Michelle! You are a wonderful composer, songwriter, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist. How did you get your start in music, and what was the specific turning point when film scoring entered the picture?

Thank you! As a kid, I was always obsessed with music. I participated in choirs and theater, and started playing guitar in middle school. I would write songs in my bedroom that I never showed anybody. I studied music in college, which is where I learned more about composition, and once I graduated I moved to New York to pursue music. I started a synthpop band called Birch, and was really following the indie artist path for a while before film scoring entered the picture. Then in 2017, Erica Rose, director of The Lesbian Bar Project (who I still work with regularly) asked me to score her short film Girl Talk. I almost said no, fearing I wouldn’t be good enough, but thankfully agreed to do it. That experience of scoring that film, and seeing it on the big screen at Outfest Film Festival, made me fall in love with the process. By 2020, I was deep into film scoring and decided to dedicate myself to it full-time.

Stepping into a massive sci-fi legacy like the Terminator universe must be both incredibly thrilling and a bit daunting! How did you approach crafting the sonic landscape for such an iconic sci-fi universe, and what were the most unique musical challenges you faced on this project?

It was thrilling indeed, and I was so lucky to have a great partner in my husband / co-composer Kevin Henthorn, as well as the showrunner and one of my best friends Mattson Tomlin. So it really felt like a collaborative group project, rather than all falling on my shoulders, which helped keep the fear at bay (a bit). We decided early on that the show needed to belong in the Terminator universe sonically, but also have its own identity. We wanted to create a score that was more modern and focused on the feeling of “existential dread”. In order to still keep it in the Terminator world, we borrowed a couple of elements from the original Brad Fiedel scores, and reimagined the rest. We ended up using metal hits and synthesizers to keep it within the same world as Brad’s scores – we even used his iconic drum line at the end of Episode 1 to help ground the music in Terminator land. Then, we focused the music more on the emotions behind the characters, and decided to pair electronic instruments with a choir to mirror the “man vs machine” theme of the show. We were able to travel to London and work with the LCO choir at Air Studios, which was a total dream come true.

In terms of musical challenges, this was a very unique project, in that we were working with Production IG out of Japan – so we had to work together across very different time zones and languages. Scoring the pilot episode was definitely the most challenging, as Kevin and I were still finding the sound of the series, while receiving feedback translated from Japanese and dealing with the imposter syndrome of just being in this environment. In those very early days, I think we were trying to make everyone else happy, and therefore the music was a bit disjointed, without a singular identity. Everything clicked for us when our Netflix producer Dylan said, “Just write what you think is cool.” After that Kevin and I quickly honed in on the sound that felt right to us, and the rest of the episodes fell into place seamlessly. I guess what I learned from this is that your unique voice is the most important thing. It’s why you get hired in the first place, so use it!

Writing music is already such a vulnerable and intimate process, but you often share that space by co-composing with your husband, Kevin. How does your dynamic as a married couple influence your creative workflow, and how do you typically balance the division of labor when building a score together?

I love writing music together. I’ve always loved collaborating with others and being part of a team, so working together on scores has been really fun and works well for us. Typically we’ll start a project together by jamming some ideas away from the computer. We both have a lot of experience working this way in bands, so it feels natural to us. Once we come up with those preliminary musical ideas, we usually switch on and off, working on the production and adding to the piece. It’s like a process of editing where we keep chipping away at it until it reaches its final form.

Because we’re married, it allows us to be brutally honest with each other, whereas I don’t think I’d be so comfortable doing that with a friend or collaborator. We definitely argue sometimes, but it always stays in the studio and doesn’t bleed into our everyday life. We both trust each other’s taste, so if someone is more passionate about an idea, they’ll usually win out in the end.

Composing can often be such an isolated job in the studio. How do organizations like the AWFC help you foster a sense of community, and how has leaning on that network affected your personal and professional journey?

The AWFC is an incredible organization and I’m so happy to be part of it. I’ve met so many wonderful composers, some of whom I’ve ended up collaborating with professionally: like Catherine Joy, whose company Joy Music House did the orchestrations for Terminator Zero and helped produce our sessions with the London Contemporary Orchestra. The AWFC has definitely helped me form friendships with other composers and create a sense of camaraderie, which is so helpful with such an insular career.

The world can feel like a crazy place these days! Tell us, what does your world look like right now? We’d love to hear about what you are currently working on, both inside and outside of the studio.

This year has been a busy one. I recently composed the score for a psychological horror feature film called Still Ohio, which is doing its festival run right now. Kevin and I are currently scoring a pilot, as well as films for Jagermeister’s ‘Save The Night’ campaign: a series of films from people and organizations around the world who are helping to make nightlife more inclusive and safe. We also just scored a branded short for the tampon company CORA, which was truly the most fun I’ve had in a while. The spot takes place in a middle school classroom and we got to write a bunch of Riot Girl-inspired pop rock – it was super fun!

Outside of the studio, our lives have changed a lot because I had a baby last year! We have a hilarious little toddler named Maggie running around now, which has changed everything. Becoming a mom has been such a joy and has expanded me in so many ways, including the way I write music. Because I’m so much busier than I used to be, I’ve had to be stricter about time management, which has forced me to be more decisive when writing music. In doing so, I’ve discovered that often my first ideas are actually my best ideas! I used to spend so much time writing multiple takes of a scene, and then comparing them and trying to figure out which is better. But my new workflow, born out of necessity, has given me so much more confidence in myself as a musician. Also, daycare rocks. I couldn’t do this without childcare, so we’re very fortunate in that regard.

Check out Michelle’s Directory Page here!

Interview by Michael Van Bodegom Smith

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