Composer PROfile: Steve Pageot Scores for New VH1 Series
WEST NEW YORK, NJ: The debate rages over Canada’s greatest gift to the world. Hockey? Maple syrup pie? Ogopogo? Nay! SonicScoop votes for Steve Pageot.
No doubt aboot it, this GRAMMY-award winning composer/producer/engineer/flutist/you-name-it is a great argument for Montreal musicians making it over to Manhattan. His list of credits for artists and TV scoring is looong – Aretha Franklin, Bone Thugs & Harmony, TLC’s “Gown Crazy”, Bravo’s “Rachel Zoe Project”, and dozens more.
Steve Pageot in command
This consummate pro can compose on a dime and always make the most of his time. Now that his tracks are a major part of the newest VH1 series “What Chilli Wants”, we thought we’d find out how his state of readiness made him ready-made for yet another TV gig.
Q: Steve, tell us what it takes to be a successful – or at least busy – composer for film, TV, commercials, video games, and all things visual?
A: Knowing how to layer your sounds together is crucial when it comes to sound designing for a visual media project. What I mean by layering, is putting more than one sound on top of each other to play a note or a chord.
Musically, you cannot be limited to only one genre because on any given day, a music supervisor might call you to provide some music for a reality show that may only want rock. So if your forte is rap music, there goes your opportunity to getting your material licensed for that TV show.
When it comes to making music for films and video games, it’s very important to have an array of different sounds — from instruments to noise sounds — simply because you could find yourself scoring a movie scene that requires you to have luscious string sounds, or some explosive sounds for the video game that you are scoring.
But the most important thing is to develop your composing skills to fit the mood of a visual scene. For instance, if the picture has a bird flying you wouldn’t want to have hard heavy music playing — an experienced composer would most likely have a flute-playing passage for that scene.
Q: So tell us about this new VH1 gig that you landed.
A: I recently licensed some of my music for a new show called “What Chilli wants” that started airing on April 11th at 10:30pm on VH1. Chilli is from the R&B group TLC that sold millions of albums in the ‘90s. It’s a reality dating show, and it’s about Chilli looking for “the perfect man”. She also has a list of qualities that he must have in order for him to be with her.
Q: Oooo, maybe she’ll date ME! How did you get the gig for this show?
A: Well, I have a very good friend by the name of Kidwell, who’s a well-known music supervisor in Hollywood, that made it happen for me. Since Kidwell already had all my instrumental tracks that he had placed for me on most of the MTV shows and other TV networks, he then submitted them and called me and told me that the production company was loving my music and the reps wanted to know if I could provide them with full songs. I gathered 20 songs that I already had in the vault and like they say “the rest is history”. The music they asked for was mainly hip hop/R&B.
Q: Tell us about what you’ve got in your studio, and your workflow.
A: In the film/TV industry you must have a quick turn around, so what I’ll do in my spare time is compose music of different genres and have my tracks “TV ready” so that when someone calls me all I have to do is go into my stash to pick and choose.
When it comes to hardware, I use the G5 Power PC, with a DIGI 002, and an MPC 2000 by AKAI to sequence all my tracks. TLM 127 mic by Neumann, my keyboard of choice is the Motif ES8 by Yamaha. Universal Audio‘s 6176 pre amp/compressor, and SP8 speakers by Event.
As far as software, I use Pro Tools 8.0.1, Stylus RMX and Omnisphere by Spectrasonics, the soft synth plug-ins by Digidesign, Real Strat and Real Guitar by MusicLab, Melodyne by Celemony, BFD2, BOMB and The Japanese Taiko Percussions by Fxpansion, Reason, and last but not least, my Universal Audio plug-ins to mix and master.
Q: You said your tracks are “TV ready” what does that mean in terms of length, arrangement, mix/master?
A: What I meant by this is that the length of my tracks is either :30 seconds or :60 long. I then format them or arrange, for a better term, so that within the :60 seconds you will hear the intro, hook, verse, breakdown and the outro. Once everything is mixed and mastered, the music is ready for any project that I’m hired for.
Q: Did the tracks for “Chilli” need tweaks? How does the tweaking process work?
A: The tracks that were submitted did not need any tweaks. As a music composer you always want to make sure that your tracks are up to par, from the hi hat to the final mix. Occasionally, a music supervisor might ask you to take a sound out or redo a mix because the track might have too much bottom or not enough highs, so you have to be ready to make these changes.
Chilli wants Steve Pageot...to score her show.
Q: Service with a smile, right? So let’s get down to BUSINESS. How do you get paid and when?
A: When it comes to TV, there are two ways of getting paid. If it’s a theme song that you are hired to do, you will get your initial check by the TV network and you will get your performance money, also known as residuals, from each of the time your music is played on TV for that show through the society that you are signed to.
In my case because I am an ASCAP writer/publisher, ASCAP will be the society paying me. The amount of the upfront check can vary depending on your status and previous work you did. If your tracks are only used as background music, you will only get the performance money. So If you are with ASCAP, it’s extremely important that you register all your songs, which are then called titles once they’re in the ACE database system, and this is different from registering your music/songs with the Library of Congress in Washington.
Once pay time arrives, your registered titles will allow ASCAP to cross-reference them with the cue sheets submitted by the production company of that specific show — this is why you must register all your tracks in order to get paid. The waiting time to receive a check is 9 months after the show is aired, and as long as the show is aired you will keep seeing residuals.
Q: Thanks for a nice, digestible breakdown of that process. What makes composing for “Chilly”, or any TV gig, challenging?
A: What’s so challenging about composing for TV is to have a picture put in front of your eyes, and then you are asked to compose for that specific scene, which forces you to always be ready to create something new and fresh.
The approach for every project is different, and it keeps your creative juices flowing. There aren’t any set rules and the only thing that can stop you is your mind.
Q: You make me want to COMPOSE, baby! Anything else?
A: If you really want to do music for film/TV, pay attention to the music that’s playing in the background throughout the scenes while you’re watching a show or a movie. Better yet put a movie on, turn the volume completely down and start composing while watching it. Practice makes perfect!!! — David Weiss