The Musician

This all looks pretty familiar...

*****'

SHAUN FORREST
BRETT TURBERT

Transcript: Start +8 minutes

FORREST
…. I have a few ideas for Concept Albums.

TURBERT
Concept albums?

FORREST
Yeah, yeah. Albums around a theme, y'know?

TURBERT
Go on.

FORREST

I was thinking that there are a lot of albums out there that are just a compilation of songs. Some of theme even ostensibly have broad themes or moods Which is alright, nothing wrong with either of those. But I like the idea of albums having themes... real cohesion...

TURBERT
So... what? Sort of like an album about a specific subject or -

FORREST
Yeah, like the first one might be about colour.

TURBERT

Colour?

FORREST

Yes... Colour... Each song would be about a colour. All instrumental, or maybe only just a few patches of vocals to help give the sensation, but the aim of each song would be to make the listener think specifically about that colour. And even if they don't think it, at least it might make them think about the song, and why it is named as it is. If they can feel the song, as it were, then my job is done.

TURBERT

Synaesthesia, yeah? Make them feel or see as they hear?

FORREST
Something like that, yeah.

TURBERT
So... Let's say Red. The song would be something powerful?

FORREST

Yeah. Something that hits hard, real power smash out, a belter. Then there might be Green. Something a little more smooth, soothing.

TURBERT
Hang on a minute... When I think “Green”, I don't always think grass and trees and happiness.

FORREST

Hey?

TURBERT
Well, when people get sick, people say “You're looking a little green today.” A soothing song doesn't really represent what I think of when I think “Green”. In fact, I'd probably more think of a light blue, maybe sky blue sort of colour.

FORREST
Oooh... good point. Maybe there'd be a few songs dedicated to different types of the one colour.

TURBERT
Ahh... that'd be pretty cool. So a darker red might be war, anger, power, where a lighter brighter red might be happiness or love. Yeah, I can see that working.

FORREST

Yeah, nice idea. Then maybe you have a song at the beginning or end of the album and call it “Colour” or “Rainbow” or whatever the album is to be called. Make it a bit of a mashup of all of the songs.

TURBERT

Sort of like you are travelling audibly through the rest of the album or the theme?

FORREST

Exactly! It would work with other themes too. Think of the Solar System.

TURBERT

The Planets?

FORREST

Yeah. I don't know whether you would include the Sun or not, but I suppose it is there -

TURBERT
Wouldn't be here without it.

FORREST
Fair enough. So make a song about the Sun. Big, powerful, heavy hitting, but maybe an optimistic one too. Like you said, wouldn't be here without it so it probably has to feel positive. Then Mercury would be a small quick song. It's a desolate world, so make it a short and sharp song that leaves the listener in a wake of destruction.

TURBERT
What about Venus? It's a planet with a very thick swirling atmosphere. Super hot and completely inhospitable. Another destructive song there?

FORREST
Eh... Yes and no. See, it would have to also sound kind of beautiful too. I mean... It's Venus, goddess of love and lust.

TURBERT
Perhaps more like the sirens of the Greek myths then: Sounds beautiful to begin with but ends up turbulent or destructive, or maybe it sounds beautiful but if you listen closer you hear that it is mostly made up of discordant sounds that just happen to sound good when you hear it together.

FORREST
Oh, I like that. How about Earth? Something optimistic surely. Progressive, for sure. Maybe a big build up and then a nice happy drop.

TURBERT
Mars?

FORREST
I don't know... It's kinda small, but you also have to think of the God of War it is named after. So maybe something with that mashes the two together. Jupiter would come up after that.

TURBERT
Not the Asteroid Belt?

FORREST
Huh... yeah, maybe. An airy sort of a song that makes you think of a large empty place.

TURBERT
Ha, yeah. Man, Hollywood has it all wrong there.

FORREST
Yeah. Maybe just a silent track or static for a minute.

TURBERT
Heh heh heh... Jupiter? Big and Powerful again?

FORREST
Yeah, but also kinda stately... I don't know. Royal. King of the Planets, y'know?

TURBERT
Yeah. Maybe orchestral, hey? Saturn has to be a big beautiful anthem song, right?

FORREST
Absolutely. Huge, sweeping melody that makes you feel good. Maybe a trance song that keeps you enraptured.

TURBERT
So... Uranus. A joke song, right?

FORREST
Nah. If I wanted a joke song, I'd call it “Pluto”, or probably just make a song after “Neptune” and call it “Fuck you, you're not a real planet anyway”.

TURBERT

*laughs* Yeah, that'd be good. What would you do for Uranus then?

FORREST
Don't know... It's a strange planet, sits on its side. So maybe something that jars the listener. Discordant. Looks kinda pretty though, so nothing too strange.

TURBERT
Neptune... Cold and distant.

FORREST
Yeah, make it feel like it is the last song in the universe. Slow and ponderous, long and drawn out. Make the listener feel lonely, desolate, isolated.

TURBERT

Wow... That's pretty cool.

FORREST
Yeah. Pretty good ideas, don't you think?

TURBERT
Yeah.
So... have you ever thought of... y'know... learning an instrument, or a music making program, or even how to read and write music?

FORREST
Pfft... nuh. Too hard and time consuming, I don't really have a musical bone in my body. Just thought it would be a good idea.

TURBERT
But... ideas, man! Ideas!

FORREST
Yes, but laziness pays off now.