Interview with Justin Lassen
Hello Justin, could you introduce yourself to our readers and how you got started in 3D... Oops… music?
Hi. I’m Justin. I am a composer, independent producer and art director/graphic artist and I’m 25 years old. I’m self-taught. I think it was during the early years in school. Since I was a child, the music and drama classes in school were always my favorites, so I worked hard to get myself into the top music classes whenever possible. I hadn’t really thought about it being a professional career until around 1996. That’s when I noticed my interest and focus started increasing drastically.
I don’t think I’ve had my “big break” yet, but my first break was perhaps the Robert Miles remix with the London Session Orchestra tracks, which was an incredibly fun (if terrifying) glimpse into what “high production values” means.
So, you are creating music for still 3D-2D images, please tell us what the main basic idea/technique behind this is?
The basic idea is to bring the scene to life through music and audible texture, by whatever means necessary. This could mean melody, themes, motifs, counterpoint, minimalism or other things. It really depends on what the scene calls for.
The technique is definitely more emotional than scientific, but if I had to boil it down to some rules, I’d say Gaussian blur calls for reverb, brighter colors call for louder sounds, objects and shapes in the scene and overall composition determines the duration of the recording, and perceived camera movement and action points painted into the scene determine pacing. The mood and texture in the recording is determined by the color palette and tone in the painting.
Feel free to bust me on those if you notice they’re not consistent with what you’ve seen and heard in the Synaesthesia pieces. I’m not entirely aware of what I’m doing. It just seems to bubble up from the subconscious. I just know what it needs, but I don’t know exactly why. I’d love to be able to describe it more cluefully, but I suspect I’m more of an artist than a scientist. Deeper, geekier analysis is welcome, btw.
As with all art, I suspect these are not strict rules or laws. Some of the more obscure and perhaps abstract methods behind this style are the emotion in the faces of the characters, or the emotion of the environment or circumstance. Their skin tone, how they are feeling, wondering what they are feeling, or if they are feeling at all. Not every painting works this way for me, but I am most inspired by truly finished pieces that tell stories without words. The eye in the character (if there is one) really must know what is going on.
What’s the meaning of Synaesthesia?
Synaesthesia is basically a condition where your senses intermingle in sometimes odd ways. Tasting shapes, hearing colors, seeing touch- that sort of thing. For instance, you might feel a mango with six tentacles in your hands at the mention of the word “ham,” and the shape of what you feel changes with infinite variety, depending on what you’re thinking of. The thing about Synaesthesia is that it is not voluntary, meaning your mind will do these things without trying.
I don’t really have to think of any of the technical issues of creation, because it seems to be playing the music in my head, just by looking at the image. It’s not really a complicated process for me. Not all images make such beautiful music though. Some just make loud noises. Some are silent. Some drone. It all really depends.
All I really do is edit. I choose which images to present to the world, for quality control of the series.
Have you ever had a chance to create a soundtrack for moving pictures and how much you are comfortable in doing that?
I’ve done a few dozen short films over the years. My favorite score type project was getting the chance to do two remix/revision scores for Mark Osborne, inspired by his short film project ‘More’, which if you haven’t seen, you surely should. It was nominated for an Oscar, but it’s amazing how few people have seen it.
I would love to score a full length feature film, however, it’s a ton of work to compose for and conduct an orchestra, and most filmmakers aren’t comfy spending the kind of money it takes to do it right, easily a couple hundred thousand, and that’s if you’re going with a really cost-effective orchestra like the Prague Orchestra or other Eastern European Orchestras. Even if they are willing, you’re back to that fabulous catch-22 of “have you done it before?” I’m sure you know how this tune goes.
In the studio film market where the money supposedly flows like water, there’s that Danny Elfman chap, who I must confess is really brilliant, and the bastard has a corner on the market of gothic symphonic film scores. Perhaps your dear readers could collectively pray to the Dark Faeries to impart their withering kisses to each of his talented little digits and steal them away to the Nether World from whence they came?
If you have to create music for a still image which has no environment, background (may be you can see), dramatic lighting, props but great modeled character then will be possible to do? If yes, then please try to create an exclusive music for this wonderful still 3d image of Korean Actress – Song Hye Kyo by Max Edwin Wahyudi from Indonesia?
She looks almost too perfect to me, like a beautiful android from Blade Runner. She also looks a little like she’s dressed for an informal networking party where she is expected to smile, even though she’d rather not.
 Listen the track inspired by the image. I gave it a slowly surging section of ethereal electronic instruments to create an ambience supporting what I interpreted as an informal party in a large, white room in a future setting. The surge is the buzz of conversations and energy in the room. She’s standing at the edge of the party, both physically and emotionally. She’s there with a jerk who cares only about his image. He expects her to conform- to be a quiet, obedient prop, and to hide her true feelings. I tried to express her strained need to fit in and the effort to suppress her true feelings in the short, staccato electronic notes that are reverberating in that lonely space. Towards the end of the track, as the surges strengthen and overlap, I imagine her losing her composure briefly as she meets a guy who encourages her to express her true self without the truncated notes, but then she is busted and embarrassed in front of the others by the jerk she came with, and the room goes painfully quiet with only a faint echo of its previous energy. You can download the exclusively created music for Song Hye Kyo.
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