Hi Fred, welcome to VENTS! How have you been? Hello, and thank you! I’ ve been well, thanks.
So when someone reads your bio it ' s clear that music has been an essential part of your life and rock has also been there- what made you want to get into scoring though? It seemed to be a natural progression. Way back when, a friend of mine was composing music for promos on CBS. He asked if I’ d like to write with him. A few weeks later, I was doing the promos on my own, and he just let me roll with it. I started getting all of the calls for custom promos for them and I loved it. The next natural move was to start scoring to picture.
Was it a natural and logical decision? Did your work as a parttime actor had anything to do with your interest on becoming an a music composer or it was actually much prior to that? No, the acting didn’ t lead me to it, really. I do enjoy acting, though. Music and acting have both always interested me. I’ ve been a performer my whole life, so the move from performing live to being in front of the camera was a natural one. The move from musician to composer was similar, in that, I’ ve been playing and writing music my entire life and making a move to scoring for television felt like a natural evolution.
How was the transition from sports composing to TV scoring? The first assignment I was given was to replace a Zimmer score in one of the long game opens. Talk about pressure!. That was literally the first thing that I had to do when I started. As we worked more and more together, the direction was more detailed and pointed. There were twists and turns in certain places, and the timings are very precise. I learned how the business worked at a very basic stage. From there, I scored to picture on the commercials and the opens and that was really the turning point for TV scoring. It was at a Kings advisory board meeting where I met fellow board member Gabe Sachs, and everything changed. After one meeting he said,“ our show is green lit and you’ re the composer”. And that was that.
‘ The Night Shift’ is a quite intense show in many ways, was it for this particular reason you choose to go with a mostly hard rock score for the series or did you actually brainstorm other ideas during the writing and recording process? We did brainstorm a lot of ideas. The show itself is different in many ways than other medical dramas. Everything from the darker colors of the hospital, to the Rock-n-Roll attitude of TC. He’ s a Harley riding, ex-military superstar surgeon that truly personifies controlled chaos. I mean, the first scene of the first episode shows him waking up in a jail cell with long hair after a night of drinking and fighting. If that’ s not Rock-n-Roll, I don’ t know what is! We wanted a more weighted score. The music gets quite aggressive at times.
For the score, do you base the music on the situation the characters are going through or rather what ' s happening in their surrounding at the moment?
Both. It depends on what the scene needs-- whether I need to help, drive, support or lead it.
How does the approach for your other show,‘ The Wall’, differs from this other medical series?‘ The Wall’ is a game show. Like other game or reality shows, it is mainly library music, meaning, we write based on what the creator / producer of the show wants and we give them a library of music to use. They may want dramatic, anticipation cues or joyous cues or energetic cues. You just have to write a ton of music with their wants and needs in mind. For‘ The Wall’, I have the opening theme and ancillary cues scattered throughout. For the LA Kings’‘ Black & White’, I score to picture.
What ' s like to work along with Michael Lord? Michael is a good friend. We didn’ t do much together on‘ The Wall’. I already had the opening theme and he already had the main theme. We did our own cues throughout the show.
As a member of a band, does working along with someone else tends to be much easier than writing and working on your music alone or rather the opposite? Well, we as composers are never really“ writing” on our own. We are and we’ re not. We are, in the sense that we are sitting alone in a room writing the cues that we conjure up, but we are being of service to the show and the show runners and the network and the studio. There are a lot of people involved but they all can’ t fit in the studio!. Being in a band and working along side the other band members has made it very easy for me to collaborate with others’ needs and wants. As far as literally co-writing cues with someone, I haven’ t done much of that.
Talk with us about the work you do writing themes for sports teams. How did you become interested in this? I’ ve always been a fan of sports. I’ d often notice the music being played and the reaction that it would get. I also noticed that a lot of teams were using the same music as each other. I though it would be cool if they had their own song and sound. I wrote a piece with the LA Kings in mind, and I pictured a hockey highlight reel on the screen. That cue is still being used today in a highlight video at Staples Center.
Are you limiting yourself to sports team or are you hoping to expand yourself as the company grows? I will continue to expand as the company grows.
What else is happening next in Fred Coury ' s world? I heard your show‘ Black & White’ was recently nominated for an Emmy award? Yes, thank you. It was very exciting to hear about the Emmy nomination for‘ Black & White’. With regard to other projects, I’ m expanding the sports team roster and will be tackling some films very soon. I love to keep busy and am so grateful that I get to wake up and do this every day.