the music of Mars Patel. Hey everybody, it's Chris Terry. I'm one of the co-creators of Mars Patel and the guy that's behind the music, as it were. And we get a lot of questions, a lot of requests for people who enjoy the Mars Patel music. And I can't tell you how great that makes me feel as a musician. I've been a musician most of my life. And it's just so exciting to hear that not only the story, which is so wonderful to create and see so many people enjoy, but also the fact that they think that the music sort of also works so well with the story. And we thought it'd be really fun in your long wait for season three, if maybe we did a little episode here on the sort of behind the scenes, behind the music, behind the Mars Patel music. And maybe tell you a little bit about it, maybe tell you how some of it was created. And then sort of let maybe some of the clips play from some of the seasons, the two seasons. and hopefully it will, you know, help bridge that gap between season two and the wait for season three. We're in the middle of writing season three right now, my partners and I. So there's myself, David Kreisman, Benjamin Strauss and Jenny Turner Hall. And the four of us together created the show and create the stories and everything that you've come to love about Mars Patel. So it's very exciting for us. Yeah, so hopefully this is a little bit of fun. And what I want to do is kind of explain a couple of the key songs that are featured on Mars Patel. Also be able to sort of let a lot of it play out so you have a way of, you know, playing it in one sort of big chunk. This is a podcast. It's not a CD. So, you know, there's no individual tracks. So I was trying to figure out the best way to do this. And I thought we could sort of do it as kind of a learning experience, but then also a great listening experience. So this is the music of Mars Patel without any of the Mars Patel stuff. So I guess the best way is just to jump in and start with the original theme. So I'm going to play that for you now. The original theme from season one. And then I'll give you a little backstory behind it. Here it is. Thank you. Thank you. So there it is. That's the original theme from season one of Mars Patel. And when I sat down to write it, we were not very far in the production part of the show. I think we had maybe come up with the first couple episodes and maybe written a little bit of the story. But I, as a musician, I mean, I guess I should say a little bit about my background. I'm a bass player and a writer. I've been a musician for most of my life and writing has always sort of taken a bit of a behind the scenes thing for me. And so when it came time to do Mars Patel, it was sort of a great meeting of two things that I love to do, which is tell stories, write stories, great stories, and also do music. So I've got a little bit of background doing some music for film and TV and also other things. But mainly I'm a jazz bass player and have a bunch of albums out under my own name, that kind of thing. So I wanted to sort of come up with a theme that would maybe inspire us a little bit to sort of come up with the sound of the show. Like, what would it sound like? And I sat down and wrote that piece that you just heard, played my bass on it. The rest of it is programmed with the exception of the violin, which is played by a really great friend of mine who lives around the corner from me named Zach Brock. You can look him up. Really great, famous violinist. And he came over to my house and I had written the theme and he just played it. And that was that. It was very simple. Like a lot of things, as I'm sure most of you know, when you're creating something, I mean, maybe you've done some art projects or whatever you're doing. Maybe you did something in school, you know, for the adults out there. We all know what it's like to sort of create something. And sometimes the best stuff happens sort of by accident. I would have to say that that theme was kind of one of those things. I didn't really know what I wanted it to sound like. And so you sort of have to ask the question, does the theme come and then the show comes or do they work together or does one inspire the other? And it's always an interesting thing when you're creating something from nothing. And that was that. Listening to it now, it's interesting to me because it does have that kind of really rough indie sort of sound. Very done quickly. I think it maybe took me a day. and when it came time for season two after Mars Patel had become somewhat of a success I wanted to redo it and I wanted to sort of up the game a little bit and make it sound a little bit more like it suited the success of the show so I went back and a lot of the music in Mars Patel is written by myself or my writing partner and longtime friend named Sean Pierce who we're going to hear from in a bit he lives in LA I live in New York and we co-write a lot of the stuff. He writes a lot of the incidental music you hear behind the show. And I did the themes. So it's a great collaboration. We've collaborated on many projects, many albums for years and years and years. And Mars Patel just happened to be this thing that, you know, he does a lot of work in film and TV. So actually I flew out to LA, Los Angeles, and we sat down and we worked on sort of coming up with a newer version of the theme. And if you listen closely, you'll hear it's the exact same bass line. I don't know if you guys out there, if you're old enough to sort of understand what the bass line is. It's like a guitar, except it plays a lot lower and it only has a few four strings instead of six. So what we did is we needed it to be the same length. So we kept the exact bass line. I didn't actually play anything new and then recreated the song all around it. So you'll hear me singing in there. There's a voice now instead of a violin doing the melody like that. So let me play it for you now. You'll see if you can hear the differences hearing it back-to-back. Here we go. Thank you. Thank you. So there it is. That's the season two theme. I'll probably do a new one for season three, just as another update to keep it fresh. And it's always exciting to see sort of what you can come up with. That's, you know, an extension of the original idea. So the only thing that is live, meaning in that recording, meaning the only thing that isn't done in the computer is my bass line and my vocals, which I'm not a great singer. But the computer these days allows us to tune things. I don't know if you guys understand when something's in tune. I'm sure most of you do if you're taking piano lessons or guitar lessons. You have to learn to tune your guitar, or if you're singing, you have to be in tune with the note that you're singing. So on my computer here, I have a button that just allows me to sing not all that well, and it'll tune my voice for me to the pitch that I give it as a reference. So I tell them that this song is in C minor, and I sing, and then it'll make sure that the notes that I sing are in tune with the key of C minor. For a bass player like me that isn't used to singing, it's a great way to make it sound nice and big like I know what I'm doing. So most of the stuff that you hear today on Mars Patel has been created inside the computer. So we do a lot of the composition inside of a program that allows us to choose various instruments that allow us to sort of make up, you know, without having a real band in the studio allows us to sort of use violins or basses or drums or guitar, all that kind of stuff. And the computer is just playing them for us. So a lot of modern day composition you hear uses the computer like that. So the other piece of music that you hear a lot in Mars Patel is after the sort of introduction of the episode, there's something called teaser music, which is this one here. I'm sure you guys have heard it. Let me play it, and we'll talk about it. Thank you. So you can hear that. That was also an update from season one. I think I did the exact same, again, used the exact same baseline and recreated what we did in season one and replaced it with this for season two. Again, just sort of updating stuff as the show became more popular and as the production techniques got a little bit more advanced. I wanted to make sure that the music kept pace. so I don't know how many of you out there are when you watch a movie or a tv show how aware you are of the music if you listen next time you're watching a tv show with your parents or if you're you're or or or even the adults listening next time you're watching a movie sitting in a movie theater pay close attention to the music because it's funny the original part of Mars Patel when we first sat down to sort of start putting the show together we actually asked ourselves do we want to have music. And it's sort of hard to imagine Mars Patel without the music now, but in the original early, early days, we weren't totally sure. And we got a couple of pieces of music and tried it behind, and we weren't sure sort of how that was going to play. I mean, we all sort of understood how it worked in a TV show and a movie, but in terms of something that you're just listening to, would it work if we treated it just like a TV show or a movie? And that's sort of where the genesis of Mars Patel and the sound of the show formed its own direction. We went through a bunch of music and it wasn't really working. And then, uh, and then I happened to grab a piece of music from my friend, Sean Pierce, who I mentioned earlier, who him and I had done a bunch of work together on probably dozens and dozens of albums over the years. And I played, uh, the music behind one of the opening scenes. And it's when, uh, when Mars and Caddy are, are, are trapped in the closet during the code red. And there's this really beautiful guitar music that comes in and we played it kind of over the scene and that was the moment where we realized this scene just went from being very intimate to being extremely intimate and touching and made you feel something so next time you're listening to a tv show or at least watching a tv show or watching a movie pay attention to the music and ask yourself what it does for you how does it make you feel and that's one of the important things we always ask ourselves when we're talking about the music for Mars Patel. The music should back up what's happening on screen, or in this case in your ears, and it should make you feel almost more of the intent. It should help bolster the intent of the writing and of the acting and everything that's going on and make you sort of feel something in a way that's a little bit unnoticed. So what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to play you something. It's one of my favorite pieces from the show, and it's the very last thing you hear at the end of season one and the end of season two, I believe, when our good friend David Kestenbaum is reading the credits for the end of the season. And it was a piece of music that my partner Sean Pierce had written and I just going to start playing it now over top of this while I talking to you See if you recognize it Have you listened to the entire show all the way through At the very very end and you listen to somebody just reading the credits and you listen to me now and how my voice slows down a little bit, and this music's now playing in the background, and all of a sudden what I'm saying becomes even that much more felt, a little bit more, I wouldn't say important, but possibly interesting. Maybe it makes you listen a little bit closer. Maybe now all of a sudden you're thinking, wow, what is he really saying? How am I supposed to feel? And you listen to Sean's beautiful music behind this and how it's underscoring what I'm saying. And that's exactly what this is called. It's called underscoring. it's music that rides underneath the picture or the dialogue and it's just there to help us better understand what's happening in the story what Mars and his pals Caddy Jonas and toothpick are all feeling at the moment what is JP thinking about? That kind of thing. And yes, I know this was just underneath the out credits, the credits that roll at the end of a show, end of a movie. And if you listen to a lot of shows and a lot of movies, take the time to sit in the theater a little bit longer and listen to the music that they play at the end. because oftentimes those are the things that the composer spent the most amount of love on because well they figure that everybody's just going to sort of get up and leave but listen to how beautiful what Sean's written here and so for me this is like one of the nice moments and for me as the person that sort of chooses the music and where it goes in the show this makes me very happy when I listen to this. Sort of says job well done guys. Really really nice work. And so what I want to do is I'm going to give Sean a call out in Los Angeles and we're going to bring him on. He's going to talk a little bit about this and then I'm going to let a whole bunch of music play so that you and your family can sort of listen to it wherever you are. Maybe you're driving in a car and you can kind of enjoy it from front to back with just maybe some of the stuff you've recognized from the show. Some of it will be short, some will be longer. Some will be stuff you haven't heard because a lot of the times we use not the entire piece of the piece of music that we composed. And then at the very end, I'll play the themes again. So it's kind of a way for you to sort of have a little bit of extended listening to the Mars Patel music in maybe a way you haven't before. So let me get on the phone here and dial Sean up, see what he has to say. Hello. There he is. How are you? There you know, working hard. You getting back into the swing of things after your vacation? I am, absolutely. Well, I just wanted to give you a ring. You know, we are recording live here. A little thing for the Mars Patel listeners, young and old. And I wanted to meet the man, one of the two people, they've already met me, behind the music of Mars Patel. Sounds great. So we have been sitting here talking about, I've been going on and on about underscoring and what that might mean. And if you're sort of a young person, what that might mean in terms of, you know, listening forward in TV shows and in movies. And I thought I, you know, wanted to hear you talk a little bit about that and see, see what your take on it is and, and, and sort of what to listen for. Well, that's a, it's a broad topic, but it's a fun one and it's interesting. And I, I've been thinking about Mars, you know, what Mars overall meant to me with you asking me to be a part of the show. And it's, it was, it's unique in my particular experience because I'm used to working with images that you see versus the kind of images that you don't see. like those oh those ones the non-images it's actually funny because what what i think that you guys have done so well with mars and telling the story is you do get this unbelievable mental picture of what's going on without actually seeing something on screen and this is the part of this for me that i find fascinating it's like reading a book it's like a book being told to you you picture your own images and where that differs for me and what I do regularly which is writing music for moving pictures I'm trying to employ those same techniques and being inspired by an image and write to the moving image with Mars it's all about the story and you're writing with the image that you're that you are creating yourself as a listener and whether there's a an actual picture or a mental picture, it's all about supporting story. Music almost becomes a little more important without the picture. It does. It's really all about listening. So you're hearing a story being told, and music is, and the way that you produce the shows and mix the shows, music is very much a voice, very much a, especially Mars has become somewhat of a character with a very signature sound, I think, that we came up with for the show. You know, I picked out one great example that I really loved, and it was this music of one of your cues that you wrote that played behind the end credits on the show. And I talked a little bit about how that just makes, music can even make somebody reading credits sound good. But also, there's this other cue that I really love, and it happens in season two, and I don't want to give anything away for people that haven't listened to the show, but there's a scene in the second season where Caddy is sort of given up. It's that moment where she thinks all is lost, and there's this great cue with a violin that's just a single held note, and it holds for quite a long time before the sort of emotional music comes in. Here, let me play it for you right now. I'll play it for everybody right now so they can and we'll chat about it. So, so there it was. you can hear how long that violin note held. And I just thought maybe you could talk to the sort of, especially to younger listeners, sort of the ability to kind of be aware of just how much power that single note is bringing on and how much that works to really create the atmosphere in the scene. Yeah, well, music is a very powerful tool, especially in this medium. Music on its own is very powerful. it moves you in ways and how we write the music and place the music in this show we have this ability to emotionally influence people and make them feel certain ways with that particular scenario that you just that you just played and showed we're letting it hang in suspense We don't know what's going to happen. If we were to play anything during there, we chose not to play anything and do the simplest thing possible, which is what that is. You didn't want to give anything away. Like I said, music can be very powerful and can persuade us to feel a certain emotion. So if we were to put comedy music in there, we'd think, oh, something funny is going to happen. If we made it scary, you would just assume that something bad is going to happen. That's a very simple way to look at it, but I think that maybe our listeners can comprehend that. That you can hear certain different styles of music and be able to identify with yourself how you feel when you hear that. That single violin note is telling me to just hang on. Just hang on. Something's coming. We let the story dictate where it goes. And it's really scoring, underscoring, putting music under a story, putting music under dialogue. And we try not to push it around too much and push you to feel a certain way. We leave that up to the viewer to have their own experience. This music has become a voice in the show and it does sound recognizable. But I think we've done a pretty good job of never getting in the way of the story and never forcing it. Everything just feels it feels right. It feels that we're setting up an environment, a space for these characters to live within. One of the things I always like to say, and this is maybe a bit above the age of our listeners, but, you know, one of the things that I think is different about this show that we always come from. And I think it's because you and I come from a music background and a TV background that rather than like sort of what is the quote unquote kid show sort of sound of music, you know, where it can sort of feel forced and like, here's music, you know, it's sort of we always treat this, even though it is a show for families and for younger, younger people. we always treat it I thought we always have anyways as if it's like a one hour HBO drama you know that the music does not talk down or speak down or you know it causes our listeners and the age of our listeners to listen up and it's treated just as seriously as if we were scoring an adult show absolutely and if you look at the extremely popular kids franchises that make big animated feature films it's always done on such a sophisticated level and I think that that was the intention with Mars was to tell this story in a sophisticated way through production. The writing, obviously, but through the production, which I'm a big fan of on this series. I think it sounds just, I think it's an incredible experience to listen to this show. You really do feel like you're there and in no way, I think, do you produce this show in a way that is talking down to or trying to guide somebody to go after a certain age group at all. I think it's families. That's how I always describe it to people. There's a certain audience that loves it that's a younger audience for sure, but a lot of people love it. Well, it just goes back to what I told them. I was trying to come up with how many records you and I have done together over the years, and I said dozens and dozens, but you know me, I'm always exaggerating. So how many albums is it over the years? What has it been, 30 years? How many records have we done together? That's a good question, actually. We should try and get the actual number, but I'd probably agree with dozens and dozens. It's a lot of music. It came up in my iTunes one time, just one band that you and I worked with writing stuff. It came up, and I think it was something like 75 tracks. Hundreds of pieces of music. It really is just a... We have a wonderful creative collaboration. We always have, and being able to collaborate like this for this very special project is really meaningful. And I've learned a lot about music and story from this show. I've learned a ton as well. I think you and I have a, we speak our own language because we've collaborated creatively together for so long. It's rare that two people can sit in a room and write music together. You know what I mean? I think that's kind of rare. it's always a great pleasure other than the fact that we just get to hang out and see each other well that's always great but at the same time we get to make this make this art well it is a special it's a special show and hopefully people get a lot out of this who knows maybe nobody cares but it's you know it's just we continue on and we keep pushing ahead and keep making more music and fun times hanging out. So I appreciate you taking the time. I know you're in the middle of a show right now. So I'm glad that you took the time. And I'm sure that all the listeners, young and old, are hopefully getting something out of this and they enjoy hearing from the guys behind the scenes. Well, I'm happy to do it. And I'm thrilled to be a part of the show. Awesome, man. All right, I will talk to you soon. I'll probably talk to you tomorrow. All right. All right. Okay, thanks. Bye. See you. So did you notice what I did there? I, you know, like I was saying, Sean and I have worked together for a long time, and he was talking about what it was, you know, how our collaboration, our friendship has been really great. And that's from both of us, you know. We're really long, old-time friends. And so what I decided to do was go back and add a little bit of music to that section. I don't know if you noticed it during the interview. and sort of to ramp up the nice emotional moment that was. Two friends kind of just talking about a 30-year collaboration and relationship. And yeah, I thought it kind of added something to it. So I don't know. That was a good example of you wanting to bring out the sort of subtle emotion of a moment. so listen I've talked a long time and this was a long got a lot longer than I thought I was going to go but hopefully you got something out of it so now I'm going to play just a bunch of cues probably about 20 minutes, 30 minutes of music all from Mars Vitale it's just going to go one into the other and hopefully if you want to listen to it again you can just note where this time marker is and you can come back to this time and play it again As I know a lot of young people love to listen to things over and over So this is the opportunity for you to just let the music play. And I hope you got a lot out of it. From myself, Ben, Dave, and Jenny, we're really looking forward to bringing you Season 3. And we're working so hard on it. We're really excited where it's going. Where it's ended up and we're excited to be writing it. And we can't wait to share it with you. So thanks again from Chris Terry and everybody involved in Mars Battelle. We'll talk to you soon. and growing businesses. Both online, personally and on the way. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Call us for your test period of 1 euro per month on Shopify.eu. The adventure of a lifetime continues. Join the Robinsons and journey back to the hidden island. This grass is so soft. It's not just grass, Leo. It's a lawn. In front of a house. A real house. Welcome home. Robinson's? These clothes look fresh. Look! Footprints by the tree! Mia, do you know what this means? Someone else is on the island. GZM Shows presents Hidden Island Season 2. Available now on Imagination Amplified, wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. Thank you. New Gulf Thank you. your each Eastern Europe media. The End Thank you. Thank you. Transcription by CastingWords Transcription by CastingWords We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. What do you deserve again? 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