Meet Michael Drew

We were lucky to catch up with Michael Drew recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

I feel like my purpose more found me. I grew up watching people around me put themselves second, and place others first. To try and serve a community and be the help that was needed at the time. This was incredibly inspiring and I felt like I had a lot to live up to. As time passed by, I started to find more and more opportunities in where I could try to help, or give time and effort in support to others. Storytelling and making people laugh was at the forefront. Each time you could tell a story, and help transport people to another time and place, I could see the positive impact it was having to not only those around me, but to myself as well.

Then the true power of story telling kicked in. To be able to share what life looks like to others. To be able to communicate in different ways what walking in another’s shoes might feel like. True immersion can be a place of learning, healing, celebration and also pure joy. All of this made me want to be a master of my craft. So I dove heard first into the world of film/game/immersive space music composing and I haven’t looked back!

Each day I am chasing ways in which I can be a more effective storyteller, so that I might have to chance to be a part of stories and experiences that take audiences on journeys of self discovery, glimpses through the eyes of strangers and wild fun adventures to imagined universes!

Storytelling brings us together to celebrate and reviel in the human experience and imagined experiences.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I had the incredible experience of collaborating with my good friend and brilliant film maker, Stephen Osborne on his new Australian psychological thriller ‘Hagar’s Hut’. Stephen and I had collaborated before on his previous feature film “Dome House Six’ and I was thrilled to get the call again to write the score for this suspenseful and thrilling narrative.

‘Hagar’s Hut’ embarks on a journey through the complexities of psychological trauma and that of the lines it often blurs between reality and fantasy. The story follows Skye (Zarlia Chisholm), a young girl fleeing from the clutches of abuse inflicted upon her by her psychiatrists, who seeks solace in the untamed wilderness. There, she encounters Xan (Lincoln Lewis), a mysterious figure whose motives and identity remain shrouded in enigma. As Skye navigates the delicate balance between truth and illusion, ‘Hagar’s Hut’ unfolds as a suspenseful exploration of resilience and survival.

Writing this score was like a love letter to all the psychological thriller scores that had come before. I was able to dive deep into research and learn how other legends of the craft tackled this complex type of music. Psychological horror is always very technical because you’re given the task of communicating the emotion behind the characters inner thoughts, and the battle that rages on there. Many of the films shots are held, specifically for the music to do a lot of the communicating. Stephen and I discussed that we wanted to try and keep that well crafted orchestral sound like the films before us, yet find new and unique flavours to add to make this score & film stand out.

While writing themes, I often found myself asking, “what is something completely strange that I could just throw into the mix here”? Having a main female character opened up the obvious choice of experimenting with female vocal techniques. Due to the horror nature, I didn’t want the vocals to be “beautiful/perfect”, and instead went for more raw and imperfect performances. This allowed me to keep building the suspense and never truly letting the audience feel like things were okay.

The other balance to any horror score is the build up and tension. Too much build up, and you can have the pay off become a let down or fatigue the audience. Not enough build up and jump scares or big reveals can often not work or not feel like they were worth the wait. It truly all comes down to timing and a plan to exactly what you want to hit and when. ‘Hagar’s Hut’ was filled with many amazing long shots (minimal edits) and this was a perfect landscape for me to craft in themes that were communicating to the audience, whether they realised it or not, what story was unfolding before their very eyes.

One of the fun idea’s was back in the day, groups of people used to take old recordings of rock and roll bands, play the audio in reverse to look for the subliminal evil messages. So I decided, why not record a message, point blank saying to the audience “it’s not safe here”, then play it in reverse? And that’s not only how we start the entire film, but it shows up constantly throughout the score. If anyone was to take the audio clip, and play it in reverse, they would get a clear recording of “It’s not safe here”.

I was really proud of this score because I was able to pay tribute to a lot of my heroes of the craft, Goldsmith, Young, Horner, Goldenthal, Steiner etc. while also still placing my unique style and voice into the music. It all ended up being this blend of orchestra and modern day sound design glued together to keep audiences on the edge of their seats and leaving the film questioning their own realities.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Do your research – What ever genre or story you are asked to tell, go and learn about the titans shoulders you are about to attempt to stand on. By knowing and understanding our past, we are able to build into the future and open new and exciting doors. There are many, many brilliant story tellers, and if you can pull a part and see exactly what made them so special, you might be lucky to find the mentality towards building such ideas.

2. Try, then fail, then try again! – Never be scared to experiment! So many styles have worn out musical tropes. So if you’re looking for a unique edge, you have to dare to take risks. Try a new sound, try a new scale/chord, push to think outside the box. It wont always be perfect, but with each failure, you’re closer to finding the golden gem hidden in the rough.

3. Love your craft – What ever department you are in, love it to the point you want to attempt to learn every single aspect to it there is. Then you live in a beautiful world of discovery. The quote is “Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music” by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Each day you can wake up and pursue learning new and exciting ways to be better story-tellers and composers, and you will never learn it all, but it’s a beautiful journey.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Each and every time that i feel overwhelmed or burnt out, I go back and remind myself why I started all of this in the first place. This can be by going and watching movies I fell in love with or music that made me stand up and say “I have to learn how to do that!”.

Another helpful tool is to write things down on a whiteboard, so you can see all the tasks that need to be completed, the just run through them one by one. There is something therapeutic about being able physically cross off a completed task, and you start to gain momentum in doing the work. This approach has been incredibly helpful for me many times to just show up on the hard days, go through the motions and just get work done. A joy starts to fill your heart and mind again and you leave each day feeling like you’ve accomplished something, rather then letting it build to the next day and then feeling like you’re drowning.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://musicbymichaeldrew.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/musicbymichaeldrew/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-drew-5ab16213b/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@michaeldrewcomposer

Image Credits

Molly O’Keeffe
Stephen Osborne