Interview by Carol Wright
We got to chat with Steph Copeland & Brigit O’Regan about their song “Gas Light” and creating songs based on their own personal experiences.
Did hearing the way music was used in film and television initially spark your interest in making music?
Steph: It must have. One of my earliest movie memories was seeing Tim Burtons Batman and being totally enthralled. When I got the original soundtrack score for Christmas I became obsessed with it. Played with my barbies to it. It was a combo of Danny Elfman’s score and Prince’s original songs. I’m positive it had something to do with why I write darker leaning pop when not composing for the screen.
Brigit: I was lucky to start learning violin at the age of 5 and attend a specialized arts high school, but I didn’t really think about how music plays into a film until my grade 12 media and comms class. That’s where I saw my first Charlie Chaplin film and I went from “Ugh this is so boring” to on the edge of my seat, JUST from the way the music had complete control over the audience. From there, I went on to do a minor in film, taking many Music in Cinema courses and would play on my first feature film with Steph in 2017.
“Gas Light” touches on the #metoomovement and your own life experiences. Was it cathartic to work on the song?
Steph: Absolutely. Like a lot of people, I was struggling to process an erratic and rapidly shifting news cycle. I was surprised at how the lyrics flew onto the page without having to dig around for the right words: Thoughts and frustration that had been taking up a lot of real estate for too long.
Brigit: The theme stemmed from a conversation Steph and I were having in the studio the night of the first recording session where we realized our experiences definitely weren’t “unusual” for women, or for the music industry. Even after the first rough draft of just my violin and Steph’s on-the-spot improv vocals, I think we both felt a bit of a weight being lifted.
You collaborated together on “Gas Light.” What was that process like and how much did the song change throughout the collaborative process?
Steph: Earlier that day Brigit was over recording experimental violin for a horror movie score. When we wrapped, Brigit let it slip it was her birthday so we decided to celebrate in the studio by writing an original song unrelated to scoring (with a bottle of Reserve Jameson) Brigit’s string plucks heard at the beginning and throughout the song were the foundation of the song. It sparked the direction and subject matter on the spot. We recorded those 4 notes repeating and quickly added a rough vocal line over top. We had two rough verses and a chorus when we decided to call it a night. On my own I started adding production and sent Brigit takes, we finalized the structure without actually being in the same room. Brigit came to the studio again to record her violin solo and we had another collaborative recording day with Guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Chris Wong. After that everything to do with finishing touches, mix and master was done through email. I don’t think the song changed throughout the process but rather emanated from those 4 initial notes.
Brigit: I had been voice memoing little “riffs” and ideas on my phone for a while. I have synesthesia and was interested in creating a song with Steph that played off of the colours I get when playing or listening to music. For me, the 4 notes we started with in Gas Light were deep green with flickers of orange and yellow and when I played it for Steph, the song almost immediately came together in the same night.
Do you feel as though when you’re creating a song it makes it easier to pull from personal experiences or does that depend on the topic covered?
Steph: I’m not sure who said “write about what you know” but I’m mostly pulling from experiences. Sometimes observations. I’ll sometimes write songs about fictitious people that I just imagine exist, with aspects of that character resembling my own experiences. There’s something that feels safe about writing in the third person or implying the voice in the song is that of a character. You can hide indistinguishable truths in the lyrics giving you the license to speak freely while it remains a cathartic process. When it comes to broader subject matter like in “Gas Light” everything was right below the surface and writing openly from personal experience came easily.
Brigit: It absolutely helps to have personal experience, and when collaborating with someone who is doing that – it makes it easy to play off of the tone they’re laying down. Working on film scores and having to “feel” what the characters are feeling in order to create the music makes the process much more familiar.
How involved were you in the creative process for the “Gas Light” music video. How did it feel to see the final product?
Steph: From the very beginning, producer/cinematographer Jeff Maher and I wanted “Gas Light” to be a dance performance. At one point it was going to be two adolescent girls, then it changed to a male ballet dancer. Later, we scrapped all of it and decided it would be a performance video with Brigit and me, but we were having trouble lining up plans with the off-and-on lockdowns that were going on in Toronto due to COVID. When director Sean McLeod pitched the video (which is what it ended up being) – a nighttime solo dance performance starring Murphy, he had no idea we always wanted this to be a dance piece. It was the best coincidence. Everything Sean imagined was spot on to the vibe and energy we had envisioned for the video. We had to keep the production small so Jeff Maher brought out a phenomenal team to film the performance. The whole shoot took about 6 hours. Murphy was electric, fully embodying the mood and meaning of the song. We were floored by the final product Sean delivered. It was everything.
What advice do you have for aspiring musicians?
Steph: Start developing and perfecting your sound by writing and producing as early as possible because you may not always have the ability to work with producers. It’s fairly affordable these days to invest in the basics to start creating decent quality recordings but it takes a lot of writing to establish your sound and style. Understanding the business side of the music industry is imperative to make people aware of your music. Join music related groups in your community and become a member of your region’s songwriting/music association for access to info and workshops on all aspects of the industry.
Brigit: You’re not an island and you can’t and shouldn’t do everything by yourself. Connect with your “competition” which is actually your community. The more violinists I’ve met, the better my personal life and career have become. There’s always going to be someone “better” than you at your instrument, but not everyone has the same skill set. I know violinists who are expert sight-readers, masters of specific genres, or who can improvise at the drop of a hat. Not only do I get to learn new skills and perspectives from them, but we constantly send each other gigs and help one another out. You can be the best in the world at what you do, but if you are unkind, frequently late, or hard to work with, they’ll just call the second best.
