King Britt: Seeing Music
For most of us, music conjures imagery — calm pastoral landscapes, futuristic chase scenes, laid-back metropolitan lounges. For King Britt, imagery and experience conjure music. “As a kid, I listened to my walkman every day on the way to school,” he says. “I would stare out of the window of the train and everything was so visual, so coordinated with the music, like a music video. Since then I’ve approached all my records from a visual standpoint.”
In the late ’80s, Britt worked with superstar DJ Josh Wink, producing jazzy, funk-fueled dance tracks and house music hits. In the ’90s he shredded vinyl for the groovin’ hip-hop trio Digable Planets, spinning under the pseudonym “Silkworm.” Later he produced remixes for Tori Amos, Donna Lewis, Keoki, Jazzanova, G-Love & Special Sauce, United Future Organization, and Gilles Peterson. He then formed his own super funk-jazz-hip-hop fusion group “Sylk 130,” which released two internationally acclaimed albums. In 2005, he remixed recordings of New Orleans painter, blues singer, and self-proclaimed “bride of Christ” Sister Gertrude Morgan into a stunning funk-infused opus.
Still, despite his natural aptitude for cranking out visual tracks, the producer hadn’t scored any films — until now. In 2006, he underscored several scenes in Michael Mann’s remake of the legendary ’80s cop drama “Miami Vice.” “It’s always been my dream to do music for movies and I’m a huge Vice fan,” he says. “When Michael Mann asked me to underscore a few scenes for the film, I was just blown away.” Britt produced several tracks for the film using Logic Pro and Power Macs and went on to score several high-budget commercials for Rolex and the soundtrack for a National Parks Service documentary. In the midst of it all, he managed to produce an album of electronic music and complete an international tour. “It’s just amazing how easy it has become to make music,” he says. “I can create tracks so quickly and efficiently using Logic and Macs that I end up making a lot more music.”
A Sister’s Revival
Britt can thank Sister Morgan Gertrude for opening the door to Hollywood. In 2005, the DJ got a call from Ropeadope Records. The Philly record company, famous for pressing jazz fusion LPs and DJ projects, had a set of recordings by Sister Gertrude, the folk painter who gained fame in the ’60s and ’70s for her art and music. “She was raw and untrained, but her art ended up in museums all across the country,” says Britt. “She was also a blues singer — she would stand on the street corners in New Orleans with a microphone. In 1970, she recorded one album. It’s just her singing and a tambourine. It’s powerful, spiritual music.” Sister Gertrude’s voice and paintings struck Britt immediately. “What really captured me was the visuals of her paintings,” says Britt. “If you look at the paintings and listen to her it just makes sense.”
Britt worked with Tim Motzer to lace Sister Gertrude’s voice into hard-driving electronic funk grooves. The team used Pro Tools to re-time the singer’s voice and Logic Pro to mix the album. “We just started to construct and reconstruct sounds around her vocals and the tambourine, all in Logic,” says Britt. “The whole album was really inspirational and we kept the integrity of what she was singing about.”
The Sister Gertrude album earned critical acclaim and eventually ended up in Michael Mann’s CD player. “When I heard that he was remaking ‘Miami Vice,’ I knew I wanted to score for the film,” says Britt.
Melodic Vice
”Miami Vice” smashed TV ratings records in the ’80s, but it also had a comfortable seat at the top of the pop music charts. The show’s original soundtrack featured ethereal instrumentals by Jan Hammer and edgy tracks by Chaka Khan and Phil Collins. Britt was itching to recreate the feel, but Mann had other plans. “I really wanted to go old school, but Michael made a point that the film is not nostalgic,” says Britt. “It’s Crockett and Tubbs in this time, in today’s Miami.” Mann asked to license “New World in My View,” a moody track from the Sister Gertrude album and asked Britt to underscore several scenes from the film.
Britt used his knack for gleaning the sonic feel of a scene to create custom background tracks for the film. “Michael wanted the feel of Sister Gertrude,” he says. “I just sat down and watched the scenes and started writing.” Britt culled sounds and loops from his extensive sound library and built the tracks on his MacBook Pro using Logic Pro. “I had the scene playing on an external Cinema Display and the Logic project files on the laptop display,” he says. “The movie files were QuickTime, so you can bring them right into Logic and it’s no problem. I had Logic, Reason, and a movie file all up and running at the same time without any hang-ups.”
