Hello everybody. I got a message from @jlwkolb on my Facebook page saying I should try Steemit and post my story about my interaction with Ricky Gervais! I'm a songwriter called Benbrick & based in London. I'd had some success prior to this story (including providing the end credits to the movie Evangelion 3.33 - a song I co wrote with Utada Hikaru) but I was (and am) un published, un managed, and un signed to a record label. Enjoy!
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Watch the final video:
Ricky Gervais creates some of the most thought provoking (watch: extras X-mas special), funny (watch: The Ricky Gervais show), original (watch: The Office), and heart wrenching art out there. When I saw Derek for the first time I fell in love with how the show sums up the human condition. His work is un compromised and original, and for me (working within pop music where most people are chasing ‘hits’) I found him a great source of inspiration.
WRITING THE MUSIC:
I wanted to write some music to go with the visuals of Derek. I started writing while watching the show, and ended up with a rough sketch. I paid someone on Elance to edit certain scenes to what I’d started. We went back and forth and I perfected the music to the arc of the scenes. It was an intensive process – we were cutting into scenes, fading out dialog, adding little delays, all so that it worked perfectly.
I believed that if you create good art from the right place that you can get it to the right people. I’m not sure if I honestly believed Ricky would hear it, but I knew I’d give it a good try….And so began a search for the contact details of the producers, and directors, and other related people who I might be able to reach out to.
The normal process with music sometimes tends to be 'I've finished that song - let's start another'. I wanted to try and give each piece of music its own outlet into the world.
TRACKING DOWN HIS PRODUCERS/DIRECTORS:
Through tracking the IMDB I found one of the producers Charlie Hanson, we spoke briefly via e-mail. Eventually I was in touch with United Agents.. I even called Judith - one of the previous producers on her phone number which I found on her old website in a PDF of her CV!! …. but nothing came of it. After almost a year I'd pretty much forgotten about the task...
MAKING CONTACT:
In 2014 one year after creating the original video my friend text me to say that Ricky had started Tweeting about the video. It turns out his head of social media had discovered the 1-year old video on Vimeo and passed it on...
I got an e-mail asking if I could send the MP3 over to Ricky.
and the second e-mail...
I think the moral of the story is - to all creators - create good shit and when you’ve done that, believe in it, and yourself.
Thanks for reading!
Paul (Benbrick)
PS 1. I just uploaded the MP3 at the bottom of the page here. For Free!
PS 2. If there's any interest I'll write part 2 with more info on the analytics on my Twitter/Facebook on posts reposted/shared by Ricky Gervais. And more importantly: how I finally managed to secure a meet with RG in person!
