Strange Tales - musings of a sound monkey

Hey there - for anyone who picked up a promotional CD from me (tollboothmusic) at last week’s ScareCON, I did promise I would post a track list/notes.  A huge huge thank you to everyone who picked up a CD and expressed an interest in working with me on design for their events. I was utterly blown away (and more than a little humbled) by the experience and the sheer level of interest in something that i genuinely love doing. Thank you also for all your kind comments and feedback about the presentation. If anyone has any questions, please always feel free to drop me a line.

So, onto the track list:

 

1) Hybrid-X   Theme
2) Hybrid-X   System 4 bed
3) Hybrid-X   Alarms bed
4) Hybrid-X   ’Corporate Welcome Music’
5) Haunted Xtreme   Stairs bed
6) Haunted Xtreme   Finale Seance Room bed
7) Bunker13   Computer Room bed
8) Bunker13   First Corridor bed
9) Killers6   Razor Room bed
10) Killers6   Bubba’s Workshop bed
11) Killers6   Theme
12) Scarytales   Toy Room bed
13) Scarytales   Gepetto’s Theme
14) Clockwork Orange   Sexual Therapy dance
15) Equus   house music
16) Metamorphosis   house music
17) The Chimes   overture
 

Hybrid-X was run by GNG at Magna in Rotherham - a science fiction horror themed event based around human/animal hybrid mutants that run amok in a government research facility run by ‘The Dominions Corporation’. tollboothmusic also did a custom sound installation throughout the attraction.
Total soundtracks written for event - 9.

Haunted Xtreme (GNG) was hosted by 35 Stonegate in York. Very limited installation possibilities due to the listed nature of the building, mostly mobile systems that had to be derigged every day to allow Stonegate to run their own tours during the day before turning the attraction over to GNG at night. 
Total soundtracks written for event - 8.

Bunker13 was GNG’s next Halloween attraction at Magna in 2011. A cold war nuclear bunker experiment goes wrong, imprisoning the occupants for nearly 50 years. Surviving in isolation for all that time, the occupants have formed a new and violent society. 
Total soundtracks written for event - 8.

Killers6 was a smaller attraction at Whitby Goth Fest in 2011. Six psychopathic killers are being studied by The Dominions Corp at their brand new high-security facility - what could possibly go wrong? 
Total soundtracks written for event - 7.

Scarytales was GNG’s latest attraction. The kingdom of Orenda is where all the fairytales came from, but the reality of the stories is a long way from what passed down into our world. Take a trip through the wardrobe, into the nightmare world of childhood fears. Total soundtracks written for event - 11.

The last 4 tracks were written for various theatrical productions performed during 2010-2012. All the shows featured entirely original scores written and produced by me, usually to fairly tight production deadlines.  Shows featured include: A Clockwork Orange, Equus, Metamorphosis, and Thomas Howes’ production of Dicken’s The Chimes. Longer evaluation CDs of my theatrical work are available on request.

Ola (in honour of the Spanish GP today!). I’ve just got back from an insanely busy couple of days at ScareCON in Blackpool, hosted by the lovely folk at ScareTours under the masterful yet boyishly charming (he’ll genuinely kill me, but hey, I wasn’t the one wearing the bellboy costume) leadership of Mr Michael Bolton.

ScareCON, now in its 5th year is a unique event as the only trade symposium for the rapidly growing scare industry, which regular readers of this ‘ere blog will know that I’ve become somewhat lured into over the last couple of years like a sorority girl in an empty house wondering what that noise was outside……..

This year’s even was held in Blackpool, at the slightly creepy in itself but otherwise very friendly, Norbreck Castle hotel. One of the real joys of the event is that it brings together representatives from the whole spectrum of the industry as equals in a way that I’ve never known any other trade fair do (and I’ve been to a LOT in my time). From home scares grafting away for charity to the biggest commercial theme parks, everyone was there to learn from each other, share ideas, offer solutions, air problems and generally have a very useful time.

Michael had very kindly asked me if I would like to do a presentation on designing sound for scare attractions, as he’s always been very generous with his positive comments about my work with GNG in his reviews of our events. I was petrified, having never even been to ScareCON before and it being a good 10yrs since my last ‘professional’ presentation. But I put something together and I’ve been bewildered and humbled at the overwhelmingly positive response to it, and for any peeps reading this having followed my links from the talk - thank you so much for your warmth and support.

I even flung together a little trade stand with leaflets, demo CDs and a rolling presentation, thanks to the kind loan of some severed arms by Mr Crompton of GNG and some bargain plant plots from Tesco’s.

I met some amazingly creative people, learnt a lot about the industry, helped a few folk (I think), picked up some really great contacts of some potentially exciting new people to work with, and generally had a wail of a time. Special mentions must go to Michael and his team for organising such a great event; the Gravedigger’s Tour Bus crew from Dublin for such an inspiring addition to the programme; all the other speakers (when they got a word edgeways!); Primrose Unknown for being great company at the ball and next day for the ‘busman’s business trip’ with Saturn Devts and Mr Crompton; Amsterdam Spook; Zombie Boot Camp; Tulley’s Farm, Yorkshire Scare Grounds, Fear Horror House, Twin Lakes, and many others for some great conversations; and Mr Gary Crompton for being excellent company throughout and countless cups of coffee and snacks!

For those who have the demo CD, I haven’t forgotten the playlist notes, I’ll post them on here tomorrow morning.

Laters peepsies.

tumblrbot asked: ROBOTS OR DINOSAURS?

Robots, anyday.

As the more observant (/those who could give a hooey) of you will have realised, the main tollboothmusic website is down at the mo. this was initially due to a couple of problems we had with our hosting account and a billing issue, but I’ve used it as an opportunity to actively take the site down for a little while to do a makeover I’ve been promising myself for eons.

for a long while, the site hasn’t reflected remotely what I do for a living anymore or the types of services we can offer, so I’m just doing some revamping and rewriting and I’ll have it back up again before you can say “now I just need to hand make some Mayo”