Ayla Ruby
Lawmen: Bass Reeves is the story of Bass Reeves, a legendary Texas lawman who went from slave to U.S. Marshal. The miniseries is an epic western and takes place over several years in the late 19th century, with David Oyelowo starring as Reeves (interviewed here by Joey). Chanda Dancy is the composer of the Paramount+ show and had the task of capturing the openness of the West against the drama of the story. The music is essential to worldbuilding and sets the tone for what is such a true saga. It’s no surprise that Dancy was up to the task; the composer scored the movie Devotion and has a ton of other television and movie credits.
Over Zoom, Dancy shared what went into scoring Lawmen: Bass Reeves. She talked about her journey to the project and how her early audition demo for the job wound up becoming part of the show’s main title. Dancy shared the classical influences on the score and how layering sounds plus a talented 25-member instrumental team helped create the big sound loved by Taylor Sheridan. She also shared what it was like helping to build the show’s world through music. Read on for an insightful conversation, or listen to the audio above.
Ayla Ruby: So, I would love to talk about your journey to the project. How did you first come across the scripts? And did you know about Bass Reeves before?
Chanda Dancy: Well, starting with knowing about Bass Reeves. I had heard about Bass Reeves through another TV show, HBO’s Watchmen, and there was Episode One, with the Tulsa Riot. And yeah, I was like, “Oh, is this a real character or something?” So I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it’s like Bass Reeves was a real person, and just reading about the amazing feats that he accomplished during his time. And I always just filed him back in the back of my mind, just remembering like, “Oh, cool guy. Hopefully, one day, there’s going to be a real movie about it.” And so, fast forward years later, I get a call from my agent, who is good friends with the music supervisor for the Lawman: Bass Reeves, Andrea von Foerster. So she wanted to put me up as the composer for this show, because she’d heard the score for Devotion. And she thought, “Yeah, yeah. She should do this. Let’s do a demo. Ask her to do a demo.”
This is before there was even a script for me to read, or anything. They hadn’t even started shooting. It was months before any of that. And so all I had was a quick little log line from Andrea was that, “Taylor Sheridan loves big, lush orchestral sounds, especially influenced by Eastern European composers, and mixed with a little bit of Negro spirituals, and that should be the sound that we should go for.” And I was like, “Okay.” Good thing I’m a violinist that grew up playing in orchestras, playing Bartók, Dvořák and all of these guys, and Brahms. And so, I was like, “Yeah. This is totally right up my alley.” So I pulled up that picture of Bass Reeves on Wikipedia, the real picture of him. And it’s so amazing. It’s so soulful. I don’t know, it’s something about the eyes. His eyes really inspired me. And so, the demo that I wrote in order to get possibly hired for the job, was the main title theme that we have. Yes, that was the demo.
Ayla Ruby: Oh, that’s amazing.
Chanda Dancy: Yeah. Yeah. So naturally they liked the demo, obviously, and that led me to being hired. And then, I finally read a script, and went on from there, and so, yeah, that was the journey.
Ayla Ruby: So you talked a little bit about, you’ve got a violin background. You have, obviously, this amazing orchestral background. Besides the demo, once you had the scripts and everything, how did you approach this project? How did you match the music and the story? How does that come to be?
Chanda Dancy: Well, it started a little bit before the script stage. So in addition to the main title demo, I also wrote another cue that I thought would be incidental music. Again, before the script, before picture, or anything, and that was actually one of the cues used in Episode One. It’s the piece called, The Sky Is Over A Free Man’s Head. And so, again, it just goes back to the original conversation from Andrea von Foerster. And then, after I sent in the demo, Taylor Sheridan, himself, called me and we had a good long conversation about how we want the show to sound. And essentially, we wanted it to be a throwback to The Golden Age of Television where TV shows had an orchestra, a real orchestra that recorded on stage, and just this big, sweeping sound. And we were talking about composers that we loved, again, Brahms, Dvořák, Bartók and things like that. I would say that Bartók’s Hungarian dances really influenced me a lot.
And so, after reading the script and things like that, just getting ideas rolling, talking with the show runner, Chad Feehan, Michael Friedman, the head editor, Christopher Gay, we just all had a good conversation. We got to know each other, got to know each other’s tastes and our expectations for the project, and then I just started writing. Once I got Episode One, which was in last summer, I would say, I just started writing, And then, just sending cues to Taylor, and to Chad, and to Michael, and Christopher. And it was the smoothest project process ever, I mean, ever actually.
Ayla Ruby: That’s wonderful.
Chanda Dancy: Yeah, not all projects are like this, or are ever going to be like this, I understand. But I think, we were all such on the same page, that there wasn’t a lot of back and forth, or change this, or that kind of thing. It was like, “Yeah, this works great. This works great. This works great. In the next episodes, let’s get a little darker.” Like, “Thumbs up. Yeah.” So it was just a really, I would say, authentic process, because I feel like I didn’t have to do twists and turns to try and do something. It just all came out very natural, from the soul. I don’t know if it was admiration for Bass Reeves. I’m pretty sure, clearly that was a lot to do with it. But yeah, it was just a wonderful project and a wonderful process. Music just came out. It was a joy.
Ayla Ruby: So this was, obviously, a period piece, and not only a period piece. It takes place over many, many years. Is that influenced in the music at all, the passing of time, how does that work? Or maybe not?
Chanda Dancy: Yeah. Well, there’s really not too much passing of time that was needed to be addressed. It was more like if we had incidental music, or music that plays in a saloon, or the characters playing something on the piano, I had to make sure that whatever I created was of that time period. So I did a bit of research of what were the popular tunes during that time. And since a lot of them were public domain, some of them were arrangements of the actual pieces, and some of them were original compositions based upon that kind of sound. And so, that was really the only time that I was beholden to the period, making sure to nail it. But as far as score, I was allowed to, pretty much… I brought in synthesizers, brought in different kind of sounds to help build the world. And as long as we stayed within the world, itself, and all in agreement with Chad, and Michael, and Taylor, yeah, that was the sound that we created. So again, it was like orchestral, spirituals, solo, viola, violin, things like that. And yeah, that was the sound we made.
Ayla Ruby: I think I read for Devotion there were 109 musicians. It was a huge undertaking. For this project, can you talk about the mechanics of physically making the music for this?
Chanda Dancy: Yes.
Ayla Ruby: Was it Similar? Or what was that like for you, and just in general?
Chanda Dancy: Well, it definitely was not 109 musicians. There was no mention of 109 musicians for a TV show. I wish, that would be crazy. But for this project, we had about 25 live players, total. But there’s a lot you can do with 25 really awesome players. So I recorded in Macedonia with the F.A.M.E.’s Project. And so, Oleg Kondratenko, the conductor, is so amazing, so good at translating what I asked for, into getting the performance out of the orchestra, which was really important when you’re trying to make a bigger orchestral sound out of a smaller ensemble. So what we did was, we essentially layered the orchestra on top of each other, div striping is what it’s called. So we got one perfect performance, and then they would perform on top of that, so it would sound bigger, but you can’t just stop like that. You also have to have an amazing mixer, put in the proper plugins. And I even had a little bit of my synth orchestra just as an extra little oomph inside. So the end product really did sound almost as big as Devotion.
I mean, Devotion, you can’t get 109 musicians sound, unless you have 109 musicians. But for this to have 25 musicians, I think, we got a good, maybe 50 or 60 musicians’ sound.
Ayla Ruby: It’s amazing. And yeah, it totally works, I think.
Chanda Dancy: Thank you. Thank you.
Ayla Ruby: This might be a silly question. But, so A Light In No Man’s Land feels open. It feels big. I don’t know. It feels massive. How do you make that? How did you get that to happen?
Chanda Dancy: Oh, I don’t know. Well, besides the whole process that I spoke of, of recording. The recording technique goes a long way. But also, I would say, my whole philosophy is the orchestration, the composition itself, has to be well written and very strong. So I feel like that main title sequence sounds so big, is because you have a theme that is so memorable. And it’s easy to sing, and it’s easy to stick in your head, and you can be driving down the street, and all of a sudden you hear, “Da-da, da-da-da,” in your head, and you go , you know-
Ayla Ruby: Yeah.
Chanda Dancy: … So everything supports that main melody. So I feel like there’s nothing detracting from it. Even though there’s a lot of counterpoint and inner harmony, and things like that, it’s just a soaring melody. I think that’s what makes it feel big. So, I think, it has to be both of those things. A great orchestra, great performances, great recording technique, great mixing, that supports its sweeping melody.
Ayla Ruby: Was there anything that was your favorite from all of it, to compose, to make? Is there something that really was amazing for you?
Chanda Dancy: I mean, all of it was awesome. But if I had to choose what was really, really cool, I really did enjoy doing some of the African drumming, African Brazilian drumming. That was. I don’t get a lot of chances to do that with an orchestra, so that was a lot of fun. That was more in Episode Three. Episode One, there’s this really, really long cue, called Bass Was Cheated – On The Run. It has so many ups and downs, and so many starts and stops, and things just turn on a dime. That was a lot of fun, just writing that to picture, and paying attention to everything that happens in picture. Because it’s almost like solving a puzzle, and if you have different melodies, and different rhythms, and things like that, they have to flow into each other seamlessly. And there’s a certain way that you have to fit the puzzle pieces, so to speak, so that it works seamlessly and doesn’t make you bored, or anything like that. That was a lot of fun. I enjoyed doing that cue.
Ayla Ruby: And was there anything that didn’t make it into the soundtrack? And if you can talk about it? Or was everything there?
Chanda Dancy: Everything was used, I don’t think any of it… Actually, no, no, no. That’s not true. There’s one little tiny little snippet in Episode Two, where Jenny Reeves meets that Reverend guy for the very first time, in town, and there was a small, little something there. But Michael Friedman and I decided, “It’s not needed. Let’s take a breath from the cue before, because the next cue was really important.” So that’s the only thing I can think of, but everything else, yeah, was definitely needed.
Ayla Ruby: Awesome. And now, we’re just about at time, but is there anything else you want people to know about this project? Or anything you’re working on next?
Chanda Dancy: Well, definitely if you haven’t watched Lawman: Bass Reeves, it’s on Paramount Plus, please check it out. You will thoroughly enjoy it. Even if you’re not a fan of Westerns, this could be your first one, the first one you fall in love with, so go for it. And if you are a fan of Westerns, please check it out, it’ll really is for you. As far as next projects, I do have another film coming out the end of this summer, August 23rd. It is called, Blink Twice. It’s the directorial debut of Zoë Kravitz. It’s a thriller. It’s really awesome. There’s a teaser trailer that’s out. Check it out. Don’t worry. The trailer does not give anything away. It’s really cool, so yeah, August 23rd, Blink Twice.
Ayla Ruby: Awesome. Thank you very much for chatting. This was wonderful.
Chanda Dancy: Yeah. Thank you.
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