Chris Roe is an award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist whose signature sound combines an acoustic, orchestral palette with a contemporary edge. To date he has scored TV projects for BBC 2, BBC Storyville, SKY Atlantic and SKY Nature, as well as feature films for The Bureau and Fulwell 73. He most recently scored the TV series Trigger Point from Line of Duty executive producer Jed Mercurio and starring Vicky McClure as the leading lady. He also scored After Love with BAFTA-nominated director Aleem Khan, which was selected for Cannes Critics Week, BFI London Film Festival, and Telluride in addition to several other festivals. Chris’ music for After Love won Best Original Score at Les Arcs Film Festival. Chris has also collaborated with director David Fairhead on several features including Armstrong, Spitfire and Mission Control. His score for these projects earned Chris three Music and Sound Award nominations over three consecutive years. His recent work further includes scoring short the films Optimum and Art of Noise.
Classically trained as a pianist and string player and a graduate of the Royal College of Music, Chris draws on his background in contemporary experimental classical music, mixing a string/piano-based palette with a web of electronic and instrumental textures, always working tirelessly to build a distinctive sound for each project. Chris has been lucky enough to work with players from the RPO and the English Session Orchestra, as well as collaborating regularly with a range of soloists including Alice Purton, Olivia Jageurs, the Dulcinea Quartet and the Fieri Consort. He also founded and conducts his own group, ANIMA, staging live musical performances alongside abstract animated films.
Hi Chris, welcome to OLC! So tell everyone out in OLC! land how you began your
musical journey?
There was always music around the house growing up, my parents are both really into their music (my Dad even used to write musicals for us to perform) and I started piano lessons young at 5 years old. I must have been really annoying to teach as I always preferred ‘filling in the gaps’ of the pieces I was learning instead of following all the notes on the page! But that got me into liking jazz and improvisation, then composition was a natural step and I went on to study with some incredible teachers at Manchester University and the Royal College of Music, although I still think I learn most from all the other composers and musicians that I get to work with today. Every day’s a school day!
Who were some of your biggest inspirations growing up?
I was always a huge fan of film composers growing up, with Thomas Newman and James Newton Howard probably topping the list (Road to Perdition and The Village stay in my mind). I was also really into jazz piano players like Bill Evans so Michael Giacchino’s big band score for The Incredibles was a real eureka moment for me. And I’m not ashamed to admit I’m a proud Coldplay fan!
So how did you get involved in the hit show ‘Trigger Point’?
It was a lucky break – Julia Stannard, the series producer, had been to see a screening of an independent film I’d scored called After Love. The film couldn’t be more different on the surface to Trigger Point, but the director, Gilles Bannier, had a more minimal style of music in mind than you might expect from a TV thriller series like this and he loved how the score for After Love had taken us into the lead character’s psyche without being overbearing. So Julia reached out, we had a meeting while they were still shooting the first three episodes, and we went from there!
Talk me through the creative process when you’re scoring a show like this?
I would say the most creative part of the process is right at the start before the juggernaut really gets moving! After reading the script and talking to Gilles about the vision for the show, I then started sketching some ideas which were loose enough to be able to be cut around and combined in different ways while the edit evolved. I find it really useful when composing to have a central concept to latch onto and base everything around, and for this project, it was the idea of wires. For the bomb explosives team, wires in a device are the difference between life and death, so I recorded different metallic string sounds as a starting point for the score, and everything grew out of these. One sound you’ll hear a lot is of a piano string played by an E-bow – usually used by guitarists, this is an incredible piece of tech that you hold over the string and an electromagnetic field causes the string to vibrate. As I was recording I noticed that when I accidentally touched the string it sounded a bit like wires sparking, and this became a really important sound to add even more tension to the bomb-defusing scenes. After that initial palette is set up, I found the rest of the process is really about getting into the characters’ heads and trusting your instincts – there’s no time to think and second guess on a project like this which is liberating in a way.
How much input does Jed have on the sounds and music you make for the show?
Jed was incredibly supportive of the music for the show right from the start which was a real boost to me, and he gave us the space and confidence to experiment and try out this more minimal approach to the score. He would then review each episode bringing his wealth of experience in this genre and his understanding of what the audience needs from the score to carry the tension. So usually it was a question of marking certain revelations in the plot more or raising the level of the music in the mix (something that’s always nice to hear as a composer!) – a fresh and honest pair of ears to listen to the soundtrack as a whole to make sure it was keeping the audience on the edge of their seat.
What’s been some of the most challenging things you’ve faced during the show’s
creation?
It was my first time working on a six-part series, so one of the main challenges for me was going through the process of crossing the finishing line then restarting straight away, often wrapping up on one episode at the same time as starting on another, a bit like running the 400m relay but by yourself! But actually, one person I haven’t mentioned yet is my score producer/collaborator on this project, Olly Shelton. It was so great to have Olly to bounce ideas back and forth and make sure that the final mixes were sounding great while I moved on to the next episode. Another challenge was balancing the thriller and high-stakes tension side of the show with the more introspective moments looking into Lana’s psychology. These needed very different musical approaches, but I wanted them to sound like they were coming from the same place. So I kept the instrumentation small, working with cellist Alice Purton and violinist Natalia Tsupryk to explore textural layers to create a rich palette to play with alongside my own studio toolkit so that everything hopefully feels like it all belongs together even if what’s on-screen is different.
What other films or shows have you worked on?
I’ve worked on a lot of feature documentaries in my career so far, which have really taught me how important music can be to help shape the story. More recently I’ve worked on Aleem Khan’s debut feature, After Love, which has recently been nominated for four BAFTA awards, and for which I was lucky enough to win Best Score at Les Arcs Film Festival.
What’s been the most memorable part of your career?
Probably sitting in a packed cinema and hearing my music playing in full 5.1 surround for the first time. Seeing a TV show that you’ve scored being broadcast is also pretty special, but something about the collective experience of an audience in a cinema is pretty awesome (or maybe it’s just that the speakers are turned up to 11!)
What does the rest of 2022 hold for you?
I have some exciting projects in the pipeline that I can’t announce yet… But I will be bringing out a new EP of piano and strings music that I recorded during the pandemic and has been pushed back a bit because of Trigger Point. So I’m really excited to share that, and am also looking forward to visiting LA for the first time this summer and spending some time there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zQuT3wP1x4
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