Bird Watching
After scoring the music for Fast Food Nation, MIKE SEMPLE gets set to release music from his new group, Secretary Bird
Over the course of seven albums from 2000 to 2005, songwriter- guitarist Mike Semple helped build the hypnotic soundscape of Friends of Dean Martinez with band founder Bill Elm. Now he and Elm have developed their songcraft even further with the score for Richard Linklater's film,
Fast Food Nation. They've also contributed music to a documentary called Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea. Semple, a former member of Giant Sand and Campfire Girls, also heads up a new project called Secretary Bird with a self-titled album to be released in March 2007 on In De Goot Records. Playback recently spoke with Semple about his recent film music work, musical inspirations and the ways Howe Gelb helped hone his musical ear.
How did your interest in music begin?
My mom had an acoustic guitar hanging around the house. She tried to learn how to play it and kind of gave up on it. I picked it up and just started playing. I had kind of a knack for hearing melodies like listening to songs on the radio and playing them. I got more inspired when I played in rock bands in high school. It was a great way to be able to create and be artistic.
You played in Giant Sand for a while with Howe Gelb and Joey Burns. What was that experience like?
Giant Sand was one of my favorite bands. In Tucson, I was asked to play with them, and it was a turning point in my music career. I actually learned a lot about the nuts and bolts of music. The key to the songs would change on a nightly basis depending on what the singer, Howe Gelb, felt like. He would just pick up a different guitar on every night he had like six guitars with different tunings and keys. There was no set list, so it was all improvisation built around his songs. After a few shows on the road when you're in front of a lot of people, it really strengthens your musical ear. You have to be able to transpose on the fly.
What is your songwriting process usually like?
When you're sitting around and you've got something to figure out whether it's a matter of romance of finance or whatever and you can't gain perspective on it, have you ever gotten into your car and gone driving for a couple days? Stepping away from it kind of clears it all up. Songwriting for me is a little bit like that. It's about getting away from the things that get in the way of allowing those melodies to come. I found the more you try to write a song, the less you will. You have to kind of wait for the muse to show up.
You and Bill Elm worked on the score for Fast Food Nation with music supervisor Nick Ratner and director Richard Linklater. How did the opportunity come about?
Nick temped out the music in the film with some of our music from our old records. Everyone really liked it so they asked us to do score the film. Richard is very open minded to try different things. It was right around SXSW. We sat in a room with Nick and Richard, watched the film and talked about the different scenes. We took notes, went into the Texas Treefort Studio and projected the film on the wall. Then we started playing and kept going until we got it down. Richard and Nick came up to the studio after the second day or so, and we watched it. Richard was really easy to work with. He was really into just about everything. We've always wanted to work with a picture, and I've always personally found it really fascinating the elements of music to help visuals along. If it's done right, it can be really powerful so it was fun to give it a shot.
Was it challenging to replace temp music that is your own work?
It's really odd to see songs that are so personal being attached to something else
to have someone play you something you had written 10 years ago about missing the train and getting stuck in Germany. Then a decade later you're sitting in an office in Texas, someone's playing that song, and on the screen are two people arguing over a hamburger. It's interesting to get into someone's head to see what they heard in the melody that reminded me of a train station in Germany, but reminded them of something totally different. You have to kind of interpret that, and take it from there. You have to rely on your instincts.
— Jin Moon
TOP
