Finding the music for the film "Ear to Ear" was a blast! Songs would come to me in many different ways. For instance some songs I'd known for years before making the film such as the final song:
Girl From Mill Valley by Jeff Beck Group. A love interest had played me the song and I saw it all and I listened to it over and over...I'm listening to it right now :) Its a sweet song and knew it would need to cap off the study of the sliding femmes of folly.
To start the film off I used another song that I had known for a few years performed by one of my favorite musicians on the planet, Ty Segall, his work is quite prolific and out of all that fuzz I couldn't get Untitled #2 out of my head. Its an instrumental piece that got my heart thumpin'. The whole album, Lemons, is one of my all time favorites
Some songs would find me. One of the coolest experiences I had was when I heard the song for Jenny Brown's sequence. Jenny is a really special person not only to me but to many people all over because she may be one of the greatest surf instructors these waters have ever known. To me she oozes strength through her graceful, powerful lines. To surf with Jenny is exciting because she inspires. I had other plans for her sequence as I was going to somehow add her surfing into the final sequence with the Jeff Beck Group song but it wasn't working out in the editing process. I took a break outside and when I came back into the house the song Life by Everyday People was playing from one of my favorite radio podcasts Chance With Wolves. I ran to my computer and put together that sequence and I have to admit it is one very close to my heart. I love watching her surf to that song.
Lots of songs came from that radio podcast Chances With Wolves and I cannot recommend listening to these playlists enough. They're all about 2 hours long and perfect for any project; painting your house, painting a piece of art, cooking dinner, cleaning...it goes on.
Other radio podcasts where music was found are Rock and Roll Rampage out of the Netherlands and Rat Surf Radio, a podcast that is currently not in production but the archives live on.
I wont go on and on about how each and every song found me but I cannot write this post without mentioning of the coolest experiences I had during the editing of this film. I hadn't yet started on the trailer for "Ear to Ear" because it lacked a good tune to run to but one day I was driving home and via a local radio station WYLA 97.5 Charleston's very own radio station from our county library was playing Dean Martin's Just a Little Bit South of North Carolina. Holy crap, I lost it. It was perfect. I also highly agree with Mr. Martin.
Finally, I must mention that while having these songs find me was a fantastic experience I was at great fault for not looking under my nose at the wildly talented musicians that live right here in Charleston. It wasn't until I needed a song for the credits that a friend reminded me of the sounds created by Stefanie Santana, who performed The Starfish Song. After jumping many hoops and sending countless e-mails to acquire the licensing for the utilization of these songs I'm happy to have been reminded how much better local music is for a homegrown project like this. I'm looking forward to having an original score performed by the rad jazz dreamers "Shimmy Ghøster" for Rabbit Hole's newest unnamed film project.