MUSIC+SOUND AWARDS TALK TO...
Nick Foster
Composition Juror
March 2020
Nick Foster is a multiple BAFTA-winning composer, arranger and producer of music for television, commercials and film.
Working both solo and in collaboration from Air Studios, London, Nick has made his name composing scores for television shows in the UK and US including Timewasters, Bounty Hunters, the Derren Brown specials (including the recent Netflix specials, Sacrifice and The Push), The A List, Cuckoo, the Emmy-winning Hank Zipzer for the BBC, and the popular animated series, Thunderbirds Are Go, which Nick composes with brother Ben Foster, and for which they have been BAFTA, MASA and BAA-nominated.
His work has been recognised with awards including three D&AD pencils, two British Arrows, a Clio, a Music+Sound Award and a Kinsale Shark, along with two BAFTAs for his work on Derren Brown: Apocalypse and The Cube.
Here we ask him a few questions…
Can you tell us a bit about your musical background prior to making it as a composer? Do you remember a light-bulb moment?
I was always making music as a child; my brother Ben Foster and I used to make our own spy dramas with a neighbour’s camcorder, and score them ourselves on another neighbour’s electronic organ (our neighbours had better stuff than us) - so we always found that process really intriguing and exciting - I think I always imagined doing something with music; then I started writing songs and that seemed a really cool way to spend your time - so I got slightly side-tracked doing that for a decade or so!
So what was your first break into that world and how did it evolve into you writing for the media?
My first break, and what got me down to London, which seemed vital at the time (not so much now!) was a job working for Stock Aitken Waterman as a keyboard player and general dogsbody - from there I built a career as a record producer and songwriter, making records for people like East 17, S Club 7, Kylie, and lots of other luminaries of late 90’s / early 00’s pop… It was brilliant for a long time but after about 8 years it had got repetitive and I was looking for a new challenge. Ben was brilliantly scoring things like Torchwood and working on Doctor Who, so I was aware of the possibilities in that world and how exciting it all seemed - then I met Peter Raeburn who founded Soundtree Music, and we became great friends and started writing music together - which led me into writing music for commercials.
On to your work practice now… what do you find you need to gather from the director before you start writing?
As much as possible! The director has been living the project for a good while when you’re at Day One - so there’s always so much to learn from them about their hopes and expectations for the story - where they think music can particularly help - and also how they think music can help. This information might come in dribs and drabs; in unexpected phone calls and WhatsApps and texts; so I’m always listening out. And trying to find out how they like the score to interact with the picture; how loose or how specific they want you to be in terms of hitting moments, mood changes, revelations; other scores they’ve enjoyed… their tastes, what turns them on musically - and off…
Do you have a usual process when working? What’s your first step?
Whatever I’m doing, whether it’s a pitch for something that hasn’t been shot yet, or a locked cut of a first ep, I like to sit down as soon as possible at the piano and hit record on Logic, then play away without thinking about it too much. Usually it’s the worst-played piano in history, so the next thing is to go through it and see if anything can be excavated from the chaos. I’m also a great believer in singing melodies into my notes app on my phone; that’s got me started many times. When Ben and I write together, we tend to sit together at the piano and see how far each of us can get before the other one elbows them out of the way - which is usually a pretty productive way of doing it too!
Can you tell us about a project / projects you’ve worked on that has / have stood out significantly – either in a rewarding, or challenging way?
I’m so fond of Thunderbirds Are Go, a 78-part animated adventure show for ITV, which my brother Ben Foster and I scored together. We made 78 of them; they’ve just finished the first run in the UK, and it was such a happy and unified project - everyone firing in the same direction, and everyone passionate about making it the best it could be. Our exec, Giles Ridge, is a real music man, and he enabled us to record a full 64-piece orchestral score for each episode, which was a dream. Learning that discipline - of writing 22 minutes from scratch at the piano to picture, week after week, knowing the whole thing will be put in front of an orchestra days later - taught me so much. It’s some of the music I’m most proud of - and definitely the most rewarding experience I’ve had so far.
You’ve won and have been nominated for many awards! What will you be looking for in entries when you’re judging this year’s Music+Sound Awards?
Confident, exciting stuff; music that serves the picture; something subtle, bombastic, tiny, massive, something that feels fresh and new -remembering that, sadly, fresh and new does not always get across the line - but it’s wonderful when it does…
And lastly, what does 2020 hold for you work-wise?
The return of a great drama I scored last year for a second season; a very exciting gaming project; and a feature I’m mid-way through at the moment which I’m really enjoying. And hopefully a few other things will emerge along the way...
