As many of the PUSH ME team are far flung and busy on other projects, it’s  been impossible for us to all meet up in person, so I was delighted to hear from Timo Baker our composer from Subvertical – the man behind some of our beautiful PUSH ME short scores before I met him in person at our PUSH ME screening at Encounters Film Festival today. Here he  gives answers to the questions I’d asked him about his work with our intrepid 12!

I was fascinated by the breadth and depth of all of the work. So many varied and stunning projects. It was interesting to see the different approaches to disability. Some of the artists used it to full effect to emphasise portions of the work whilst in others  disability totally faded into the background.

Our Director John Durrant worked closely with Timo passing on something that happened or was said during the filming which then influenced the direction of the music allowing Timo to paint a more complete, holistic view of the artist and their work.

I took a look at the early edits to get a feel for the theme, mood and flow of the work which steered the instrumentation and vibe of the score. I then tried a few musical themes against the picture. I’m usually able to get workable ideas down fairly quickly and then start adding layers of sounds, melodies, and rhythms. Sometimes the motion within the film had an intrinsic rhythm which I endeavoured to accentuate.

Timo’s approach bore unimaginably delicious fruit!  Bite into the Push Me Collection – The Journey films for Rachel Gadsden, Bobby Baker, Laurence Clark  to name a few and savour the first film we made for Sue Austin in the Push Me Collection.  All Timo’s work.  We love it.

My final question for Timo was about his own Push and what drives him to do what he does?

I’m driven by the will to create something that hasn’t previously existed. I get a real buzz from the process – the shaping and distilling of ideas. Inspiration comes from myriad sources – sounds, images, motion, light, colours – anything from the dark and edgy, to the beautiful, simple and unique.  We experience so much fragmentation of thought and feeling throughout our lives and, for me, creating music helps bring these pieces back together.

I’m really looking forward to meeting Timo today in Bristol when our first 12 PUSH ME for 90 second  films screened at 5.00pm at Watershed. Come join us and meet the people behind the project including Sue Austin our very first Push Me star!