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Composer Peter Chapman’s experience includes a wide range of film, television and video games. He recently composed CBC’s hit show “Workin’ Moms,” a series for which he developed the show’s unique musical palette from its very first season. The show’s cues use pop music inspiration to highlight the tough and feminine themes, which especially works with Canadian musician Maylee Todd’s vocals.
Chapman’s other recent projects include Amazon’s “The Lake,” Paramount +’s “Skymed” and the sci-fi cult hit, “Wynonna Earp,” which earned him a Canadian Screen Award alongside composer Robert Carli. Peter’s experience in the video game industry includes his score for “The Castle Game,” which was nominated for Best Original Music at the Canadian Videogame Awards.
Under Peter’s pseudonym “Coins,” he released an album called “Daft Science” which was a free record of Beastie Boys remixes, for which only Daft Punk samples were used in the production. The album received attention from outlets like Esquire, Maxim, People Magazine, Factmag and Billboard, which listed it next to Major Lazer and Fatboy Slim as one of the best Beastie Boys remixes of all time. Read on to learn more about Peter’s work!
What are some of the different roles you have held for the score or sound of a project?
I’ve been the lead composer on shows such as The Lake, and Bryan Inc. On projects like Workin Moms and Wynonna Earp I would have sonic input from the super talented Maylee Todd or Co-Compose alongside my good pal Rob Carli respectively. In shows like Durham County, the score often veered into super far out abstract sound design, in which case I’d work fairly closely with the sound effects editor to ensure we weren’t stepping on each other’s toes. For Playstation’s “The Castle Game” I did the entire score as well as the sound effects which was a blast. I’m also occasionally called on to create source cues- Actual songs that are heard within the show which is often great fun. This happens a fair amount on The Lake and Workin Moms.
Can you walk us a bit through the cues on “Workin’ Moms” and how they supported the show’s narrative?
Workin’ Moms is an incredibly fun score to work on. I work closely with a great friend and artist Maylee Todd, who brings an awesome bold feminine energy to the score. The story follows the lives of a group of women who struggle to balance their work lives with their personal lives. The comedy is very raw and in your face, so we wanted a score that reflected that, but could also back off and support the more intimate moments they have with their friends and family. Sonically the score is a mix of oldschool/newschool hip hop peppered with abstract vocalizations by Maylee, with occasional folk and garage rock influences.
Amazon’s “The Lake” is an upbeat comedy, could you talk about the musical vocabulary for the series?
This is a really neat series to score because there’s a lot of elements to account for. It is loosely based on the show runner; Julian Doucet’s life, who grew up in the LGBTQ community, so he has very specific cultural musical influences that he wants reflected in the show. In addition to that we’re diving deep into multiple eras of “summer cottage” music. The older characters tend to be treated with a late 90s early 2000s style and palette; Britney, Robyn, Spice Girls kinds of production. For this I actually sourced a bunch of the old equipment those tunes were produced with to ensure the cues hit with authenticity. Then the younger generation on the show brings a more contemporary pop vibe. In general it’s all very influenced by summery pop music of the last 25 years.
You also scored the medical drama “Skymed,” can you tell us about how the genre or overall storyline of a show influences your score?
I scored this series alongside Rob Carli. It follows a crew of mid 20 year old pilots and medics who fly to remote areas of northern Ontario, Canada tending to medical emergencies. Danger and adventure obviously ensues. For this we needed a super contemporary, exciting driving orchestral hybrid score. The approach we took was to score it with a lot of orchestral elements, but treat them as if they’re part of an electronic track. So throwing the fidelity of the orchestra out of the window, and process it, side chain it; make it sound like it’s a discarded Daft Punk track, then pair that with driving four on the floor drums and percussion. The result is something that gives you the adventurous orchestral feel, with the contemporary energy of electronic music.
What do you find to be the most fulfilling or favorite thing about your job?
There’s that saying about gifts; a bad gift is giving someone a gift YOU want. A good gift is giving a gift THEY want. The best gift is giving a gift they didn’t know they wanted. I think when you go out on a limb, take a risk and write something unexpected and the producers freak out and love it. That is an amazing feeling.
You scored the sci-fi drama, “Wynona Earp,” which earned you a Canadian Screen Award, could you talk about what it was like to receive that recognition for your work?
That felt huge to me for a few reasons. For one, while I’ve had a handful of nominations, awards like that always seemed like the kind of thing other people win. So maybe it was good for my ego. The second reason is that the show, and its score, is very dear to me. I feel like I came into my own as a composer working on that show. Rob was an inspiring person to work with, and showrunner Emily Andreas, alongside Seven24’s Jordy Randall and Tom Cox were all really encouraging to push our score into bigger crazier weirder places. Nothing was off the table with the show. If I wanted to record a cat purring, run it through a vocoder, blast the result out a loud speaker and record it through a chimney, press it to Vinyl then bake it in a pizza oven for 90 seconds, and play back the result, backwards, they would be all in on it. So our creativity really had no bounds on that show and I think I became the composer I am today because of it. So to be ultimately recognized by the Canadian Academy for that really means a lot.
Have you gotten a chance to use a unique sound, odd instrument, or musical easter egg in one of your scores?
I’m always hiding ridiculous stuff in my scores. I’ve hidden toy casio keyboards and circuit bent childrens toys in scores. For The Communists Daughter I ordered a rare Russian Synthesizer from Ukraine called a Polivox, which was crazy and unreliable but ultimately sounded rad. One of the main motifs in Durham County was a bowed garbage can. The biggest easter egg I think I ever did was making a big epic choir chant “Calamari” as part of the cue while Wynonna Earp battled a giant tentacle monster. There’s also an episode of Workin’ Moms where if you watch the Netflix version, and force it to continue deep into the credits (this requires some button pushes) you get treated to a particularly humorous saxophone solo performed by my composer pal Kristjan Bergey.
What piece of advice do you have for composers looking to break into film/tv scoring?
Everyone’s path is going to be vastly different, and there’s no one way to catch a break. But my personal experience is that it’s other composers that tend to be the best allies. All my early breaks were from composers who needed to pass on jobs and referred the gig to me because we were friends, they trusted me, and they wanted to see me succeed. Now that I’m in a position where I occasionally pass on jobs, I get excited when I can send the elevator back down and help out a friend. So forget “networking”. Just make friends in the industry. Make friends with composers. Sometimes it’s better to show people how hungry you are so they offer up help, rather than faking it till you make it. I get a lot of joy out of helping people get a leg up. I’m sure other people do too.
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Thank you for reading! You can learn more about Peter and his work on his website or his IMDB.
