UNDERSTANDING EXIT WOUNDS
Chapter 5: Graham Reynolds — The Music Man
A drummer finishes recording his section of a score, and Austin-based composer Graham Reynolds directs the members of his studio to the next task at hand while waiting for his piano to be tuned. His daily grind includes a growing to-do list wrapped in a nonstop whirl of creative flux. Despite the constant change, Reynolds is poised and focused on whatever project is in front of him.
Reynolds is a modern-day legend on the Austin music scene. He has created music for Ballet Austin multiple times, most notably for Stephen Mills’ Belle REDUX / A Tale of Beauty & the Beast and Cult of Color: Call to Color. Reynolds composed original music for the first of three stories of courage comprising Mills’ new dance work, Exit Wounds, premiering April 6–8 at the Long Center.
Reynolds spoke with me about his latest collaboration with Mills.
Gattozzi: For people who do not know who you are, what is a general timeline of your career? What is your background in music?
Reynolds: I moved to Austin and started playing in clubs like EMO’s and mostly punk rock clubs, but doing instrumentals partly composed-partly improvised music. Then people started asking me to score things like theater pieces, experimental film shorts, puppet shows — whatever it was. I started saying “yes” to that, and those things grew into a larger bucket where I do a lot of film work, dance work, theater work, concert music, and I still do the band thing, which is a bit jazz-based but reaches beyond that.
Gattozzi: You have worked with Stephen before, most notably composing music for Belle REDUX and Cult of Color. What is the process of working with Stephen on producing music for a piece of dance?
Reynolds: I love working with Stephen! Usually, he asks me to do a project early on, and then we get together and talk about ideas and concepts and what he is listening to and excited by. I like to make things that the collaborator is finding inspirational at the moment and have the process be a dialogue versus me going home, make music, and just hand it over. So, what I often do is make 10, 15, 20 themes and send them to Stephen and say, “Which ones do you like?” I develop those that he likes.
Gattozzi: What has the process been like more specifically for Exit Wounds?
Reynolds: We started talking about Exit Wounds sometime last year. Then I had sort of a composing retreat in Galicia (Spain) where I started, and I made one of the main themes. And then in August or September, I spent the last six months expanding that theme, and we added the vocals just a few weeks ago, towards the end of the process.
Gattozzi: You are not in the studio every day seeing Mills choreograph the dancing that is being created, but through your collaboration time with Stephen and the stories he has told you about the piece, have you had time to personally reflect and has it influenced the music you composed for Exit Wounds?
Reynolds: The story he told me was mostly about the section I am composing for (Fields), and that infused the whole thing. We actually went a few experimental directions that we abandoned after a bit. There was some Irish heritage that we explored and wrote an Irish fiddle reel and things like that, that did not end up being appropriate for the piece. That initial description that Stephen had the story was a huge influence on how the whole thing worked.
Gattozzi: Has creating this piece of music raised any questions in your own life?
Reynolds: Some of the inspirations that Stephen was telling me pulled me in a different direction than I would normally go. Artistically, it sort of stretched me. Here is this 18-minute string orchestra piece with a bit of vocal right in the middle. So, making that big arc up and then a big stretch down was something I had never done before.
Gattozzi: What is like composing for another person? How do you keep the inspiration from the choreographer while preserving your integrity as an artist?
Reynolds: Collaboration is something I do a lot, and for me, it’s like a conversation as long as you are speaking genuinely. You speak differently to different people, so I make music for different collaborators, but it is still my voice speaking in that conversation.
Gattozzi: Do you have any impressions of Exit Wounds and what it could mean for the community?
Reynolds: For me, the biggest thing is that Stephen is digging into the most personal place he has gone as an artist. As one of our key artists that a lot the Austin art scene is built around, having him making this vulnerable piece that is so meaningful to him, will have a ripple effect… and I think to encourage the whole community to dig deeper.
Gattozzi: What do you hope for in the audience when they come to the theater to see this show?
Reynolds: For me, when I am making anything, just like making the piece is a dialogue between the collaborator and me, the performance is a dialogue between the performance and the audience. Just like any conversation, each person brings their own background, ideas, and thoughts so each reaction will be individual. So rather than saying, “You should go away sad,” “You should go away hopeful,” or “You should go away contemplative,” I think you will have a whole variety of reactions. Deeper art, hopefully, has an entryway for people, but then there is a deeper element that people interpret differently.
Gattozzi: What’s your experience like going to the theater and seeing the visual elements paired to the music that you composed?
Reynolds: With Stephen, it is virtually different than every other collaboration because most of the time the music is made right up until the end. With Stephen, I finish, turn it over, then we will tweak it, mix it, and do a few details things, but for the most part, the music is done. And then he choreographs, and I am not part of that process anymore. So, I get to go and watch a rehearsal towards the end — or even just to the show — and it is a brand-new thing to me, and I have no idea what he is going to do with what I turned in as the music.
EXIT WOUNDS
World Premiere commissioned by Dr. Beverly Dale
APRIL 6–8 | the Long Center
Choreography by Stephen Mills
Music by Claude Debussy, Graham Reynolds, Bryce Dessner, and Joby Talbot
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This article is written by Matthew Gattozzi (@therealgattozz) who dances as an apprentice for Ballet Austin.
