then they say, oh, yeah, we changed the edit. I'm like, Well, then why did you call it picture lock, if it wasn't really picture lock? Um, what is your school? Are you a school musician, or is it all just, you know, self taught. What's your education in music?

Nikhil Koparkar: 30:47

Yes, I, you know, I just studied classical piano growing up, so I took piano lessons and things like that. But as far as orchestration and everything is considered, I kind of learned on the job, and I learned by just kind of being self taught. I used to go to a coffee shop. You know, when I was, we teach piano lessons at the time, and this was, like, maybe 10 years ago, and I would go to a coffee shop in between, in between lessons, and I would take out a score, and I would, I would be listening on headphones to the score, and I'd be reading the sheet music, and just kind of like pausing it and rewinding it, and like, you know, kind of just like score studying, I guess they call it. So I would do a lot of that, and that actually was really helpful. I would go on, like, lot of a lot of great YouTube channels, like, this is one called orchestration online, which has a bunch of deep dives into, like, Let's just analyze this one passage of this famous orchestral score, you know. And it's like, let's see what the the violins are doing, and in reference to the flutes and the clarinets. And let's just look at that, you know, for this episode, or whatever it is. And so just doing deep dives like that really helped a lot. And then a lot of it was learning on the job. So it was kind of, I didn't get a chance to get an education in it, like a formal education in it. So yeah, it was, it was a lot of, a lot of flying by the seat of my pants most of the time. YouTube

James Jay Edwards: 32:04

is so amazing for things like that, because whenever I'm like trying to figure something out, my wife will always say, there's probably YouTube video, and 95% of the time she's right, there's

Unknown: 32:17

so incredible. But it's about finding the well informed one, because there's a few that will be not great information to do things

James Jay Edwards: 32:27

but for the post book, or the ones that are easy to follow too. Yeah, that's some will assume that you know more than you do.

Jonathan Correia: 32:35

That's me with video game walkthroughs, because I always hit that wall where I'm like, Wait, how am I supposed to do this thing? And I'll watch it. It'll be like, 10 minutes of like, nothing going on, or like, them just talking. I'm like, no, no, just, just tell me what the chest is, right? I just need to find the chest. Or what is it? No, that's a cooking recipes these days now too. The SEO, it's like 20 pages of a backstory, and then all sudden, it's like, okay, so you add butter to the thing. You throw the curls in there until they pop

James Jay Edwards: 33:03

those the worst I've seen. There's a joke going around where they say, I'm, here's my quick go to recipe, and then they start cutting an onion that's, that's not quick go to

Jonathan Correia: 33:16

especially in this day and age with the availability of information and everything you're we're seeing a lot of more self taught people who are coming up. And it's really incredible how universal or accessible a lot of this information that would would would have been locked away behind paywalls and stuff for folks for many years, is now readily available. And especially when it comes to the film industry, everyone always it's like, oh, well, how do you get in it? It's like, there's so many different ways. Man, I know people who have, like, decades long careers in the G and E department, simply because they the buddy asked them to, and they showed up with, like, a grip and electric book. And we're like, okay, they asked for this. I mean, now with the internet, they can look, I mean, that's, that's how I got my start to be like, Oh, this out of the van. Okay, cool, yeah. Well, I'm walking there. Let me Google search. What is this?

Nikhil Koparkar: 34:09

You know, to that point, I feel like it's really interesting now, because you're not just seeing interviews with people like, Oh, when I got my first, you know, 100 billion dollar film, or whatever it is, like, it's like, well, yeah, but what happened leading up to that? And now it's become so much more neat where you can hear a different cross section of people's experiences, you know, people who are just kind of starting out and how they got their first maybe student film, or something like that, and then and on the way upwards. So I think that's really cool is because people can relate to it more when they're just starting out. It's like, oh, this person just maybe a year or two ahead of me, rather than 20 years ahead of me, you know, in terms of, like, career paths. So it's nice to be like the dots, I guess.

Jonathan Correia: 34:49

Oh, absolutely. And especially when people bring up, oh, this is a first time filmmakers movie, and it's like, well, no, they have like, eight credits before that, like, but what about those things that led to. Yeah, because those things is what made that thing happen. That's where they learned everything, you know,

Nikhil Koparkar: 35:04

it's like the 10 year instant success, you know.

Jacob Davidson: 35:09

And on the subject of film scores, do you have any particular favorites? Gosh, you

Nikhil Koparkar: 35:15

know, I feel like my answer changes all the time, in the sense that, you know, when I was growing up, I was really into John Williams, and more the traditional kind of orchestral scoring, like I remember, I used to go to sleepovers and, like, with my friends and just watch, like, Star Wars and whatever was coming out at the time, early 90s, you know, and and then, and then I and then I started getting into more kind of, like the the modern composers, one, one particular composer I really like who has a unique voice. He had scored the film Minari, the 824, film Emile moseri. And you know, I just love his melodic sensibility and kind of choosing very non obvious choices in his scoring. And like, when you hear his music, you automatically know who it is. So I always kind of interested in people who are very like, have a unique voice that is kind of upfront and yeah, so I think he would probably be one of the modern ones that I've been listening to a lot. Do you all have favorite composers or anything like that? Or, oh

Jacob Davidson: 36:14

yeah, John Carpenter,

Nikhil Koparkar: 36:15

oh nice, yeah. Or no,

James Jay Edwards: 36:17

my favorite, probably modern composer is Mika Levy, Oh, yeah. I just love their, their, I mean, you, it's so, like you said, a voice. I remember watching Zone of Interest, and part of it, I kind of knew that they were scoring it, because they're Jonathan Glaser's go to but I had to stay for the credit. Sumacle, yep, that was Mika.

Nikhil Koparkar: 36:41

It's fantastic. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Another

James Jay Edwards: 36:44

score I like to to find out if people have ever heard is, have you heard the score to Swiss Army Man, actually, no, I haven't. Swiss Army Man, it's the Manchester orchestra guys who do it, and it's Korea's laughing, because I ask everybody this question, it's such an amazing score, because it's all, there's a little bit of keyboards, but most of it is vocals, and it's all just vocal harmonies the entire movie, and, you know, and they do things like, um, like the Jurassic Park theme, but it's this, you know, lush vocal harmony version. Or they'll do that, um, where did you come from? Where did you go? Where did you come from? But, but it's like, this really dense, layered vocal harmony version of it. You should definitely check it out. It's, it's really unique,

Nikhil Koparkar: 37:28

actually. Yeah, I would love to check it out because, you know, I'm always on the hunt for, like, new sounds, new scores. And it's always, it's always a treat to do that. I have bunch of friends who we just passed scores back and forth on the regular. So I'm always, always down to discover more stuff. Thanks for the recommendation. Oh

Jonathan Correia: 37:44

yeah, I laughed, just because I love that score so much. But it is at times like you're listening, you're really into it. And because in the movie, they reenact scenes from from other movies, well, they're trapped on this island, so the vocals become that. So they'll start do it. You'll go to the vocalization, to Jurassic Park and other things. So it's, it's a, yeah, it's a fun movie and a great score. I got reminded of Johan, Johan since not one of his film scores, but he did this album called IBM1401 A User's Manual. And I guess, like, the story behind it is he found, like in his attic or something, these audio recordings that his father did as audio recordings for the manual for this computer. And so he incorporated this into a score. And this was, I want to say, 2006 is when he does so it was before he got into scoring. But even then, like, you could hear a whole story throughout all of it, and it just randomly will at first, seemingly random, just like these audios of this, like, very like British voice, just be like the IBM 1401 compartment chamber is connects to the bubble, and it's just, it's real good.

Nikhil Koparkar: 38:52

Sounds amazing. I love Johan Johansson, so I, and I've heard, you know, a few of his albums and things like that. And I've just always loved this style. I haven't heard this album. I got to check it out. That's That's amazing. Oh,

Unknown: 39:05

that was when I was listening to in college all the time. And I was like, Man, this guy should get into scoring. And then, like, the next year, I think it was, like, all of a sudden he was just, like, pumping out, like, movie after movie. It was great. So I

Nikhil Koparkar: 39:16

got a chance to meet him very briefly at the Theory of Everything they were doing a screening for the Society of Composers, lyricists in LA. And it was amazing to, you know, kind of hear his, his his music in the theater. And he was out there, like passing out CDs after the after the talk and stuff. So he did like a Q and A there. And so that was the first time I really got introduced to his music, and I was just like, in love with that music. It's fantastic. That

James Jay Edwards: 39:45

brings up an interesting question, Correia, what you're saying that you know you wanted him to get into film scoring? Is there anyone that any any composers that you're excited about who don't do who doesn't do film scoring, that you'd like to see get into it? That's kind of a weird question, that that

Nikhil Koparkar: 39:59

don't do film. Score. That's a really good question I would have, I would have said Tom York previously, or was it Suspiria that he did?

James Jay Edwards: 40:10

Yeah, yes, it was Suspiria. Yeah, right.

Nikhil Koparkar: 40:13

So I would have said him, because I've always loved Radiohead, and I try to think of who would be someone else

James Jay Edwards: 40:21

that I would love to see Tom Morello do a film score? Yeah, I think that would be really exciting. That would be incredible. Yeah, I don't know what kind of interest he has in doing film scoring, but,

Nikhil Koparkar: 40:33

but you know, his his approach to music also so much lends its like it's his experimental approach to music lent itself to film scoring so well, I'm surprised he hasn't done it.

James Jay Edwards: 40:43

Yeah, I am a little too that's what makes me think maybe he doesn't have an interest in it, because you would think that he would have the opportunities

Nikhil Koparkar: 40:51

totally, of course. Yeah, let's,

James Jay Edwards: 40:53

let's talk about Dead Whisper, which is what we're here to talk about.

Jonathan Correia: 40:57

Yes,

James Jay Edwards: 40:58

how did Dead Whisper come about? So

Nikhil Koparkar: 41:01

it's really interesting. Actually, I was, I was, I'm friends with the filmmaker, the director, Conor Soucy, and we were having a beer over at at a bar in Sherman Oaks, and he was talking about this idea for the film. And he was like, you know, it was loosely based on personal experience, the idea of grief and losing a loved one. And we were just kind of talking about that concept. And he was talking about, you know, the idea of, like, what someone would do to see their loved one again. And he kind of, like, kind of pseudo pitched this idea to me at in the bar, of like, oh, you know, this guy gets duped into boarding a ferry, and he falls asleep and he wakes up and there's no one on the ferry, and he gets taken to this mysterious island where people only speak in whispers, and he's offered the chance to see his his dead child again. And I was like, that's an amazing premise. You should totally do that, you know. And I didn't talk too much, you know, about it afterwards, until a few weeks later, when he mentioned, Alright, I got a script together. I'm ready, you know. And he was getting ready to shoot it and stuff. So he kind of like, moved really fast. And it was approximately, I want to say, a year to the day, that since that conversation that I was working on the score for so it was, like, really pretty fast, you know, and and so this was our fourth project working together. So we, we kind of already had a shorthand in terms of how we like to work with each other. And there was always, kind of a trust, already, a trust built in. And so he was kind of like, go with your craziest ideas, you know. And he let me kind of run with my, my my kind of musical reaction to the film. And it was, it was to the point where, when we were spotting the film, which is, you know, for those in the audience who you know, don't know, a spotting session is when the filmmaker and the composer watch the film together for the first time, and they'll be talking about what music, you know, what role music will play in the film, and what kind of themes to explore, and where music can come in and out, and where we shouldn't have music, you know, which is sometimes equally important, and he had a piano in the corner, and so I would be watching scenes with them, and I would immediately go to the piano and try out kind of instant musical reactions. And a couple of those themes ended up making it so it was just an incredible experience of, like, real deep, close collaboration with a with a trusted colleague. And, yeah, that's kind of, that's kind of how it all came about.

Jonathan Correia: 43:22

That's awesome. What were some of your inspirations? Because with with this film, especially, like, the score, stands out a lot because you're right with the spotting there. It was just as loud when there wasn't music as if there it was when there was, you know, there was a lot of moments where I'm like, that's very quiet here. It's very like, it almost encompasses the name too perfectly. But the soundscape that it was created, especially once you get to the island and some of the scenes out in the grass, really kind of grasp you. What were some of the influences there?

Nikhil Koparkar: 43:53

Well, it was interesting. You know, I, I, I think all of us really love elevated horror, like Hereditary and things like that. I remember I was reading an interview with Colin Stetson, I think, who did the score for that, and he was talking about how so much of the basis of the score was a saxophone, and because he was a saxophone player, and I was like, and I was listening to it, and it just sounds so creepy and weird and not really like a saxophone at all when you recontextualize it. And at the same time, I'd been experimenting a lot with like instruments from different parts of the world. I worked on a fantasy film a few years ago, which was kind of Asian and Indian inspired. So it was a lot about recontextualizing instruments from, you know, other cultures, and figuring out how would they sound like as a world building device. And so a lot of those kind of ideas were marinating in my mind. And you know, for Connor, he was also very influenced by more of the throwback horror, like The Shining or Rosemary's Baby. So he loved the idea of, like a kind of a smooth, kind of slow sense of dread. And so we're just kind of talking about all these ideas. And. And in addition to that, the idea of like, you know, when Elliot first gets to the island, we wanted it to feel like a grand scale, almost like he, he looks small and insignificant in con in contrast with the place that he's in. And so with all these ideas, I actually was just scrolling on Instagram at one point, and as as one does, and I came across a Thai instrument, and I'm probably going to butcher the pronunciation, but it's spelled K, H, A, E, N, tying. I think it is called, and it's like a vertical bamboo wind instrument. And you know, a lot of the the scenes were filmed around Cape Cod. So we wanted sounds that evoke the wind and the ocean and things like that. And so, you know, I ended up kind of just buying it and trying it out. And, you know, either having the sounds as is in the film or even reprocessing them and kind of making them unrecognizable, and that formed kind of the connective tissue that that was kind of present through a lot of the cues. And then, of course, we had fantastic, you know, other instrumentalists as well. We had the percussionist ball back love before, who had done a lot of sounds for A24 is green night and for Netflix's Hellraiser. And so he was doing very unconventional stuff with the percussion. He was like taking a mallet and rubbing it on a drum head. He had this metal instrument called the Marvin, which is like a series of coils on a metal, kind of a triangular, I don't even know how to describe it, but it's like this hollow triangular shape. And you know, you could make weird sounds out of that, and kind of ancient Mayan shakers and things like that, and so, yeah, we were just experimenting a lot and trying to figure out, like, how can we make this feel kind of almost primordial and ancient while feeling recontextualized and modern? It's kind of a weird juxtaposition, but I think the juxtaposition and the contrast is kind of what makes it fun to explore. I guess, if that makes sense, long winded answer for the process, but no,

Jacob Davidson: 47:07

I think that covers it quite nicely. And I was wondering, just because, as a New Englander, and it being set around Cape Cod, if that was an influence in how you approach the score? Oh,

Nikhil Koparkar: 47:20

absolutely. I mean, you know, my only regret is I couldn't be there during filming, because I think it would have been really cool to just be there and, you know, ingest the atmosphere. But I think, like, Connor captured the atmosphere of it so well. And the cinematographer, Ben grant, really captured, you know, helped to kind of bring that world to the to the big screen, and so watching it was it, you know, I had a visceral reaction to that. And just that idea of like, you know, it would be really cool to be able to have fairy sounds. It'd be really cool to have the wind and ocean, but not necessarily just the wind and ocean, but how would an instrument sound like if it was trying to mimic the wind and ocean? So even when we were doing we recorded a 30 piece string section with the fame's orchestra in Macedonia, and that was one of our things, is like, hey, let's just experiment for a bit. And because we had the time to actually kind of try out ideas as well as, you know, record the written material. So we're like, let's just experiment a little bit. What would the sound of wind and ocean feel like for 30 string players. Let's just record some stuff and see what happens. And then it was, you know, reprocessing, that I was reprocessing that, that Thai bamboo instrument, and I was using something called a wind wand, which, if you it's, it's almost like, it's, it's like a series of rubber bands on a kind of a wooden contraption that you you spin it really fast, and as it starts to spin really fast, it has this weird, like eerie humming sound. So, you know, just stuff that would kind of put you in that place without being over. You know, I think that was kind of what we're trying to do, is like, what are non obvious ways of of representing the place, the location, kind of what that setting might have felt like. So that was kind of the approach of the of the scoring process.

Jonathan Correia: 49:03

That's so cool. Because, yeah, when you when you think Cape Cod, you don't think of, like, Ty, it's true. It's called Kerns, or these humming band is true, is and and you feel it too with the film. Because, like, I'm also from New England, so I know Cape Cod well. But, like, it doesn't it. It looks like Cape Cod, but it feels ethereal. Feels very different and very off putting. So even when you're familiar with the place, it's like, yeah, it's something off here, and it's and it comes through. That's awesome.

Nikhil Koparkar: 49:31

That's great. You know, I think we were also talking a lot like, you know, it is Cape Cod centric, but then it's also this fish out of water story, in a way, because he's being taken to this unfamiliar place, you know, this island and and, and so the idea of feeling insignificant and feeling kind of lost in time was also another, another thing that we were trying to explore. And so, you know, it was interesting with that, with that Thai instrument, because it kind of achieves both ends. In a way, because if it's used in one way, it could maybe represent the wind in the ocean and that kind of a thing. If it's used in a different way, you know, it's not an instrument that on its own, you know, even if you were just listening to it, it's not quite easy to place for the ears. You don't think of it geographically as like, oh, that's from Thailand. You know, there's certain instruments I think that really evoke a particular region, whereas that one didn't. And that was kind of the appeal. It's like you can't quite place it, and then when you reprocess it and you use it as world building device, it's even hard. It's even more disorienting for the listeners. So, you know, it was kind of, it was kind of trying to achieve two opposite aims, the familiarity and disorientation at the same time. And I think that was kind of the through line, is we were trying to find something that would achieve both. Is everything

James Jay Edwards: 50:45

in it, to me, it kind of sounds the score sounds synthesized. And it's probably because of all the processing of these instruments. Was it all basically live instruments that you process to give it that, that ethereal sound?

Nikhil Koparkar: 51:01

Yeah, actually, you know, I would say probably the what ended up being in the final score was, like, maybe 60 to 70% live stuff, okay, which was wonderful because, you know, in a horror score, especially, maybe you have one instrument that becomes the, you know, centerpiece of the score, or a couple instruments. But, you know, it's very rare to get a 30 piece string ensemble to record a, you know, on an indie horror film. And that was actually in no small part due to this grant that we got, which was from SESAC, a Performing Rights society for composers and New Music USA, which provides kind of grants and opportunities for composers. And so they gave us this grant called the Real Change Grant, and it allowed us to have some funding for, you know, proper mix and master of the soundtrack album, and then a surround mix for the for the score, and then being able to record all these exotic instruments and things like that. So, you know, we really had a kind of pick of the cream of the crop, like I'd worked on for a composer named Lauren balf I'd worked on this series called The Wheel of Time. And there was a vocalist from that was the featured vocalist in the in that series named Abby Lyons, who's just a phenomenal vocalist, and, you know, so I got along really great with her. And I was like, Hey, I'm working on this horror film. Would you like to, you know, would you like to try out some ideas, maybe some textural stuff, phrases and things? And so we really got a chance to, like experiment from the source, rather than take existing libraries and then try to make them sound different, which is always, you know, that that is its own challenge. I think because, you know a lot of composers, they have sample libraries, which you know may be like, oh, you know, we don't have enough money for a whole orchestra, but we can kind of simulate it using these sample libraries and get, you know, maybe 70% there, or something like that. But when you're actually going from the source, you can really get a lot of, hey, why don't we try that and see what happens? You know, what? Why don't you play that the wrong way, the way it's not supposed to be. What happens, you know? And oftentimes that's, that's the that's the key towards finding something that feels bespoke. And it was made for the film like, you know, when I ordered that Thai instrument, I played it myself. I obviously have no skills playing this. It's, I have no business playing this instrument, but playing it the wrong way, quote, unquote, you know, not like a professional. Probably was did justice in terms of creating weird sounds, you know, or I was maybe not thinking about it in a traditional way, because I didn't know the traditional way. So, you know, it's, it's, it's interesting. But yeah, a lot of, a lot of it was in no small part, due to the talented players that really brought some different flavor and kind of spontaneity, spontaneity to the process. So, and

James Jay Edwards: 53:41

it did, the grant help pay for the 30 piece orchestra too. I was gonna say there's, there's some budget there,

Nikhil Koparkar: 53:48

absolutely. Yeah, it did. And the good news is, I think, like now, it's very different to how scoring was done, say, 10-15, years ago, where, you know, you booked an orchestra for a few days, and you're recording orchestra for the whole thing. Now it's become a lot more kind of piecemeal, in the sense of, like, hey, we don't have the budget for orchestra for the whole, you know, for the whole few days or whatever, to really dive in. But why don't we get a two hour session? That way we can get the most important cues covered. We can get some weird aleatoric ideas that I can pepper in throughout the score, and it kind of provides that connective tissue, right? And so you can economize really well doing that. And because it was a 30 piece string section, not a 40 piece, which is kind of the traditional size of a, you know, full size string section, we could play the line between, you know, having it sound massive, but then also sounding exposed, which I think really works well for horror film string recording. So, you know, it's, I think sometimes the budget limitations can be liberating, in a way, because it forces you to think of different ways to achieve the same end. And they might be a little bit more unconventional than you initially, you know, just. Rather than just saying, like, Let's book it for a set number of days, like, let's make the most of it in a couple hours and see what happens so

Unknown: 55:07

but this is also why grants are so important and need to be funded, because the the amount of times where we're here, because we interview composers a lot, where it's like, Man, if I could have had an orchestra with that, or if I could have been able to hire a few more, like, you know, for this, and this would have been cool, but, and so it's really awesome hearing like, just, you know, having these opportunities be presented to be able to achieve that, and then also still having it, like you said, in that scape of, like, experimenting and all right, cool. So we don't have the money for 40, so what can we do with 30 and, like, do it right ways. So cool here. Oh,

Nikhil Koparkar: 55:43

absolutely. I really think that, you know, the score couldn't have come out the way it did without that grant. I think it's like, like you said, you know, having the opportunity to work with real people, you know, trying to figure out ideas together, there's no real substitute for that. And unfortunately, you know, both, it's obviously, you know, I think it's important to pay everybody fairly and make sure that they, they're, they're paid fairly for their time. And it's like, you know, that ends up being a decent chunk of money. So trying to figure out opportunities to, like, make that happen, especially on an indie project, is is difficult. So I'm just really grateful for that grant. It really, really helped us push it over the finish line.

James Jay Edwards: 56:24

So we're still trying to get Carrie torgenson's Moth paid for his score, for for night watch. What is, I don't know if you listened that episode, but we had, they recorded a moth for his score. What is what's next? What do you got coming up? Yeah,

Nikhil Koparkar: 56:46

so unfortunately, there's a couple projects I can't really say too much about.

James Jay Edwards: 56:51

We hear that all the time too,

Nikhil Koparkar: 56:53

but I am working on a really cool game, actually, right now, and it's been a little earlier on in the process. I've been in the thematic writing stage, but it's very influenced by, you know, I read a lot of books, and I'm and the game developer and I both read kind of a lot of the same stuff, so that's kind of how we first connected, is he wanted to do a game that felt like how he felt reading Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. And also, I don't know if you are all familiar with Brandon Sanderson, a fantasy author who did this thing called the Stormlight Archive. It's very kind of like epic in scope, using, you know, kind of influenced by a confluence of different cultures and and he wanted this kind of musical esthetic to feel like you don't know where one cultural influence ends and the other begins. So it's been really, it's kind of like another extension of that idea of experimenting with exotic instruments, seeing what we can kind of recontextualize. So it's been really a through line in my career thus far. So I'm really excited to explore that in this game, and then that probably won't be out for another I'm sure, like three years or something, because it's, it's in year one right now. So it's like, you know, few here and there, and kind of, you know, dipping toes in the water, type of deal. We

James Jay Edwards: 58:07

already talked about, how early you start working on video games. So where can people follow you on the socials to get as you can start talking about some of these projects, you know, so people can find out about him,

Nikhil Koparkar: 58:22

absolutely, yes. So you can, you can follow me on all socials @NikhilKmusic. That's n i k, h, i L, K music, also on my website, NikhilKmusic.com, and I update that pretty frequently with projects as well. So keep you apprised over there as well. Okay,

James Jay Edwards: 58:40

cool. Well, Nikhil, thank you for joining us this morning, and everybody see Dead Whisper it. It's in theaters by the time this posts, it will be on VOD tomorrow by the time this post. So basically, by the time you hear this, you'll be able to see it. So everybody go see it and listen carefully to the score, because it's a banger. Yeah,

Jonathan Correia: 59:01

see it in theaters, especially because I'm like, we, you know, we got our screeners, but I can imagine your score sounds amazing. Yes, through through

James Jay Edwards: 59:10

actual speakers,

Nikhil Koparkar: 59:11

there's definitely a difference, you know, sitting in the theater and kind of hearing that surrounds, you know, mix just like, you know, kind of envelop you in there. So, yeah.

James Jay Edwards: 59:22

So, yeah, thank you for joining us. And everybody see dead whisper. As for us, you can find us on all the socials as well, under eye on horror or at ihorror com, which is the site we call home. Our theme song is by restless spirits, so go give them a listen. And our artwork is by Chris Fisher, so go give him a like. I'm gonna take a second to plug something I've been doing my new podcast. It's called The CryptiZoo. It's basically a little you're gonna learn about cryptids at the cryptozoo, is what it is. And the first episode just dropped. It's about The Jersey Devil. So if you wanted to know about The Jersey Devil, check out the crypto zoo if you're not tired of my voice and. We will see you guys in a couple of weeks. If you are tired of my voice, you have two weeks without it. If you don't listen to cryptozoo and again, go see Dead Whisper and listen to Nikhil score. So for me, James Jay Edwards, I'm

Jacob Davidson: 1:00:13

Jacob Davison,

Jonathan Correia: 1:00:14

I'm Jonathan Correia.

Nikhil Koparkar: 1:00:15

I'm Nikhil Koparkar.

James Jay Edwards: 1:00:16

Keep your eye on horror.