Dive into a world of artistic fusion with Catherine Gerard! This musician, visual artist, and multifaceted talent joins us on an inspiring journey.
Her episode is a tapestry woven with vibrant threads:
This episode is a reminder: You hold the baton to your own creative symphony. Conduct it with passion and embrace the journey.
Join us and be inspired by Catherine's story. Plus, stay tuned for future episodes where the enchantment of movies and their soundtracks continue to unfold.
Enjoy!
To connect with Catherine and enjoy her music, covers and originals, as well as the process of creation of her music and a glimpse of her life as a digital nomad head to:
https://www.youtube.com/@catherinegairard
You can now support the show and help me to keep having inspiring, insightful and impactful conversations by subscribing! Visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1716147/support and thank you so much in advance for helping the show!
Links:
Roberto on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/robertorevillalondon
Tailoring Talk on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/tailoringtalkpodcast
Tailoring Talk on YouTube https://youtube.com/@robertorevillalondon
Credits
Tailoring Talk Intro and Outro Music by Wataboy on Pixabay
Edited & Produced by Roberto Revilla
Connect with Roberto head to https://allmylinks.com/robertorevilla
Email the show at tailoringtalkpodcast@gmail.com
Dive into a world of artistic fusion with Catherine Gerard! This musician, visual artist, and multifaceted talent joins us on an inspiring journey.
Her episode is a tapestry woven with vibrant threads:
This episode is a reminder: You hold the baton to your own creative symphony. Conduct it with passion and embrace the journey.
Join us and be inspired by Catherine's story. Plus, stay tuned for future episodes where the enchantment of movies and their soundtracks continue to unfold.
Enjoy!
To connect with Catherine and enjoy her music, covers and originals, as well as the process of creation of her music and a glimpse of her life as a digital nomad head to:
https://www.youtube.com/@catherinegairard
You can now support the show and help me to keep having inspiring, insightful and impactful conversations by subscribing! Visit https://www.buzzsprout.com/1716147/support and thank you so much in advance for helping the show!
Links:
Roberto on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/robertorevillalondon
Tailoring Talk on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/tailoringtalkpodcast
Tailoring Talk on YouTube https://youtube.com/@robertorevillalondon
Credits
Tailoring Talk Intro and Outro Music by Wataboy on Pixabay
Edited & Produced by Roberto Revilla
Connect with Roberto head to https://allmylinks.com/robertorevilla
Email the show at tailoringtalkpodcast@gmail.com
Welcome to Tailoring Talk. I'm Roberto Rivilla, bespoke Taylor and owner of Roberto Rivilla London's suit shirt and shoemakers. I weave superpowers into every stitch. Join me as we meet self-starters and creators, diving into their journeys and uncovering valuable lessons. To help you be the best you can be, hit that subscribe button, leave a rating and let's tailor greatness together. With a harmonious blend of French and Peruvian heritage, today's guest paints her journey through music and art. As an independent singer, harpist and songwriter, she weaves emotive soundscapes. Her canvas extends beyond music. Since 2021, she's delved into the captivating world of NFT art and her debut EP was released in 2020. It echoes her creative spirit. Now she has her sights set on a new symphony, composing movie soundtracks, weaving melodies that echo through compelling stories. Here to inspire you to compose and conduct the soundtrack to your own life. Tailoring Talkers, please welcome Catherine Gerard to the show. Catherine, how are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me today.
Speaker 1:You're so welcome, so you've had quite a journey so far, but I think the one thing that we're definitely going to get from you today is passion, because you are following your dreams, the things that you love to do, with a fierce, burning passion, and you know from everything that I've seen on you. Obviously we follow each other on social media as well. There is no doubt, or you don't seem to have any doubt, about the path that you're on, which is one of the things that I absolutely love about you. Obviously, music is very, very central to your life. You're also an artist as well. I mentioned that in the introduction and you've, to date, found really, really interesting it's probably a word that doesn't do what you do justice, but just found really fascinating ways to combine the two, the visual with the audio. Did one of those things come first for you growing up? Were you more musically passionate than art? Was it art then music, or were the two things always there, hand in hand?
Speaker 2:I feel like both things were always there together. Like my father, he's a painter and so he started teaching me the basics of drawing and painting since very little, so that in terms of the skill came first. And then in the school, like in Peruvian school I grew up in Peru we love celebrating everything Mother's Day, father's Day, everything. We do something like all the students, we by class, we prepare like a dance, like traditional dance or poetry or acting or some singing sometimes, and you present in front of all the parents and friends, and it's like a celebration. So I was always kind of exposed to performing arts, to being on a stage and music. I, like my family, wasn't like super musical. The maximum was the music on the radio, which could be better or worse depending on the times, and from there I always loved singing and dancing and I was always like looking for that in all my like extra school activities etc.
Speaker 2:So at some point I was studying theater and then I realized I was missing music a lot. So at some point I took the decision to switch into music primarily, and then it's not like I'm not seeing myself, I don't see myself like acting in later on, it's just that it doesn't hurt as much to miss theater and acting than it does missing music. Like that's how I realized, okay, from all the artistic things that I really feel I was born to do, like I am made for developing that, like it comes so easy for me. From all the different things, music was like the one that was calling me the most. So I decided to go that route and I didn't stop since. I decided to take it seriously.
Speaker 2:And then I, with time, I was like figuring out how I would put all the pieces of the puzzle together, because I still love drawing, I still love having some acting in my life. So building those things like a support for the music was how I found a way to combine everything together. Like, oh, I make the dresses for my videos and then I act some kind of story in my videos and then I put the music to it and then I add animation. So there's the drawing and it's very, very fun to do for me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's so many questions that have now popped into my head from everything that you were saying there, so I'm going to try and pick two or three and remember them as well as I ask you them and you answer. God, I really want to ask you about the dresses. Now, growing up, you obviously are very passionate and expressive child, but you didn't have access, I guess, to a classical musical education, so you had to teach yourself, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, at the beginning. That's why people were like, oh, you don't have like the voice or the talent, and I was like something inside of me was like don't listen to them, because I was like already figuring out, like of course I never had any training. Like how do you expect me to be good? Like there are people who are naturally good, but they are like the rarest. The normal thing is that if you never had singing lessons, for example, then you don't sing rights. That's normal. So I never listened to all of these and I was always like trying ways to do it. And when I lived in France for a while, you can have like free access to conservatories to study and I was never accepted. But then I kept on going and in the end I found like my way, I found the teachers that, also in terms of values, resonated more with me, because the problem with some conservatories is that they are looking for a type and then they will make you fit in. That type is not, is not the focus, is not in making you unique or or focusing on your strengths and the things that make you you. Is more about a type of voice of artists that can execute a certain type of music in a certain way, and so everybody ends up sounding the same. And then, ironically, the people who can survive that, who you cannot put in that frame, they are the ones who are then chosen as the like, the main character, or the first violin or the first instrument, because they kind of either they are just so exceptional that you cannot put them into the box, so you have to, you just have to let them be, or that's that's a lesson that I understood later that you do what they want you to do in the exam to get in, and once you're in, you start showing this step a little by little who you are, and so you kind of preserve your uniqueness. Let's say, if you want to follow that route like if there's anyone listening to me right now and wants to get into a conservatory I would say do exactly what they want you to do in the exam and do it as as good as you can so they get you in, but never let them take that spark out of you, because it is not always everywhere that harsh, but it tends to be in general. So it's important that you, and in life in general, not only conservatories.
Speaker 2:I love this part of the lyrics of Eye of the Tiger when they say don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past. You must fight just to keep them alive. So only the ability to keep dreaming it suffices in itself, because everything around you is designed to make you stop and quit your dreams, so let's not even talk about making them a reality. It's like a whole other beast. Just keep dreaming. It's an everyday fight. So you have to be very. It's like the first test for the artist, the no, you cannot do this, you have to. If you're going to do it, you have to do it this way. And this is like the little traps that are put in front of you, that like a Mario Bros game, the death, like the emptiness beneath him. And you have to jump those and keep going.
Speaker 1:One of my recent guests. He's sort of Dr Disney, so he's the specialist on everything to do with Disney World and so on. But he talks about how there's a parallel within a lot of those stories, even when you go back centuries, like a lot of the fairy tales that a lot of Disney movies were based on, and where the hero in that story some people are the villain but most of us are the hero. And when you think the hero's journey is kind of always the same, no matter whether it's a Disney movie or Star Wars or whatever, but you know the hero's kind of here on the big map. I know that you'll be able to visualize this with me. A lot of my guests think I'm crazy because there's so much going on up here in my imagination. But anyway, and then you kind of look across the land.
Speaker 1:And then along and then in the far distances, the castle. It's your dream, it's your goal, but in between, that is, you know that maybe some people you will find along the way who will help you, some people you'll find along the way who will try to stop you. Usually there's a lot of those. You know rivers of lava and so on and so forth. Right, I mean you look at things like Lord of the Rings is a perfect visual example of the hero's journey from beginning to end, and you know just everything you were saying just there. Do you know the eye of the tiger song? I've never really actually listened to the lyrics.
Speaker 2:Oh no, it's so.
Speaker 1:I really need to, but you know what I mean listen to them and actually thought about them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everybody is like I'm gonna go to the gym now.
Speaker 1:We'll go running.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's a great riff, but, wow, the lyrics are so deep Because, if you pay attention, they are telling you keep freaking going. That's the message of the whole movie as well. Like demand more of yourself, aim to the top of the mountain, because in the end, okay, many people don't dare to go for the top because they are afraid they won't get there. The thing is that it really doesn't matter, like I understood in the end of the day, that what really matters is that you took the journey, you tried, you gave your best and if in the end of your life you don't get there and you cannot regret because you know you did everything you could. But still, life is so flexible that even if your cards let's say if life was a poker game were old twos and like really bad cards, if you still play those with decision and the best you can, there's no way you can at least get close to where you wanted. It's something magical that happens when you demand things from life. Life kind of molds itself and then what you wanted happens. You make it happen.
Speaker 2:It's like Beethoven when he became deaf, he was writing a letter to his brother to saying like he was ready to commit suicide because all his life was music. And how was he going to make music if he couldn't hear? But then he thought about it more and he ripped off that letter and he wrote another one where he said something like I'm gonna grab life by the collar and defy it like my destiny. I'm gonna grab my destiny by the collar and defy it like I'm gonna fight this. And luckily enough he knew how to sight, read scores and soulfish and things so he could. So life molded in a way he could still keep creating music and like most of his biggest works were when he was already deaf, like the song of the joy how is it called in English? The joy song?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know that, obviously know the one, the ode to joy.
Speaker 2:Ode to joy. Thank you, so that one. He was already deaf when he wrote it and it's one of the most beautiful pieces that are out there.
Speaker 1:It reminds me of the quote and I know again the passion comes through when you talk about that because your upbringing wasn't privileged, kind of much like mine and my parents, because we very much have a class system over here in Britain, right, and for all intents and purposes I'm working class and I remember, maybe when I was very young, sort of talking to my parents like you know, it doesn't have to always be that way and being told as a child no, you know, stop trying to spread your wings and fly beyond the span of your wings because you'll just crash and burn.
Speaker 1:You know, if you're born working class, you're working class. There's no. You know you don't try to elevate which you know. Now I say that out loud. That sounds like really, really bad advice or like a really bad thing to say to someone, and it reminded me there was a movie from oh my God, it must be 25 years old now. Now I feel really old, but a night's tell with Heath Ledger. I don't know if you've ever seen that film.
Speaker 2:What was the name of the film? Again?
Speaker 1:It's called A Night's Tale.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You know the actor who passed away, heath Ledger. Okay, he passed away when, just after he played the Joker in you know Christopher Nolan's the Dark Knight, that actor. So it's a film with him. I think it's about 1999, 2000. And it's about a pauper who goes on a journey and he falls in love with someone I mean not a princess, but, you know, like a lady. And in order to I actually don't remember the story exactly, but basically he's not a knight, but he basically has to kind of fake it and go through all these trials until he becomes an actual knight. Because the idea is, I think knights couldn't, you couldn't be a knight unless it was by, you know, blood or birth or whatever.
Speaker 1:I don't understand how white people in this country operate, but anyway, and this they have a flashback to, when he's a child, because he always looks at the, to the stars, and the flashback is him and his father and his, his. He, as a little boy, says to his father can it, can it be done, father, can a man change his stars? And his father says, yes, william, if he believes enough, a man can do anything. And it's that quote about changing your stars that you were giving the example of the playing cards. And you know, just because you've been dealt a bad hand doesn't mean that the outcome has to be that.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:It's such an important lesson and one that I need to keep reminding myself of day after day, because, like you said earlier as well, the beast is always there. It's, there's always people that are trying to bring you down or tell you that there's things that you can't do, or things that are impossible. You know, and you've got to try your best to sort of look past them to where you want to go and just keep moving forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's important because, like, people see you, like everybody sees the world, not as the world is but as they are. So they see you. They see themselves in you, unconsciously, like they don't realize that when they say, no, that's impossible, it's like it's impossible for them because they don't believe that they can do that, they don't have the vision. Like, if a vision is given to you and you can close your eyes and see, it is because you can get there. It's like you're seeing the future. You have to. Just there's a distance between the future and now. That is work and strategy and you just go on like in a monopoly. You go the little squares and you get there, so that's all. So you take all the BS out, you don't listen to that and he just like.
Speaker 2:One day I was going like having a walk in a park that's a random, but it makes sense in here and I saw this little dog that their owner would throw a ball to it. The dog was super happy going after the ball and then there were some stairs in the park and the dog didn't even see the stairs. The ball went down there. The dog just rolled over. It was so funny.
Speaker 2:And when he got down the stairs. He was again on its feet and he literally seemed to not have noticed the stairs at all. He just was focused on the ball and, with the same kind of silly smile, he was going after the ball and the stairs did nothing. He was totally unaware of the stairs. So it was like, wow, what a lesson. Like. If you keep focusing on the goal, the obstacles become so small. Really, because you're focusing on what's behind, many people see like a small wall and they are, oh no, I cannot go past that, and so in their mind the wall becomes a huge thing. That doesn't let them go past them and it's just on your mind, like it's where you're focusing on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely Katarine. We might be in the process of creating one of the most inspirational episodes of Taylor Swift ever. This is so powerful.
Speaker 1:I know you know it is, but people don't underestimate how powerful this stuff is and we're not really saying anything new, but it's just so wonderful to get your taking your interpretation as well and using dogs as an analogy always a good one with me, because we have two cats, two dogs. They're all. If I could use one word to describe all four of them. It's persistent when they want something, they do not stop. It doesn't matter what is in their way, what the obstacle is, they just keep going for it. You know, the other day we were in a shopping center, my coca spaniel he's crazy and he there was something on the other side of you know, the automatic, the glass doors that he wanted to go after, maybe like a bird or something, and I said to him wait, but he didn't listen to wait because I was restricting him, right, he just wanted to go for it. He didn't see the glass close and straight through.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I was so worried oh my God, are you okay? Like have you broken your brain or something? And he's just like all happy, with his silly smile on his face, like nothing had happened, Because he wasn't thinking about that thing. That was in the way. He was still thinking about the thing he wanted to get to. And you know, wouldn't life be less hard if that's the way we were right? So they're like a constant reminder to me of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. We need to remind ourselves every day and to surround ourselves with art and podcasts and things that, and movies, any type of thing, that keep us reminding us of that message. Because, as you said, it's the same. You listen to Tony Robbins or Mosey Gary Vee, whoever you want to think of, they all say the same thing, but you need to listen to it many times every day, in different ways, so you never forget, because you're reprogramming.
Speaker 2:Like all the programming before was to keep you, as you said, like on your lane and that if you were born ex-thing, that's all you can be, which is not true, but it's like that's a matrix.
Speaker 2:Like you stay here, you behave and you don't break the order. But it's important that we understand that all of that is an illusion, a projection, and that the order is what we want it to be. Like you can, it's malleable, it's so flexible and it's one of the laws of the universe on how this works the energy, the organization of the energy. Like you are, with a like energy vibration and therefore, if you change that, everything has to change, because it's affinity low, like you cannot be in a certain level inside and that your exterior world shows something different, like it has to be the same. So that's what it means to like grab the destiny by the collar and defy it. It's like I am not going to focus on that reality that I'm not satisfied with. I am going to visualize and work for that life that I want, and then things start falling into place because your energy has changed. Therefore, the exterior has to change, like there's no other possible way. So there's that, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mentioned. You know? I mean you know. What we're really talking about is all trying to explain to people is that you know nothing set in stone. You can be the author of your own story. You can be the composer of you know your own soundtrack music yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm going to ask you a question that I actually hadn't got in my notes for you when I was doing my prep. This is literally just popped up through our conversation and I kind of want to get your take on it, because you know you talk about energy and you know to me you're someone who is made up not of atoms but of notes, of musical notes, and I've generally, most of the time, have some form of music going on, whether it's actually playing, you know, maybe on a music player, on a sonor system, in my AirPods, on my phone, or it's just in my head, because I can, you know, like I have my own radio in my head is constant 24, seven, and when I need to get myself into a certain move. So, for example, if I, if I, if I, if I'm going to like a networking event or something, and I need to feel sophisticated and confident, then Okay, listeners, any of you laugh, or I get any silly emails from you, you're going to be in big trouble. Okay, but here's my secret. So I have my double seven James Bond playlist and that's what I listen to on the way in, because it kind of gets me into that sort of sophisticated mood could.
Speaker 1:In real life I'm not very when, sometimes I don't know if it's a Catholic thing I want to punish myself. I listen to music. That's very sad. If I'm listening to things on random, in an hour I can go from happy to sad, to melancholy, to excited, to ambitious, to dejected. Why is that? Why is there such a connection with music, different types of music and how music itself can actually play us, play our emotions?
Speaker 2:So music, first of all, is like sound, so it's vibration, it's like actual waves of energy in form of sound that literally go across through us. In reality, we don't only hear with our ears, we hear with our whole body. That's why deaf musicians can perform, because they can feel the vibration on the floor in their body, especially with low frequencies. You truly feel them here. And when you have this huge amplifier with the huge cone that you can see it and you need, like for pushing the low frequency forward, you truly physically need a physical cone that does this thing. That's why it's called a beat. It's literally like a heart and it's pushing those waves out and they come to you and they go through you and you can feel it here in your chest in a live concert, how they bounce into you. And then there is the energy of the person who made that music. That it's kind of I see it like my personal theory it's like deposited in those vibrations, like a pigeon message that you are sending and that's why you can get it, even if you don't understand the language of the song, let's say you still get it, because it's like the pure emotion deposited in that wave, in that wave of energy that is going through you and it's like your whole body understands it. You don't know to know about notes, chords, harmony and all those things. Instinctively, your body just takes the message, like we've been getting used to that language from thousands of years, like music has our age. Basically, we started singing, I believe, almost at the same time as we started talking. So that's why it's so important to consciously choose the type of music that you are, and with type of music I mean like what's the content, what's the substance inside it. Because you can have rap that is so amazing, that is poetry, pure poetry, and that is talking to you directly, like in a raw way, to get better, improve, go out there, fight, and you can have rock and heavy metal that tells you the same and jazz that tells you the same. Like I think about Nina Simone songs. She has that raw energy and that like this light and that music that has that light, even pop, any style that you can think of, that is giving you that positive energy. This is what I feel that we need to listen to the most.
Speaker 2:Like there are many songs that talk about toxic love, possession, victimism, or I'm so sad because this happened that I can't control and please come back and these type of things, and melodically. They can be good and you may like them, but be aware that the content is going to go directly to your subconscious mind because it's the vibration going through you. Your body is going to scan all those things. So it's like a cake you don't want to eat that every day. It's not going to be good for you.
Speaker 2:If art is food for the spirit, there is junk spirit food out there and that is being pushed heavily onto us through media and through organizations that have lots of money and resources to make you believe you like that empty art. That is not art, those commercial products that are out there. And so it's important, as someone who listens to music, to try to have an active search for that positive art and for the artist to have this active effort of learning how to promote properly so that the good things you are creating can get to as many people as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely yeah, exactly. I've started using Playlist a lot more, like my own playlist that I curate, and when I hear a song you know whether it's on television or on the radio, or I hear it coming out with somebody else's car or whatever, and you know, suddenly you kind of think in, that's really cool, and then you know I might shazam it. Or you know, because now it's amazing, you can literally just hum into apps on your phone and it will find the song for you and then I add it into. I call it is my everything, no, everybody. Be cool, but we've like sunglasses, smiley faces for the double O in the cool. That's kind of my go to when everything is falling apart especially. So we touched on movie soundtrack and so I want to make sure that we kind of get into this as well, because something I'm very passionate about.
Speaker 1:So on this podcast we do something called the Bondathon, again related to James Bond, and we've been watching every single film, one a month. For the last we're now in the Pierce Brosnan era, so you know it's been going for about a year and a half now. And one thing that we do talk about during those reviews is the music, and I can distinctly remember exactly which episodes we were talking about, where you know the film maybe didn't feel so great and part of the disconnection was the music. And then other films where we're going to review it and review it and review it to rewatching them. We've all said I'm not looking forward to that one because it wasn't very good, but then we come to review it after watching it.
Speaker 1:And so a recent one was Tomorrow Never Dies, which was Pierce Brosnan's second film, and John Barry scored the majority of the James Bond films, but he didn't come back for that one and he ended. This young composer at the time called David Arnold, and David Arnold previously had released an album called Shaken, not Stirred, where he brought in different artists and did re-imaginings of the classic Bond theme songs, and he wrote a brilliant album, very, very creative. Some of the things he did were very unexpected and he scored this film Tomorrow Never Dies. And for me, if you sat me on my own just with nothing in my mind, I can play that album from start to finish, note for note. I know it so well, backwards and forwards.
Speaker 1:And the reason why it's so magnificent is because he scored the. He composed the music to the film, to every single beat of what was going on on screen. And when you put those two things together as an overall visual auditory and now we know, because sound waves, physical experience it made that film like a near 10 out of 10 for me. I think I gave it a nine or maybe an 8.5. But I keep citing that as one of my favourites, just because of the soundtrack. So if I was musically inclined, it's something that I would absolutely love to do. Where because you're now starting on that journey where did that sort of passion for film composition come from and begin? And then my follow up question, naturally, is going to be what are some of your favourite soundtracks, film themes, passages of music from your favourite movies?
Speaker 2:So I love cinema, I love movies, especially like 2D, 3d animation movies, because they have, like, the drawing side of it and it has always fascinated me, like how can they do thousands of drawings and then that comes to life? You know, it's such a hard work. Beyond 4D animation, like in the beginning of animation, people were doing drawings and drawings and drawings all by hand and then put all that together and come up with those stories that were also super well, like the script was really well written and the plot was smooth and all those things so good, and so I would always be listening to the music. And, for example, sometimes I like sewing my own stuff. So sometimes you have to sew by hand, like you cannot do everything with the machine. I mean you could, but then sometimes the result is not going to be as neat, right? So while I was sewing by hand which it caused me a little while to learn to love to sew by hand you know when you start it's like, oh, the machine goes so fast, it's much better, but it depends, right? So I would just put a movie and I would sew while watching my movie and at some point I would just be so absorbed in my sewing, that I was literally following the movie by the dialogues and the soundtracks, and the soundtrack was going me to that journey, like bringing me in that journey. I went, like the suspense comes, I was feeling the emotions, but I was still sewing like what's going on. I wasn't really watching like the visuals, especially if it was a movie that I had already seen before. And so there I started to pay attention to like the soundtracks. And then the idea started growing like wow, it would be so nice to do that one day. Or wow, that must be difficult. Like orchestrating all those things, coming up with all those melodies, like it would be such an amazing challenge to do. And then the idea was growing and growing and I was just imagining what it would be like.
Speaker 2:And then, on the just browsing on the internet, one day I find this program that is called the Momentum Program. That is quite well known apparently. I just saw like the advertising on YouTube and I was like that's what I'm looking for. Like that's like my, the thing that I was looking for and the thing that I was imagining. So I just applied. And then when I talked with the organizer, the founder, he was like where do you know us from. I just saw the ad on YouTube and I knew that was the thing I had to do. And he was surprised, because normally people take some time, go and see the YouTube channel, the website, look at the tutorials that they put for free, etc. Before taking that decision and I was like no, I'm sure this is what I need. So that is how it kind of was born.
Speaker 2:And then I started with the preparation courses and then I said, okay, I need to practice, because like one and a half hours, two hours of movie, like it seems so impossible for now. I started doing two minutes micro funny movies on my YouTube channel. It's gonna start like a dedicated YouTube channel, for that is gonna be called the Katherines Soundtracks and it's two minutes movies with a funny twist as an excuse for me to do soundtracks and like to build my smallest stack of evidence. Okay, I can't do this. And now it feels less daunting, like I can do two minutes is the same for more time, that's, that's all. It's the same you do for two minutes, but for an hour it's just longer.
Speaker 2:So it helped me to build that confidence and so for now I just did two of them. One is when you hate Valentine's Day, which is kind of horror type of comedy, like a parody of horror movies. And then the other one is about when you get ghosted, which is like a topic for many people, like you know, when you get ghosted by someone, etc. So that's a parody for romantic type of movies and what kind of what I would do if someone did that to me. And so that was fascinating to do because it made me go through several styles of music, from classical to rock to then some big band which I am not an expert of. But I kind of did my little thing and it was so funny, so fun to make, so great practice for me and a good excuse to make people laugh, which is always welcome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I. It reminds me of one of my favorite romantic comedies. I love romantic comedies the holiday with Jack Black and Cameron Diaz and Jude Law and Kate Winslet. Have you seen that film?
Speaker 2:It sounds to me like I ring some bell. I think I have seen it like they're existing, but I never had the time to actually watch it.
Speaker 1:Okay, Catherine, you have to watch it because of everything you've just told me. You have to watch it, You'll love it. So Cameron Diaz is like in California she's a high flying. She writes the trailers for movies.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Kate Winslet is a journalist in London. She's going through a really bad breakup. She's been the girlfriend of someone who is cheating on his wife with her. And she knows that she is the. I don't even yeah yeah, but she can't help herself, but she needs to get out of it. So she basically advertises to swap her home in the English countryside for someone else's home. So it's like a holiday swap, like a house swap, and Cameron Diaz is going through a really bad breakup because her boyfriend cheated on her and so she needs to get out and do something else, and so they end up swapping houses.
Speaker 1:So Cameron Diaz goes to England, kate Winslet goes to. Anyone who's listening is laughing at me. Again, I'll kill you, but so what? It's a great movie, I don't care. Kate Winslet goes to LA. And Kate Winslet she meets a friend of Cameron Diaz's character, played by Jack Black, and he's a movie composer.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow. And originally Robert Downey Jr had read for that role. He didn't get it, thank God, because Jack Black does such an amazing job with this role and we know that Jack Black himself is a musician, like great rock, guitarist, writer, etc. With Tenacious D but I mean some of the quotes in that movie there's a scene in a blockbuster video because she's going to rent some movies. He's with her keeping her company and he's going around and he's picking up films, but where I might say to you this is a great movie because this is this happens and it's about this story. He picks up the movie and he's talking about it from the point of view of the music, right. So he picks up Jaws, two notes and you've got the greatest villain in movie history. You know, it's wonderful, you have to see it. See it and then let me know. Okay.
Speaker 2:I will.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it. Just anyway go watch it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the holiday right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The holiday yeah, yeah, so yeah.
Speaker 1:But you know that was the thing with David Arnold when he took over doing the Bond stuff, because you know his whole thing was like there are certain things that happen in an action movie, like a Bond movie, where you know you have this James Bond theme, which is one of the most famous sections of music in the world.
Speaker 1:Right, it's one of those themes where you could play it in London, you could play it in New York, you could play it in somewhere in Africa and people will know what it is, and. But you know those things, those hero themes, et cetera, they have a place in the movie, they have a place within the action and so on. And it wasn't until that particular film that I was talking about earlier that someone took those themes and actually looked at what was going on on screen and then married the two together. It's the same with, like, if you watch a horror film. So I grew up thinking I didn't like horror movies. But obviously I do because I can't help watching them. But if you took a horror film and you turn the music off, you took the soundtrack out of it completely, it probably wouldn't actually it wouldn't be that scary, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, because it would just be a bunch of people running around fake blood and you know props and whatever and kind of you know maybe good special effects.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But the music together with it, it becomes terrifying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely, and I think, like this soundscape is so important, it's really what wraps you around, because the screen stays here. Right, I see the screen. There's a distance, it gets to you, but it's like you know wall and you are watching it and it's very distinct, like this is the screen, this is me, and then the music is almost the only thing, even with 3D type of things, that make you this illusion that the characters are going out the screen, et cetera, but still it's like it's an illusion, whereas music, the soundtrack, the sounds is actual waves. As I said, that is the only thing that can get truly out of the screen, get through you and fill out the whole space. Like when you're in a cinema theater, you feel it, it's around you, it's inside you, it's the only thing that can, even in live theater, it's the only thing that can go through you that way. So that's why it's so important.
Speaker 2:Like recently I saw a movie that was on a 3D animation about elves and type of epic film that the story was really good actually, but the soundtrack wasn't that good and it was like, oh God, I was like this such an epic scene and I was like I need some violence here. I need more low end here. Why didn't they put that? And you could feel how that scene that was already epic, could have been double epic and really bring you with the whole story. If only they would have had a better soundtrack At some point in the movie that you have, at this little moment where there is a good moment in the soundtrack with electric guitars, even I was like wow. And then it ended and I was like oh God, just one minute in the whole movie where you truly have like a something musically speaking. And it was such a shame because, as I said, the story was perfectly written, the characters were perfectly displayed and you have the arc and everything was good, but the soundtrack was missing and I was like no, what a waste.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, but that you have an opportunity there, don't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this actually.
Speaker 1:Have you already started working on re-scoring that film?
Speaker 2:No, no, not yet. It's still a full movie, maybe later. But I feel that's a bit pretentious If I do it for the sake of practice, yes, but not to say, oh, I can do that better. Like, I don't know, I'm just starting, maybe I suck at it, I have to try. But I do respect the effort that was done because, as I said, there were small gems in that soundtrack. It's just that maybe, you know, the deadlines are so narrow Sometimes you just don't have the time to put in the effort that it deserves, and you also.
Speaker 2:It also depends on the people you're working with because, like, the producer might know nothing about music, but they will still review what you do and they might tell you like, oh, I don't like this thing or this thing, and you as a musician know it works, but you still have to make it like that they like it as well. So it becomes like a little bit of a teamwork and so the decisions don't entirely depend on you. So there's also that it's not like, the fault of the composer only and, in reverse, it can be so good that you have that feedback, because they have this interpretation of the movie and the past of the character, etc. Etc. They can give you so you can improve the soundtrack. So it also depends on the people you're working with. There's so many factors going in you. It's just, oh, I wish that they could have more time, you know, or they could have more freedom or more resources, and it's also just my point of view, but always with respect to the work that has been done, you know.
Speaker 1:I'm 100%, I'm with you on that. I you know, one reason why David Arnold who I keep talking about, why his soundtracks are so good for those bomb movies, is because he demanded in the nicest way that he got access to footage as soon as it was available. You know, because you're absolutely right, a lot of composers and you know some people don't know this though a lot of composers they don't actually get hold of the film until maybe a few days before the final edit is due. Right, it's like you've got two weeks here, it is Score it, and very often edits are still happening right up until the last minute. So they think they're scoring to something and then all that work goes in the trash because an entire section of the film had to be changed or cut out or whatever.
Speaker 1:You know, and when we're reviewing things, I'm very careful not to try not to say, you know, if I didn't enjoy something, to say that it was absolute rubbish or whatever, because even if it was a not such a great movie, still, you know, when you look at the credits at the end, when the credits roll, and see the thousands and thousands of people that were involved, that worked on that piece of art, that piece of work. I just think it's really really incredibly disrespectful to them to be so critical, you know, in this day and age, it's not like they're not going to know that people didn't like it, right, you know, and that should be enough, right? So so, yeah, now I'm 100% with you on respecting what people have done, even if it might not be your.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if there are things to rescue, like it's totally respectful, like not to come, not to mistake with those projects where it really looks like even the people working in them didn't like the project, because that also happens like an extremely bad movie. So where a certain propaganda is being pushed and the moment you do that, then having a good quality story, good characters kind of goes in a second place and that totally hinders the quality of the final product. So then it's important to speak up and say, hey, as consumers we want real art and real movies with a good story, with good characters, not a propaganda. I don't want to pay to get propaganda to shape how I think, because I want to think my own thoughts.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. But when something is good enough and that you can see that there's effort like okay, the soundtrack was a bit lacking, but there were good moments and the overall story is really great and animation is great, the characters are awesome, and then we respect to that. You know, things cannot be perfect all the time.
Speaker 1:Just enjoy what you have Absolutely, Katherine. What's your favorite soundtrack?
Speaker 2:of all time.
Speaker 1:And if there's more than one, feel free to tell me all of them.
Speaker 2:I have a few I have like for recent times. There is John Powell's soundtracks I really like how to train your dragon Amazing, amazing structure. But he also did Chicken Run, which is amazing with East Europe inspiration that is so common for comedy. I like I don't remember. It was Paul something who did the soundtrack for Fantasia. That's also so great. Paul Dukas, I think, is the name for Fantasia soundtrack.
Speaker 1:I was just trying to look it up for you. The original Fantasia, the 1940, Paul Dukas.
Speaker 2:yeah, he is amazing. Amazing soundtrack as well, very classic and modern Disney Alan Minkin songs, obviously. Then also Terminator 2, really good one. Anything by Ennio Morricone, of course, like the mission, oh god, the use of choirs there, and these Western movies I always keep forgetting the names where he uses those different instruments for that type of movie, of course, like how not to use, how to use something else that was what you had to use. Obviously a Howard Schor's Lord of the Rings soundtrack. If I can do something 0.5% as good as that soundtrack, I would die happy. What else? Obviously John Williams of course.
Speaker 2:What else is there? I can't recall. This is all I can recall for now. Yeah, all of that I love really. This is really good stuff, hans Zimmer as well, nice yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the problem with Hans Zimmer. He's kind of been through a period of being everywhere because he was doing a lot for Chris Nolan and then other filmmakers wanted him, so there was a lot of him at the same time. But yeah, he's very, very talented. Funny enough, I first came across Hans Zimmer was really aware of him when he did Mission Impossible 2.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, yeah, I mean he innovated, like with I just know him for the Pirates of the Caribbean, right and Interstellar as well, which is really good. It really feels like he innovated the sound to be more epic, more bigger, like less classical music, which is nice, which is really nice because apparently, like as a movement in symphonic music, let's say, thanks to cinema music, we are in the post-romantic movement, which I love because I'm in love with everything romantic movement in music and art. So, being part of the post-romantic generation, I'm so happy. So he's kind of part of that and I think that's why he got so big, because, along with John Powell and everything, this sense of epic, oh also this not so well-known movie by Disney, everything about different planets, a treasure planet or something like that I really love thecriptions and those patterns oh, I can't think of the name.
Speaker 1:I know the one you mean. I can't think of the name.
Speaker 2:Well, the soundtrack for that movie. I don't know who did it, but it's so good, like it's. The thing that I remember is how epic that soundtrack is and that the movie itself is not the typical Disney movie where everything ends perfect and happy and everybody survives, everything Like. Here you have some darkness, some people dying in the middle of the movie in a very like not gore. It's like a frustrating way because it's because a traitor that does something, etc. And so not a typical happy Disney movie that you can find. I love that movie. It's really good yeah it reminds me of.
Speaker 1:You know things I love about so, for example, john Williams, and what I love about a lot of the films that he scored is how he creates, like different characters' own themes. So Star Wars is probably the most famous example. You know he had Princess Leia's theme in the original trilogy and then in the pre in the sequel trilogy. I absolutely love Ray's theme for that character because it's so playful and innocent in the Force Awakens and then he develops that as the films progress and you know she starts to develop her power and eventually discover who she is and then make her choice about who she wants to be, which again ties in really nicely with what we were talking about before. And then his Superman theme is just awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, amazing. I think also like the soundtracks for I can't remember very well for Rogue One and the Han Solo movie. But overall those two projects like as a whole I found so brilliant, so beautiful, like I even enjoyed them more than the main movies that came after. Like I'm kind of conservative, I have to say like I love the first three ones, so raw and original and authentic and, you know, like independent type of flavor, because it was, I think I mean, george Lucas had already done some things, but like that seems to have been like the most ambitious project et cetera. So it has that energy in it. But the Rogue One and the Han Solo movies I found so beautiful and emotive. I enjoy them a lot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm wondering who scored Han Solo, because I know Michael Giacchino. He did Rogue One, didn't he? Mm-hmm, I need to look that up because that's now really, really bugging me, Because I know they included some of John Williams' original themes in the solo soundtrack. I know it was John Williams adapted by John Powell.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, of course you have the two biggest Like. If you had John Williams plus John Powell, I mean, obviously it was going to be spectacular. I just don't want to watch Rogue One again. I loved it, but I was so shocked about the ending, like I wasn't expecting that ending at all, and it was so sad. I was out of the cinema crying with my friends, like calm down. I was like no, I don't want to say the ending, but I was so How's the word like devastated by that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the thing is you kind of knew from what happens in the New Hope that they were probably all going to die and not make it anyway. Yeah, I don't know, but you know, I think the filmmakers did the right thing by kind of. You know, we see Jin and Andor. Spoiler alert anyone who hasn't seen Rogue One get vaporized on the beach and it. Yeah, I know, I know I'm sorry, but then we cut to the Rebel Blockade Runner that's trying to get away from Darth Vader.
Speaker 2:And then so it kind of went yeah from it.
Speaker 1:For a lot of Star Wars fans like me that grew up with all of this stuff, we'd never seen Darth Vader unleash his true power. We'd never really seen it on screen like the cruelty that you know he was capable of. And so it was a really funny thing in the cinema when we saw it for the first time, because, like it was like, oh my God, no, no, no, no, no, they can't die. There's got to be some way they're going to get away from that explosion and they'll be able to escape, and it didn't happen.
Speaker 2:I tried to pull myself into thinking, because there's a little piece of dialogue where they say something that kind of means like one-third of the power of the Death Star, like not full power.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just basically put it, like literally, they just want to test it, so it's like a little short burst, exactly.
Speaker 2:So I am like, yeah, no, the planet is not entirely destroyed, because they just did like a small shot, like tenth of the actual power of the machine.
Speaker 2:So maybe they could have survived, and then just gone away, tried to do something to leave their lives away from, like they already did what they had to do. But still, you see, like everything like that, you see the explosion quite near and you know, still it's just me trying to pull myself into recreating the ending, but it's very unlikely, right, and it's true what you say. Like in the first movies you do see the cruelty and you it's kind of portrayed how he destroys Alderaan, so there the Death Star goes with full power and that the Leia is totally devastated because all his Her life, her family, everything is in there. And then later when you discover that Darth Vader is actually her dad is even bigger, like wow, and the amount of forgiveness capability that they have to especially look to redeem his father, and that in the end you remember that he regrets all his dawn and ends up destroying Palpatine himself, etc.
Speaker 1:So, ro, or does he?
Speaker 2:Yes, he does because in the last scene, when they are all celebrating the end of the Empire, you see Obi-Wan and Yoda and then Anakin that comes back in his form before being Darth Vader, so he is redeemed, which is so beautiful. So with Rogue One it makes it even bigger because while all these people who sacrificed their lives to get to that very ending and still like it wouldn't have been complete victory if Anakin wasn't kind of rescued, because then with the prequel that came after the other three, you understand what made Anakin become Darth Vader and how he was misunderstood and disrespected by the other Jedi.
Speaker 1:He's like always trying to and manipulated.
Speaker 2:Yes, and manipulated and like and like, put on a leash because oh he's too powerful, and kind of being jealous of him being so powerful that instead of guiding him, they were trying to put him apart. And crazy Like it's, he just lost complete. Like he lost North right, like. Do you say that in English?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Your path and that was even so hurtful, like for Padme and all the whole thing. Right, they explained to you how he becomes that and I'm very sensitive. So when I saw the first three, the ones that come before I was like no, I'm feeling so sorry. So it helps you understand the whole thing and why it's so important and beautiful that in the spirit he's kind of recovered right from darkness. So that's amazing message, Like no matter how far in you are, you're going to still be rescued, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, even after you've killed trillions and trillions of people, there's hope. Man, I didn't realize you were such a Star Wars geek I am.
Speaker 2:I love the story Awesome.
Speaker 1:So once we finish the James Bondathon, then we'll have to get you on to do Star Wars, right?
Speaker 2:I'm as perfect as it is. I mean it would be nice if they do yet another movie. Why not? They are, oh, wow, yeah there's more coming.
Speaker 1:Daisy Ridley. She's coming back as Ray, there's a new, I think they're writing a new trilogy for her. Oh, wow, yeah, so I think she's going to be. It'll probably be about her setting up the new jet I order and so on. So, yeah, it's going to continue, wow, which is very exciting.
Speaker 2:It's not going to stop. No, it's not.
Speaker 1:Now I could definitely talk to you all day. Thank you so so much, catherine. So I know where your YouTube channel is youtubecom. Forward slash at Catherine Gerard, I'm going to put the link in the show notes. Where can the? Where else can people connect with you and see your work and see what you're up to?
Speaker 2:So I'm on Instagram as Catherine Gerard and on Twitter as well as Catherine Gerard. All the same same pictures, super easy to find, and very soon I'm going to do a dedicated channel for all the little movie soundtracks that I'm doing. That is going to be called Catherine's Soundtracks. So I'm preparing that to have like a dedicated place to do that, because the audience is not the same and kind of feel that it's not working really well in the main channel, which is a shame. So I'm going to start all over and see what happens. So those are the places.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really funny. You've got to do a bit of experimentation because, so you know, on Instagram, I started the YouTube channel I think a year ago now.
Speaker 1:So, it is. It is steadily kind of growing very slowly, but it's really funny when you look at the your content and you look at what's been most popular. It's always slightly different platform to platform. So it's kind of working out the advice that I've had on this podcast from previous guests who who are really into all of this sort of thing the recommendation seems to be pick two and stick with them. So for me, I've kind of really gone for YouTube and Instagram, and then I am on TikTok as well, but really my ideal audience isn't there. But it's really funny because there'll be stuff on TikTok that like gets thousands and thousands of views that didn't get any traction whatsoever on the other two, and then it can happen kind of like the other way around as well. So I think it's kind of working out.
Speaker 2:You know where your audience is, yeah, and also, like different top, the types of content work differently, and it's it's I think it's good advice to just focus on one or two first and then, once you dominate that, you're going to start repurposing content, so you don't have to be creating particular content for each and you repurpose on others and then see what happens. Like here is whatever happens, especially with TikTok now going through with the whole universal contract thing ending, et cetera, is changing a lot. So that could be opportunity for people who are not, whose content doesn't fit into the you know, trends, dances, some funny stuff like type of frame, so it could evolve into something else that we'll get to see. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:But you know, like, for example, your your YouTube video about being ghosted, which I found really funny. You know that one you could see, if you did like a 60 second edit of that one, like very, very quick cuts, portrait form as an Instagram reel and on TikTok you could see that doing really, really well, because that's the kind of stuff that people like to view again and again and again, right. But then also you've got to be careful because it you know you could imagine a quick edit of that literally just being about how crap it is to, you know, meet someone, suddenly get ghosted and then you know, eventually they get in touch and you dismiss them. You can, you can, you can. I can see, having got to know you how that might not quite the messaging there might not align with your own values about how you make people feel.
Speaker 2:Exactly. It's not like you dismiss them because it's just because they didn't want to be in your life anyway they went away and they didn't have the enough respect for you to end things properly and they weren't emotionally mature enough to do that the right way. And so 90% of the times when they come back, they aren't even aware that what they did was bad. They just. They just think you were. You are going to be there, available for whenever they feel like, and it's like. No, the character in my movie did a lot of self work in her own way to become a better person and it's not allowing someone who doesn't respect her. That's why I put like the message of the guy like hey, when I drink, something like it's not, I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:This thing happened. You know, when it's a true comeback from someone who really wants to make things better, they usually will start with the apology, like hey, I know I disappeared, these things happened in my life, I am sorry, I would like to get in touch again and this time do it better. And so you can't give a chance. And this is a story. He's just coming back because he thinks he can. So she says no, block, I'm not going back there.
Speaker 2:That's why I do a reprise of the sad theme where she is all hurt because it's all this thing is coming back. Like I can feel problems going back if I accept this person back in my life. So she says no and by their, her theme as the woman she has become, like this big band theme, gets bigger because no one is messing with my growth now. So that's that's like the message. And that's why I needed to at least have two minutes to explain it, because I feel in a this whole context, in a 30, 60 seconds type of thing that goes so fast, the message wouldn't get there, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I love how, as you're describing it, you're reliving it and feeling the emotion because I could see the sass coming in. We're in, catherine. Thank you so so much. Have you had fun today?
Speaker 2:Yes, it was been an amazing conversation.
Speaker 1:Thank you so honestly. Thank you so much. You've been absolutely wonderful and I remember I said like if you want to come back like to do reviews of Star Wars movies and soundtracks, we can do that. We'll get it. We'll get it set up Like we're on. We're on Instagram together anyway, so so we'll talk about that offline.
Speaker 1:Thank you, catherine, and I will have Catherine's links in the show notes for her Instagram, youtube and X or Twitter or whatever it's called these days. You thank you so much for joining Catherine and I follow us on Instagram at Tony and Torpe podcast for latest episode updates, highlights and news. The podcast is also on YouTube at Roberto Rivilla, london. You can email me at Tony and Torpe podcast at gmailcom. Please hit subscribe, give me a rating and review and click the share button in your player to send this episode to someone you know who needs to hear what Catherine shared with us today. And if you want to support the show, there's a support the show link in the show notes. Have a great week, be good to each other and I'll catch you on the next one.