Singing on Birds of Prey
I was at Disneyland when I got the call. We were somewhere in Tomorrow Land, waiting for a documentary to begin about the soon to be opened Star Wars Land. Just as the lights were dimming, my phone went off. I viewed the caller ID, freaked out, and ran back out to the entrance of the theater. Like a ride, the doors automatically closed and I was separated from my partner. But I was on the phone with someone who was about to change my career, so I didn’t mind. I had previously sent in a generic demo of my singing, so hearing from them meant that I had made the first cut. Yesss!
For the second audition, I was asked to submit a sample of me singing a song by an anonymous composer, for an anonymous “film contract”. I learned later the composer was Daniel Pemberton and the movie was Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, later shortened to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. Daniel’s biggest credit at that time was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (coincidentally, the sequel has just been announced and he’ll be working on that, too). I think it was around 7:00 or 8:00 at night and they wanted the sample...now. Or at least before the start of business tomorrow morning. This is not unusual for how the industry works. It’s a game of who can deliver what they need, when they need it. I was game.
After leaving Disneyland and going home to my studio, I pulled an all-nighter to get the samples done and to do them as fantastically as I could, as time would allow. I sent my samples in at 5:18am. It paid off. I got the job.
Fast forward to now and I have just added my contributions to the film onto my website. I edited them together into one track, which gave me a moment to reflect. You can hear the track here.
Singing on this film has been an absolute dream come true. My voice was heard on a total of five tracks, with three different themes and I’ll explain what they mean to me:
Cue 1, “Harley Quinn” - This track is Harley Quinn’s theme song. My voice is literally Harley’s ass kicking theme! I get fits of giggles when I think about it this way. I am such a fan of the movie and its theme of the capability of women and honestly this aligns so much with my personal history. Not only was I a weightlifter for five years, but I was also a roller derby skater for five years, including team captain. Yes, I skated on the banked track just like Harley does in the movie! I am just tickled at the coincidence and I can’t help but laugh...and LOVE this movie.
This is me, jamming as Piston Vinegar in 2012.
Skating at nationals in San Diego, 2011.
The way the vocal sound came about was REALLY fun. The descriptor words I was given was “visceral, animalistic, fucked up”. Bonus points for sounding like a bird. Lots of different layers and colors were used in the final stack. Some takes I went for a simply heavy metal, full chest voice belt, held out for a looooong time. But the majority of the takes were the full chest belt, mixed with a shaky jungle-warrior vibrato and even shaking my hands hard to get a crazy shaky sound. So cool.
Cue 2, “Birds of Prey” - During this session, I was looking at the score and singing quietly to myself to make sure I had it down for the first take “doot-doot-doooo…”. Daniel, the composer, thought I sounded like a cuckoo clock and the vocal vibe for this cue was born! I added on a warble to give it an extra bit of bird. The very first song on the score soundtrack is one of the AMAZING opera singers singing this cuckoo theme. I’m so proud and honored to have had an influence, it really makes me so happy that I was able to contribute to the film in this way.
Cue 3, “Black Canary Echo” - Gah! This one gives me chills! I know my signature sound is aggressive, but I’ve always wanted to do an ambient vocal and this cue is it. The engineer turned up the gain on the mic and I was instructed to sing as *quietly* as possible. SO FUN! I NEVER get to sing quiet, lol!! Singing quietly allows me more room with texture and to explore and express. I can’t wait to add something like this to my next demo reel.
Bonus cue, “Danger Danger” - My voice on the Harley Quinn theme was sampled by a rapper for the soundtrack. This means I was on the soundtrack and the score soundtrack, which are different albums.
I’ve been following Daniel Pemberton on social media since our session together and I’ve learned more about just how freaking creative he is. He truly loves experimenting with sounds and their textures and is amazing at wrapping them up into cues to suit the film. His list of work on Hollywood blockbusters is growing rapidly and he is certainly having an influence on the industry. I am so honored to have been a part of his journey. His score soundtrack is available here. I received my copy of the score soundtrack during shelter-in-place and took a video of the unboxing: