 Today's conversation is going to be with Simon J and Luke Tresta from Chapters Music. If you're familiar with Only Murders in the Building, Euphoria, This Is Us, and many other projects, then you've heard their work. Super pumps to have them collaborate with our project, so let's not waste time, let's get right into it. It's already enough that we're doing a reaction video. We're doing a reveal. That's true. Speak of which, I don't know what that reveal is. So you told me to get together in a surprise meeting. I know it's about the project that we're doing, but you said there's a reveal. Yes. Curious. There's a big reveal. I mean, this whole week is a reveal of all of our, you know, materials for everyone, but I have been sort of doing my little sneaky thing off the side that I haven't even told you about. So one of the things that I have been taking charge of is, for many, many months, is working with like insanely talented musicians to complete a theme for our score. And I've had like the insane honor of working with Luke Shrestha and Simon Jay at Chapter's Music. And they actually did a score for us, which blows my mind because these guys, they are the music directors for This Is Us. They are the music directors for Only Murders in the Building, which I know you were obsessed with. And they volunteered because they like this project to do the theme. And then they're going to sign on to do the full score once we have it, everything I've been running for the full film. But yeah, so the surprise is that I have an actual theme for our film to play you. And I decided like, okay, I could send you it in an email and be like, check this out, it's awesome. Or I could broadcast to the entire world your beautiful little punum all lit up with joy as you listen to it for the first time with everyone else with an entire audience. Okay, I like that twist. I like it. You like it? Okay, I'm very curious. It's, I mean, honestly, it's too good for our film. That's the pitch. What we have is too good. Okay. All right. All right. One, two, play. That's very emotional. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what else to say. That's it's bonkers. I can't believe you got these people on board. That's awesome. I'm so I'm so excited for them to join us. So yeah, let's not keep you or everyone else waiting. Let's further ado. We got Simon Jay. We got Luke Threstha of Chapters Music. Hi guys. Well, Luke and Simon meet Jean Denis Haas, JD. This has been a long freaking time coming. And I can't believe that I was able to keep you guys secret from him for that long. Well, nice to meet you. Yeah, I just heard the music and it's so good. It's so good to have so many questions. Definitely. Yeah. I want to know how did Dimitri convince you to do this? Because it's like this is our project on the side. We're trying to get this going. And then we have trying to get people to help us out. And then you guys are coming in and then the level goes way up. So how did that happen? What happened there? Well, we met Dimitri on a film in 2018 probably with one of our buddies. And we were just really impressed with the constraint. It was like a 60-second film. You had to tell a whole story in 60 seconds and get everything across. And it was everything about the short was very intentional. Like everything was there for a reason. Every shot was composed perfectly to tell the story. And we're in a position in our careers right now where we just want to work with people who not just know what they're doing but have something to say. And when we took that initial meeting, everyone just seemed like everyone was shared the same vision and we're bringing their talents and abilities and skills and everybody, you know, very, very talented people. So we felt like we were in really good company. So of course we were on board for this because we also share that same mission statement where we're very intentional with what we do. And musically I'm sure you can tell as well that every note was placed very intentionally. So we just want to work with people that kind of share our interests in that. Well, can you guys talk a little bit about your background, the amazing projects you've worked on? To me, you guys are just like modern virtuosos. And you know that I've told you that a lot. Yeah, I mean, we both came from classical backgrounds. So I think Simon, when you start piano, like three or four. Yeah, and I started around three or four too. So and violin around that time. So we're both, we both have that classical gene in us, which I think kind of comes through in this particular theme as well. It's kind of a similar situation with film to where this, the view of terrestrial, it's like, okay, what's the sound of terrestrial? And you know, it took a lot of brainstorming on our end. Like what do we think this could be? And I know early on we talked about kind of marrying the sound design elements of the film with the music. It's always really cool to be able to tell the story of the movie through the music. You know, it's you're not using words, you're not using, you know, scripts. It's, you know, all music that we're trying to tell the story of the film. Finding what what the emotions are, the little tiny things in each of the films that maybe even the the watcher won't even know about until it's acknowledged in the music sort of thing. So yeah, it's it's been awesome. There is a project we did a few years ago, the first season of Only Murders in the Building and we put up a little BTS of how the score was recorded on on our TikTok. Thanks for that. Yeah, the top comment is like, oh my god, when I heard, I don't spoil anything, but like I knew who the killer was because when the bassoon theme came up, like I knew that that was like, so there's like this audience payout, like eight episodes later that we set up way before where you're like, kind of hinting at it and people are like, like, I freaking knew it. I knew he was the bad guy and you go back and listen to the score and you're like, all that hints on this theme has kind of developed and you can kind of understand it on a different on a different level like you can always tell story with the music. So that's something we we try to we try to accomplish this with this as well, creating a theme that could be molded and melded depending on the scene, depending on the characters. But like we were talking a lot about the theme thematically being less about like, oh, it's this character scene, but it's like the idea of like fatherhood and like, like parental relationships rather than like, oh, this character and his characters, because the theme felt like it could make more sense and be more moldable with that kind of idea, other than oh, this is Princess Leia's theme or like what like the fourth theme is like it's so much more like expandable, you know, into the universe. I think that's what that's what I really loved about it. Like when you guys first sent me the draft, it makes sense that it's a waltz because this is about a relationship between a father and a son and that son transitioning into becoming a father himself. And so it's really it's a dance between those characters and and what better way to illustrate that and through sound with a waltz. I'm just curious, well, what's your process when you when you talked to him, when you looked at all this, like how do you how did you come up with with the theme? Yeah, well, it was really interesting. We had a few different ideas when we first started out by three or four ideas. And this, the one that ended up being the one was the very first idea we did. And I think the main thing was really focusing on the father son relationship. You know, I like to meet the saying it wasn't this isn't just another sci-fi film that has a very specific message and storyline that's trying to convey that doesn't always have to do exactly with like the sci-fi nature, so a lot more about the father son relationship. So kind of leaning into that and what what that sounds like in the context of this story was kind of the conversation, what we're trying to to convey with the music and, you know, the piano, the waltz feel it's almost a coming of age to in some ways, where, you know, the son is, you know, maturing into a whole almost another person, a father. It was definitely all very much inspired by what we were initially talking about how, you know, the relationship is kind of the forefront more than more than anything. That's kind of the over overlying summary of the film and the short. So that's kind of what we tried to convey to the music. And something for us too, we had this conversation with Dimitri when we first met, but, you know, because we started music so young, we really understand music as like a communication tool because we started it when we were like three or four. We're learning language at the same time we're learning music. So for us, music is like another language. So upon like talking about this with Dimitri, we were kind of like, oh, okay. Like how are we going to translate this? Like literally like not like, oh, like notes and whatever theory, whatever. But we were literally like, how are we going to translate this? Like you would like English to French or whatever it is, you know? Yeah, that's awesome. Kind of like one of those things where how can we convey that emotion in a different way. And to use put that since you know, it's more like language versus notes, but you start that on the piano. Like how do you develop the theme? Do you hum it? Do you talk to each other and do like finger drops or something? Or how do you do this? This one we started on the piano. I had this idea for a melody and we kind of just ran with it. But yeah, I mean every idea, every song or cue or theme is always just so different in how it evolves or comes about. Sometimes it might be like a voice memo that you record real quick and kind of forget about for years. Other times it's, you know, piano or guitar. Every idea just has a different inception. But I think both of us are kind of drawn towards the piano. And we're kind of like the people that are so picky in either Sonics or the actual musicality of the notes where we'll play a chord and we're like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's like a note in there. Let's take that out. And then we'll take one note out and it'll completely change the color. We're like, yes. Where people are like, oh, a G chord. Let's play a G chord. But we're like G, and we're messing around with the other notes that could kind of color it in a way where it has a different emotion. And you can tell if you're playing an F major chord, it's like, oh, a happy chord. F major 7, oh, a jazz chord. You change one note. Completely changes the entire feeling and composition of the chord. And it's sonically as well on the sound design. It's kind of that principle, but with the actual Sonics. Oh, taking out the high end of this will make it feel more sinister, or taking out the low end will make it feel brighter and happy. We're really just really getting into the nitty gritty of the specifics of all this for not just notes and chords. The actual melody and the overarching chords were done in 10 minutes. It was a really quick process. But then where it's like, OK, we need to change this chord a little bit. We need to change this. We can add the sound design. And all the detail work is what takes so long with the initial idea. For us, it's just like, let it flow. That's what we do three or four ideas typically for a project. So we can kind of not be like, OK, this is going to be the idea. We have to make this great. It's just like, let it flow out, whatever comes comes. And then move on to the next idea. Move on to the next idea. So we probably did three or four ideas in a few hours, and then just came back to this one because it just felt right. Yeah, we really think art is a collaborative experience too. Even if it's just one person making it, you have the audience looking at it. So it's like everything is collaborative in a way. And yeah, we do have a really good shorthand between each other and also the players because they're in the studio so often. But everyone that we get to work with, people we respect, and they have a different piece of the puzzle. And we're like, wow, we get to have them in. And we get to talk and discuss these things. And further the idea and even challenge the idea. Because we might have an idea of Luke because that just does not bring me into that world at all. And then we're like, OK, let's figure this out. Why? So you get to dig down the rabbit hole with collaborators that you trust and respect to get the actual best answer, not what somebody or somebody else wants. Everyone's bringing something to the table that's so unique and specific. It's so good. I mean, I haven't even said thank you. But now thank you so much for doing that. It's really cool. Oh, yeah, it was super fun. And it is so important for everyone to be open and also willing to go places that you didn't expect to go. So that's kind of I hope what was achieved through the process of collaboration too was just, we came to the conclusion of what we have now as the theme through the process of all of us putting our heads together and being like, OK, where is this going? How can we make this better? Is this conveying the correct emotion? Just trying to answer all those questions. So I think we did. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, I am the unexcited one to show everyone this video. We're talking to you guys and Chady's really fun. Really like it's like a candy store for the very first time. It's a reaction to listening to it. And that's just kind of showing the world the level that we're reaching, like the amount of excellence that we're bringing to this from every angle. And well, the excellence just went way up. And the story is already so cool. I can't wait for the story to just be out there in the film. It's going to be so cool for people to watch it. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, so we're just going to keep going. We're going to keep building and we're going to make this thing happen. Amazing. Definitely. Let's do it. Sounds good. And thanks again for for joining. I know you guys are super busy. So just to find a time. I really appreciate it. It's a pleasure to talk to you and to have that surprise. So thank you so much. Of course, it's good to meet you as well. Yeah, good to meet you, JD. Thank you guys so much. See you all later. See you guys. Right. That was it for part two. Come back on Friday for part three, which is going to be a bit more acting related. That's all I'm going to say. So stay tuned and come back.