Thursday, December 30, 2010

8-bit Hawaii Five-O Theme!



Got another 8-bit cue for y'all! I'm a little sick and just felt like popping out another 8-bit cue. Also, check out the A-Team, Magnum, p.i. and Human Target titles I did in 8-bit as well if you haven't already.

I've got a couple more up my sleeves that I'll be working on shortly. I've been challenged to do a more difficult song than these past ones that have a clear melody and no lyrics.

So...we'll see what the future holds. In the mean time, enjoy...

Hawaii Five-O (8-Bit)






Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas!



Just wanted to check in and say Merry Christmas to everyone. This is a song I wrote last year, called "Carol of the Bear." It's a rendition of Carol of the Bells with themes from Battlestar Galactica woven in. Hope you like it!

Carol of the Bear






Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Y: The Last Theme



Hey y'all! I know I've been absent for quite a while now, but I'm back ... temporarily. I just recently wrote a song and I figured I'd throw it up while I can. I'm about to be real busy for the next two weeks and then (hopefully) I will be moving into a house (which will be another butt load of busy!).

I'm hoping to write things here and there whenever I have free time, but just as a warning, this blog might remain cold for another couple of weeks!

Now for this song! I was kind of in a rut and couldn't come up with anything to write. My lovely wife suggested I write music FOR something. She told me to either score something that doesn't have score (i.e. The Office) or come up with a theme to something.

So I did the latter! I wrote what I thought would be a nice theme for Y: The Last Man if they turned that into a television series. For those of you who don't know what it's about, GO READ IT! But in case you don't want to read it, it's a story about every man in the world dying off, except for the hero of the story, named Yorick.

Enjoy...

Y: The Last Theme






Friday, October 29, 2010

Human Target



Hey guys! So, recently I bought the soundtrack to Human Target, done by none other than Bear McCreary, and have been listening to it nonstop. Unfortunately, listening to a score as much as I have with Human Target means it creeps into my composing. Every time I sit down to write some music that über catchy theme jumps in there somewhere.

STOP. DELETE. START OVER.

So, in order to (hopefully) get it out of my head, I decided to do an 8-bit version of the main title theme. I don't know if it worked (I'll find out tonight) but here it is for your listening enjoyment. I've also included the video of the main title above for reference for those of you who don't know. But honestly, you need to buy the soundtrack regardless if you watch the show or not. Trust me. Check out Bear's Blog about the soundtrack and see for yourself!

Also, check out the A-Team and Magnum, p.i. titles I did in 8-bit as well if you haven't already.


Human Target






Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Busy. Busy. Busy.

Hey guys! So, as you can see I haven't written a blog post in a while. I've actually been pretty busy, both with editing work and music. I'm currently working on a project with Eric Peters and I'm also trying to start an album some time in the near future. It would be an instrumental story line, inspired by events in my life. I haven't worked out how I'm going to do it (both time wise and style wise) but it's definitely in the works.

What do you say? Anybody down to get a Trevor McLean album? I know I am! And probably my mom. And maybe my dad. That's probably the end of that list! We'll see...

Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Challenge: Cutthroat Teaser - Part 2

Hey there again! So, there's another teaser for the next season of The Challenge up and I wrote the music for that one as well. Let me know what you think.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

The Challenge: Cutthroat Teaser

Hey guys! So, the teaser for The Challenge: Cutthroat is up online and my music was used in it. I posted about the song earlier here.

Here's the video. Looks cool to me! :)

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Update!!!

So, in response to the complaint of a near and dear friend of mine, I decided to add links to all of my songs posted so those following on their iPhones can listen to the music as well. I went back and fixed all the old post so if you click on the title of the song, it will take you to the MP3 directly. I will continue to do this for my upcoming music as well.

I didn't get a chance to go through and double check all the links so if any of them don't work, just let me know and I'll fix it!

Thanks!

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Blower's Daughter Cover...


Hi guys! I recently got a new sample library called "Vienna Instruments Special Edition" and I wanted to test out the new samples. So I did a cover of one of my favorite songs, Blower's Daughter (by Damien Rice), as an upbeat orchestral cue. Let me know what you think!

Blower's Daughter






Saturday, July 31, 2010

Swing Low Sweet Supertease!


So, a while back, I was scoring this supertease for a certain show (that will remain nameless). The idea was that one of the cast members was singing the song, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," and as she sang, the supertease grew from fun and playful to dark and dramatic. This cast member sang under the entire thing and I scored to her singing, climaxing to a dramatic ending.

UNFORTUNATELY, the supertease got bumped in favor of a "FUN" supertease that played up all the "FUN" of the season instead of the drama. So my cue got bumped as well. Since the supertease didn't go to air, I'm not allowed to show it, or I would be fined $1 million or something like that. However, there's nothing that says I can't share the music I wrote for it.

It plays a lot more dramatic with the sound bites and images on screen, but I think you'll get the picture when you listen. Check it out and let me know what you think of it.

Swing Low






Movin' On!


Here's another cue I just worked on. A little more laid back than my last few cues. Also .... Zebra looking at Dolphin in a Tank! So, you have that.

Move On






Electronic-Huh?

Here's an electronic orchestral cue I worked on. Let me know what you guys think.

Electronic Orcs






Thursday, July 29, 2010

Corn Cobs and Cauliflower!


Hey guys! I'm back! So, here's a cue I just finished. Its name is not perfect but it'll do! I named it what I named it not because it has anything to do with those who do not eat from an animal, but because when I asked my wife what I should call this one, she said, "Big and Epic," and I heard ...

Vegan Epic






Friday, July 16, 2010

MAGNUM BABY!!!!


As promised, here's that new 8-bit cue I wrote. This time it's for Magnum, p.i.

I've been thinking about doing a bunch of these for tv themes, old and new. Might even start a whole new page for them. What do you think!?

Well, anyway, here it is...

Magnum, p.i.






Thursday, July 15, 2010

Um....Hey!


So, here's a new cue I wrote the other day. It's an action cue but it has a breakdown in the middle for those serious moments. Let me know what y'all think!

Also, if you liked that 8-bit version of the A-Team theme, then you're in for a treat. Because I have another one coming along soon of another famous TV show from the 80s. Now, if you DIDN'T like the 8-bit song I posted last week ... well, sorry. But for everyone else, YAY!

So, sit back, relax, and enjoy ORCHESTRA ALL IN YO FACE!

More Than Just A Fight






Saturday, July 10, 2010

Back to my A-Game...


OK! So, now I'm REALLY back. I finished that "side project" I've been working on that had nothing to do with music. So, now I can just come home from work and bust out some cues. I'm really excited about it! I should get a lot more posts up now, which means so much goodness for you guys out there!

...I can tell you're excited!

To officially kick off the new life of my blog, I've done a quick little ditty to tide you over while I write some things. This was actually a request by a friend of mine. He wanted me to do my own version of the A-Team theme. I don't know if this is what he had in mind but this is what I came up with. Now enjoy...

The A-Theme







Friday, June 11, 2010

Here Comes The Music!


I'm back! And I've had some time to readjust myself (careful!) out of my MASSIVE jet lag. So, now, well rested, I have come to you with the two songs I wrote for the ceremony of my wedding.

First of all, the wedding was wonderful, as well as the honeymoon! It's taken a little while to get off that high. Sorry this isn't a longer blog, but I'm pretty tired.

Below are the two songs I wrote for the ceremony. The first one is the Processional, where everyone but the bride walks up to the altar. The second song is the song for when the bride enters. Both songs are my own renditions of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. There's a story as to why we chose this as our theme for the ceremony but I won't bore you with the details (unless you ask for it).

The recessional was where the full version of Somewhere Over The Rainbow was heard. We used the version by Israel Kamakawiwo Ole'. I'm sure most of you have heard this, but if not, I'm sure you can find it easily online. I would post it here but I heard a while ago about a bunch of blogs being shut down because of posting copyrighted material so, to be safe, I will not. Let me know what you think.

Oh, and the funny story, as I mentioned in my last post: I unfortunately made the song for the bride too short and the DJ told me that if it finished before she walked down the isle, he would just loop it. Wellllll, instead of looping to the beginning, he just looped the last note over and over and over and over and over again until he just faded it out and left Stacey to walk down the isle in silence. AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!! I tried so hard to make it work so it played the whole duration of her walk and then ended perfectly on her arriving where I was standing. I guess my advice to someone doing this for their own wedding would be to just write it too long and let it fade out. Much better than possibly having your bride walk down the isle in silence. But the day was perfect and we didn't let it ruin anything. Everything that goes wrong is just a story. So, on that note, here are the songs...

The Processional









Somewhere






Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Guess who's back!

So, I'm back from Africa (honeymoon) and am ready to write some new music. I'll do a new blog poster either later today or tomorrow about the music I wrote for the wedding ceremony. There's also a funny story and good lesson for anyone else looking to write music for their ceremony.

See you all soon!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Hiatus...

Hey y'all. So, as you've probably noticed, I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been so busy with wedding planning and work that I just haven't had any time to sit down and work on music.

I was, at one point, considering to just set aside two hours every morning before work to write, but I felt that it would just be added stress and a lot less sleep. And I definitely don't need that leading up to the big day!

I have been writing the ceremony music for the wedding as one of my "to-do's" so I'm at least afforded an opportunity to express myself creatively on that end. I'll definitely post what I've created after the wedding.

I also just worked on a piece of music that worked in cohesion with a supertease I was cutting but the tease got cut down, so I'm sure I can't post any examples of that since I would probably get sued for millions of dollars (yay!)

That's it for now.

Out.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

The Set List

Well, as promised, here is a new blog post.

Below is a main title I scored. It's for a web series called, "The Set List" which you can follow over at thesetlist.tv.

For those of you who don't know, I also do graphics and editing, and I created this main title as well. First I composed what I thought the music should be and then created the main title around it.

So, here it is!



Funny Story ... well, not really THAT funny but I'll tell it anyway:

When I started writing the music for this I was really excited because I never really had the opportunity to score my own graphics. I was always doing one or the other. So I got into the zone and just started writing. Once I snapped out of it, I realized I had like 24 tracks of instruments and I had a full orchestra going and it was EPIC! While it would have been hilarious, it definitely didn't fit with the vibe of the show. So I got rid of all that and started over with some basic instruments.

Then I got a little out of hand again, and had different 8-bit sounds and synthesizers in there and it sounded very 80's as my loving fiancé pointed out. So I pulled all the extra crap out and just left it to a very raw rock band feel it seemed, to me, to fit perfectly.

The drum shot in the beginning, by the way, was shot by a guy named Kelly Moore. He's a friend of mine but didn't actually shoot that for this project. He shot it for another project by the same company and they gave me the shot to use as the opening. Good stuff.

Out.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Stay Tuned...

Hey everyone! And by everyone, I mean you. Yes, you. The person reading this right now....

I can see you!

Anyway, I know I haven't posted in a while. I've been uber busy with non-music related things (namely a pending wedding that's less than a month away). So, needless to say, I haven't had much time to write music unfortunately. I will soon though. My schedule should clear up in the next week or two and I'll get some more stuff up here.

I do have a post waiting to go up as soon as I can get the materials together. That should be either later today or tomorrow. So keep your eyes open!

And a friend suggested I do my own rendition of a certain popular song/theme so stay tuned for that ACTION <--ah! Is that a play on words? Or did I just capitalize it for no reason? We'll see.

Out.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

In the vein of Sean Callery...

I haven't posted in a while so I wanted to put up another cue to keep this thing alive.

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had any chance to write new music as of late. But I found this one cue I wrote about a month ago. Not sure where it would go, but it has kind of a Sean Callery vibe to it (Composer for 24).

I originally had a guitar solo over the whole thing, but then felt like it was too much and made it more of an underscore.

It's very short. Let me know what you think.




March To The End






Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Just Upping the Tension...

So, it's been like three days since I've posted anything new so I figured I'd put up a tension cue I'm working on.

I feel like it lacks a certain .... je ne sais quois. <----I just spoke French on ya!

Give it a listen and let me know what you think. And if you have any insight as to what could make it a better cue, please .... keep it to yourself.

No, I'm TOTALLY kidding. I appreciate any criticism I can get. Thanks!


If You Want To Live






Sunday, April 4, 2010

A Little CO-LAB!


So, if you haven't noticed yet, I just changed my header image. While there's nothing wrong with going simple and clean like I had before, I really wanted something cool up there. So I asked my good friend, Eric, to draw me a header image to put on my blog. He spent some time on it and this is what came out! I personally think it's great!

You should head over to his blog when you get the chance and check out some of his other stuff at seventhinningsketch.blogspot.com

I believe he's also planning on doing a blog about the process of creating the above image. Also, there will be more collaberations between the two of us in the near future so stay tuned!

And I figured, I might throw out another cue on here while I'm at it. This is an action cue I've been working on. I still have to tweak it a bit but it's almost there. Let me know what you think!!!


Two To One






Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sneaky Tinkerbell

Just thought I'd throw up another song I recently finished. The name of the song, "Sneaky Tinkerbell," was conjured up in the wonderful mind of my fiancé!

Enjoy!


Sneaky Tinkerbell






Monday, March 29, 2010

A Look Back

I decided to post some cues that have already aired (that I know of) on TV and what not. The first is a video. I composed the score to the first half of this video game trailer for a game called Velvet Assassin. The second part of the score was a cue pulled from the soundtrack for the game.



I'm currently reworking that cue to be a full orchestral set with new samples to be released in one of the libraries I'm working on now.








Ryan's Song
This next cue was used in an episode of The Real World: Brooklyn. I called it "Ryan's Song" because it happens when Ryan receives a phone call from his brother informing him that he's been called back to serve in Iraq. This was the very first cue I wrote that made it to television.









Deal With It
This cue was in the episode that followed where Ryan has to deal with the reality of his situation and inform his new best friend of his impending deployment. I was pretty stoked to have my music play during two of the biggest episodes of the season, and what I believed to be some of the biggest moments in The Real World history.









What Tension
This cue was used as the complete score for the Supertease at the end of the season premiere of The Real World: Cancun. The idea of the supertease was to show that these kids were on a self destructive path and I tried making the cue start low, but with a dark feeling underneath it, and then explode into mayhem, only to come back to a calm at the very end. I thought it worked very well with the edit.









Back To Basic
Then I jumped back on the path of writing a cue for the MTV Special, "Return To Duty." This was a project that followed Ryan (from RW Brooklyn) on his journey back into service in Iraq. There was a point in the show where Ryan goes back through training and gets re-acclamated to military life. So I wrote this cue for that spot but they ended up going in a different direction all together with that section anyway so it stands unused today.









The Interview
And this last song was used in The Real World: D.C. during a scene where one of the roommates, Mike, gets to meet with his congressman, who is the first congressman to run as an openly gay man and win apparently. It's a huge deal for Mike to get to meet him and this cue was used to kind of start off the episode and get into his long awaited interview with the congressman.


Well, that's it for now. There might be more music out there on other shows but these are the ones I know of. I'll update whenever I hear of my music being used anywhere as well as just bringing you new music I've composed.

-Trevor

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Kaelynn's Waltz

First post after that ever-looming "Initial Post" of my blog. Let's see how this one goes.

So this a song I wrote as part of a whimsical/quirky library I'm putting together. I used my niece, Kaelynn, as a source of inspiration (hence the name).

I was going for a very fun and playful vibe that has a powerful undertone that bursts out in the middle of the song and then goes back into the fun/playful vibe at the end.

I hope you enjoy!



Kaelynn's Waltz






POST NUMERO UNO!

Well, here goes my first post. I hope it's as good for you as it is for me.

I'm starting a blog because I figured why not. I'm about to get married, I'm massively busy at work and have a number of side projects going on so why not add one more thing to my to-do list!? (*MANIACAL LAUGHTER ENSUES*)

So, I wanted to start a blog about my music. I'll be posting cues as I write them or possibly in the process of writing them. Hopefully I can get some input on whether or not they're good or, more preferably, I'll just receive an onslaught of praise. Because honestly, isn't that why anyone blogs? .... right?

Anyway, I'll probably have a cue up here pretty soon and I'm sure there will be no comments because no one even knows about this blog......YET!

Alright, I'm done trying to be fun.

-Trevor