Melding jazz and improv comedy

One of the things that I hope will be a fixture on fan/work is a series around fans integrating fandom into their work or whose fandom has influenced their work, I’m kicking things off with an email interview with Australian composer, performer, sound designer, and recording artist Patrick Haesler. 

I came across Patrick’s work on TikTok when I saw him laying down music to a clip from Game Changer, a game show on Dropout, an American streaming service focusing on comedy. He turned a moment from comedian Josh Ruben into a chill lo-fi beat you could listen to while studying or reading. 

How did you learn about Game Changer? When did you become a fan of Game Changer? What did you enjoy about it? 

Patrick: I've been a fan of CollegeHumor for a long, long time. All the way back to the early days of Hardly Working and Jake and Amir. So, when Dropout launched I  was one of the first subscribers. I've been with Game Changer since the beginning. It's one of my favourite shows on Dropout. I watch new episodes as soon as I can. I really love how it's an opportunity for the players to display their personality. It's also a great way to show off the tech and production crew.

What made you decide to start creating tracks from and for Game Changer clips? 

Patrick: I started doing it because there were musical moments featured in episodes that really excited me and inspired me. I always like trying to experiment and find fun things to do with music and sound design. Adding music to these moments from Game Changer was a really great way to do that. But also it's been a really good way to get my creations in front of the eyes and ears of other people. 

So many people already know and love Game Changer (Eunice’s note: Dropout has around 15 million subscribers on YouTube and an article on Variety puts their subscriber count for their streaming service to be around mid-six figures.), so to be able to draw on that and then show them the kinds of things that I can do has been a really great way to share my music.

How did you approach this prompt, compared to other briefs or projects that you worked on? 

Patrick: It's different for each of the Game Changer clips that I've done. But usually, I'll start by transcribing whatever the music or sound is. Sometimes that will be literally writing out sheet music of what is in the clip, sometimes it's just mapping out tempos and specific moments in my DAW (music production software). This gives me an idea of what musical framework already exists within the clip. Then I can start to map what I want to do on top of that. This is kind of similar to what I do when I'm working on film-scoring projects. Before writing the music you have to map out the structure and the pacing.

What was the process like for you? 

Patrick: Overall, it's really a chance to push my technical knowledge. It can be really hard to map to clips where the timing tempo or key centre isn't consistent, and then there might be multiple sounds layered together that I have to reconcile. But as well as those technical challenges, it's also an opportunity to push my musical choices in interesting or challenging directions. Answering that question of "how can I make a weird moment in a clip sound good?" often requires drawing on new musical approaches that I wouldn't use otherwise. 

How does this fit into your practice or craft? Has doing these videos/taking on these challenges or prompts helped you experiment as a musician and composer?  

Patrick: Absolutely. Again, it's different for each clip. With my latest one, making a Lo-Fi beat from Josh Ruben's Hold Music, what started out as just a fun little idea for a quirky video turned into a song that I wanted to produce to the highest quality and then release. So first I had to take that challenge of making the musical moment from the clip work in the context of wider arrangement. But then I also had to get really in depth with the music production - making everything sound appealing, mixing and mastering to a high standard, making it something that people would want to actually listen to and put on playlists outside of the context of just clicking on a YouTube video. Every time I work on a new song I try to do something new or push myself in a new direction. With every song I release I want the mix to be tighter, I want to try new techniques so that I'm constantly getting better at evolving. It just so happened that this time I was doing that with a Game Changer clip.

You've done homages or experiments (like re-scoring or setting music to a different genre) with other existing work like Super Mario, Beetlejuice, Cowboy Bebop, Animal Crossing, to name a few. How do you select the prompts that you work off of? 

Patrick: It usually comes down to something that I like or something that inspires me in the moment. A lot of times that's a video game or TV show that's coming out that excites me. Sometimes it's something that I know people will be interested in, something that's trending. Like when I did my arrangement of the theme from Animal Crossing New Horizons. Partly that was because I was playing the game and enjoying the soundtrack - but I also knew that a lot of people would be searching for Animal Crossing things online and my video might show up and that might result in a wider reach. 

Audience and reach is always a consideration, but I never do something just because I think people will see it. I try to make sure that every project I do, I have a genuine interest and passion in. I think people can tell when stuff is being made just for clicks and I really want to avoid doing that. 

How has this practice helped you grow as a musician and composer? 

Patrick: I think what it showed me is that people can be really open to new and exciting things when there's an element of something that they already know and like involved. A whole bunch of people have been really interested in weird technical jazz fusion music just because it's been laid underneath a Game Changer clip. So I think going forward people are going to see a lot more music from me where I'm incorporating the music that I have a passion for with other things that I have a passion for, but that also a lot of other people have passion for.

You can check out Patrick’s work on his YouTube channel or on his Spotify page.

Speaking to Patrick was a good experience because it allowed me to connect with someone whose craft overlaps with their fandom. I think Patrick’s example shows us that the art of practicing, of honing our craft can be fun and lighthearted, that the pursuit of our curiosities (no matter how disparate or disconnected they may seem to others), ultimately benefits us.

In addition, bringing two things together (in his case, jazz and improv comedy) can spark curiosity in people and allow them to consider possibilities that they may not have welcomed otherwise. The world could use more of that.

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Thanks for reading, and see you all next Friday!