Woe.Begone - Dylan Griggs - Painted Glass

Join Woe.Begone creator and composer Dylan Griggs as we explore composition 'Painted Glass' and take a trip into the mind of the sociopathic fictional series character Mike Walters. With influences ranging from The Postal Service and Bon Iver to alternate reality games, 'Painted Glass' is a rich and varied indie love song which musically conveys the inner workings of a troubled mind. An immersive listening experience. Headphones recommended.

TRANSCRIPT 

00:00 INTRO 

The piece of music we're listening to in the background is called Painted Glass. It's a narrative intermission song, which I wrote for a time-travel mystery story Woe.Begone today. We'll break it down and get into why and how it was made. You're listening to How I Make Music, where audio drama composers get to tell their own stories. In this show, we break apart the music of a fictional podcast and take a trip into how it was made. My name is Dylan Griggs. I'm a showrunner, actor, writer and musician from Kentucky. And this is How I Make Music. Welcome back to How I Make Music, Painted Glass from the audio drama Woe.Begone by me, Dylan Griggs. Thanks for listening in. 

01:40 ABOUT

Yeah. So my name is Dylan Griggs. I am the, I guess showrunner is the appropriate word because I'm the actor, writer, soundtrack, artist, editor, all of that stuff for a show called Woe.Begone. Woe.Begone is the story of this guy named Mike Walters who discovers a mysterious and violent online game called Woe.Begone. Mike is a danger to himself and others to put it lightly, who is in love with someone and is very concerned about that and what that can mean for their relationship. Horror sci-fi mystery with some comedy, roughly in that order. The show isn't for everyone, there are some violent moments. There are some moments that might cause discomfort in some people. 

I record the whole soundtrack for that episode, from front to back in response to the things that happened in the episode. I've been doing indie music since I was like 13, 14. I just have this workhorse mentality as far as getting songs done. I really like breaking format. I wrote a whole bunch of electronic music as a teenager. And then I put it away for a long time and became a de facto rock musician. Bere's a rock track from my band Sadloaf. 

I started playing around with Ableton as a way to write the show. I feel like it sets me apart a little bit to have so much music and so much focus on music. It's a very fast paced...there's a lot of ‘go with your gut’ story writing and songwriting. Honestly, everything is written in a week. It also became a way to trick people into listening to my music because in order to listen to the episode of Woe.Begone, you have to listen to my music.

04:27 INFLUENCES

There is an immediate comparison to be drawn between Painted Glass and The District Sleeps Alone Tonight by The Postal Service. They are the same tempo and in the same key. That was totally on accident. I like the sort of organ-y sounds that The Postal Service song has. We're going home at the end of every bar, essentially. Yeah, going home. It's like a full release of tension. It's what you imagine as the last note of a song where everything is completely resolved and there isn't any tension to glean from it. You're completely at rest. There's a pedal tone of like the F the whole time. We're very grounded.

When I grew up, I didn't have anything but a computer for the first couple of years that I was making music and I got really into Telephone Tel Aviv, where they're doing these sort of, I guess, simple melodies, but they've got these drums that are sort of IDM. And they're not afraid to be abrasive with the drums. Like the drums are the key instrument in the song. It's almost like a breakcore. And so I love that whole album Fahrenheit Fair Enough.

So, yeah, I don't know how to

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