Sonic Sex
Interview with sound designer Tom Dennison
Tell us about your approach to designing sound for Like Sex.
My job is to extrapolate on the themes that Chye-Ling and Nathan are trying to explore with it. There are a lot of limiting beliefs around sex, and from the information we’re fed from authority figures and schools. I had abstinence only education at school, and the more I move on, the more I disagree with the way sex education was taught. I just want to amplify what’s happening on stage through sound whenever that can be possible. It’s a fine line between doing something that’s really sonically interesting and doing something that is sonically appropriate.
My job is to extrapolate on the themes that Chye-Ling and Nathan are trying to explore with it. There are a lot of limiting beliefs around sex, and from the information we’re fed from authority figures and schools. I had abstinence only education at school, and the more I move on, the more I disagree with the way sex education was taught. I just want to amplify what’s happening on stage through sound whenever that can be possible. It’s a fine line between doing something that’s really sonically interesting and doing something that is sonically appropriate.
So what is sonically interesting in Like Sex?
One of the interesting things that we’ll do is have pre-recorded dialogue that starts when you put a microphone in front of somebody else. I’m finding that a pretty interesting device to use. You can essentially make someone say something else just by using the volume of the voice to trigger the release of different sounds. I like exploring that as a way of making the subtext of the work overt. It can be used to undermine what someone is saying. Or it can be used as a device to explain dialogue that someone is referencing. |
"It’s a fine line between doing something that’s sonically interesting and doing something sonically appropriate." |
Tell us more about the process of using the pre-record booth as part of the sound design.
The idea came about that we’d set up a booth in the basement foyer. And for whoever is keen there’ll be a list of prompts that people can talk about while we record. ‘What is a slut?’ ‘What did your parents tell you about sex?’ ‘What do you wish your parents told you about sex?’, and ‘Tell us about your first experience.’
We’ll use them [the recordings] in the show, and we’ll alter the voice so it’s not recognisable.
The idea came about that we’d set up a booth in the basement foyer. And for whoever is keen there’ll be a list of prompts that people can talk about while we record. ‘What is a slut?’ ‘What did your parents tell you about sex?’ ‘What do you wish your parents told you about sex?’, and ‘Tell us about your first experience.’
We’ll use them [the recordings] in the show, and we’ll alter the voice so it’s not recognisable.
So you’ll be onsite? How does that transfer into the live environment?
It’ll just be kind of interesting figuring out the criteria for when we should be using different things. If somebody (in the pre-record booth) says something offensive, we’ll be deciding if we should incorporate that and if it will have value. Even if it’s kind of… gross. I’m curious about the voices we’ll get and how we’ll present them in the play. So, we’ll have someone recording down on the booth. The files will be transported up to me in the booth, and I’ll process them and incorporate them into the show. And from there they should just be on file, ready to go during the show.
It’ll just be kind of interesting figuring out the criteria for when we should be using different things. If somebody (in the pre-record booth) says something offensive, we’ll be deciding if we should incorporate that and if it will have value. Even if it’s kind of… gross. I’m curious about the voices we’ll get and how we’ll present them in the play. So, we’ll have someone recording down on the booth. The files will be transported up to me in the booth, and I’ll process them and incorporate them into the show. And from there they should just be on file, ready to go during the show.
Is that going to be high pressure?
Yes. (laughs). Yeah, that’ll be a little scary. I think we’ll always have a bit of a safety net because the cast is really involved in the sound design as well. So we’re recording lots of them in rehearsal. They’ve been playing with the loops, doing live recording, just kind-of messing around. I’ve given them the controls to effect each other’s voices.
I’m trying to set it up in a manner that the show will be different from night-to-night. Having less and less pre-recorded material and just have stuff that requires the finesse of operation, as opposed to just planning something out and having total control over it. I think that is coming from a musical background, especially a jazz background. It’s funner when you don’t know what is going to happen and it’s funner when you get an interplay between actor and people operating sound design, you get a bit more of a vibe of not knowing what is exactly going to happen.
Yes. (laughs). Yeah, that’ll be a little scary. I think we’ll always have a bit of a safety net because the cast is really involved in the sound design as well. So we’re recording lots of them in rehearsal. They’ve been playing with the loops, doing live recording, just kind-of messing around. I’ve given them the controls to effect each other’s voices.
I’m trying to set it up in a manner that the show will be different from night-to-night. Having less and less pre-recorded material and just have stuff that requires the finesse of operation, as opposed to just planning something out and having total control over it. I think that is coming from a musical background, especially a jazz background. It’s funner when you don’t know what is going to happen and it’s funner when you get an interplay between actor and people operating sound design, you get a bit more of a vibe of not knowing what is exactly going to happen.
Tom Dennison with the potato synthesizer created for Potato Stamp Megalomaniac
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How are you different to other sound designers?
I don’t really come from a sound design background. I haven’t come into it from operating shows. I’ve come through as a musician. That’s always what I’ve done, that and a bit of teaching to pay the bills. I came into sound design by working with Andrew Gunn on Potato Stamp Megalomaniac. We had a good creative partnership. He was really open to sonic insanity. Anything that lends production value and interest, and he is fascinated by electronic music, and keen to run with really crazy ideas. So that was the first show that I did. That was about two or three years ago and people have asked me to do other work since then. Being able to do weird audio stuff or like home recording stuff is getting more and more accessible. You really just need a computer and an audio interface and a microphone, and some software, and you can go from that. |