CineConcerts was fortunate to speak with Peter Baert about his score for the adventure drama The Water Man. We discussed this process, his creation of the Water Man synth, and his choice of percussive instruments.

CineConcerts (CC): What’s your musical background and how did you get into composing?

Peter Baert (PB): Well, it was a long road. Actually, we were kind of a Belgium von Trapp family at home, we were all into music. My dad was a principal of a music school. My elder sister was a singer and my second sister a cellist and my younger sister a violinist and my dad had these choirs that played concerts all through Europe. During my whole youth there was music every day. My dad also composed music in the house and then we’d all have to be quiet because dad’s making music. So that was my childhood.

And then growing more adult, I kind of—a classic path for a boy, I think, you rebel against your dad. So, my path was laid out to go to conservatory but I didn't do that, I chose to go to film school into sound and electronic music. I started working at studios, then I started a studio myself which became successful in the area of television sound and advertising. I made a lot of music for that.

At some point in my life, I came back to the classical side and started studying online I did Berklee Online, I did a masters in orchestration and a lot of courses, so I reconnected to my classical side. And then I started doing movies, first for free and then for little budgets because that really was my first love when I was a kid. It did start with that young kid with the Star Wars album in his hands, I still have it here in my studio now.

So, one day I’m sitting here in my studio and we get a call and it’s, “Yeah, we have this actor who is to record something,” and that turned out to be David Oyelowo. He was here in Brussels shooting for Les Miserables, the BBC series, and he needed to record for a children’s audiobook. I did the session that day and we talked a lot about film and then afterwards he asked for Brussels tips since his wife was coming over. I felt a good connection so later on I sent him a message that said, “Look, I see that you're producing this movie. Is it possible to pitch on it?” And he immediately sent me the script and I made a half an hour demo and then, yeah, it started there, this wonderful movie.

CC: The demo tape you made had half an hour of music on it?

PB: Yeah, so I got the script and I read it really thoroughly, really delved into it and then I said, “I’m going to make a theme for Gunner and I’m going to make a theme for the dad, for the mom, I’m going to do something for the Water Man.”

I made eight cues and sent it to David. He really liked them but at some point another composer was attached to the project. Then half a year later I suddenly got a call, “Can we talk?” And he said they were revisiting my demo and it fits on the screen and “Are you up to it?”

I’m telling him, “Uh…Yeah! I’ve been waiting all my life for this telephone call.” So, I went to LA for a spotting session and we started working.

CC: Did any of the cues from that original demo make it into the final score or did you do something new? 

PB: Yeah. Gunner’s theme, in composition it's almost identical. The Mother’s theme as well. Of course, we really built on that because I had a half hour demo but they’ve cut it over the whole film so I had to really start working, crafting.

CC: The score is a mixture of electronic and classical and there's a really ethereal quality, especially in the beginning. The first music you hear in the film is very light and sort of otherworldly. I believe they’re wind chimes and piano, is that correct?

PB: They’re wind chimes and piano. There’s also a thing I did when I saw the film, because I wanted it to have a really authentic sound, and also… It's difficult to describe, I call it a wood-like sound. And a thing that I did in the beginning was I asked the editor Blu Murray and his assistant, “can I have all the takes of the Water Man?” Not the dialogue takes, but all the shouts, whispers and so.

Through a lot of editing, modulation and tape delays, I made the Water Man Synth. So actually, all the pads and drones that I’m using, that’s all from the Water Man samples. Afterwards, David liked it very much and he said, “wouldn’t it be great to have motherly energy as well?”

So then—there’s a vocalist that I work with named Judith Okon, she lives here in Belgium and also has Nigerian roots and her timbre is close to Rosario Dawson. So, I asked her into the studio and we recorded some long takes and some words, some sounds. And I did the same thing with these samples, I made the Mother Synth. Throughout the score I could always layer either a motherly energy or a water man energy. That gives that atmospheric undertone in the cues.

CC: Would you say that those two synths, the Water Man Synth and the Mother Synth, would you say they’re the themes of those characters or would you say they're more just for layering additional music?

PB: They’re more for layering. The themes were more in piano and marimba, some African marimba is there as well. There’s a lot of little percussions that I added into the score, that I did with percussion instruments here in my studio. There’s quite an amount of prepared piano in the score. I love to tap on my piano and make sounds with it.

CC: It's a very emotional story in this movie. I think a lot of people will be able to relate to this particular story because illness is something that everybody's very familiar with. Did you find it a challenge to balance emotions that were being played off on the screen with the music?

PB: Well, there is another background of course, that I lost my mom in 2008 to cancer, pancreatic cancer. She was gone in 6 months’ time. And that background of the story of my mom having cancer, I really took it into scoring this movie. I really could identify myself with Gunner’s journey and a lot of music came from that feeling, from the emotion.

Of course, it's like you said, it’s split emotion because you have the more adventurous journey he’s taking and you have the emotional moments. But for me the adventurous moments are more like in his head, I had that when I was a kid. I always played in the woods and I would make up, because I had seen Star Wars and E.T., so I had these soundtracks in my head all the time. And these sounds for me are in his head, like he would make them up.

We actually never talked about how much sadness there should be, it’s just how the music came out. And it’s really strange, some cues, I remember one piano cue I’d just sat at the piano and it came to me. “Okay, one take, I can’t touch this.” And it’s like that in the movie.

CC: Because you have a background of composing classical and then electronic, would you say that composing to picture is easier or maybe just something that's more natural than just sitting down and composing separately?

PB: I wouldn’t say it is composing to picture, it is composing to story. Of course, you have to hit your cue points, but you have your craft to make it, but it’s more composing to story. Because I just had the script when I started making my themes and you really have to make the story your own and really go into the story and then I think it flows. Because I make other music also as an artist and that's a different thing.

CC: You said that there was a particular cue that you sat down and it just sort of came to you. Were there any in particular in this film that were a real challenge to get quite right?

PB: There were some, yeah, but you know David, I felt a great amount of respect from David and it was like he was guiding me through this process because sometimes I felt that I was that I was completely beside the thing and then he would say, “You're in the zone,” he was like, guiding me and that was really nice to work with, actually.

There were some cues, like the horses scene or crossing the river. That was a more technically challenging cue because you have a lot of points to hit

CC: There are some instruments that I couldn't identify by ear. There’s a scene where the kids are in the red tent, talking for the first time really, and they're discussing the Water Man. It's a very light-hearted, kind of whimsical cue. In it, there’s a sound that kind of sounds like wood click-clacking—is that you, like playing on the side of your piano or is that a different instrument?

PB: That's actually, that was my percussionist who came up with these sounds. It is a lot of little Japanese wood instruments. He had a really nice, old Japanese wood block [Mokusho] that I use throughout the score.

And a funny thing in that cue is that we had the swirling tube as well. You really hear it when they’re talking and she asks for money. I play also, the recorder on that cue.

CC: It’s such an interesting collection of sounds for one cue.

PB: Yeah, I wanted to make it like, a bit silly, you know?

CC: Another part that I really, really liked is actually when they’re first entering the woods for the first time. There’s this big swell of music and there is a percussive sound in there. That again, I couldn't identify, and it sounds as if it's a wooden instrument being struck.

PB: Yeah, again, there are a lot of these little percussions in there. It’s definitely a plucked string from the piano.

CC: That one really caught my attention. I think that is my favorite cue from the movie.

PB: That’s “Enter the Forest.” It’s an important cue because that’s really where the journey starts. There was a source track on that scene but it felt not right to me, so I had a lot of conversations with David and I asked, “Can I try something?” and he said, “Go ahead.” So, I made this cue and he liked it.

CC: What made you gravitate towards—there’s a lot of wooden instruments that you mentioned and I do think that they bring a particular warmth to the sound. As you said, the big journey is going into the forest, going into the woods. Is that what made you gravitate towards those instruments?

PB: Yeah. It’s natural. I think it's also something, since the pandemic, having that slow down, reconnecting back to Nature.

CC: Yeah, gotta get outside!

PB: Yeah. So that’s really the idea behind it. Of course, it has to stay in a musical context so it was to look how far you can go there. There also some African percussion in there. Like I said before, African marimba that has a different sound than a normal marimba.

What I also rediscovered during this scoring is that I’m actually a percussionist. And that was actually the path that I was on before I went into the electronic journey. So, I played the marimbas and timpani myself and some concert drums.  That was really fun to record.

When it was time to record the orchestra, we were planning to go to Budapest to record a 60-piece orchestra, but then the pandemic hit and we were locked down here in Belgium and it was really strict. So, at some point, I really wanted to score to record so we, me and Matt Dunkley, my orchestrator we eventually found Galaxy Studios here in Belgium where we played the score with 9 players—4 string, 2 woodwinds, and 3 brass. We could put them all in separate rooms in Galaxy Studios and recorded layer on layer.

CC: Oh wow! So, you were able to record together just not technically in the same room?

PB: In all the rooms, we couldn’t see with eye contact, we had video contact. It felt like recording a rock back because you say, “Okay, great take, we’ve just got to do the cello.” So, it has its advantages of course.

CC: We’ve talked to a few composers who have had to set up recording during the pandemic and so, there's been certain challenges. This is the first instance where I heard that people got to do that kind of setup.

PB: Well, you have to have the room—because Galaxy Studios is a big complex and a lot of smaller studios. So, it was possible. It’s not that simple to do.

CC: A lot of people we’ve talked to say they just can’t wait to either get back into the recording studio or into an actual performance space. Are there any cues that we didn't touch on that you would like people to look out for when watching the film?

PB: My favorite cue is called “The Hut” That was really a very nice scene to do. Lonnie Chavis and Amiah Miller are great. There’s such a great vibe between them in the film.

The opening as well, “Gunner’s Theme,” because it’s been with me since I made the demo.

CC: What advice do you have for young composers just starting out?

PB: Learn to know your craft, that’s an important one, and don't look for it. Broaden your horizons, do other things and let it come. Make it possible that you have the means, make it possible to arrive, and just let it come. Don’t look after it too much because that’s lost energy.

CC: What's next for you? What upcoming projects do you have that you can tell us about?

PB: I'm now sketching for a Belgian prime time series Lost Luggage. It’s a fictional series about the Brussels attacks in Zaventem, which is our national airport. There were terrorist attacks in 2016 and this is now a fictional series around all the luggage that was left after the attacks that they brought back to the victims. So, that’s something we’re going to do, now shooting, and I’m sketching already.