David Travis Edwards Interview

Special Feature

Movie previews, which are also known as trailers, are created to generate excitement and anticipation for an upcoming release, as well as providing a snapshot of the film’s substance. To this end, music and sound design play a critical role in enhancing the visuals, highlighting key moments, and making an emotional connection to the viewer – usually in only two or three minutes.

Trailer music can dictate the pace, build tension, and elevate the drama, but has a completely different function from the score of a film, which supports the movie’s narrative across its entire runtime. Often the film’s score hasn’t even been started or completed when a studio requires the first of many trailers to hit theaters, social media and streaming. Thus, a trailer composition needs to grab attention right away and establish an emotional tone, while piquing their interest. As you can imagine, being able to create a musical experience that is sharp, immediate, and impactful is quite a specialty and there are only a handful of go-to composers who can deliver. Enter David Travis Edwards.

For this month’s Artist Spotlight, FutureMusic got to speak with David Travis Edwards about his unique career, his studio and what it takes to be able to merge sound design, music composition and emotional connection in the fascinating world of film trailer music.

David Travis Edwards is the founder of Twelve Titans Music, a production music company that creates visceral cinematic music for film, TV, trailers, and video games. In the ten years since he co-founded the company, his music has been used in over 150 movie trailers, countless television commercials, and alternative/social media pushes for films and other visual media. He has cultivated a reputation for producing emotionally resonant, epic music, blending classical orchestration with modern electronic elements to create powerful, dynamic scores, which often evoke grand, sweeping soundscapes with a strong emphasis on atmosphere, intensity and emotion.

Before founding Twelve Titans Music, David Travis Edwards had a diverse career that involved various facets of music production. His expertise in creating music that resonates on an emotional level, combined with his background in both orchestral and modern music, has led to the success of Twelve Titans Music within the production music industry. The compositions released under Twelve Titans Music have been used by film studios, television networks, high-profile brands and media outlets.

Twelve Titans Music’s success can be attributed to its ability to capture the emotional undercurrent of the scenes it is meant to accompany, making the music not just background filler, but an integral part of the storytelling process. The combination of David Travis Edwards’ vision and the talented composers he works with has made Twelve Titans Music a major force in motion picture advertising.

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Edwards fell in love with the music of cinema early on in life- an unusual hobby for a child growing up far from the magic of Hollywood in San Antonio, Texas, but by the time he reached middle school, Edwards had amassed a collection of movie soundtracks and was especially drawn to the less conventional work of composers who wrote music not for orchestras, but for synthesizers, with an early appreciation for electronic music pioneers like Vangelis and Wendy Carlos.

While taking piano lessons on and off, Edwards began to explore how to create his own music. He commandeered the family computer and installed sequencing software to experiment with digital recording, MIDI, and early VST instruments. Upon graduating high school, Edwards was accepted to the  Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he majored in Music Synthesis under the mentorship of former Dean, Stephen Croes. For his work as an undergrad, Edwards was awarded a scholarship from electronic music pioneer, Brian Eno.

Edwards began working as an assistant to award-winning composer Jeff Rona and quickly became adept at working in the music departments for network and cable television shows, narrative films, and documentaries. Edwards found his calling in the varied and dynamic world of motion picture advertising. He broke onto the trailer scene with his booming theatrical trailer for 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, and has since become a mainstay in campaigns for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His ability to work with existing themes has resulted in placements for tentpole properties such as Star Wars, Jurassic World, Top Gun: Maverick and Black Widow (see below).

Black Widow

Super Bowl Trailer – Twelve Titans Music

FutureMusic: What was your first musical memory?

David Travis Edwards: I guess it says something that my story isn’t necessarily playing an instrument or anything like that…
My parents had a bunch of books on tape around the house when I was a kid — learn your colors and shapes, the alphabet, that kind of stuff. A handful of tapes had a blank Side B, and the educational tapes encouraged you to “record your own story” on the other side. I would go around the house and yard, recording sounds that were interesting or funny, just having a blast. I wore all of the tapes out and can only imagine the number of batteries my parents had to buy to keep the tape recorder going.

FutureMusic: When you got accepted to Berklee College of Music was it your intention to become a film composer?

David Travis Edwards: I applied to Berkelee without declaring a major, and focused on Music Synthesis. I was much more comfortable exploring how technology and music intersected than putting notes on paper. Film music was always something that interested me, but I wasn’t sure how I fit within the framework of the industry.

After college, when I moved to Los Angeles, I was surprised to find that many established composers preferred to have someone like me hanging around who could keep their computers and studio running. It was very symbiotic. I had a steady job and at the same time could observe how scores were created and fill in gaps in my education.

Over time I earned the opportunity to participate in writing cues for projects these composers were working on. A small piece of music here and there — and was given more difficult tasks as I proved I could handle the simpler ones.

FutureMusic: You’ve worked at Killer Tracks, Liquid Cinema and Fringe Element before starting your own company, what did you learn from those experiences that carried over to Twelve Titans?

David Travis Edwards: Each experience was very different and I was fortunate to work alongside talented and generous people. When I was starting out, Killer Tracks was a great opportunity. It was all work-for-hire and gave me the chance to pay bills by writing music, which is something everyone can relate and aspire to at every level.

Killer Tracks was paying for live orchestra recording dates and professional mix engineers on select releases, so it gave me the chance to observe people who are great at their jobs in different aspects of my same industry. When I would send MIDI to orchestrators and get scores back, I could see the changes they made and could ask them why they made the changes. This gave me an invaluable education because it provided me the ability to get into their thought process and apply those principles to future works. From a company perspective, working for Killer Tracks gave me insight into how a large major label ran their production music division.

With Liquid Cinema, I worked with my friend and mentor, Jeff Rona, to launch his catalog. I participated, contributed, and oversaw many aspects of those first releases with him. I translated a lot of what I experienced working as a writer for Killer Tracks into this new role. For example I’d been on the receiving end of many writing briefs from Killer, now it was my task to create those assignments for other composers and deliver critiques of their work to help guide them in making the music we needed. It was also a deep dive into the world of splits, royalty calculations, and sync licensing in general. The experience ended up being an on-the-job masters degree in the business of music.

Ultimately, my hardware setup is minimal, that’s because I often have to work with great speed and no matter how efficient a hardware workflow is, it just can’t compete with the effciency of an all, or mostly in-the-box approach.

FutureMusic: You mention Synapse Audio’s The Legend and Dune, products we’ve reviewed and found amazing, and both that have the commonality of Hans Zimmer, is he an influence of yours? Are there other film composers both known and maybe flying under the radar that have inspired you?

David Travis Edwards: Hans is a tastemaker and I grew up listening to his music so his influence is definitely there. I’ve really enjoyed John Murphy’s work over the years, especially his collaborations with Danny Boyle and find his use of non-orchestral instruments inspiring. Recently I’ve been enjoying what Bobby Krlic aka The Haxan Cloak has been doing, both his work as an artist and his scores. Also Natalie Holt has been killing it, especially her work on Loki. I enjoy when composers get the chance to really go for it and showcase something that’s unique and special.

FutureMusic: What 5U and Eurorack modular units are you using? And what do you look for when shopping for modular components?

David Travis Edwards: My 5U system is a hybrid of a few different manufacturers. Moon, Synthetic Sound Labs, and STG make up the bulk of the modules and it’s almost completely analog. Conversely my Eurorack case leans heavily on digital modules. I love the mk1 Harvestman stuff and they make up the core of the system. Those are fleshed out with Instruo Arbar, Strymon Magneto and StarLab, Blukac Endless Processor, the Versio platform from Noise Engineering, and various utilities to make it all work. There’s very little overlap in the two systems and they play well together and are voltage compatible. It’s all so much fun, you can lose hours and hours going down the rabbit hole.

FutureMusic: How has your studio evolved after leaving Berklee? And are there any lessons that you’ve learned over the years?

David Travis Edwards: My college setup was very bare-bones and it got even more so as I sold all of my hardware when I made the move to Los Angeles after Berkelee. I’ve gone through periods of having large collections of synths and find I’m more creative with a focused mostly in-the-box setup. We’re spoiled today with lots of great options when it comes to modern hardware and one or two synths can cover a lot of ground, so I don’t feel like I’ve given up much. Ultimately workflow is the most important feature of any setup for me.

FutureMusic: So, if you could create your own instrument, effects processor or something else for producing music, what would it be?

David Travis Edwards: I’ve always admired people who make their own experimental acoustic instruments. You can find some of the most beautiful and creative sounding instruments on reddit communities and across YouTube – lots of string based inventions with pickups and modern hardy gurdys, that sort of thing. It seems like it would be extremely rewarding and talk about making your own sound from scratch.

FutureMusic: How do you approach creating trailer music? Is there a typical workflow? Are you provided with the composer’s music in some cases?

David Travis Edwards: I love to find a sound or thematic element that I can build on, something that inspires me on an emotional level. The emotion might be “what was that horrible, disturbing, terrifying sound?!” — but there was an emotion and a reaction! The music always needs to propel forward and build. Even sections that might drop down in timbre or volume have to keep the energy trajectory moving upward. I try not to think of trailer music as strictly orchestral fare. Any genre or idea can be useful as long as its presented in the right framework and supported properly.

In my day to day, I’m alway creating a body of music that is available to clients to pull from. This gives them a starting point and allows them to work quickly when editing ideas for a trailer. Sometimes a piece of music pulled off the shelf makes it through the gauntlet and across the finish line.

Other projects require a custom piece of music to be created. The studio or editorial house working on the project will reach out and explain their specific needs: the vibe of the trailer, how long each section of the piece should be, if there is a signature sound that needs to be developed and incorporated, if the property they are working on has an established theme that should be referenced and when to use it. There’s often no footage to look at and the trailer has not been edited yet, so a lot of imagination is required.

There is a lot of trust involved on both sides of the equation. Sometimes there is that feeling of: “What have I gotten myself into?” — but you get to work with some truly talented people and that’s always very inspiring and ultimately you pull each other through. After clients have sat with the piece you’ve created for a few weeks and have a working edit of the trailer, you will be approached to make changes – perhaps asked to create a different idea for a section, or maybe 30 seconds more of a section that’s working really well, stuff like that. It’s not done until it’s done, and sometimes a cut will not make it to completion for a variety reasons. It’s all part of the process.

FutureMusic: What’s your approach to sound design? How do you create your own original sounds for a project?

David Travis Edwards: I like to separate the process of making sounds from the process of writing music. I don’t want to get bogged down at any point and have the creativity stall out. When I’m focussed on making sounds I’ll dive into hardware modular synths or plug-in synths and see what they do naturally rather than try and create a specific preconceived concept with them. When I find something that’s unique, special, or unexpected, I’ll not only save the patch if it’s a soft synth, but print audio of the sound so it can be resampled.

I have a Tascam Portacapture for basic field recording. It’s quick and easy and the built in mics sound pretty good if you don’t move around. I’ll use a pair of Shure SM81s when I’m taking things more seriously. I’ll even use the Tascam to capture sounds in the studio too – it can be less distracting than using a computer and allows me focus on the task at hand, getting the best sound captured.

FutureMusic: What advice can you give artists about getting into film composing and/or creating music for trailers?

David Travis Edwards: Whatever it is you want to do, it’s important to write music every day. It’s a muscle that needs to be exercised and becomes weak if you don’t use it. Not everything you create is going to be great, but you aren’t going to make a great piece of music if you aren’t making music at all. I would encourage artists to look at writing for film, television, trailers, or anything else as a long term endeavor where goals will take time to achieve, but they are possible with determination and persistence.

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David Travis Edwards Studio Gear

• Computer: Apple Mac Studio
• Monitors: ATC SCM25A
• Interface: Apogee Symphony
• UAD-2 Satellite
• Overstayer Modular Channel
• Logic Pro 11
• UAD and Waves plug-ins
• Native Instruments Kontakt
• Synapse Audio The Legend and Dune
• Arturia Pigments
• 5U DotCom format modular
• Eurorack modular
• Sequential Take 5
• Tascam Portacapture
• Shure SM81
• Neumann U87

FutureMusic: If you could only have five pieces of gear to bring to a desert island what would you choose?

David Travis Edwards: I would definitely take my 5U modular, an incredibly deep synth like the Waldorf Quantum, and some great headphones. Oh, and my coffee machine! Essential gear.

FutureMusic: What’s next for David Travis Edwards?

David Travis Edwards: I’m very lucky to have found a niche in the music industry and genuinely love what I do and all of the people I’m privileged to collaborate with. I hope to continue down this path for a long time.

To learn more about David Travis Edwards and Twelve Titans Music, visit his website below.