Creating the Soundtrack

We were home on the pleasant Florida bayou during our furlough when I became interested in music. This was several years ago. I was about nine years old when I first held up my grandpa's old electric guitar and picked the strings with wonder. It was my Grandpa Wild who invested his time and talent, passing his love of the electric guitar on to me.

Grandpa Wild practicing the guitar at home.

What I appreciated about my grandpa was his fun, carefree teaching style. Instead of teaching chord progressions and strumming patterns, he made me jump right into a simple song, something he knew I could handle but at the same time would challenge me. I loved the fact that I was playing along with him (even if I couldn't keep up at first) and at the same time was increasing my technique and learning how to perform real songs.

He taught me all the classic surf tunes, The Ventures, were some of his favorite. I started playing bass, picking the deep notes as he led with the lead or rhythm. Gradually I learned some "licks," the sassy arpeggios, string stretching that gives a song so much character, and began learning the chords to the different songs, playing along with my grandpa and having a blast!

This was the inspiration for the Wild Brothers soundtrack.

It was soon after the Wild Brothers series was in development that I found myself facing a problem which I hadn't thought through: Where were we going to get the soundtrack?

I had thought about trying to rent or purchase cheap music from online sources, even considered using the widely known GarageBand freebies, but I quickly discarded both ideas. Nothing had the right feel for the series, and we didn't want a soundtrack that would be easily recognized. So I cautiously decided I'd attempt to create the soundtrack myself.

I've been recording music for about a year now. Initially I found myself coming up with my own little melodies or guitar riffs while sitting in my bedroom practicing. My work was simple at first, but slowly I've become better accustomed to merging tracks and creating fuller sounds. I'm not professional by any standard. The soundtrack I've developed came straight out of a house in the jungle, from the bedside of a kid who had no special abilities and didn't really know what he was doing. But I've grown to love it! So taking on the soundtrack of the Wild Brothers has become a part-time job for me. You can actually listen to one of the pieces I put together by watching the trailer for our second adventure. Just pay close attention to the music that plays at the very beginning and throughout this video.

The downside of making your own soundtrack is that it's a time-consuming process! I have to chip away at it after school hours and in passing bursts of creativity. Another problem I recognized early on was that I was only really familiar with two instruments, primarily the electric guitar and the ukulele. Creating music takes the skill of multiple people, each a professional in their own field. Thankfully, in this day and age you can be more or less a lone musician and still create the same sounds that a full-on band might record straight out of their studio. With digital music-making programs I can assume the role of a percussionist, orchestrator, bass guitarist, or keyboardist.

Most of my soundtrack is upbeat because we want viewers to leave on a positive note. Our life is fun and adventurous, and that is what I want to convey with my songs.