Musician Robert Allaire Talks Some Kind of Hate
Scott Hallam
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Robert Allaire is a unique musical talent. His work can be heard on several episodes of “American Horror Story,” and he now brings his interesting skills to the new movie Some Kind of Hate. Allaire recently talked with Dread Central about his work on the film.
Allaire began by discussing how he became involved with Some Kind of Hate (review). “I got a call from my agent about the film and had a meeting with the director, Adam Egypt Mortimer, where he made some good coffee and showed me parts of the film,” Allaire said. “We really connected over our love for experimental music and ideas about film, so working together was a natural fit.”
To get unique sounds for the music he composed, Allaire incorporated some unorthodox techniques, including using razor blades to play some instruments. “Razor blades are an important motif for the villain, Moira, and that led me to try using them on various instruments,” Allaire said. “So there are a lot of scrapes and scratches you hear from razor blades on guitar and other string instruments. Even if the audience doesn’t connect where the sound came from, the texture itself is pretty interesting and was ultimately inspired by taking that hard look at the characters to find ideas that can manifest themselves in the sound of the score.”
The score for Some Kind of Hate has a very heavy metal vibe and is quite gritty. Allaire discussed his inspiration for the music. “Lincoln, the main protagonist of the film, is a huge metal fan as is the director, Adam,” Allaire said. “There’s actually a scene where Lincoln talks about how important that style of music is to him. So again, it’s an example of finding inspiration from the characters and in this case transforming the main character’s love of a certain music into a theme in the score.”
Allaire talked about working with director Adam Egypt Mortimer. “Adam is great to work with,” Allaire said. “He has very clear ideas in terms of style and starting point, but he also allowed me a lot of room to explore my own ideas. I found that the stranger I made something sound, the more he liked it, which is always great.”
Detailing the making of the music, Allaire discussed how he built the sound. “If there was any unifying idea behind the orchestration, it was to never play an instrument as intended,” Allaire said. “So guitars were detuned and often recorded with contact mics. Cellos were played scratchy and distorted to the point of being unrecognizable. One of my percussion instruments is actually a heavily detuned bass being smacked on the strings with a nail file. I called a guitarist friend of mine, Matthew Setzer, to record some guitar drones; and at one point we threw a pound of wood screws into a broken guitar amp to get extra nastiness and grit out of the sound. That was fun.”
We asked Allaire to speak about what he felt was the key to creating a great horror movie score. He let us in on his ideas. “I think it’s important to know when to hold back and allow the natural atmosphere of a scene to be scary,” Allaire said. “Silence can often create more tension than anything, and a scare will always be more effective when you allow that tension to ratchet up as much as possible before breaking. Then you can go all out.”
And finally, we asked Allaire about some of his favorite horror titles. He had an amusing response. “Alien, 28 Days Later, Under the Skin… and whatever movie they end up making about Donald Trump’s presidential run.”
Below are two of the tracks featured in Some Kind of Hate, “Rage Within” and “Wolves from the Door.” For more visit the official Robert Allaire website and follow him on Twitter @RobertAllaire. You can also lick this link for the official Some Kind of Hate website.
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Some Kind of Hate Synopsis:
Relentless bullying has turned Lincoln’s life into a nightmare. But he soon learns the true meaning of terror when he is sent to a remote school for troubled teens and the harassment starts all over again. Only this time, someone is watching–a teenage girl named Moira who was driven to suicide by vicious bullying years ago. When Lincoln accidentally summons Moira from the grave, he unleashes a vengeful and unstoppable force on a mission of blood-soaked revenge. Hell on Earth has a new meaning in this gruesome shocker.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHux0b2Bk_4&w=640&h=360]
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