The alchemy of Trickster's epic sound, plus Spotify and CBC Listen playlists
Music gurus of CBC’s Trickster talk score and soundtrack insights
The realm of Trickster is crowned by an alchemy of sounds that will surely leave a cultural legacy in television circuits as one of the more enchanting and impactful soundtracks and scores.
Crescendoing throughout the series to create a sensory experience of the story are the anthemic notes fashioned by an award-winning composer, Todor Kobakov (Madiba, Born to be Blue, Cardinal), and protest beats plus classic tunes by genre ranging Indigenous artists — Snotty Nose Rez Kids, A Tribe Called Red, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jeremy Dutcher, Tanya Tagaq, Milk & Bone and many more — sourced by music supervisor, Jody Colero (Being Erica, Burden of Truth, Ransom).
The expert duo behind the sounds that elevate the intriguing scenes of Trickster talk about achieving the right tone, sound effects, fluidity and correlation between the score and soundtrack. They also share thoughts behind their choices and challenges they had to overcome to get the final result that you can now hear as you watch Trickster on CBC Gem.
Note - You can find the full Spotify and CBC Music playlists further down in this article.
Setting and achieving the right tone
When it comes to curation and creation of music for shows, many conversations are being had very early on — about where in the scene the music will reside, how it will relate to the characters themselves and ultimately whether it will enhance the story.
"The first question we ask ourselves is always, 'Is the piece of music helping to tell the story and is it elevating the experience for the audience?'" says Colero.
He explains that because the main characters in the series live in two worlds — the modern and the ancient — it gave the team free reign to straddle those musically but that choosing pieces that would reflect both was also hard work.
The connection between the spiritual and the real worlds had to be seamless, adds Kobakov who made the heartbeat of the show on the slower side in order to also represent the mystical realm of Trickster.
It goes without saying that communication is key in any scenario but understanding the creator's vision and seeing the world through their point of view is crucial which is why the sonic DNA of Trickster was extensively discussed with creator and director of the show, Michelle Latimer.
"We are both fans of electronic music and we shared various playlists in order to understand each other's instincts a bit better. A big part for me was to keep the show in reality but still make it feel like something is really not quite right."
He reflects that Latimer didn't want to telegraph too much emotion through the music but "it had to weave in and out like a spirit itself."
To achieve that, Kobakov used a lot of micro-tuning (non western tuning of instruments) as influenced by the work of Morton Subotnick and west coast additive synthesis.
Combining that with specific sonic branding of the characters (sounds assigned to each character that the audiences might not quite identify but is often there "doing it's job subconsciously") became the template of the score, says Kobakov.
Melodies or motifs are a huge part of character arcs. It is a process of simmering down an idea to a fine sauce.- Todor Kobakov
Colero supports the notion adding that there's a musical progression that reflects the main character's journey as he struggles to come to grips with his reality — at first not understanding the changes happening within him.
"In the early episodes we tried to make musical choices that reflected his young, rebellious spirit," says Colero, "but as the story unfolds and Jared is slowly exposed to the gravity of the responsibility he suddenly needs to bear, we tried to open up the musical choices to include more sophisticated and timeless pieces.
After all, this is an epic story. Epic stories deserve epic music!- Jody Colero
Flow and fluidity between the score and soundtrack
While the score is composed and soundtrack sourced, the two need to be in unison on screen in order to support the scenes and make them flow even more seamlessly.
"There is a healthy dialogue at all times around whether the moments are best served with a song or with score," says Colero adding that while in some TV series the songs are used traditionally in obvious placements — "either in outage sections or to end the show" — with Trickster, it was much more of a weaving process where at times the score would lead or morph into a song or vice versa. But there were also moments where both, the song and the score, were playing simultaneously.
Colero attributes the ability to do so to Kobakov's intimate understanding of a song's behaviour, as someone who is a songwriter himself and has been an arranger for many other artists.
"The musical conversation we have is never about 'How do we work together to make an idea happen?' Instead it's always, 'I wonder what would happen if we….'" adding that both of them have the same feeling around their role in storytelling which is ultimately about focusing on "how the music is being felt emotionally by the audience."
Challenges make it fun... when you have Jeremy Dutcher
There are times when things get unpredictable.
"We strive for fluidity between score and source music," says Kobakov, "however, sometimes the decision on what songs are used is left until the last minute. When that is the case, the music team needs to make decisions on the spot, improvise. It's challenging but fun!"
He examples with a specific dream sequence in episode five that took some time to figure out but in the end, "it worked out great" and ended up being a mix of The Weeknd and Blade Runner.
Colero, on the other hand, reflects on episode six's "chanting/incantation/spell casting scene that took some thinking through because it starts off with the voice of the character only and crescendos to include more voices.
"But it cried out for musical accompaniment," he says, continuing to explain that nothing was elevating the moment even after his multiple song attempts and a number of Kobakov's musical approaches.
"We had looked at some of Jeremy Dutcher's songs for other spots in the series, and then Todor suggested that we simply sample Jeremy's vocals and he would try integrating them into his score.
"I sent Todor the song Pomok Naka Poktoinskwes which he then sampled with Jeremy's blessing. The result was a beautiful melding of our two worlds and I really believe it helped crack that scene wide open."
Even the theme song which is a cocktail of higher intensity stimulus along with subtle subliminal tones was a little trickier to pull off because it was "hard to say a lot in a few seconds," explains Kobakov.
"The whole sequence was programmed with a modular synth and that took ages to achieve."
I wanted [the theme song] to be short but memorable.- Todor Kobakov
Playing with SFX for the score
The sound of Trickster also incorporates other important elements into the broader emotional palette. The sound effects (SFX).
"The magic happens in the mix when all the elements are brought together and balanced accordingly," says Kobakov, who attributes the success to a very collaborative effort of a great sound team and the sound designer Brennan Mercer.
Colero echoes and says that Michelle Latimer and Jennifer Kawaja had a vision for how they wanted the audio to behave but allowed all of their voices to be heard in the mix.
"There was no such thing as a dumb idea. All of us felt that we could share a cool idea of how the music and sound effects could work together, so your goosebumps come courtesy of the mixers (Martin and Joe from Sim), the sound designer Brennan Mercer, and the entire post production sound team."
Finding the right soundtrack
While on the note of collaborative efforts, selecting songs that ultimately become the soundtrack of a show is oftentimes teamwork as well.
"Everyone involved, from the actors, the editors, Michelle Latimer [creator/director] and the entire team at Sienna films were involved in the music curation at every step of the process," says Colero.
The Trickster soundtrack as a result boasts songs by award winning artists but one is emblematic of the series — which Colero says he was sure of from the beginning.
It's all about Snotty Nose Rez Kids!- Jody Colero
"To me, they are the signature sound of the show," he says. "They hail from Kitamaat, where the series was shot, and have a beautifully honed lyrical edge that is at once both ironic and moving.
"You will even find them in the remixed Sweet City Woman, in episode one. Shout out to Boogey The Beat here, as his skills as a remixer/reimaginer of the track laid the groundwork for this collaboration."
So whether you've already started watching Trickster and want to hear the epochal soundtrack again or you're just looking for a list of songs to background your day, here are Spotify playlists from each episode of Trickster as well as one from CBC Music featuring select songs packaged into a # minute music stream that you can play any time on CBC Listen.
CBC Listen playlist
Spotify playlists
You can find Todor Kobakov on Instagram @kobakov and Jody Colero on Instagram and Twitter @thewilderstv.
Watch Trickster on CBC Gem now and follow @TricksterCBC on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for behind the scenes, interviews and show updates.
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