Album InSite
#1 Crush
#2 Charon
#3 Breakdown
#4 Sitting in Limbo
#5 Bad Credit
#6 No Matter What Song is On
#7 Let Me Go
#8 Dear Child
#9 By My Side Tonight
#10 Promises
#11 Leave You Behind
#12 Rest My Head
benschormusic.com
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Wednesday, October 04, 2006 It's been a busy fall. From finishing up on the Lake House and Who Killed The Electric Car, I've been hard at work on the latest installment in the American Pie franchise: The Naked Mile. Directed by USC Alum Joe Nussbaum and scored by Jeff Cardoni, The Naked Mile is one funny ass movie. It's been a joy to be a part of this project. Look for its release on DVD this December. You can sign up for more updates on The Naked Mile by visiting the American Pie website.Happy Halloween! Ben
Tuesday, May 09, 2006 Hi, everybodyI'm not sure how many folks are checking in, but I thought I'd give an update as to what's been going on with me. I'm still doing work in the film business, now as a full Music Editor for film and television. The past year has been an unforgettable one. I've had the pleasure of working with some great people, including former SNL writer/MR. SHOW creator Bob Oedenkirk, producer of STARGATE, INDEPENDENCE DAY & THE PATRIOT Dean Devlin and ambient guitar pioneer Michael Brook. Keep your eyes peeled for two of my latest film projects this summer: a documentary about the now defunct EV-1 from General Motors called WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR, and a time-bending romance between Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock called THE LAKE HOUSE. Both are to be released in June. Things are starting to get going for me as far as new original material is concerned. Look for more updates this summer, and some possible new tunes on the way. Thanks to all of you who've kept up with me and supported me. I appreciate your dedication greatly. Keep in touch, Ben
Saturday, May 28, 2005 Hey, everyone!Here's an update on what's been going on. I've been working non stop on this summer's action movie, STEALTH. The film is directed by Rob Cohen, who is responsible for The Fast and the Furious, XXX, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story and Dragonheart, among others. It stars Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama), Jessica Biel (Blade:Trinity/Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Jamie Foxx (Ray, Collateral) and Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff, Thunderheart). The music for the movie is written by Brian Transeau, also known in electronica circles as BT. The movie is set to open on July 29th. It's been quite a whirlwind working in the film side of music. As soon as I've got something new to put on the site for you all, I'll send out an email, so be sure to sign up for the mailing list for all the latest information. Look for a site redesign for BenSchorMusic.com coming soon. All My Best, Ben
Sunday, October 10, 2004 Wow, and you thought the last blog update was overdue!If you haven't downloaded the fourth installment by now, it's going to be up for just a few more days. Let me tell you a few things about these pieces of music. These last two installments contain some of the best pieces I have recorded. The two cues come from late 2002/early 2003, and the song, "Stain the Rainbow," is a little ditty I whipped up while I was still at USC. What I like the most about "I Can Chime" is that it is part of that Business Administration video set of cues that I wrote in 2002, and those cues represent a shift in my programming and writing mentality. "I Can Chime" is pretty minimal on orchestration, but I used some of the drum beats in a way that I hadn't really explored in my writing up until that point. "Not Stirred" was the beginning of this shift, and it continued through a good portion of the cues from that video, as you will see in the final installment. "Are You In?" is another of the reorchestrations of old themes that I wrote for Ethan. It's a happy little tune that is very much at home in the style of my last album, and I am very pleased to have rerecorded it. One of the things that this cue did was to lead the way towards my own personal rediscovery of playing electric guitar, something that I think will also find its way into whatever the next project may be. "Stain the Rainbow" was one of the quickest songs I ever wrote. Like, "Breakdown," I had the concept fleshed out before sitting down to write the lyrics. I wanted to do a song from the perspective of a guy who is about to die, and he wants to clear his conscience with his mate about the fact that he had cheated and lied to her for so long. Not the happiest of stories, but it was also part of a series of songs I wrote about confronting the end of life. Also, like "Breakdown," I wanted to be specific about my aims with the song's theme. It's certainly a practice that I'm finding is much more at home in the realm of country music rather than pop, but, while I meant for the song to be specifically about the end of the character's life, it is broad enough in its scope that it is also about the end of relationships and the power of a lie. In this case, the lie was like a cancer, and the picture of the relationship was more pristine than the relationship itself. "Stain the Rainbow" was originally a part of my first short form EP, recorded in 1999-2000. I think that aside from the lyric, which I am very proud to have written, it has one of the most solid chorus hooks I've composed. For a good while, I wanted to put it on the album that ended up becoming NOWHERE ON MY OWN, but I felt that it was more a representation of where I'd been and less of a representation of where I was going as a writer. That being said, I still plan to rerecord it and arrange it with the band for an upcoming project. So, stay tuned in cuz we've only got one installment left! Cheers, Ben
Tuesday, August 03, 2004 A bit overdue, yes, but here's the third installment of New BenSchorMusic bloggety goodness!"On The Go" is one of the aformentioned reorchestrations of one of the old themes from my first promotional video collaboration with Ethan Shaftel. This little groove was easy to expand upon, conisdering that it was all built around the acoustic guitar pattern. I sped up the tempo a bit the second time around to give it a bit more punch. Additionally, the bluesier nature of the cue is more reflective of the direction I was starting to head into with the last of my compositions for Ethan's promo videos. More of this bluesiness is reflected in last installments piece, "Knof Off." And, for a guy who looked up to Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lyle Lovett as a young musician, it's about time some of that blues influence crept on out in an instrumental form. "Countryside" comes from my second promo collaboration with Ethan in the summer of 2001. Ethan asked me to do something along the lines of our first year's Beautiful Italy theme, and I came up with this somber, gentle and contemplative piece. I was a bit concerned about the music being too slow for the video, but Ethan was very satisfied. The cue also gave me a chance to delve a bit deeper into my finger picking style, something I was starting to work on with my guitar professor at USC, David Oakes. To this day, "Countryside" is one of my favorite compositions. I love how placid it is, and I just fall apart on the C section and coda where the two guitars interweave. I could listen to an entire cue built around that one section for hours. That simple progression gets me every time. Lastly, the acoustic version of "Crush" was recorded in the late fall of 2001, just as I was developing material and arrangements with my friend and fellow songwriter, Matt Heinecke. Matt and I handled guitar and vocal duties, while my friend Susan Walter handled the fiddle (as she would later do on the album for Leave You Behind). Matt is a ripping guitar player, and I totally love his solo work on "Crush." This acoustic arrangement was what I played around town up until recording the album. In fact, up until the day we had Susan in to record the CD, the fiddle part was going to be a part of the album version of the song. But, as fate would have it, the fiddle didn't fit in to the sound of the whole band. I am very glad to still have this version to play. I like how much a different perspective it gives on the song to the band version. And, considering how much a Nickel Creek and Bluegrass fan I am, this verson plays more to those tastes. Enjoy, and I'll see you next week for Part Four.
Sunday, July 04, 2004 Allow me to guide you through the second of five installments of new BenSchorMusic.First off, "Shadowplay" comes from my second collaboration with filmmaker Ethan Shaftel. Having completed one narrative project with Ethan during the previous spring, a short feature called Empire Airways, he called upon me to work up some pieces of music for a promotional video that he was doing for Kansas University. At the time, I had no idea that this process of writing music during the summers for Ethan would blossom into the amount of music that it has. But, I had enjoyed working with Ethan, and I was itching to do some more instrumental writing. The subject of the video was a Business professional Abroad program in Italy. Ethan had spent a few weeks on campus and in Italy to get his footage, and it was up to me to strike the right tone. For Empire Airways, I had relied heavily on my skills in programming, but due to the fact that I was in Seattle for the summer (and armed only with my acoustic guitar and four-track analog recorder), it was clear that I had a few limitations for instrumentation. And, unlike our last project, I would be working with Ethan over the phone and over a shorter period of post-production. That said, my process for that first promotional project was simple. Prior to composing, Ethan and I outlined the sections of the video and their corresponding subject matter. Unlike Empire Airways, Ethan wanted enough music to put through the entire video. We talked about several editorial segments that he was putting together, and after that, I tried writing a few ideas for each section. After creating the basic framework and melody for some of the pieces, I got updated info from Ethan as far as the length of the sections of the video. "Shadowplay" was something of a crapshoot. I had written a number of pieces, and of all of them, "Shadowplay" was the one that I felt would not fit into the video. I loved it, but was sure that It was a bit different from most of the other pieces. Regardless, I sent it to Ethan and listened for his feedback. He loved it, and "Shadowplay" became the theme for all of the Abroad videos we did together. "Knof Off" comes from the most recent collaboration Ethan and I did together. By the time we had come to our fourth video, and Ethan had seen and heard what I was capable of doing with my programming and guitars, he wanted me to do reorchestrations of many of the old themes, and to write a couple of new ones. "Knof Off" is one of the new ones, and a bit of an ode to someone I admire... Lastly, "These Hands" is an old song that I wrote while in college. Early on in that phase of my writing, I was very taken by patterns, and it had occurred to me that my grandmother, my mom and I all had similar hands. I wanted to write something about my life. As is, "These Hands" contains one of my favorite lines I've ever written: My hands are getting stronger/writing up a storm that I hope will write the weather that will someday keep me warm Enjoy the weather. Cheers, Ben
Saturday, June 19, 2004 Dear Friends,It is my distinct pleasure to welcome you all back to the site, and to introduce the first of five sets of Web Exclusive music postings to BenSchorMusic.com. The first two titles, "Not Stirred" and "Washed Out," are instrumental pieces which I wrote as part of an ongoing project with my filmmaker friend, Ethan Shaftel, while finishing up at USC and in my first year post-college. Ethan, while being an immensely talented director and film student, worked for several years in creating a series of promotional videos for Kansas University Business and Abroad programs. Having partnered with Ethan on a few narrative Student Films at SC, I had the excellent fortune to create some pieces of mood music for his promo projects for four years in a row. Both "Not Stirred" and "Washed Out" come from our third year of collaboration. Having the chance to collaborate with Ethan for the promo videos was a real treat for me. "Not Stirred" and "Washed Out" are two of my favorites, not only from the third year, but from all of my film pieces. I was able to explore my sound in a new way, out of the confines of much of what I had written as a songwriter, and to work on my programming skills. Aside from the guitars, all of the instruments in both pieces are programmed. Working with Ethan forced me to think and build music in different structural terms, and that was very rewarding and very freeing for me. The third recording is an acoustic demo of "Bad Credit," which was recorded in the summer of 2000 in Seattle, not long after having finished the writing of the song. It was during this time that I began to think about doing an EP recording on a small scale, having recorded three demos in Seattle the previous summer. My good friend, Joe Crnko (who I know from my days of singing with Vocalpoint Seattle), helped to record the songs. This particular vocal performance was captured on a day while I was sick, and what I thought might have been a hindrance to the recording ended up being the very reason I enjoy it so much. There is a bit of bite in the way I sang that day, and I really love how the vocal plays with the blues in its tuning, inflection and pitch accuracy. In many ways, I prefer this vocal to the version on Nowhere On My Own, but both performances offer varied shades of the story. After July Fourth, the second wave of new BenSchorMusic will be posted, but be sure to download these tunes in the coming weeks because they are exclusive, and they will only be up and available for a short time. Happy listening, and thanks for sticking in there, guys. Enjoy. Cheers, Ben Schor
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