The 5 Minute Short - MUSIC
Sound captivates me. You may, if you have read previous posts, realise this.
When I am not at work or eating or sharing family time I am either writing or more often working with sound. You may think that surly sleep is missing in that list. Yes and no. I am afraid I often get so lost in creating sound that I neglect to allow quite enough hours for sleep.
I create for others, but the primary focus currently is on the sound design and scripting for the upcoming Paranormal Nation series. Pretty much every hour not engaged in the everyday necessary activities is spent playing around with ideas.
As I have said before, I am not formally schooled in this. It has been a process of immersing myself in others work, self-study, and thousands of hours sat at the production computer and keyboards. But no formal training is no reason not to create.
This week has little time spare for such indulgence and yet I cannot fully accept that maybe time is somewhat sparse and that I do need sleep.
The focus the last couple of evenings has been on coming up with the opening theme for the Paranormal Nation ‘Shorts’ which is a separate intro to the main Series full episodes, and the creation of two outro pieces for scripts already out to VA. The ‘Shorts’ all have a very different tone to them, and each will have an outro especially produced to fit that theme.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of sound design is where it can take you.
I will have an idea in mind, however while searching for the specific instruments or sounds I intend to use I often find myself being led off in different directions. This most often results in short pieces that I have no current use for but are stored away for some other time and project. Other I may never have a use for, and the recording remains to maybe remind me of a certain sound.
Tonight was no exception. A Kalimba, a Glockenspiel and a flute are not instruments that I would normally use working on horror and tension sound beds and music. Of course, they can be processed through many effects to sound quite different, but as a starting point they aren’t my go-to instruments. However, tonight while working on other pieces I happen to load up one which led to another and a series of four simple, mostly single instrument, ‘sketches’. They have no purpose - they are extremely simple and of no ‘musical’ consequence. They are simply an exploration of sound and the emotions those simple sounds can create.
I find this aspect of working on audio possibly the most enjoyable. There is no destination and no deadline – just a simple exploration of sound and most often with a very simple melody just enjoying the ‘sound’ and the emotion that it can create.
So for tonight for the first time since the announcement of the Paranormal Nation project I have included below an example of the main theme and outro for the first two episodes along with a second file that is just my exploring ‘sounds’ and using instruments that I don’t really get to use with current projects.
Happy creating!
Please note that the below is copyright Charlie Creek & BlackCreek Podcasts 2026.
