Risk It All For Creativity With Composer Nikhil Koparkar

Whether I'm ordering an instrument from Thailand that I didn’t know how to play, or just seeing what sounds I could come up with—whether I'm having 30 string players mimic the sounds of the wind and ocean, or having woodwind player Ashley Jarmack play ancient Mayan death whistles—working on the score for Dead Whispertaught me a valuable lesson. That lesson? The joy of creating and taking risks in the scoring process is the result of all the education and detours that came before it.

Every setback or challenge in my scoring career has provided me with the life experience to approach the art of scoring from a different perspective than otherwise possible, and the risk of failure proved to be a necessary stepping stone on the search for unique creative ideas.

When first starting my scoring journey in 2017, I connected with maestro santoor player Kunal Gunjal, which whet my appetite for exploring ancient traditional instruments and what they might sound like in different contexts (in this case, with western cinematic orchestral instruments). The result of that experience culminated in an album, Nature Of All Things, a talk At Google, and landing an Indian-Asian inspired fantasy feature, The Candle & The Curse.

'Dead Whisper' score behind the scenes.

My love for this style of music and experimentation grew, but as a composer in the beginning stages of my career, it was a struggle to find filmmakers willing to give me a chance. So, to find solace away from the screen, I turned to my other love of literature. This seemingly unrelated detour ended up being a career changer for me.

As I read The Wheel Of Time series by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson I was compelled to write a theme that was essentially a love letter to the books. I used my savings to commission the Budapest Scoring Orchestra to play it, and sent the video to the production team at Amazon Studios, in hopes that it might get their attention.

Lucky for me, the fans embraced and shared it widely, as did Tor.com (the publisher website for the series). The music eventually came to the attention of composer Lorne Balfe, who promptly hired me to write music and project lead on the series, as well as write music on his other TV shows. Another lesson came from the experience: No matter the outcome, putting oneself out there authentically can lead to unique and fulfilling opportunities, as well as the experience to be ready when those opportunities arise.

I learned how to better write for orchestra, pitch myself as a composer, collaborate with a large team, and approach storytelling discussions with filmmakers from a deeper and more nuanced vantage point.

Those two years were like a bootcamp for me: hundreds of cues and several shows later (including Netflix’s Life On Our Planet, HBO’s His Dark Materials, and Hulu’s Victoria’s Secret: Angels & Demons), I feel so grateful to have learned to work with a music team operating at such a high level, as well as learn how to receive and act on valuable feedback from Lorne, the showrunners and the networks.

I was also working on my own projects during that two year span, and using instruments from various cultures proved yet more valuable when recording the theme I wrote for Riot Games’ League Of Legends: Lunar Revel 2023. The idea of writing a theme that represents such a cultural and spiritual aspect of Asian culture was a daunting prospect, but thankfully my experience combining Asian instruments with a western cinematic palette gave me a solid starting point.

The team at Riot (then led by Kole Hicks) really helped by giving valuable feedback and resources so we could record the score the right way, and do justice to our shared vision.

Dead Whisper Trailer #1 (2024)www.youtube.com

Cut to later that year when Conor Soucy contacted me to score Dead Whisper (our 4th project together), a couple of things happened that allowed the score to come to fruition: Conor and I had a friendship and trust that allowed him to give me agency to take creative risks with the score and try out ideas in search of something unique.

During our spotting session for the film, we would watch scenes, and I would immediately try out ideas on his piano in real time, allowing for deeper and more spontaneous collaboration.

Secondly, we won the SESAC New Music USA Reel Change Grant, which gave us the resources to hire the right players, experiment with bespoke sounds and invest in taking risks to push our creative limits. We got to work with Joy Music House, who helped produce the live recording sessions and make sure everything ran smoothly.

All the lessons from Nature Of All Things, recording exotic instruments for The Wheel Of Time, and reading all those books allowed Conor and I to talk story from a different vantage point, and try out ideas with the singular goal to make the best non-obvious choices in service of that story.

The resulting mammoth 57-minute score was a logistical challenge, but also an opportunity that resulted in recording master percussionist Bobak Lotfipour (Netflix’s Hellraiser, A24’s Green Knight), vocalist Abby Lyons (The Wheel Of Time), and a killer mix from Brian R. Taylor (The Walking Dead: Dead City). The end result is a juxtaposition between an organic, live instrument heavy score, and mangled / processed sounds, matching the throwback horror roots of the film, as well as its more modern influences.

The cliche, “it takes a village” feels especially apt here, as the amount of incredible support and trust I have received both from the filmmakers and composers I’ve worked with, and the people on my team for those projects brought these projects to fruition.

It’s a dream to be presented with a scoring opportunity where there is the trust and resources to put our best creative foot forward, and I’m so grateful for the career detours that allowed for it to happen as joyously as it did.