Tag Archives: Television

HOW TV SHOWS WE STREAM INFLUENCE OUR MUSIC

KILLING EVE was a BBC America TV show from the UK that we streamed. It happened very innocently as I LOVE @sandraoh. I happened to mention it to my partner, Myqui who never really saw Sandra in anything but GREYSANATOMY so I thought it will a treat to see Sandra in action again after so many years.

We watched the first episode of the show and was FLOORED. I mean – I have written many film scripts, sketch comedy and TV ideas for shows but never quite encountered anything as funny and as captivating or as murderous as this first episode “NICE FACE”. Every episode title was included in each show’s dialog. It was really an amazing feat to view. So naturally we watched the entire series for the first season. The Ending of that Season 1 – was a cliffhanger with character #villanelle stabbed by superspy #evepolastry and they were both on the run.

The 2nd season was written by a different female showrunner. Another amazing fact was that in Season 1 after the first episode was aired, the show was renewed for a 2nd season without having to go the entire first season. AKA it was a HIT! IT WAS! I VOUCH FOR THAT. Season 2 started seconds after season 1 cliffhanger and patched up some questions in that first episode of Season 2. Then there was Episode 2 which was so far removed from anything presented thus far that it really reminded us of actress #Jodiecomer’s Film that we had streamed #THIRTEEN” a 2016 film she had done about a girl who held captive for 13 years by her abductor and what happened after she escaped her abuser.

It wasn’t until the 3rd Season of the show that we decided to write a song about it. This was after having watched Seasons 1-3 as if it were THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, which we have seen 100s of times, separately and together. Funny we never wrote a song about Rocky Horror but then it was a musical…..

We did not want to write a fan song and create a fan video because that doesn’t serve a purpose and we wanted the song to have a wide appeal. We are gay so we decided to make the video about actors we admire and love – female actors who identify the same way we do. We did put GIFS and VIDEOS of the actors in KILLING EVE but basically we don’t consider what we did for this song as a FAN VIDEO. The words and music we were basing on the music that the show had in each episode. A UK band named UNLOVED was the music creators for KE.

Unloved is an American alternative music trio formed in Los Angeles in 2015, by the American musician Jade Vincent and Keefus Ciancia, and the Northern Irish musician, David Holmes.[1][2] Songs from their 2016 debut album Guilty of Love[3] and 2019 follow-up album Heartbreak were used as the basis of the soundtrack to the BBC America television series Killing Eve (2018–2022). Ciancia and Holmes also provided original material for the soundtrack, for which they won the 2019 BAFTA TV Craft Award for Original Music.

UNLOVED music fit the mood of the series to a T while we could only imitate so much. We did a good job of capturing the series in the song we eventually wrote. The song has several components and frankly it sounds like several different modes going off at the same time. I used to play middle eastern guitar and bass in those types of bands. I learned a lot of different modes in order to do that. So in our song, GIRL, there is definitely a middle eastern sound in the middle of the song which is a memory from my days working on that kind of music.

In order to write that song it was necessary to be total invested in the show #KILLINGEVE. Meaning, we had to know the characters, their motivations, what is driving the show forward and what the ending may entail. The reasons for this is the same as writing the show – a song must have a beginning, a middle and an end. It’s similar to the ARC that writers and producers constantly talk about whenever they are asked about the writing of their stories. Every song has that too because songs are stories in music.

The song GIRL starts with a guitar bass note imitating a heartbeat and the words “I follow you in my secret life, every hit you do not hide…” It’s a narrative and it’s a story and even without the references to the show it is a love song that any gender can sing to another. It’s not about being gay or straight it’s all about a love story between two human beings who are intrinsically linked like a quantum entanglement*

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(What is quantum entanglement in simple terms? Quantum entanglement is when two particles link together in a certain way no matter how far apart they are in space. Their state remains the same.)

How Television & Films Affect our Writing

Today social media is all the rage but so is Television and Film has made a comeback on the small screen. The cinema is not quite gone but the number of people who grace a theater chair has diminished considerably since Cable TV and STREAMING.

#COGNITIVEFUNGUS is on one main #socialmedia site – #instagram

and that is because our bass player/songwriter got into #freespeech trouble on #twitter & #facebook. Since 2004 when FB was founded our bass player has had at least 2 different emails to log onto the platform PER YEAR. We told her to stop going on the platform and she’s agreed – FB is not a forum we use a lot. Our lead guitarist has a presence that is over 1 Thousand followers but we don’t yet have a page for our business.

Twitter was another story prior to 2016 when the biggest conman that ever ran for #POTUS won and it went downhill from there. Our National News outlets, TV reporters and channels, Celebrities and actors and others from political parties around the world make their presence known on that platform. Now that the 2nd biggest troll has taken over that platform it is no good for anyone. That’s just a personal observation. We could never really get people to hear our music on any of these platforms save for INSTAGRAM and SOUNDCLOUD. After 20

The latter being relevant because we are members of a Soundcloud program that promotes our music on College stations, internet stations and through Pandora, SoundCloud itself and Jango.

We have fans- from all over the world – but in truth there is just the two of us for now. A music duo who etched their music from the days of #NEWWAVE & @PUNK. So back in the day. Sure there are #OPENMICS

where a band or people from a band goes to a showcase and plays a song or two so people hear their music but it isn’t the same thing as it used to be back in the last century. All you had to do was know a couple of people and you booked a night at say #MAXSKANSASCITYCLUB. That place was like our 2nd home and we didn’t know each other then. My band used to be THE CULPRITS and we had following there. I fondly remember my Fridays at Max’s in the mornings where I go and get my pint and a cheeseburger from Debbie Harry (#blondie) who used to waitress there. I dunno if she remembers me but I remember her. I saw BLONDIE many times in my life as a band and they also had a home at MAX’s.

Funny thing about TV & FILM – they tend to influence people in many different ways. For me, the show that influenced me the most in recent years was #KILLINGEVE, A BBC America Original and a very addictive show. The first season written by #phoebewallerbridge was PERFECTLY crafted so that every episode following the first was linear. She created a wonderful and interesting first season.

I will write more about these different shows that influenced our writing in the following blog I plan to write on Thursday.

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