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The Drive Program
The Drive Program
Frank Marazzo: Creating the Podcast Theme Song | #34
This episode was recorded the day that Frank and Tom finished the theme song for this podcast. The first half consists of snippets from the final session where they put the finishing touches on the song. The seconds half is a reflection of the entire process from Tom's vision for the song to Frank's execution of the production.
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Uh, Hello everyone. My name is Tom driver and welcome back to another episode of the drive program. Today, my guest is Frank Marrazzo. You guys should probably be familiar with Frank. This is his fourth time on the podcast. And Frank also created the theme music for the podcast. So this episode is actually a recording. Uh, the conversation me and Frank had the day that he finished the theme song. So we talked for a while about, putting the finishing touches on the theme song. And it was a longer conversation with some boring parts, you know, just like pulling up the files, names and stuff like that. The first half of this conversation is just some snippets that I pieced together. From our, final conversation working on the song. I skip around a little bit to the interesting parts of the conversation, but it captures how excited we were and like me testing out, talking over the theme song for the first time. So I definitely wanted to include that in this episode. And then the second half of the episode is me and Frank do a reflection of the whole process. How we came up with the idea and, and Frank's process for, creating the song. It's a pretty short episode. It's only about 20 minutes long. But, it's really special. Me and him are just really excited to have put this together from scratch. I talk about it in the episode, but I'm beyond grateful that. Frank. Let me work with him throughout this creative process and pieces together. So shout out to Frank. Thank you, man. You're amazing. if you guys enjoyed this and you haven't heard Frank's other episodes, you guys should go check those out. I would probably start with episode number 10. Because we talk about psychology and mental health, and that is Frank's field to study. So, if you have not heard episode 10 and you enjoy this episode. Definitely go check that one out. Last thing since this is the episode about the theme song. I am going to let the theme song play all the way out. Usually I cut it short. Okay guys. Enjoy. I'm excited, dude. This is going to be sick. I'm still going to be like editing some of these today. I'm still gonna try and make like little, little touches here. Do I love just making music? like I told you the other day, this has been like, like I haven't worked on a song like this in like years or whatever. Yeah. It's been like two years or something. I haven't put out something in two, three years. But like, even then, like, I didn't know shit about mixing mastering, anything like that. So a ways to go, but like, this was like the perfect opportunity to be like, I need to see a song through, you know, and like every aspect practice, every aspect. Also it's small and you know, if it was like three minutes long, that'd be so hard to finish until like completion. Yeah. No, this was super satisfying too. Cause, I think what happened last year is that. You just sent me something you'd already worked on for something else. And we just put it on the podcast. It was good. It was good, but I was like, it's not like, it wasn't like a, me and Frank like creation where like the year, the year before it actually wasn't me and Frank creation because we had made it for the other project and repurposed it. But then like the one last year, it was like an EDM song. It was sick, but I was like, I don't know. It didn't fit the vibe. I remember which one it was. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I just kind of made that randomly at one point, but this one, it felt like very pointed. You know, it, I don't know. So I've been, I've been bumping this theme song, number 10, I've been loving it. If this is the final product, I'd be happy. Right. I send that to Blake. He likes it. I've been trying to do like listening to it on my speakers, my headphones, my phone, my car, my laptop TV. Cause it's very subtle differences, but in each of those environments, like you can tell a difference with things. I think the biggest thing I've noticed of like what I've really been, I guess kind of the main difference between them, is the base. Sometimes it'll fit really nice on speaker, but then you can't really hear it much on the phone. So that's, that's kind of what I'm like really trying to piece it together right now. Where you can hear it on your phone, but it's not distorted and like taking over the whole sound. What I'm thinking about doing is like, I can talk over the, the beginning part and be like, Hey, you know, my name is Tom driver. This is the dry fitness program. Boom. Then 20 seconds. And that's when the bass drops and then I might let the episode start while it fades out. So it might not be, so the end, the tail end is going to be like basically silent by the time it's already filtering out anyways. So that that'll be perfect. Yeah. But let me listen, I like that. It's a little ear candy. Okay. I like that a lot. little glitchy edits. That's my shit. Yeah. Be like, Hey guys, my name is Tom driver and today's guest is Frank Marrazzo and this is the dry. Enjoy the episode. Yes, let's go. Can you a little slideshow of like all the different guests are doing real quick or something, you know, then it, then here then it's then boom. It's going to be over basically after that. So all this part of the end, it's already going to be, it's going to have to fade out. After the whoa, whoa, whoa. I think it's that's as long as it can get real, it can really be, you know, at least for the intro part. Um, yeah, so I can fade it out or if you want to fade it out too, but definitely don't worry about making anything past that point. I kinda like where it's at. Like once I listened to it a few times, I was like, Actually pretty good at like, I don't really want to mess with it too much. Yeah. I don't think you should. I think it's pretty good. I can't even really tell, is there much difference between some of these versions? No, no, it's really, it's a subtle thing and that's, I figured that. For it. I think it's good that like, you can't tell a difference, you know, like it's just like the listener. Cause like for me, like, um, you know, listening in every different environment. So I'm trying to get the one that sounds best in all of those environments, but to somebody who's just listening to it once or twice, they probably sound almost identical. Yeah, I can hear the difference in my car on one or two, then I can't on here, whatever it is. But like for most people that are just listening to it on their phone or through headphones, it's not going to be really a big deal. I'm just going to edit one of them. And just try to get just a little bit cleaner sound base. But other than that, I think it's good. But yeah, I just wanted to have on here, just confirm. I figured it'd be easier than here than just texting. Like, Hey, this is cool. Just so I can kind of explain the process and everything too, of like where my head's at with all of this. Is there anything else you wanted to try or do or things, or I dunno, man, like, and at one point I was going to try, um, to do like a, uh, kind of stutter edit at the beginning of like Mac does with like the den and then like that kind of thing. Um, but it really wasn't sounding good. Like it didn't seem to fit like the overall, um, so I was like, this intro is fine. Nice and smooth. Like, I think it's good for a. A theme song type of thing. Yeah. So I'm pretty content with where it's at. So you tried, you tried that idea out actually, and it didn't work yet. Okay. So don't do that then. I really liked that. Whoa, whoa, man. That's so sick, but yeah. I can fade it out obviously, or if you want to fade it out, like the way you like it, but after the whoa, whoa, whoa. Then there'll be like one more and that's going to be like, I would, I would like decrease it. So that, that is like trailing off into nothing. Yeah. Yeah. I gotcha. You know what? Whoa, cool, man. I think, yeah, I think we should not overthink it anymore, dude. I think you should pop the champagne. This is done. Yes, sir. Lea I did on a journey. It's been quite a journey, dude. Do you have any like reflections? I might put like the next couple of minutes out as was like a clip or something? What'd you think about the whole process? Uh, Leslie. I think it would, like I told you, I think it was just what I needed right now. It was really cool. Obviously. I was love working with you cause like we have very similar music tastes, but I think I get caught in my head a lot as producers. Especially when you hear the same thing over and over, it's hard to tell, like, is it good? Have I just been listening to it so many times? So I think it's good. So to like free, not only to pick the samples and be like, Hey, do you think these words together? Like, I think they do. And then be able to like, work with that and, you know, expand from that. Just small idea. That was so cool. Just to like, start with like a very, very, this is kind of what I'm going for. I have these few that seem like they might mesh well together and then just to go from there and to see where we're at now is crazy. Yeah. So when we started this right Mac Miller's faces just released and. And I was just crazy about the Diablo, uh, instrumental at the time and I hit you up. I was like, dude, I want to do something that's like faces related specifically something that has like the horn and Diablo and then, or, or like the Abloh. And then what's the, um, where did we, where did we find the samples? What's that website called splice splice. So then I, I went on splice and I've found some sounds that. Like, like, I felt like it had the same texture as faces, right? Yeah. And then we linked up, like, and we went, we went through a bunch of sounds together too, we tried two other songs too. Like with. And then yeah, you were saying, I, you said something about how it was nice for me to come in with my taste. I feel like when you're just making music in general, it must be overwhelming to be like, I could literally put any sound together right now. I do feel it helps to have someone who just wants to go in a certain direction because. It's like, you need, you don't have an assignment if you're just like a musician making it for fun, you know, dude, that's a thing. That's the other part of it? It's like, not only, like you said, every time I sit down, I think of like 40 John auras. I want to go through, you know what I mean? I'm like, oh, I can make a trappy I make electronic. I can make house. I can make. I love all of those, and then I go on the splice and there's thousands of sounds, each of them like the highest quality possible. You're doing this one. It's like, oh, but like, well, how can I waste that one? I spent hours just trying to figure out like what I want to do. So like, not only to have a nudge and like, Hey, focus just on this. But also with like a date in mind. cause you can get, it never ends, you know what I mean? You can get lost in there forever. That's the thing about art versus like, and you know, work or like an assignment where it's like cut and dry. There can always, like we were just talking about, I can always edit the base a little bit more. Try and get one sound a little bit cleaner, a little bit clear. So it's like to have like a, a set time when the kids, this is the one we're going to do it. It's just, it's a really nice change of pace from just this. Seemingly endless cycle of like, you know, just getting caught up in the same thing and never finishing it. Yeah. Yeah. And then I think I was talking to blahzay about this, but it's a, when is the song over, you know, you might post it on SoundCloud and then realize later that you want to edit something with it. You know, I think it's good that I'm going to release this episode this week. And now it's just over for you. You got to move past it after you can tweak it today a little bit, but. Like, nah, it's, it's done, you know, even just thinking about that as such a hard concept, cause like as soon as you put it out, I'm going to judge every little detail about it. I know it, you know, like it's just, you just get in that mind state, it is nice to just be like, I'm going to send it off. I can start working on a new project. Put my focus is elsewhere and let it be for what it is. So, what did you, so after we kind of picked out the texture of everything, I was like, okay, that's the extent of what I can do here. I think we played, I think we played around with like the, just the pacing of the beat, the drum beats and stuff, and the bass beats. But like, what did you do after that? To the music? And then what was like maybe some challenges. Yeah. What do you use, do you use FL FL studio? Right. So I made the original B in machine, which is like a software that's, a part of the like little drum machine that I have, where you can like chop samples, you know, that's kind of where I got those like little glitchy effects of just like pressing a sample real quick. And then, I kinda messing with that a little bit. first made it in there and then edited it, like put it all into FL studio. Cause that's where I arranged the beat a little bit, um, and mix it and all that. So I just put like the basic components we had and then I think. What 10 different variations of things. I'm like, let me start with this intro. See if that works, you know, see when the patient come in, when the drum should come in. And then once I found one, I was like, okay, these seem to work really well together. Then I just jumped into mixing it and. You know, adding like those little sound effects and just seeing like what flows together, you know, is this too much? Is this going to take away from the other instruments or, there's a lot to it. That's for sure. Then we have to like, like the melody of the horn with something like didn't we match one sound to another sound. I don't even know what I'm saying, but oh, I know she talks about, for the, the one beat we are trying to. Two samples were out of key or maybe it was this one. I think the, either the drums or the piano was like a slightly different key. So we just, we call those con transposing it, which is just, changing the pitch of it. Let's say 200 semitones away, which means it's, two steps. Right. So if it's, if you're in a minor and it's in a sharp minor, that'll just be 100 semitones to the left or right. Wherever you're going. So we just changed them up, made sure they're in the same key. And then, um, from there we kind of figured out, okay, like, how do we want the horn to sound? What's what's the melody of that matched up with the piano. So I think we put the piano first and then laid the horns on top of that. Um, okay. And the drums and all that came after. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's right. I think we did match the horn to the piano. Yeah. Cause like the, like over, like it's always kind of in the background, the horn kind of takes the center a little bit. but piano has always given you that just, you know, something to kind of keep it going and keep the flow going. Cool, man. What was your favorite part about the process or the song? Ooh, good question. I mean that first day, like when we were on zoom, working on it, that was really cool. Cause you know, I get really nervous making music, showing music, especially in front of somebody. I think you're the only person I've really actually produced in front of. it's probably super nerve wracking for me cause I'm like very self-conscious about music. You've done the live streams though, right? Uh, that's more of a deejaying stuff. But yeah, more and more. So do you think, cause that's like I just get so caught up in my head, always second guessed myself, you know, that's different. You're just like deejaying. Yeah. Yeah. More sort of just mixing songs and stuff. but yeah, it's really easy. Even that, that day, like it took me a little bit get started, you know, we got caught up and I kept focusing on the little details of one song that like, clearly wasn't really working, but if you just. So caught up in like, how do I make this work? I gotta do this, you know? Um, so for you every now and then it'd be like, Hey, you know, maybe try this. Let's, let's take a step back from that go over here. that was really cool. Just to have a change of pace with production, you know, just, just try something new. but then also just seeing it all come together and like there's so many times where. Like when you told me, like, all right, we're going to start on this date. I was like, how is it going to get to this point? Like, I don't know if it's ready. Like it's nowhere near, you know? so to see, not only myself push through that and like, get it to where it is today to where like, I'm happy with it. I'm comfortable putting it out there. I didn't think I was ever going to get to that place. So it's, it's really nice to see it all come together and, just be really happy with what, what happened from it, you know, and really proud of. Well, that's awesome, man. Yeah. I really appreciate you doing this with me and I love I I'm biased. Cause obviously this is what I wanted, but I love this intro so much. I don't know if I'm ever going to change it. It's just like really smooth. And I really, even more than just like the SAR, I really appreciate. you like letting me be part of the creative process, because I do have an ear for music, but I don't have any skills when it comes to music. If I was just in charge of this, I would have to just pay someone to, or just find like a free, a free intro online or so it's been really cool just to like work with someone and yeah. I actually put my opinions in. I know it must be hard to like, have someone who doesn't know what they, like. They don't know what it takes to make music, insert their opinion into it. So it's just been it's has been very special for me to be a part of the whole process. And just obviously I love, I love you. I love working with you, but, I feel like it's a very unique situation to get, to bring any art that you. familiar with, but especially like music to life when you don't know, I don't play any instrument, you know, or have any producing skills. So it's a very magical experience for, it feels like magic for someone like me, you know? and, I know it probably is wracking to being in the producer mode with someone looking over your shoulder, but you did a great job, man. You got a lot of skills and. I love the funky, the vibes, bro. It's cool though, man, it really just shows just how much goes into music. Like not only do you need the skills and like the technical fundamentals, but like you got to understand what works together, what, what people actually want to listen to. And that's a whole skill on its own, you know? There's so many different parts of it. So it's cool to, to see like what types of collaborations and skills need to come together for something. Mm, a lot more than just technical something you can learn in school. Definitely, dude. Well, I think people are going to like it and resonate with it. We got, we got one feedback from Blake. He liked it. So it, Blake likes it. Everyone's going to like it, you know, Hey we, and if they don't then fuck them. Cause we like it, you know? Ah, oh, well, hell yeah man. That's all I got. I don't know. If you got anything else, but that's, that's about it. Yeah. I'm happy where we're at. I think we got to land at a good spot because there. All right. Well then, just, I guess, tinker with whatever you want with it, but then upload just like upload. Oh, oh, the final mix on those last two was kind of quiet too. I'm going to raise the volume. So raise the volume of the final mix and that's as much feedback as I got, but just make sure you just are like, all right, this is the final version. Yeah. Yeah.. Don't give me two more versions to decide between these three. That's it. Final one, Frank, you got it. You're there. Honestly. It's going to be good. I need to just put it there. We'll walk away. I'll walk away, go, go drink a beer or ride a bike or something you're done with this project. Maybe you hit these, do these days, don't listen to a different song. Other than this one a hundred times. I don't know if I can't anymore. That's the only song in my head all the time. Yeah. Maybe just go, listen, just go. Listen to nature. Go sit outside. And it's actually probably cold where you're from right now. So freezing it sucks. Lived there for the next two days. There you go. There you go. Well, enjoy your game, man. Uh, tell Kayla I say hi, tell the wife. I said hi. Jeez, whoa. Hi lifey Jones as well. Of course. All right. I will. Sounds good, man. I'll tell you CC and homie. Thanks again. Love you brother.
