Thinking In Sound: Rekindling a Love of Music with Tom Joyce
Tom Joyce is a multi-award winning sound designer, with over 20 years professional experience working with the top directors and creatives in the industry. During his career he has worked in long form, short form promos and advertising. His boutique sound design studio Sound Canvas currently works across film, advertising, motion graphics as well as artistic projects, providing a hybrid of creative sound design / composition and audio post production.
LBB> When you’re working on a new brief or project, what’s your typical starting point? How do you break it down and how do you like to generate your ideas or response?
Tom> The dream scenario is to get on board a job during pre-production. We can then read the script and give our notes on how to approach the sound, whether it be sound recording techniques or general creative ideas. We find at that point it’s helpful to get on a zoom call, or meet with the director so we can discuss those ideas. Collaborating early on in the project means we can influence how the project is shot and can generate new ideas.
LBB> Music and sound are in some ways the most collaborative and interactive forms of creativity - what are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to work solo or with a gang - and what are some of your most memorable professional collaborations?
Tom> We love working across a variety of genres from motion graphics to film and advertising. Every genre, and indeed every project, will have its own unique collaborative process and we enjoy the variety. We have an in-house composer, so in a sense the majority of our work is collaborative in nature. We pride ourselves on making sure we are able to hit the brief in a truly bespoke way through our sound design and composition and we are always open to collaborations that will lead to the most exciting creative outcomes.
A project that stands out for me, was a collaboration with BOLDER Creative; Assos - Superskin. Visually it was a combination of live action and motion graphics. While they were on location shooting, I created a number of abstract and cinematic sounds on our modular synth rig (picture below) to create a sketchpad of sonic elements which they could use in the edit. This made for a more seamless process and avoided the need to use a temp track, and the potential post production challenges that can create. Once we had a locked edit we invited one of our studio partners Jim Cornick at Particle Studios, to collaborate with our in-house composer Damian Pace. Jim looked at the melodic side based around the recordings of a local choir and Damian created a kind of Squarepusher-esque tech drums. These elements combined with the unique sounds of the modular synth, layered on to a more traditional sound design, made for a truly distinctive soundscape, as well as a rewarding creative collaboration.
LBB> What’s the most satisfying part of your job and why?
Tom> As creative director, I would say there are two elements to this. Firstly, I love being very much hands on with each project that comes in, which brings me new challenges and creative inspiration everyday. Secondly, I get a lot of satisfaction from seeing our small team flourish creatively and professionally.
LBB> As the advertising industry changes, how do you think the role of music and sound is changing with it?
Tom> With the volume of content being created and the variety of formats the advertising industry now works across, there is a need more than ever to stand out and the role of music and sound is well placed to help brands do just that. There are also some creative advantages to not having to fit the traditional 30sec TVC format and we have been able to work on some awesome creative projects where the clients have wanted to be more experimental.
LBB> Who are your musical or audio heroes and why?
Tom> Alan Splet, David Lynch’s sound designer has to be my top audio hero. His industrial and quite bonkers approach to sound design is just incredible. The first 10 minutes of the film ‘Eraserhead’ is just his sound design to picture and it’s so beautifully organic and dark. As for musical heroes, I grew up on Sheffield label Warp Records so their sonic landscapes are very influential.
If you combine those two influences you pretty much get an idea of what my first collaborative album sounds like. It’s coming out this year on Denovali Records. So watch this space…
LBB> And when it comes to your particular field, whether sound design or composing, are there any particular ideas or pioneers that you go back to frequently or who really influence your thinking about the work you do?
Tom> I used to go to a series of lectures at south bank called ’School Of Sound’ and there was one lecture that has stuck in my head. It talked about the idea of seeing sound in three planes in the same way as the visual. You have a background, a midground and a foreground which means that now, when I sound design, I think about how we have to keep one or all of those planes interesting sonically. For example you could use some hyper-real foley in the foreground and then have a subtle background atmosphere to manifest a real sense of depth.
LBB> When you’re working on something that isn’t directly sound design or music (lets say going through client briefs or answering emails) - are you the sort of person who needs music and noise in the background or is that completely distracting to you? What are your thoughts on ‘background’ sound and music as you work?
Tom> Since running my own studio, I have really enjoyed rekindling my love of music. I very rarely have clients at the studio these days so I have the freedom to listen to music while doing admin roles. When reading scripts I tend to listen to ambient and modern classical music such as Brian Eno and Erased Tapes so I can focus on the script, but when I’m chasing feedback or invoices I listen to EDM and more punchy music to keep focused and motivated.
LBB> I guess the quality of the listening experience and the context that audiences listen to music/sound in has changed over the years. There’s the switch from analogue to digital and now we seem to be divided between bad-ass surround-sound immersive experiences and on-the-go, low quality sound (often the audio is competing with a million other distractions) - how does that factor into how you approach your work?
Tom> The world is full of noise now, visually and sonically. Thankfully, our studios have very good acoustics that completely block out the exterior world but I understand clients are quite possibly signing off mixes on the tube with ’noise cancelling’ headphones. I see it as the same issue with grading, everyone has different screens, different lighting setups so it’s nearly impossible to please every system. I believe clients have to trust our professional judgement and experience whilst in a controlled acoustic environment, as the best way to know when work is at its best quality. Having said that, we also use some terrible mono internet speakers as a way to test and reference sound quality, if it sounds good on them, then you know it will translate to all the other systems!
LBB> On a typical day, what does your ‘listening diet’ look like?
Tom> I enjoy jogging and I always have music playing. My raving days are almost over so I like to listen to minimal techno to keep my pace up. I also like to listen to podcasts when I’m driving. I have a lovely 15 minute walk to the studio (best commute I’ve ever had) and I tend not to listen to any music, just allow my ears to rest and listen to the world before a day of sound exploration.
LBB> Do you have a collection of music/sounds and what shape does it take (are you a vinyl nerd, do you have hard drives full of random bird sounds, are you a hyper-organised spotify-er…)?
Tom> I’m all those things. I come from a scratch DJ background so I have a soft spot for vinyl. I also record everyday sounds as well as recording modular synth jams and they all go into our huge sound effects database I’ve collated over 20 years.
LBB> Outside of the music and sound world, what sort of art or topics really excite you and do you ever relate that back to music (e.g. history buffs who love music that can help you travel through time, gamers who love interactive sound design… I mean it really could be anything!!)
Tom> Obviously, AI is a massive topic and one I find really interesting. I was using Midjourney in its early iterations and I loved it for its surreal, organic quality. It’s now so polished that I’ve kind of lost interest a little bit. As mentioned earlier, I have an album coming out this year so we’ve been experimenting with AI films, working with visual artists to go with the tracks. Here is a teaser.
LBB> Let’s talk travel! It’s often cited as one of the most creatively inspiring things you can do - I’d love to know what are the most exciting or inspiring experiences you’ve had when it comes to sound and music on your travels?
Tom> I have a young family now so travel has a very different sonic. In my early travels, I used to carry around a sound recorder and record my environment, from New York to countries across South East Asia. The recordings themselves weren’t super high quality but it always amazes me how it can transport you back to that space and time. Here are a couple of short recordings I made in New York in 2003:
LBB> As we age, our ears change physically and our tastes evolve too, and life changes mean we don’t get to engage in our passions in the same intensity as in our youth - how has your relationship with sound and music changed over the years?
Tom> As mentioned before, I have a young family so it’s interesting now to listen back to music I haven’t listened to in ages and to reconnect with it by introducing my kids to it. Again, music has a great quality in transporting you to a certain time and place. With over 20 years experience I still have joy is sound as it always brings something new everyday.
