MRH: The Brits have been very good in creating intelligent reality/documentary shows for the world market, perhaps because of a tradition of making purposeful documentaries, and I feel that your writing is similarly flexible: it conveys the heart of an episode, informing the viewer, but it also draws from a very broad range of music styles without turning the episode into something that’s commercially disposable – a common problem with reality and documentary shows on myriad specialty channels in North America.
 
When you’re about to score an episode, what specific things do you adhere to, so that an episode’s integrity is entertaining and informative?

 
DP: I just think, ‘How can I have fun today?’ so when there’s an episode about a big submarine, I’ll write a big male voice choral track. I just sort of let myself have fun and try and evoke some of the storytelling and emotions of the episode into the songs.

I want to make things that will just excite anyone watching the show. TV and film music is so afraid of being bold these days, which I find a really shame. Listen to Ennio Morricone’s scores - they are mental and so in your face. I love that kinda of stuff. Obviously there’s a place for more subtle stuff, and I do that too, but sometimes it’s really good fun to just let it rip.

Ironically, U.K. docs and reality shows have been really good places to do that, as you don’t have the same dramatic structures and disciplines to hold you back as you do with dramatic work, and people let you do more what you want to do and not what they think the exec, who is second-guessing an audience, wants.
 
Also, recording live with a big choir and orchestra is great, great fun. The choir loves it. I turned up at a session a while ago, and as I walked into the studio, they said they still couldn’t get a song we recorded a year ago out of their heads.

It’s fun to work with words and phrases rather than just ‘oos’ and ‘ahhs’ for once. It’s silly, but also kinda emotional too. And you hear that stuff on Monster Moves; it’s the sort of show that’s the last place you’d expect to hear it, and it does blow you away, I think, if only for the surprise element.

I mean, I would look at the show’s soundtrack album, as I’m sure many of your readers may do, and think, ‘Why the hell would I want to hear music from that show?’ But you hear it and you’re like, ‘What the hell is this??’



MRH: Unlike American shows, the British productions tend to run as long as they need, so they’re not vulnerable to filler episodes just to deliver a 23 episode run with an aim to make the syndication minimums. Because dramatic and documentary series in Britain can run 6 or 9 episodes, does that make it easier for a composer to write and refine a score with less pressure?

I’m also curious to know if the smaller run of episodes per season allows one to work on several shows, knowing you’re not locked into a long and draining production schedule?
 

DP: I just finished a great BBC series over here called Desperate Romantics. We recorded it at Abbey Road, live orchestra, with a band attached. 6 episodes. 170 separate cues. All live, no overdubs. Glam rock bass guitars, saxes, strings, harps, the lot.

It killed me, it was so much work, but I was still really proud of everything I wrote. If it was 23 episodes, there’s no way I could have kept it up. I would have to start taking short cuts, coming up with different ways to cut corners.

The show had a real unique sonic identity as a result, and I think the relatively ‘small’ number of episodes was a part of that. If you’ve got to write, say, 680 cues, you’re not gonna do it all live. It would just kill you. You’d probably start using the same tricks – loops, drones, etc. – that you hear all the time, so it was nice to not have to do that. And it also meant that you can keep moving between jobs and stay excited. I did a number of other projects in the year, too, like this BBC Iraq War drama called Occupation (I think it’s coming to the U.S. later in the year) which was completely different stylistically.
 

MRH: Although you’ve scored episodes dealing with submarines, trains, Egyptian monuments, courthouses, and steamships, what are your three favourite episodes, and some of the music styles you were delighted to explore?

DP: My fav songs are “The Train from Bloemfontein,” “Heave Ho,” and “Gold.” They are just over the top, completely shameless big pieces of music. If you hear them, you will think, ‘What the hell?’ which I think is actually a good reaction these days. I wish there was more music that made me do that.