Spotlight On: Raffertie

We caught up with Ben to find out first hand a bit more about his process when it comes to scoring, what he’s been watching recently and who he’d love to work with in the future;

How do you generally approach a score?

There are many considerations: story, characters, emotional content, and how the director wants to draw these.

If I’m working on a project at an early stage, either script or an early edit, I will jump around the story writing ideas. Much of this music is quite textural as I find the sound world for the story, the themes tend to come after this. Working on edits that are already locked can be more direct, it’s more apparent, more quickly, what the themes should be and I suppose I work more sequentially from start to finish in these instances.

A lot of what I have worked on has a thriller or generally dark note to it, with these projects it’s not always necessary to have a big theme going on, often you’re creating a mood, picking out subtext, and scenes are served better with broader tonal, textural underscore and soundscapes. With these type of cues I find you can still score your characters using shorter motifs with great effect.

Are there any directors that you would especially love to work with?

I’ve been lucky to work with some great ones already, Michaela Coel, Stella Scott and Andreas Prochaska, to name a few. I’d love to work with all of them again.

Some directors I’ve noticed that are making interesting work and I’d like to work with are, Rose Glass, Ari Aster and Chloe Okuno.

Whats films and TV series have you seen this year that you’ve liked?

Mid 90s - Funny, sad and very dark in places it’s a moving portrayal of family, friends and growing up set in the 1990’s. The soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is great.

I May Destroy You - truly groundbreaking, it was unsettling, thought provoking, one moment it was hilarious, the next utterly shocking. The writing, acting and execution of the show were brilliant.

The Mandalorian - This is how large-scale fantasy / action / sci-fi stories should be told, and if it’s any indication of where Star Wars as a collection of films and TV series are heading I’m excited for more. Great soundtrack from Ludwig Göransson.

Too Old to Die Young - Slow and brooding it’s complimented by a great Cliff Martinez score.

Whats films / TV series are you looking forward to?

Tenet, Saint Maud, New season of Succession, Mandalorian Season 2

Whats your favourite film score of all time?

Impossible to say

When working on Alex Rider, what was your go-to piece of studio gear?

Moog Sub 37 - It’s a great little synth that has a very particular sound. It was the underpinning of so many of the cues in Alex Rider and used almost exclusively for all of the thriller style pulses throughout the show. Listening to the opening of EP1 - it’s pretty much all Sub 37.

Any new music on the horizon?

Yes, hopefully. I’m writing all the time between scoring projects and I’d like to release some of that sometime soon.

Whats your snack of choice when writing music to picture?

When I get locked into something a lot of time can pass and sometimes I forget to eat but there’s a lot of coffee consumed during scoring.

What’s been your favourite music placement you’ve had so far?

It always feels special to hear something you’ve written on a film or television but two campaigns stand out in my mind: Channel 4 Born Risky and the recent Macmillan ad.

What new music can you not get enough of right now?

Colin Stetson’s score for ‘Color Out of Space’ is great. As is Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’s score for ‘Waves’.

What TV series are you watching?

I’m between series at the moment, I’ve never seen the Sopranos so I think that might be next.

Has there ever been a moment in a film or TV show where a choice of music has really resonated with you?

The start of series 2 of the Handmaids Tale where Kate Bush’s ’This Woman’s Work’ is used. Without spoiling it, it’s a terrifying, heart wrenching scene that is heightened to a completely different level by the song.

Also the bank robbery scene in Michael Mann’s film ‘Heat’ is incredible. Brian Eno’s track ‘Force Marker’ had a big impact on me.

If your music was a computer game, which one would it be?

Making music feels a bit like Tetris, lots of random shaped ideas raining down at an ever increasing speed which you’re assembling and fitting into other shapes until you reach the top of the screen or the deadline.

And finally, what’s your favourite Ninja Tune release?

Probably has to be Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope). It was the first time I became aware of Ninja / Big Dada and reminds me of driving around in my friend's car at school.

The recent Floating Points record ‘Crush’ was great.