Andy Sim and his band Fear Wasabi were the chosen winners of our soundtrack project which saw them working with visual artist Roderick Buchanan and Glasgow’s state-of-the-art Savalas Studios to create the soundtrack to two short films, Tattoo and Lament. I caught up with them to find out about their experiences of the project and their phobia of blogging!

What was the most valuable part of the experience?

Andy: The people. I think we all learned a great deal from all those whom we worked with along the way, particularly Giles and the guys from Savalas, Gaia, and of course Roddy.

Phil: The middle, in between realisation and expectation.

Imogen: Apart from the relationships that we made with people, the technical knowledge.

What was the most memorable moment of the project?

Andy/Phil: So many to chose from…I’ll go for when Roddy really started to connect with us mixing Tattoo. What had started off as a slightly awkward process as we all tried not to step on each others’ toes, burst into life as we debated the best way of ending the piece (fade out? stop dead? when?) eventually leading us to all leaping out of our seats gesticulating wildly at the particular note which we felt it would be best to end on.

Tom: Walking into Savalas for the first time.

What was it like working with Roddy Buchanan?

All: We had some good times hanging out with Roddy. In any project, identifying roles is important. Roddy had very strong ideas of the visual content, but (I think it’s fair to say) not so much the sound…while we obviously wanted to support Roddy’s works, we also felt for ourselves that we had to make a soundtrack that had an identity beyond simply accompanying the visuals. So in a way Roddy became our boss, which we don’t think he wanted any more than us. It was interesting and educational. He taught us a lot about sticking up for your work. A good experience.

What was it like working with Giles Lamb and Savalas studios?

Andy: We had a terrific time at Savalas, and in Giles I think we found someone who was able to really connect with our approach to music. It’s mentioned in one of the blogs, but there was one point when Giles went off and left us for an hour to do some mixing, and instead we bashed a violin and recorded some weird de-tuned noise from it. On his return, Giles just grinned and said ‘cool sound’. And obviously Micheal and Ian’s astonishing speed of operation and thought just blew us away at the mixing stage.

Tom: It was blinding working with state-of-the art equipment.

How did you find the experience of documenting the project through Central Station?

Imogen: In principle it’s a great idea and I’m glad we did it, but in practise it was a tiresome obligation. I want to have the time for it, but I don’t.

Tom: I think that if I was on more of a mission, I’d have time for it, and I do see the validity in it, but it’s just not part of my life.

Andy: Initially we weren’t keen on blogging. As the project developed everyone from Fear Wasabi became more interested and keen to be involved and in a way the process fed back into our own thoughts as we created the soundtracks. The thing about the internet though, is that the process becomes an outcome, and our online diary might one day embarrass us from the past. We just have to wait and see.