Author: Shaudi Bianca Vahdat
How do you score a comedy murder mystery like Glass Casa? How do you strike the perfect balance so the music supports the humor—without tipping into slapstick when the tension needs to land?
Composer Catherine Joy walks us through the creative process behind the film’s distinctive sound, from her favorite musical moment to precisely timed cues, to finding a groove-based approach and more!
Glass Casa fans and film music lovers alike will love her insights into the art of composing for the screen.
On composing her way into the film
How did you end up joining the Glass Casa team?
I was recommended to Laa by the star of Glass Casa, Harley Bronwyn. So yeah, I’m really grateful to her.
And then when I talked to [writer/director] Laa, I just really enjoyed talking to her, and I just really loved her vibe and her energy. Then when I saw the film, it is just so incredible to see such a great cast of characters and their energy together. The dynamic was really cool. So yeah, I was like, okay, let’s do this.
You know, it was funny, ’cause Laa asked me to audition for the film, ’cause she was talking to a few different composers. And honestly, I don’t audition that much for projects. But because I liked Laa so much, I was like, okay, I’ll audition. And she loved what I did and I’m actually really glad I did it, because that became one of our favorite cues in the film.
When we were watching it the other day and that came up, she’s like, “I still love this cue.” And I was like, “So do I.”
So, you know, sometimes you should just say yes and go for it. And I’m really glad I did.
Do you remember which scene that favorite cue was used for?
Yeah, when the boyfriend comes in and they’re trying to hide the dead body from him. So Harley’s character is showing him around, but trying to stop him from moving too quickly.
Meanwhile, the rest of the cast is carrying this dead body up the stairs. And so it’s this kind of cat and mouse scene.
The comps [Laa] gave me, the examples of scores that she liked, were The White Lotus and the band Santana. So I was like, okay, she wants a groove, you know, she wants it to be like a bop. The music for this has to be fun, you know?
And I was just telling Laa at the last film festival, that I actually use that scene now for my NYU grad students. I gave them the same prompt that Laa gave me, the same examples. And I tell them it should have a groove to it–you want it to be fun. And it’s a really good teaching example.
On the challenges and joys of scoring comedy
Can you remember any challenging aspects of working on this project?
One thing is that she has all these flashbacks, or these trippy moments, where she’s seeing this character that she had made up in the mirror or approaching her. This crazy, weird doppelganger version of herself she sees as she’s tripping and as the anxiety of the situation continues to become more and more present.
So I really wanted to create a sound that was completely unique for those moments. So it wasn’t hard, but it was definitely something that I wanted to really capture.
And then the other thing was, there are these emotional moments, these emotional beats, both with her sister and then with her fiancé, that have to be played completely straight.
So again, it wasn’t necessarily challenging, but it was really critical just to be clear on when you are having fun and when you really wanted to play the complete straight card.
And the other challenge in something like this, the thing I spent so much time on, is just the start and stop. Because with comedy, it’s all about letting the beats of the comedy come through.
And also making sure the music was a bop, had a good energy to it, but we didn’t want the music to be silly. The music had to feel good and have a good groove to it. But you know, it’s not silly music. It’s not slapstick music. It’s not goofy music. Because you want to let the humor and the situation shine, and not diminish what’s going on. So finding that balance throughout.
When you have full-on, very busy animation, that is probably the hardest thing to score. And then after that is comedy. Finding those beats, when to play, when not to play. So I would write something and then I would move it back and forth and figure out when to end it and when to start it. And it just takes a lot of time. Spending time with dialogue, listening to how it plays with dialogue and messing around with it to find the exact right timing of the music.
I think where music comes in and where it doesn’t can really influence how that comedic line lands. So you don’t want to fight the comedy, you don’t want to obscure it. So it’s a lot of playing with it and really having an understanding of comedy. That’s something I will do when I’m working on a comedic project, is just watching a lot of comedy and seeing where the music comes in and out to kind of get into the rhythm of it.
‘Cause, you know, with drama, it’s often either accentuating the emotion or making sure the emotion isn’t too melodramatic. But I feel like there’s less timing considerations in drama than there is in comedies, where the dialogue is critical.
And they say so much of comedy is in the edit, right? And the timing?
Yeah. It’s all about the timing. And you just want to make everything even punchier.
Like one of the scenes that’s all about timing is—it just makes me laugh thinking about it, which is how you can tell it’s really good— is when the fiance first shows up, and while he’s getting glass of water or something, she’s having these sign language conversations with the other members of the crew down the stairs.
So it’s like, when do you have silence? When do you have music? When do you have these kind of record scratch moments? When should the groove continue? And so just playing with that, I feel like we got it to a point where it just makes it even funnier, right? Which is what you want.
On her process and finding the sound of Glass Casa
Was the film totally done by the time you started composing for it?
I think we were at the fine cut stage. It didn’t shift too much. There were definitely a few more edits while I was on the project, but we were probably like 95% of the way there.
It’s always a balancing act, especially on features, with giving yourself enough time. This was an indie project with an indie budget, so if you don’t have money, it’s good to have time. But then, especially in comedy, if a scene is changed even by like, more than seven frames, it can really impact the music. So you don’t wanna start too early in the process either.
But I think most of the scenes were pretty much locked and it was just a little moving around. And also, Laa was still experimenting with the beginning and with the ending. And that’s what changed the most during the time that I was working on it. But the body of the film was pretty much locked in.
I’m curious if you can talk a little bit about the instruments you chose for this score.
Well, because [Laa] referenced The White Lotus and Santana, we had a lot of guitar and bass grooves, a lot of percussion in this, which was super fun. Pizz and staccato strings, which is very traditional in comedy scoring, but also giving it kind of a bit of a Latin or, to say a very broad term, tribal, kind of groove-based approach. So I did use some orchestral instruments, but more of a groove-based approach to it.
I love working with strings. I do it a lot. It’s kind of what I’m known for. But you know, this was very different, combining it with [percussion]. I really wanted to create more of a pop- influenced score in the action moments. That was definitely more traditional action scoring. Again, more aggressive percussion and looking for flutes and things that just made it just kind of fun and to spice it up in that way. You’ve got like, arrows flying through the air and crows banging on the window, and so you’re just trying to create almost this chaotic space.
And then you’ve got the Latin influence which was very strong, with this whole drug cartel and the woman who had lived there and died, and all these messages in Spanish, which helped me work on my Spanish. So definitely a Latin influence, which was really cool to play with.
With the trippy scenes, what I ended up doing was using very similar orchestration, but then playing with plugins. There’s one I used called Decapitator, which really impacts and affects, electronically, what the music is doing and gives it this kind of ripple effect. So the sound is distorted and affected by these different plugins. And so it is tied to the rest of the score very closely, but because of those [plugins], it just makes it into something completely different, which is really cool.
That is so cool. And you used electronic instruments for this project, is that right?
Yeah, because of the budget. We call it “in the box,” so using all samples. But the samples these days are very good. Of course, they’re sampling live instruments, so it’s like live instruments recorded and then put in a sample-based software so you can get it sounding as human as possible.
And then also, a lot of the different Latin riff-based things were literally recorded samples of someone playing guitar or someone playing percussion.
So yeah, I would’ve loved to do this utilizing live instruments, but unfortunately we just didn’t have the budget for that. Hopefully Laa’s next film we’ll have that kind of budget!
What’s next for Catherine
Are there any past projects you want to draw people’s attention to, or upcoming projects you’re really excited about?
I saw that you worked on Presumed Innocent for Apple TV+, which is one I personally really enjoyed.
Presumed it was a lot of fun. And we did get to utilize live instruments on that. I was the lead orchestrator and I produced the live scoring sessions along with the two composers, Danny and Saunder. So yeah, it was a fantastic experience working on Presumed Innocent, and apparently it’s coming up for a second season, so fingers crossed that they’ll have the same scoring budget.
A short documentary film that I worked on called Shelly’s Leg is premiering at Seattle International Film Festival and that’s a fantastic doc about the first gay disco in Seattle, which was financed literally by Shelly’s leg. Shelly was this big supporter of the queer community in the sixties, and she had her leg blown off during a Bastille parade in the sixties in Seattle. And with that settlement from the City of Seattle, created the [city’s] first gay disco. So it’s a wild story and a great recreation of that entire storyline. So I’m really excited for that to premiere at SIFF.
I’m on a Netflix series, a documentary series right now about the Dallas Cowboys. So part of the music team for that, which is really fun.
And the other cool thing we have coming up right now is that I run composer workshops, where we teach working composers how to produce live scoring sessions. Because, while I did Glass Casa “in the box”, there’s nothing better than doing things live when you have the budget. But it’s a whole production to run a recording session. So we have these workshops where we teach composers about that whole process, and we all go into the studio together. So that’s coming up in June in New York City and in August in LA.
The company that I run is called Joy Music House, and we would love to have people sign up either as a composer participant, or you can also sign up as an auditor. We’d love to have people on board.
On why Glass Casa should be your next watch
You recently got to watch Glass Casa on the big screen with a live audience, at the Indie Vegas Film Festival in April. Tell us about that and how the audience reacted.
It was great watching it with an audience the other day and hearing people react to it. And it still makes me laugh so much, in so many different scenes.
I just loved that they got it, you know. And it was cool because, like as it’s usual in film festivals, people are kind of drifting in as the film progressed. And I feel like you can do that with this film. You’ll get the gist really quickly. And I think everyone was really drawn in and they laughed at all the right places. They really got the fun vibe of it, which was really encouraging.
Anything you want to share about why people should see Glass Casa?
I think they should go watch it because, one, it’s just so important to support filmmakers like Laa Marcus. She made all this happen herself, you know. It’s an indie film, and I really feel like we should be supporting indie film.
And it’s a great watch—it’s just a lot of fun. It’s an incredible cast and it’s been really exciting to see the projects all the actors have gone on to be doing.
It sits in the horror world, but it’s very horror-light. It’s more of a thriller. Definitely a lot of comedy. So I feel like if you’re like me, where you don’t have a massive stomach for horror, that’s really not the genre I watch, but this is completely up my alley. So don’t be turned off by that—it’s not gonna turn your stomach. This is gonna give you a lot of laughs. Absolutely everyone should watch this and hopefully you’ll enjoy the music as well.
A big thank you to Catherine for taking the time to chat with us!
Are you a working composer? There’s still time to sign up for Joy Music House’s Production Scoring Workshop this summer.
And remember, Glass Casa is streaming now!
Please note: This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.