Two months ago we chatted with Andrew Orkin. But I felt like we needed to go more in-depth with the talented musician, film scorer, and all around good dude. So enjoy the full interview with this Brooklyn based musician and composer. Click through for my chat with South African and now NYC based talent, Andrew Orkin.
Interview with Andrew Orkin:
1. As two fellas with strong mothers of diminutive size I'd love to ask how your mom has shaped your life as a whole? You've always seemed to work well with female singers did you're mom's influence have any impact on this? What are the best lesson you learned from her?
Haha, the main lesson I've learned is to be terrified of anything shorter than 5'3". My mother has incredible drive and persistence (despite her diminutive size), and I'd say her main lesson was always to keep your head down and get the job done, regardless of the obstacles along the way. I'm not sure she has had any influence on my working with mainly female singers though seeing as she's pretty tone deaf.
2. Last time we talked was the eve of the passing of legendary B.B. King, how did this icon influence your guitar playing? And your love of music? Who are some other early musical influences you had?
My musical career started out as a guitar player and my initial love for the guitar came from listening to the blues. Any young blues fan starts with the greats, and I started with B.B. Like any fan of a particular genre, this lead me down the path of the blues' history, all the way to the early finger-picking players like Lighting Hopkins and Blind Willie Johnson. Later my love of the blues lead me into jazz, which I studied at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, before branching off into composition. As a composer I write through improvisation, and this love of improvisation definitely came from the blues and later jazz.
3. Tell me about the background and creation of GloryVale studios? What were your goals with this venture?
GloryVale is a studio in Johannesburg where I worked with a great friend, and drummer, Mike Wright. It was a dual venture, with Mike working as an engineer and producing bands in the studio while I focused on more of the composition for multimedia such as films, documentaries and commercials. GloryVale was my first venture down the film scoring path, and the portfolio I built while working there allowed me to apply for funding to study in the US.
4. What was it like to receive the Fulbright from NYU and realize you were going to study in America? Can you talk about the transition from JoBurg to NYC? What were some of the first things you fell in love with in the Big Apple (Food, music stores, venues, bars, whatever)?
The Fulbright Scholarship was a total shot in the dark, I had the perception that the scholarship didn't really focus on the arts and I was totally wrong. It was a rigorous process and highly competitive but it was also the only avenue for me to come over to America from a monetary standpoint. Moving over was both exciting and terrifying. Coming from the seemingly small pond of South Africa and entering the endless void that is the New York music scene was a serious eye opener. The level of musical proficiency, especially at a school like NYU had me quite out of my depths initially. Another huge eye opener was the abundance of great music, everywhere, all the time. It is still something that boggles my mind, and the idea of cutting through all the talent and being noticed is something that everyone is fighting for. New York keeps you grounded but also keeps you pushing, and that's why it's such a difficult place to leave.
5. How did you get the start into film scoring? What have you most enjoyed about the scoring process? Has there been one project that really stands out for your film scoring?
My cousin, Guy Steer, works as a final mix engineer for film and television back in South Africa and he got me my first film scoring gig on a National Geographic documentary, Lights, Camera, Lions. It was my first project as well as my first feature-length documentary which was a serious case of "being thrown in the deep-end", but like so many in the music industry I faked confidence to keep the job, and it only hit me when I sat down in front of the Pro Tools equivalent of a blank page, that I had no idea what I was doing. That being said, learning by doing is one of the best things you can do as a musician and even though it was a big leap, it helped me grow pretty quickly.
6. My first connection to you was Tiger sending me the Look Out Kid album, Collide. Tell me about creating this dynamic album? What influences did you and the rest of the band and guest singers have in mind? What are the specifics – how long did it take to record, how many total songs (how many ended up on the album), and any fun stories of the process you'd care to share?
Look Out Kid and the EP Collide was put together as a homage to the amazing friends and musicians I worked with in South Africa. By the time I left to come to New York I had built so many great relationships with incredible musicians at home, and one never knows how life will pan out and who you will get to work with again, and I wanted to have a tangible memory of them. The musical influences were so broad, in both the genre and across the individual musician's styles, that the EP is a diverse melting-pot. The EP was written and recorded in the three months before I left for the US and it was comprised of five tracks, and funded entirely by giving friends beer as compensation for their time and talent.
7. Lets talk about Tiger! How did y'all meet and when was the first musical experience you shared? What was it about her that made you realize you two could work together. Can you tell me about what you two are working on now and what we can expect from this musical connection?
Tiger and I met at NYU at a song writers forum, where I heard her voice and immediately snatched her up to sing on some of my material. Being a terrible singer myself, I am constantly looking for singers and Tiger jumped out at me instantly, not only for her voice, but also her skills as a lyricist and composer. We tend to have a similar taste and musical aesthetic which makes things pretty effortless. Our strongest asset as a songwriting duo is that we aren't afraid to hurt each other's feelings. If one of us isn't happy with an idea, we don't compromise, we hash things out until we are both completely happy. We've written together on so many projects during the three years that it's hard to keep track, be it film scores, folk songs, cheesy pop songs as well as our newest project Tiger + Man. I feel that Tiger + Man is the culmination of our collaboration and our debut EP will be released in October this year. It's a pretty cinematic take on the electronic scene at the moment, falling into the same category as St Vincent and Son Lux.
8. Tell me about getting to be with Fall On Your Sword production house. What work have you done and are working on now? Tell me about the Brooklyn scene today. Why has this one area of New York always seemed to be a haven for artists and musicians?
Fall On Your Sword has been an incredible experience thus far and I can't wait to see what the future holds. It has introduced me to a whole new level of work, both in quality and musical output. Learning to write well is one thing, but learning to write well, and write quickly is another. Working with composer Will Bates and producer Lucia Alper I have got to compose on some awesome projects, with the most recent being Oscar Winning director, Alex Gibney's film, Steve Jobs: Man in the Machine. The Brooklyn scene is tough, like any big scene it's pretty saturated and there is a lot of noise to cut through. It's also pretty decentralized, so knowing what's happening and where can be a full-time job. It is definitely a hub for the kind of work I'm doing and I would rather be nowhere else. Also my beard and flannel shirts go down pretty well here.
9. You've now graduated from NYU, but do you still have ties back to the University? Teaching, connections to professors and fellow artists? What was your greatest lesson learned from your time at the school?
NYU helped my grow as a composer in terms of my technical proficiency, but it also taught me to find my own voice. It is really easy to spend all your time in an academic environment studying the greats, but while I learned to draw information from the music around me, learning to apply that knowledge in my own unique way was something NYU really allowed me to do. It's not often in one's life that you are afforded two years to sit and develop your craft and individual sensibilities without the stresses of money, and being on a Fulbright Scholarship at NYU allowed me to do that. I still have ties to NYU, and actually taught two semesters of the masters-level, Contemporary Scoring course.
10. Who are you listening to now? What films or TV shows or theater productions have caught your attention this year?
Right now I'm obsessed with Son Lux. I feel that their new album Bones is really shaping the way electronic music can be fused with acoustic instrumentation and still have serious grit and deliberate purpose. I feel that the options of electronic composition often leave bands somewhat directionless and Son Lux makes some of the most sonically interesting music that still seems cohesive. As a huge Portishead fan, Ex Machina is my favourite film of the year. The score felt like a pinnacle of the trend towards electronic music in film scoring and I think it will definitely shape things to come.
11. What is next for you?
We have a pretty crazy six months ahead of us at Fall On Your Sword, with three feature length projects and two TV series coming up. I am also starting to work on music for some South African projects, which is really great. I feel that South African stories are unbelievably poignant and come from such a unique context. These stories resonate with me and I often find that these projects allow me to create some of my most genuine and authentic music.
12. Lastly, I'd love to know if you could go back and change any one detail or choice in your life what would it be and why?
There is always a part of me that wishes I had been more serious about music earlier on in my life. I was pretty late to the game – being a self taught teenager who didn't really "work" at music until I got to university. That being said, I was a pretty stubborn kid who resented anything I was to forced work at so I probably wouldn't be where I am if I had to done it that way around.
For more information on Andrew go, here.
