LISTEN: From Rejection to Revelation, Renowned Composer Will Bates Unveils 'The Pirate Album' After Years of Creative Evolution and Collaboration
About Will Bates
The son of two Hammer Horror actors, London-born Will Bates started his eclectic musical career as a jazz saxophonist. He spent his teens closing down bars in London, playing alto sax in a BBC1 game show, and earning a degree in music. He quickly leaned toward composition and production, and has worked alongside artists as diverse as Roy Ayers, Steve Hackett, Mike And The Mechanics, Pussy Riot, Bishop Briggs and Morcheeba. After releasing several records on UK dance labels Bates relocated to New York in 2003 and began composing for commercial music company Amber Music.
Once settled in Brooklyn, he started The Rinse, a pop-punk band of which Will was the lead singer, composer, and producer. They toured the US and released an album in Japan. Several Clios and a Cannes Gold Lion later Bates left Amber to start Fall On Your Sword with producer Lucy Alper, the company is named after his video art project which had become something of a sensation on YouTube. Fall On Your Sword was based in Brooklyn for 10 years, until making the move to Los Angeles in 2018.
A collaboration with Electric Six frontman Dick Valentine led to two albums under the name ‘Evil Cowards’, and the pondering of a third.
As a film and TV composer Bates has composed original scores for a myriad of filmmakers including acclaimed directors Mike Cahill (Another Earth; I Origins; Bliss), Alex Gibney (We Steal Secrets; Going Clear; Zero Days; The Forever Prisoner), and Craig Gillespie (Dumb Money)
Bates’ recent film projects include Immaculate, directed by Michael Mohan and starring Sydney Sweeney, and Larry Fessenden’s Blackout.
Bates’ television credits include Anne Rice's Mayfair Witches, The Devil in Ohio, the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated mini-series Unbelievable, Away, The Magicians, The Looming Tower, Class Of 09, and many more
About The Pirate Album
The beginnings’ of The Pirate Album’s were unusual. Whilst working on his film compositions, Will Bates rented a fifteen foot long balafon (gourd-resonated xylophone) without consulting the director. His close friend and renowned percussionist Mathias Kunzli jumped to lend his hand to some of Will’s sketches, along with six other balafons, for a blossoming film project. All was going well. However, when the director and Will then met at the studio, he was neither impressed nor amused.
Unfortunately, the project quickly went south. Will and the director amicably parted ways, leaving the beautiful balafon tones behind. However, Will was sure he could get these sketches back. Once in his ownership, the seeds of an album were sewn. Whilst having a background in bands - delving in dance music, indie-rock, and jazz - Will had spent the past decade or so focusing entirely on scoring to motion picture. So, with these sketches in hand, it was high time for Will to release something that was not a soundtrack album, but instead, something entirely his own.
Swiftly recruiting some of his closest collaborators from the realms of TV and film, Will worked with a wonderful assortment of talented musicians. The first recruit was a childhood friend of Will’s, Quentin Collins; a London-based jazz musician, best known for his work as Kyle Eastwood’s trumpet player. Next, Will’s drummer and percussionist of fifteen years came on board, New York-based Spencer Cohen.
Setting out to re-mould the existing sketches and turning them into songs, Will envisioned the genre realms of The Pirate Album sonically sitting somewhere between Eden Ahbez and Talking Heads. However, just like all best laid plans, The Pirate Album was put on hold once more whilst Will worked on a film composition. Over the span of eighteen months, The Pirate Album would be dusted off the shelf, nurtured and revived. Slowly tinkering, constantly evolving, whilst Will’s composition commissions took priority. It wasn’t until Lucy Alper, a music supervisor of Will’s own production company Fall On Your Sword landed a sync for one of The Pirate Album’s tracks. This moment became a catalyst for one final creative push on the album. And finally, The Pirate Album is being offered into the world. A project born out of rejection, that became an excuse to have fun with friends in the studio, is being proudly released as a testament to Will’s unwavering creative spirit. Whilst Will describes The Pirate Album as the outcome of “making music for the sake of making music”, the outcome is nine, beautifully diverse, sonically striking, and captivating tracks, ensuring Will Bates’ status as an important artist releasing right now. Speaking on the release of The Pirate Album, Will shares, “I know how lucky I am to have a career in film music, being able to make music everyday. But it’s been a long time since I worked on music that isn’t against picture, and any insecurities I may have had about it were quickly cast aside with the help of my collaborators.”
Listen to Will Bates on SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC