(upbeat music) - My name is Nick, Nick
"The Wonder" Hernandez. I did the sound for "Long Way
Down" at the Kennedy Center. I'm a hip hop Master Splinter. ♪ Far from a rat ♪ ♪ I got the boom baps ♪ ♪ These are just facts ♪ ♪ Sit back and relax ♪ ♪ As we toe tap to the sound I designed ♪ ♪ Now I freestyle and
tell you without rhyme ♪ "Long Way Down" is a story about Will, a teenager who lives in this building. And he has 60 seconds from
the top floor to the lobby to decide whether he wants to
avenge his brother's death. Working on theater you're
working with the script. And a lot of times it's
about interpretation. So reading it and trying
to evoke those same feelings off the page and
then working with the actor. So there is a difference, I think with music you
feel it more, literally. Jason Reynolds, huge hip hop fan. When I talked to him before he was excited that I was on the project, just because my background
is in hip hop and soul. So I was very excited because I knew he was a fan
of Notorious B.I.G and Tupac, and they're referenced several
times in the story as well. So I wanted to make sure for
those who knew those artists definitely got a feel for 'em, as well as those who have
never heard of them before were still comfortable when
they came to see the show. So I, myself, I love vinyl records. I was able to get a lot of inspiration listening to the originals that were used to produce Notorious B.I.G and Tupac. When I work on music, especially hip hop, I like for it to be intergenerational, simply for the fact that you have people that don't listen to hip hop
for the negative connotations. So listening to hip hop,
and soul, R&B, jazz, were all major influences. So I would actually hire and speak with my musician friends who
were able to provide a lot of sounds for me too, which to this day I
have in my sound banks. Sound design, a lot of people just think it's adding music to
videos and performances, but I like to look at
it as a silent player, it's the extra actor, so to speak. Even though you have a set staff and everybody working from projections to the other facets,
sound just is the glue. It adds everything and it fills it out so we can hear more and
feel more of the emotions that they're trying to
convey in the story. (pressing button) Since the whole thing
takes place in a elevator there's limited movement. And there won't be a lot of
different scene settings. So when he's talking about past stories, or things that are going to happen, it was really important to
bring in the environments, birds, (pigeons cooing) people playing on the playground. Since it takes place in a
inner city (city sounds), it's a lot of influence from hip hop. So you hear like the muffled
cars driving past (car sounds) with the music blasting (muffled music), music you can hear from
inside the elevator. A lot of those little
nuances made it into there just to create the feeling of being almost semi-claustrophobic,
but in an urban space. I think one of the key characteristics I did in the show is
whenever there was action you heard hip hop with drums. And then in all the other scenes it was just more so acoustic instrumentation. So a little a Fender Rhodes piano here, or maybe some acoustic guitar. I spent a lot of time
freestyling, freestyle rapping, and freestyle music creating. I felt like a lot of the story was wrapped around Will interacting with several members of his
family and community. And each one of them had a
different attitude and persona. So in order to channel that sometimes you have to not think
so hard, so to speak. I feel like sometimes
people focus too much and that allows them not to
think in a broader range. So by allowing myself to freestyle and not really putting any constraints on when I was creating the music or talking, it really translated well
into the piece, I believe. So the sound plot is interesting. Normally, when I work at a theater, they provide me with
what they have available. But I decided to go minimal with this, since it was just in one place. So I decided to mic the floors, which to me was very different. And at first, when I said
that, everyone's like, what? You don't wanna mic the actor? How are we gonna hear him? And I've worked with Justin Weaks before, who's the main character, Will, so I knew he could project,
and I knew he was able to. So I decided to take out
a lot of the subwoofers, have a lot of tweeters on the side so that the audience
can hear, like I said, the nuances before, like
birds and playgrounds for when he's talking about those moments. And then the mic I put on the floor, which you couldn't see, it was hidden. And that way he could just
speak and walk around, and it would sound like he
was in a compressed room. So it was through the sound plot I was able to achieve that claustrophobic, we're in an elevator but
having a conversation. Working on music is sort of
being like the silent player, even though you're not silent. So it was interesting
because I thought the actor would just come in and
work around my sound, but being I was there
with our projections, and lights, and videos, we literally have to time every moment. One of, I think, the
arduous parts was probably trying to open the elevator door for Will because you had to open the
elevator door, time the music, the button pressing, the
lights lit up on the keys. There was smoke coming into the elevator because one of the characters
smokes a cigarette. So just to time all that
together in one composition was probably the toughest part
with manipulating my sound 'cause I would have to
change it on the spot, which is not a problem. I enjoy working with sound and doing stuff like that on the fly. By the time I got to rehearsal and worked with the other designers I realized I had to change
a lot of the sequencing. So how long tracks were, or if
I should fade it out earlier, or blend it with their track
in order to make it work. I'm a problem solver, and
I love solving problems, especially when it deals with audio. So just to come across,
like I said before, matching up everybody's work in order to achieve
the scene that we want, I think that was the best time. And to this day, I would be
able to change stuff on the fly. So I would bring a midi controller, which would hook up to my audio program. I would be able to play out some keys or add extra instrumentation,
depending on the mood. Like I said, there were
several times where a character would light a cigarette. So I wanted something that sounded like a synth that was
riding in the background that sounded like smoke rising,
or things of that nature. But none of that was in my initial idea until I got into the room and saw how the movement of
projections was on the screen, or how the actor paced
themselves when they walked, which allowed me to go ahead
and make changes on the spot. It's more about evoking
the different emotions. For instance, if it's a suspenseful part, which "Long Way Down" had several moments where it was just anticipation
of what's gonna happen. And it was through that I was
able to put in some 808's, if you're familiar with the 808 sound, or some subsonic sounds. (booming music) Just to bring that sense of like urgency, or that it could be some
type of potential threat. We had to put up a warning in
the show for "Long Way Down" that there was gunshots
used as the sound effects because you don't wanna startle anybody. But for me to put 'em in the distance to make 'em sound like you
were there (muffled gunshots) in the area where it
happened, a few blocks away. It's little nuances like that, which help craft the whole experience. So whether from a music
standpoint of view, where you're just trying to just change your vibrational level, or whether you're experiencing a
production or a performance, I feel like music is very strong
in creating that diaspora. (upbeat music)
