00:04Can you see him tired and shivering as he's stumbling through the day?
00:11Can you see his lips are quivering like he's forgotten how to pray?
00:17And can you see the way he's perilous?
00:20She's absorbing all the blows.
00:24And who will now take care of us in the hills and valleys,
00:28the highs and lows, all I know is you need someone in the bye-and-bye.
00:40You need someone who's gonna cry for you.
00:44Yeah, you need someone in the bye-and-bye.
00:52You need someone who's gonna cry for you.
01:08Gavin, you're working as the composer on The Pit, and there's this opportunity for an original song.
01:15Tell us how Andrew got involved, and Andrew, tell us what made you want to do this.
01:21What's the origin story of this collaboration?
01:23Yeah, honestly, they initially were gonna license a song for this scene at the end of episode six in the
01:31second season.
01:32So during the spotting session, I begged the showrunners just to give me an opportunity to pitch a song.
01:38And at this point, I had no clue who was gonna sing or collaborate.
01:41I just had these rough instrumental sketches, and I made a list.
01:46Like, who are my dream collaborators, and like, legitimately, Andrew is the top.
01:52And then I was like, let me just shoot for the stars, and my agent sent the sketches to Andrew.
02:01And literally within a day, Andrew sent a voice memo back, just singing on top of it.
02:06And it was so good.
02:08It was literally so good.
02:09So I sunk the voice memo up to the scene and pitched it to the showrunners and begged them to
02:16use that,
02:17and it had to go up the corporate ladder of, like, every exec, and thank God they liked it, and
02:25we got it there.
02:26I can't imagine there was too much begging after they heard it, surely.
02:29You would be surprised.
02:33Andrew, what was it like for you?
02:34So you get this note, were you interested?
02:36Was this a show that you were aware of?
02:38Yes.
02:39Well, I hadn't seen it yet, but I got, this came along, and I really enjoy doing these types of
02:46things for picture.
02:48I do, you know, instrumental score work, but to write a song for a scene is the ultimate challenge.
02:58Just something about it being another voice, you know, and the lyrical aspect of it really excites me.
03:06So I jumped on this right away, and I binged the first season to get a sense of what the
03:12characters had been through.
03:13Did you binge the first season before you sent the voice memo back to Gavin?
03:17I don't know.
03:18It might have been a few days.
03:19It may not have been 24 hours.
03:21It was pretty quick, though.
03:23It was, yeah, I...
03:23And what were you going for?
03:25What was, so you watched the show, and then you're just thinking, okay, I think I know.
03:29Yeah, well, I noted, you know, Louis' character arc, because when I first saw the scene, I hadn't seen anything,
03:36so it was out of context.
03:37And I was like, is this, is there a joke here?
03:40I didn't, it was a very serious scene, but I thought maybe, not knowing the show, whether it was like,
03:45oh, this, that...
03:48He's one of the regulars, isn't he, Louis, is that alcoholic?
03:51Yeah, and he's kind of been comedic, so there is like a lightheartedness to some of it, but this was
03:56like the first time where they're like, let's actually do like a serious song, so it's like, it's hard to
04:01know.
04:01And then once I saw it, I was like, oh, no, this is death.
04:03I was like, oh, is Dr. Robbie being like, is he just known for being overly morose or something, or
04:11like dark, which he is, but this was a sincere, obviously a sincere moment.
04:16And so it's like, I really enjoy getting a brief like this, or a prompt.
04:22It's almost like, I was explaining to someone, it's like a little bit like improv comedy, where you ask the
04:28audience for like a scenario.
04:29It's like, okay, you know, this is what's going on, and you have to turn out a song.
04:36Does the fact that this show, you know, it champions healthcare workers and emergency responders, does that go through your
04:41head when you're writing a song for this?
04:45Yeah, I feel like what this show is doing is helping us talk about things that we don't talk about,
04:53especially with the trauma of COVID.
04:58And so there's so much amnesia collectively as a people about it, and it's dealing with all the mental health
05:04issues that we need to talk about.
05:08And I think you've our first whistle solo at Sound and Screen.
05:12That's an important part of this song.
05:14I think that's sold the song.
05:20How does this compare, so Gavin talked, you know, how does this fit in with the pit in general?
05:25And what was it about episode six that Scott Gemmel, the showrunner, said he wanted an original song?
05:31Yeah, yeah.
05:32So like, for anybody who's like a fan of the show, they know like, the score is subconscious.
05:37It's meant to be almost like as if you don't hear anything, so a lot of the score is like
05:43using medical, like my pitch was like, what does it sound like if the medical machines made the score?
05:48So it's like pulsing EKG machines.
05:50And Andrew had this amazing idea, which I kind of wish we did, which is to perform live tonight with
05:55like a synced EKG machine.
05:58But I don't know how to get one.
06:02But it was such a good idea.
06:04We played with that idea for a second.
06:07But honestly, so like the show is very subtle.
06:10Like they really don't want you to feel a score.
06:12It's supposed to be like the opposite of like, you know, Grey's Anatomy ER, which is like shows that people
06:18love, but they wanted to be very contemporary and keep the score grounded.
06:22So this was a little bit of a departure, but it felt like it was the right time.
06:27I mean, for those who watch, like Louie's arc kind of created a moment for this.
06:34So I truly think it was just a beautiful, like happy moment in the show that we were lucky enough
06:42to get a chance to pitch a song for.
06:43But it is like probably the one time that they really have created the space for that, you know.
06:49And you enjoyed this challenge, Andrew?
06:51Is this something that you do more of?
06:53Yeah.
06:55I've done a little bit in the past, but usually I'm like, I like what I wrote so much I
07:00don't want to give it to the show.
07:02So in this case, I felt the gravity of the scene in the show.
07:07And I was like, I've got to.
07:09Well, we're glad you gave it to the pit.
07:11So please give it up for Gavin Brivlich and Andrew Bird.
07:13Thank you all.
07:14Thank you all.
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