Bringing A New Sound To The Disney Channel Score: "Stuck In The Middle" Composer Kenneth Burgomaster

Disney Channel movies and series feature content that caters to a younger demographic. Composer Kenneth Burgomaster has been developing scores for Disney content that accentuates a positive mood and tone for over ten years.  His most recent project, Disney Channel’s “Stuck in the Middle” has offered the opportunity to explore the score in a slightly unique way for the brand.

“When you are trying to make something different, you have to know the quality that is expected,” said Burgomaster. “There’s a young demo that you want to pull in, so what we are doing is really making a sound like the Disney sound, with some new elements.“

Making scores produced with lower budgets sound like they’ve been recorded by large symphonies is something of a calling card for Burgomaster. Roughly twenty years ago he was working as a technician, assisting composers such as Danny Elfman and Christopher Young by enhancing the sound quality of their recordings.  He’d review their scores and mark off sections where the sound could be rounded out.  Using music software programs, he was able to provide a large and full orchestral texture without the cost.

Due to the budget and time limitations placed on television series and movies, expanding the sound of a soundtrack without the cost large ensembles require proved a pivotal tool for Burgomaster’s work on series including “Hanna Montana” and “Dog with a Blog”. “Stuck in the Middle” was no exception.  Prior to being hired for the project, showrunner Linda Videtti Figueiredo had come up with an idea that she felt would capture the tone of the middle-class, nine-member Latino family at the core of the series: a score based around percussion and rhythm.   Excited by the potential modernization of the Disney style a percussive score would have, the concept did bring about challenges: the series is a single camera show shot without a laugh track.  There are no bumpers – cues that go in and out of commercials.  Burgomaster had to figure out how, in a half hour show, he could stretch the sound and power of a primarily percussive score while keeping it rich and interesting.

“For the current episode I’m working on, for instance, there are sixty cues,” said Burgomaster. “Some are just little blips, such as a cymbal scrape or a triangle, but some are very long.”

Burgomaster knew he wanted a wealth of percussive styles to choose from, so designing his own library of sounds in addition to readily available samples became his goal. To assist him, he contacted a top LA based percussionist whom he met working on Christopher Young movies: M. B. Gordy. Gordy used everyday objects, from a vodka bottle to a jar filled with jelly, to capture unique sounds.  He also performed some traditional Latin percussive instruments, providing Burgomaster a wealth of loops he could drop into the score.

In the early stages of developing the “Stuck in the Middle” score, Burgomaster was careful not to rely on Latin sounds or rhythms, noting the family’s heritage was not a focal point of the series. He also determined quickly that providing regularly used themes for each character would result in adding unnecessary chaos to a series that focused on the capers the seven children find themselves in.  Noting the series highlights Harley Diaz (Jenna Ortega) who uses her inventive skills to resolve the family’s capers, Burgomaster used a clave – two pieces of wood that slap together – in the pilot episode.  He highlights her brainstorm with a mild salsa rhythm that’s accompanied by a shaker and triangle; a sound that pays tributes to her Latin roots without having to rely on Latin stylings throughout the score.   For the youngest family member, he decided to incorporate the sound of the largest drum, playing with a sound that goes against type for the character.

In addition to the modern elements a highly percussive score brings, Burgomaster also weaves background elements into the score, for instance, taking the sound of Wagner playing in the background to a contemporary dub step in the next. When using public domain properties or elements that are featured in the background of sequences, such as the smooth jazz of an elevator, Burgomaster has to re-record the music to ensure it has the best quality possible.

“There was a scene in ‘Dog with a Blog’ were someone was playing spoons on the street. I had to build new spoons and match the sequence with a better recording,” said Burgomaster.  “It’s just as much of an element (as the score.)”

Sampling and plug-ins are a key with Burgomaster’s current project, however he’s well versed at traditional formats as well. For the score to the 2014 feature “The Boxcar Children” – a movie that followed a band of children who traveled the country in a boxcar during the depression – Burgomaster created a small, intimate acoustic score that featured piano and cello.  The score was released on iTunes and went on to make many movie score critic’s list top animated score for that year.

“’Boxcar’ was a young person’s movie but we wanted a wholesome, traditional sound. This was recorded in studio with not computer generated sounds,” said Burgomaster.   “It was neat to have people able to listen to the music on its own.”

A jazz pianist at heart, Burgomaster maintains his love of the genre during his own time, inviting friends over to his home to play. When he’s looking for projects to sign on to, he’s always looking for something that will bring him joy and fulfillment in creating sounds.  He hopes he’ll one day find a project that will let him explore his love of jazz.

“I’ve yet to find a cool jazz score,” said Burgomaster.