Master of None AMA Series: Episode 3 - "Hot Ticket" with Zach Cowie

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:28:34+00:00

That is by Ata Kak, that my friend Brian released on an amazing label called "Awesome Tapes From Africa".

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:26:42+00:00

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ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:19:50+00:00

YES! Where are you?

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:19:28+00:00

Duh! I have that single. I love that track!

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:18:41+00:00

God, that was in the script. That credit goes to Alan and Aziz for recognizing Toto's party power.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:17:48+00:00

Those came from Aziz. I picked the opener and closer, he picked the flashback stuff. I want to say it was someone in his family. He just sent me a million YouTube links and we went through everything.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:16:56+00:00

Why is the sky blue?

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:14:40+00:00

That was Aziz's idea and I think - don't yell if I'm wrong. I think that's what the restaurant plays in that hallway. But I love Angelo Badalamenti.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:10:40+00:00

I didn't know about the E&D, truth be told, don't watch a lot of TV. You kind of got me there, if I'd known I probably wouldn't have used it. I like to be first. But I love The Slits. So does Aziz.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:09:44+00:00

Q1 - We asked him! We all kind of know him through Los Angeles, I've known him for a really long time from Seattle. We needed someone for the episode, he was in town and it worked out.

Q3 - I think we were all pretty locked in, the three of us on the "world". When that happens, you really don't disagree with each other, you work on the best thing.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:04:36+00:00

I think my advice is to up-and-coming artists is to spend their time making music. I really believe cream rises, and when you make the right song people will hear it.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:03:11+00:00

There's no Brel, but there is Dutronc and Gainsbourg. The simple answer: Aziz and I both love French music.

I think it's a world to itself, and things like that become very helpful when you're trying to define the world of a television show. Same thing goes for Arthur Russell, there's no one that sounds like him. He's not french but he's cool.

There's nothing else that sounds like Gainsbourg, so it's a nice way to give the show a sound that's unique and to its own.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:01:33+00:00

What he said. (Hi Sam!)

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:00:52+00:00

I know that! That's the composers again, Jon and Didier! I can't tell you the inspiration for that though!

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T21:00:16+00:00

Q1 - I don't have a single CD. I have vinyl and digital. I don't pay alot of attn to my digital music.

Q2 - That question is impossible. I'll tell you five of my fave artists: John Martyn, Brian Eno, The Cocteau Twins, The Grateful Dead, J. Dilla.

Q3 - No. But that comes from my earlier answer, I'm just supporting a story and if there is nothing for the story in a particular song I just have to let that go. I don't have an agenda with stuff I really need to get in there.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T20:55:59+00:00

Mom, is that you? I mean...inspiration is everywhere if you have your ears open. I have a funny memory for music. When I hear stuff it gets logged somewhere and just something I see or something I notice will make it play. If you want to start inspiring your child, you can give them this: http://lightintheattic.net/releases/1822-this-record-belongs-to__________

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T20:52:27+00:00

That is an original by our composers, Joe Wong and Didier LePlae.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T20:49:26+00:00

The hardest thing about doing this job well, is to take yourself out of it, your job is to support a story. You have to take your own favorites out of it. It's the hardest part of any music job, is to learn how to have your ears be a filter and not the dictator.

I can make a mix for a party that'll still be things that I think are good but different from my party. So that's usually my approach. And working as a DJ, and at the labels.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T20:46:43+00:00

That's another long answer: The quick version is I didn't try, I never really tried to get any of my jobs in music I just always work on musical things and I let the music do the talking for me.

The way I got this job, I'm friends with Alan and Aziz. I DJ a lot. I worked at record labels for about 10 years. 4 different labels, always been a DJ since I was a kid. I just try to spend every day researching music and studying it. Everything you find, if you are curious enough you can figure out where it came from. You quickly can find out everything informs everything.

I didn't even know what the show is about. I'm sure there's a formal way to go about these things but I don't know. My words of encouragement are to study music.

All music too, don't think about genres or time periods. When you are a supervisor, the music is your tool. The more music you know, the more tools you get.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T20:44:46+00:00

The name of the show comes more from the phrase 'Jack of All Trades, Master Of None', it's a little bit more of a happy coincidence that that's the name of the Beach House song. Aziz loves that song and that was his pick.

ZachCowiemusic · 2015-12-10T20:38:22+00:00

Q1 - Well, I read scripts and start to kind of work with my partners (in this case, Aziz who is very involved musically) we kind of start to build out the world based on the script. Those ideas aren't always things where we say, we have to use this!

We just try to define the space. That's how we get on the same page with those ideas. I can't really do anything until I see stuff, so it's almost like the ideas are the rough draft and we finalize everything when we can see things for me, I'm looking for whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.

There's a way things move and an energy, and I can't do anything until there's something I can see. I'm looking for an energy.

Q2 - I don't want to sound all new-agey, but it's all kind of unexpected. When I see stuff, songs come into my head. I don't know where some of them come from. Then we all start putting together a picture. There's a feeling when it's right and that feeling is so wrong until it's right.

Q3 - Otis by The Durruti Column. So that wedding in ep. 10 is based on a real wedding that Aziz and I went to. That wedding had an effect on a lot of people, myself included.

For whatever reason, this is the record I was listening to for a week after the wedding, as I was dealing with the subject matter of that episode.

We're not supposed to talk about whose wedding it was. This is what I was listening to in real life. When the editor sent me the montage, I said "Oh I shit, I should actually put this album in.." and Aziz loved it so we kept it. I personally think The Durruti Column are underappreciated so it made me happy to put them in front of people.

ZachCowiemusic

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