Christmas Cowboy | Music from the Film
“Christmas Cowboy” is a new holiday film that I composed/produced the original score. Featuring an orchestral score, the music touches on the emotions of family, Christmas, estrangement, nostalgia, and most importantly…..horses!
Christmas Cowboy is out now on Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Google Play and all cable VOD.
The musical aesthetic was purposefully intimate: a small string ensemble, with piano, celeste, woodwinds, steel string guitar, and occasional full orchestral percussion. The score needed to mix the nostalgic and warm Christmas vibe, with the complicated family drama that unfolds throughout the film.
The string musicians were Gabe Valle (violin, viola) and Ansel Cohen (cello). These are talented friends of mine, and they masterfully laid down their string recordings at Gabe’s studio, Big and Tall Recording, along with co-owner Tommy McCormick at the engineering helm.
The woodwinds (piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet) were laid down by my friend Matt Lepek. Matt is one of the woodwind chairs on Aladdin on Broadway, and a long time music friend going back to our reggae-band touring days with Echo Movement.
The guitar was recorded by V.J. Manzo, who is a long-time friend, going back to our undergrad days at Kean University. VJ has been part of my film music team since my first film, Bezos: The Beginning, and is a critical and unique musician for my scores not only as my “guitar guy”, but as someone who programs custom software instruments and plug-ins, invents new methods of making music on guitar, and always brings new ways of making music to the table.
Songwriting was a special treat that I was able to partake in the film as well. I teamed up with long-time friend Dave Fowler, and we co-wrote a song called “Everything’s Fine” that can be heard in the end credits. The song featured Bluegrass musician Dan Whitener on vocals and mandolin. Dave also served as a score engineer on the film.
Christmas Cowboy was directed by Khoa Le, who is the CEO and founder of KVibe Studios, who produced the film. This is Colin’s 2nd film with Khoa. All press information can be found on the press page of this site.
Here are some highlights from the original score. The score album, which will also feature a number of original pop Christmas songs by various artists, will release in December 2024.
Thanks for stopping by!
Bezos: The Beginning | Music from the Film | Miami Premiere
It’s taken a little while to get the Bezos: The Beginning score to an album-style mix and assembly. I’ve enjoyed the process, but moving it from film-score > album-mix is involved! I put together some of the music from the film, to share here. I also put this playlist on the credits page, with all the info on Bezos: The Beginning.
Miami Premiere
Attending the premiere in Miami was a treat. I got to link up with director Khoa Le again, I met the production team of Armando Gutierrez, Alberto De La Cruz and Nehir Ornay. I also got to meet Emilio and Gloria Estefan. Emilio plays Jeff Bezos’ father, Miguel Bezos in the film. Getting to hear him speak at the premiere, especially about his personal journey, was inspiring. I was fortunate to be able to hang with Gloria Estefan afterwards, where we got to talk a little bit of music shop, and I got to hear some awesome stories of her early years with the Miami Sound Machine and Emilio. It was one of those special moments where you just have to sit there, enjoy a rich conversation with some of the most influential people in the game, and be grateful you got a seat at the table. Truly awesome.
The film is available on Prime, Apple TV and Google Play. Here are a few pics I took from the premiere.
Inside the Mind of Others
One of the things that I enjoy the most about writing for film and other visual media is the collaborative aspect. Films, TV productions, video games…these are all massive pieces of art that so many people work on. A million little gears spin away at their specific task(s), all fitting together in harmony.
Writing music is a big gear in that machine! But it is still a gear, in a much larger system. I get to be creative, but it has to be steered towards the vision of the person at the helm, looking over the whole. This means that my creative efforts have to be in the lane that the director/producer/project leader lays out, and has to move towards their destination.
Getting inside the minds of others: decoding the director’s language, into my musical language, is a process I enjoy. I ask questions, I listen, and I take notes on interesting descriptions that can range from specifically musical to wildly abstract. I write drafts where the music slowly hones in on that lane and direction the director is seeing and hearing. Sometimes it’s a homerun on the first pass, sometimes it’s close but needs some tweaks…sometimes it’s far away from what they want! Talking through it, listening, translating, decoding, interpreting…I view these actions as opportunities to evolve my own craft.
If I’m left alone to my own thoughts, I am going to move in a direction that is comfortable, familiar, and comes naturally. When I get a challenging task, request, or artistic vision from another, learning how to make that thing come alive only helps my own evolution as a composer. I think it’s fun. Let’s have a chat and deep dive into making those thoughts come to life!
Here are a few short examples of my experience with getting inside the mind of other talented people that I’ve been lucky to work with:
Khoa Le - Film Director, CEO of KVibe Studios and Sutudu
Khoa is the director of Bezos: The Beginning, a film that I recently scored, and has just released on January 24th, 2023. Working with Khoa was a great and unique experience for me. He is a studied and knowledgeable musician, yet he was able to communicate his ideas through artistic language, and not musical jargon. He gave me a lot of freedom and autonomy, yet he was concise and articulate with what he wanted. His approach made it clear that he knows how to lead a creative team, and allow them to stretch, while still keeping everyone on the same path.
The music that took the longest to land on was the main theme for Jeff Bezos. I believe I wrote 6-7 versions before we found it. Each time, Khoa was able to explain the unexplainable, and when I finally sent him the final version, he was thrilled. Khoa has an ear and passion for classic character themes, so we landed on the theme you’ll see below.
Watch Bezos: The Beginning!
Amazon Prime
David and Stephen Fowler - Echo Movement
In my younger days, I was the drummer of the band Echo Movement. We were a 7 piece reggae band, and we spent several years touring and recording albums. The band was headed up by brothers David and Stephen Fowler. Stephen was the lead singer, and Dave was the songwriter and producer, as well as the keyboardist. They also ran the entire business themselves, owned the tour bus, and made the entire operation run. As the years went on, I fell into a #3 position and got involved in some operations myself. It was a massive learning experience.
There were many parallels between working with a film director, and working in-studio with Dave and Steve. Steve came at the music from an overarching viewpoint. He wasn’t caught up with the technicality of the music; it was all about the arrangement, vibe and staying authentic. Dave was also great at not getting caught up in the boring technical minutiae and instrumental virtuosity. Dave was passionate about infusing other styles, new directions, and experimental things, into the very established and characteristic genre of reggae.
Both guys never got caught into the self-important mindset of showing off musically, despite being surrounded by a band full of guys with degrees in music (they were “unspoiled” by academia in their musicality). I was already composing myself at this point, so I was able to understand the hat they wear, and the one I wear, when recording new music.
Even still, as a young drummer ready to show off, we had numerous discussions, experiments, arguments, rants, debates, and everything in between. I had to take my creative interests, and make sure I put it into the lane that they created, and put it in the direction they wanted.
This was a great precursor to working in film. You are the music, but it’s not about you. What overall thing, that is greater than yourself, are you servicing? For Echo Movement, and Dave and Steve, it was about being studied and authentic to the reggae style, while being our true selves (guys that geek out over science, the universe, and recreational activities), and pushing the genre in a new direction. These are all purposes that far outweighed my need to play that sixtuplet fill down the toms, even though I’ll still say that it was cool 🙂
The song below was a great example of this. I don’t drum a ton in this song. The purpose of this tune was way beyond that. We worked together on the percussion sounds that I laid down, we talked about the message that Carl Sagan has in this song. How does it come together? How does the music support the concept?
Fun fact: the end of this song has a slowly building accelerando that eventually reaches the tempo of the opening track of the album, where the album can endlessly loop.
Although Echo Movement no longer plays, I always speak about the band and my experience, as it was just as profound as any other musical adventure in my life. The song below features Carl Sagan, and is a great example of Dave and Steve’s creativity, and how we all came together within that vision.
Maurice Paramore - Writer and Director
As of right now (Feb. 2023), I am working with a new film director, Maurice Paramore. Maurice is an independent filmmaker that I slowly became acquainted with over Instagram. As our paths crossed more and more online, we eventually had a hang at my studio, and before we knew it, we were on to our first film together.
Maurice is a talented filmmaker, who does everything himself. He writes, directs, shoots, edits, and produces all his films. He is from NJ like I am, and we’ve enjoyed numerous face to face meetings to work on his new film. After years of Zoom meetings and Covid, I am digging getting back to face to face conversations. The vibe is totally different, and the creativity flows at a higher rate.
Maurice and I have started to work together on themes, before any video has been shot. This is something neither of us have done much of before. Being able to discuss the characters, talk about the sound and vibe we want to bring, has enabled me to experiment more with creating a unique selection of sounds for the film.
Maurice is a clear communicator, but is not a musician. I find this to be refreshing. I am able to pose questions that are strictly based on the mood, emotion and style he wants. After he receives drafts, he can communicate his thoughts without having to speak in music-talk. I’ve found that this early-in approach, with many in-person meetings, has enabled me to ask many questions, and really try to get inside his mind. I feel like I am practicing amateur psychology as much as being a composer with a director. Maybe I’ll get a fancier couch for my new practice?
It’s a bit too early yet to let the details of the film come out, but on the topic of diving into other people’s minds, I’ve had a great time doing this with Maurice. We are both excited about the sounds we are building, and it will be interesting to see how this early, pre-production approach to building the score goes!
Working with Khoa, Echo Movement, and Maurice, are three unique experiences, but the underlying ideas of communication and working towards a common goal are similar. This is something that I’ve been thinking about lately, so I decided to make blog #1 about it. Thanks for coming here and reading the first one!