Kane: Sometimes the editors will throw in
music that they like, and sometimes that music
works and sometimes it doesn’t, even as
a placeholder. For example, the first episode
of season two, we were looking for a specific
piece of music that could evoke what we
wanted. I remember the editor had put in a
piece that was … not right. I originally had a
plan where I wanted to use Aretha Franklin’s
“This Bitter Earth” … [but it] didn’t really work
because the way the scene was originally
envisioned was revised through production.
So, the editor and I went through a whole
bunch of songs, then we happened upon
this version of “Amazing Grace” sung by Tina
Turner, and I love Tina Turner. She’s like my
favourite artist in the whole world. And we
used that as a placeholder.
CM: Is that a common process – changing
the original plan for music in an episode,
kind of like you’d do a script rewrite or
something?
Kane: Now that we’re in the second season,
our music supervisors, Mikaila Simmons and
Michael Perlmutter [of Instinct Entertainment],
have a library of music that we’ve
looked at over the course of the two seasons,
so the editors will go into that library and
pick and choose songs they think might
work for a particular scene.
Another example of something that was
difficult for us to find the right cue for was in
season two, episode five. We open in a Black
hair salon, and it’s a sequence where there
are a bunch of Black women having their
hair done. I wanted something that had Kirk
Franklin energy, that this older Black female
proprietress would be listening to in her
shop. We couldn’t afford Kirk Franklin, and the
thing is, because that sequence is a montage,
you have to have the music picked before
you cut it. There are certain sequences where
you need to know what the music’s going
to be before you can even start putting it
together, so the editor and I went back-andforth
at least six or seven times trying to find
the right song, the right energy, asking the
music supervisors to give us different songs...
Finally, we found the right piece, but that’s
the thing – sometimes, if the music is in the
background, like a pub scene where you
just need tracks to layer in the background,
you may spend less time considering those
tracks, but when it comes to anything involving
scenes where there’s emotion or they’re
montages where you want the right energy,
you really need to dig deep.
CM: You use music in Diggstown in
a unique way in that it’s not just a
mood-setter, but it’s often very deliberately
chosen to help tell and propel the
characters’ stories.
Kane: Yeah, I can’t overstate the value of
having someone with Mikaila’s ability to
interpret what my tastes are based on the
scenes. Once again, it is, with everything on a
television show, a collaboration – it’s not just
one person making the decisions. We’ll have
spotting sessions and we’ll say, “Can we get a
piece of music like this, or that will get us this
emotion?” And they show up and get it done.
I think the other piece of it, though, is sometimes
the editors just hit on a piece of music
and it’s so perfect. There’s an artist, Aphrose,
and we had a song of hers in episode four
of season two, and it’s been sitting in the
cut since the very first cut of the show, and
everybody thought the song was by Amy
Winehouse, but it’s this fantastic Toronto artist
… and it’s one of the songs where it’s like,
“We can’t afford Amy Winehouse; how are we
going to replace this?” But once we realized
it was a Canadian artist … that’s a situation
where the editor just made magic putting
the cut together, and it just worked.
CM: Outside of budget considerations and
in terms of creativity and the role it plays
in a show, are there pros and cons to using
a popular, well-known song versus a lesserknown
song by an indie artist?
Kane: My thing is about “fresh.” Like, I’d love
to have a Daniel Caesar track in the show
that was some obscure track that nobody
has really heard, but I don’t necessarily want
a Daniel Caesar track that everyone has heard
1,000 times, because then the show is not
fresh. We actually had a situation this year
that we had a song off the top where Marcie’s
surfing, and it was a great song. Perfect
for the scene. Great. And I turn on the TV and
the song’s being used in a Good Life [Fitness]
commercial. And this happened after we
delivered the show to the network, so I called
up the music supervisor and said, “Our song’s
in this commercial. We’ve got to replace this.”
CM: In terms of score versus synced
music, are they used in a fundamentally
different way? How do you view the
practical use of an instrumental score
versus licensing a song?
Kane: I think they operate in similar ways,
but for me, the difference is with score, you
can build the music the way you want to. For
a scene where you have lots of dialogue and
drama happening, you can shape the score
to ride along with the scene without it interfering.
With music, you’ve got to be careful.
When you’ve got a heavy dialogue scene,
songs need to be just right or they’re going
to interfere with or detract from the drama
that’s unfolding. That Aphrose song we used
in episode four is in a very emotional scene
between Marcie and Avery, and it’s like,
DIGGSTOWN CREATOR, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & SHOWRUNNER
FLOYD KANE
because that song has such a great shape
to it sonically, it perfectly underscores what’s
happening in the scene, and leans into the
subtext. The song’s called “Move On,” and the
scene is about these two people finally putting
to rest the thing that’s stood between
them, and being able to move on in terms of
their relationship. For me, that’s the distinction
for when I’d use a score or when I’d use a
song, but in terms of emotional power, they
kind of do the same thing.
CM: For Diggstown, I’m sure the CBC
appreciates you using Canadian music
since that’s part of its mandate, but does
it matter to you whether you’re using a
Canadian artist or not?
Kane: My thing is the priority is Canadian,
but it’s also about what’s the best song for
the scene. For me, specifically, because I’m
from the Maritimes and the show is set in the
Maritimes, as much as I possibly can, I want
to find music by artists that are out there if it
works for the show. I think we’re really lucky
to have Reeny Smith agree to put some of
her songs in the show, because she’s an
up-and-coming talent and I think the sky is
the limit for her career. But I never look at it
as being mandated. I think there are practical
reasons for it, because we have a limited
budget and I like to use a lot of music – like
in one of the episodes, there are 15 songs for
a 44-minute show. Our show is a challenge
from that perspective, but like I said, I think
what’s great about what we’re doing is it forces
us to dig deep and allows us to discover
people the rest of the country or music
industry may be missing and give them a
national platform.
Both seasons of Diggstown are available
on-demand via CBC Gem.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of
Canadian Musician.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 45