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PRO SPOTLIGHT In each issue of AMI we feature an audio professional from a range of disciplines to find out how they got started in the industry and what they’ve worked on. This month we speak to Daniel Bordovsky a.k.a. Borrtex, a soundtrack composer from Prague, Czech Republic... What do you do? I’m a soundtrack composer – I produce atmospheric instrumental tracks for film makers who then use it as background music in their professional video projects. How did you get into the industry? I went to a music school at the age of six, but didn’t like it at all! The idea of playing other people’s tracks from notes never seemed to be something for me. Even though my teacher was amazing, I was always bored. It was later on when I started coming up with my own melodies that music caught my attention, and I became more interested in production. The soundtrack genre is a place where you can do whatever you want and not be limited by anything. What are some of your credits? My music has been used in over 2,000 projects, from amateur short films and wedding videos through to student movies and large corporate commercials. The ones I’m most proud of are several episodes of the Gary Vee Show, which now has more than two million followers, a project for the US Government titled National Parks: A Love Story and music placement for clothing brand Moncler. Also, a very well known Hollywood film composer Junkie XL (Mad Max, Deadpool, Tomb Raider, Alita etc.) used two of my tracks in his promotional video where he presents
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his new sound library being released under Native Instruments’ company. What is your favourite item of audio gear and why? I’m completely in love with the old school acoustic upright piano, and it’s by far my most favourite thing in the world. Other than that I really enjoy playing with all the different sounds of my new electronic toy: a Korg MS-20 Synthesizer. I love it because it’s physically very small, so it fits well in my studio, but the amount of sounds you can create with it is beyond description! What are some of the challenges that you face in your job? Well, as I have my studio at home, it’s sometimes a bit more difficult to maintain the discipline and healthy boundaries between work and personal life. But when it comes to scoring films, it’s quite tough because sometimes I have a very clear idea of how the result should look like, but then here comes the director’s vision and I need to be able to understand his point of view, which is occasionally very different from mine! What was your favourite project and why? It’s hard to pick one, but my most favourite project was probably my latest album Music for Gary Vee which I released just a few weeks ago – it’s an exclusive
soundtrack and I was working on it for over four months. After some thinking I decided that it needs to sound epic with a lot of percussion instruments, so it was quite a challenge to mix all the virtual tools with live recordings. What industry professional inspired you the most to do what you do? This one is easy: James Newton Howard. It was him who I had an amazing opportunity to meet back in 2017. His studio in L.A. and his attitude and personality started making me think that maybe I should at least try to come up with some of my own melodies. I was a filmmaker previously and was in L.A. to do some interviews, but this experience changed my mind. I made my first EP two months later... and here I am today! What’s the best bit of advice that you can give anyone trying to break into the industry? Give out your music for free. Send hundreds of emails to all kinds of video/film influencers and provide free value in exchange for the credits. That’s a great way of gaining the exposure which is something you need the most at the beginning, and you’d be surprised how giving out music for free changes the whole perspective. Eventually, you get paid much more anyway. It’s an easy strategy: give and get. It works 100 per cent. ■
March 2019
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