Tim Horton’s

Every once in a while a project comes through that allows you to use your craft, skills to help a serious cause, weather it’s a psa, charity, a donation of services. In this instance I was approached to write music for a documentary that aimed to raise awareness of the child sex trade in the Philippines.

There really are a few times in your life that you can honestly feel as though your efforts might actually have an impact on more than the immediate world.

For me, this was one of those times.

I was told that a well know Hollywood talent was confirmed to do the voice over.

All of us were working pro bono.

After a few meetings  to discuss the direction of the music I got on to preproduction.

There was no picture at that time but the had some ideas and references.

I felt it would be a good idea to include some traditional Filipino instrumentation.

I began researching traditional Filipino folk music. I checked in with the Smithsonian and discovered a fantastic collection of traditional folk songs. They featured voice , accompanied by an instrument call the Kudyapi/Kutiyapi.

The kudypi is similar to a strum stick and features 2 stings. One is a drone the other is used for playing the melody. Interestingly the frets are made of hardened bees wax. These frets can be moved to create different scales.

Suddenly, I was thinking about getting these instruments and using them as part of the compositional process.  I also wanted to have real instruments instead of samples. Of course there would be sampled instruments but I was set on featuring real instruments and live performances.

I talked to the music director and told them that I had a plan and wanted to start working on getting instruments and starting to pre-score.

It took a bit of calling around I managed to get in contact with a music store in the Philippines. It was a mom and pop shop in a small town in the southern region of the islands.

They were very helpful and sent my many pictures of the instruments they had in stock.

After a bit of back and forth I purchased 3 instruments. 

So then started the effort to get these instruments to my studio in Toronto.

It was clear that the package would have to travel to Canada through Manilla. It turned out that the nearest city that could provide service by air was Davoe .

The instruments were carefully packed and driven to Davoe, flown to Manilla and then Canada.

Weeks later I received the box. 

They were pretty much as I expected. I changed tuning pegs to stabilize the tuning. Made new frets and got them ready to record. I was listening to a lot of music, getting ideas and framing open ended cues. My guitar skills transferred right over to the kudyapi, so I was have fun and productive right out of the gate.

Unfortunately, some production problems came up and stalled the project. It was put on hold. Eventually the job disappeared.

I was still happy with the instruments but upset that nothing really came of the effort needed to get them. I’m sure I could have found an easier way to buy them.

But it was an exciting journey.

So, fast forward a year. I get a call from the same music director about doing a short movie about a Canadian based coffee shop that would be opening their first shop in the Philippines.

I reminded him about my kudyapis that were proudly hanging in my studio gathering dust. He remembered.

They wanted to mix ethnic sounds with orchestra and still have a modern feel. They also wanted the music to score the story from an emotional standpoint. 

I know from previous projects that it’s a fine line as to how much ethnic flavour can be added before it gets red flagged for being too authentic.

In the end its about making everyone happy and getting paid.

I was told they wanted authentic.

Great. I will finally get to use my kudyapi. All the time and effort had not gone to waste. It also looked as though I might recoup the money I had invested in them.

Oh yeah, all that business in the Philippines was out of pocket.

So I wrote them a really great piece of music featuring the kudyapi.

It made it through the first round of approvals. But got snagged at the corporate level for being way too ethnic.

So now I’m going to start adjusting ethnicity to taste.

In the end not only did they make me remove all the kudyapi but virtually all ethnic instruments.

The final was a completely new piece of music that had nothing to do with the brief 

Or the goal. But they were happy. Mission completed.

My kudyapis went back on the wall. They haven’t moved since.

I have included the first track that I submitted. One with the picture so you can follow the story. But I really enjoy it on its own.