AUGUST 2025

MASA: We’d love to hear a little about your musical background? How did your journey from classical training at Yale to scoring blockbuster films unfold?

TREVOR: I started studying piano performance at UT Austin, focused on competitions and concert performance. But junior year, I fell in love with modern music and started exploring composition as an elective with composer Kevin Puts. He encouraged me to pivot toward composition for graduate school. I composed Prokofiev and Shostakovich-inspired pieces, gathering enough material for a senior recital and applied to Yale School of Music.

At Yale, I was committed to the traditional classical path until a summer internship with Philip Glass in NYC changed everything. Philip wasn't just writing concert music - he was this self- sufficient creative entrepreneur working across concert halls, film, television, and advertising. He owned his publishing and record label. It was a brilliant, diversified model.

That's when my Yale classmate Jay Wadley and I started Found Objects, our music production company. We began with advertising projects while I continued working for Philip for about six years. Eventually, Found Objects grew enough that we could focus on it full-time. Today, it's a full-service original music and sound company working across major brands and media projects.

As Found Objects expanded, we could be more selective, moving away from pure brand work and towards scoring film, tv, and games. For me, film scoring felt like the closest thing to long- form concert music within media - you're still crafting extended musical narratives, just with picture as your guide instead of pure abstract expression.

MASA: Can you tell us anything about what you're currently working on?

TREVOR: I just finished a short film called ***** (Five Stars), a dystopian gaming satire written and directed by Todd Wiseman Jr. Todd and I have this ongoing creative relationship - I previously scored his debut The School Duel. What makes our collaboration work is Todd's fearlessness in pushing boundaries and my willingness to match that intensity musically.

***** (Five Stars) is a brutal commentary on gamer culture and where ultra-realistic gaming might lead us. They literally shut down parts of Tampa to film this - car chases, explosions, helicopters, the works.

Musically, I went full electronic dance - think Justice-level intensity - but twisted it with horror scoring techniques. The centerpiece is this screaming cello performance that cuts through all the electronic mayhem. It's like taking a rave and dropping it into a nightmare.

MASA: Your collaboration with M. Night Shyamalan spans multiple projects, including Old and Servant. What makes your creative partnership with him so unique?

TREVOR: Working with Night across four seasons of Servant and the feature Old has been transformative in how I understand what music can do in storytelling.

With Night I learned the art of scoring the subtext - the story happening beneath what you're seeing. Music becomes this third narrator. In Servant, for instance there could be a scene where the family appears to be having a normal dinner conversation, but the music plays barely perceptible dissonances that tell you something is deeply wrong. It’s the music that’s guiding the narrative.

What's extraordinary about Night is his willingness to chase perfection right up to the final moment. I've literally sent new cues while they're on the mix stage. We're both relentless about finding those sounds and musical moments that are both mysterious and understandable.

He's a master of the unsettling - those moments where everything seems normal but something's just off. Music is essential to creating that atmospheric unease.

MASA: The score for Servant was described by The Hollywood Reporter as moving between "lullaby simplicity" and "experimental cacophony", showing how effectively you were able to craft a soundscape that moved effortlessly between simplicity and complexity to match the show's evolving narrative and atmosphere. Can you share how you developed this distinctive sound for the series?

TREVOR: Working with Night on Servant, we'd start each season with unattached musical ideas - idea 1, idea 2, idea 3 - giving him and his editors complete freedom to try them against different scenes.

Initially, I was writing dense, complex music, but the show demanded something different. We're trapped in this claustrophobic brownstone with just four main characters - the music needed transparency where you could hear every delicate component.

I discovered the sound that became Leanne's musical DNA: bowing and gently tapping a glockenspiel. It created this ethereal quality that let her float between worlds. Season 1 became my Webern score - sparse, crystalline. Light flutes, detuned violins, precise notes scattered like breadcrumbs.

As each season progressed, the music evolved with the intensifying supernatural elements. Season 2 introduced dissonance, Season 3 brought aggressive electronics, and by Season 4, with stakes becoming biblical, we'd moved into full "experimental cacophony" territory - the lullaby had become a nightmare.

MASA: Are you able to tell us about your experience of working on The Goldfinch? You created a theme for the painting itself. How did you approach composing a musical representation for this central object, and how did you weave it throughout the score to reflect Theo's journey?

TREVOR: The Goldfinch was my breakthrough into the film industry. Susan Jacobs, the music supervisor, took a chance on me after we'd worked together on a small indie. She challenged me to create a theme for the opening sequence that would carry the entire film, warning it would be an uphill battle to get the studio on board.

I focused on what the painting represented. Though Carel Fabritius's work is from the Dutch Golden Age, I saw something impressionistic in its emotional resonance. I wanted to capture those elusive chromatic colors you find in Debussy's Preludes - something beautiful but slightly out of reach, perfect for Theo's relationship with the painting and his longing for his mother.

The theme blended electronics with orchestral swells, creating this sense of memory and longing. To convince the studio, I wrote about 35 minutes of music on spec, demonstrating how the theme could be transformed throughout early cuts.

Eventually, the persistence paid off - they heard how the theme could unify the film's emotional arc, and I got the job.

MASA: How do you approach scoring psychological thrillers like The Crowded Room compared to science fiction dramas like Voyagers?

TREVOR: Theme is central to my approach, but how I craft those thematic ideas changes dramatically based on what the story needs.

With The Crowded Room, dealing with a character with multiple personalities, I kept the instrumentation grounded: piano, strings, and light electronics. That created a consistent musical foundation while giving the story room to shift and fragment. The audience needed something recognizable to hold onto.

Voyagers demanded a completely different approach. You're dealing with space, which has this rich musical tradition - from the sync music in 2001 to John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith's iconic scores. But our story is essentially "Lord of the Flies" in space: a group of abandoned kids on a spaceship coming into their own, with all the chaos that entails.

So while theme drives both scores, The Crowded Room required musical restraint to support an internal psychological journey, while Voyagers needed orchestral grandeur to match the epic setting while capturing the human story at its core.

MASA: Across your projects, how do you decide when to use live instruments versus electronic sounds to convey emotion or atmosphere?

TREVOR: I think about it like cinematography. A well-composed shot has structure and intention that you can feel. The same goes for music - when the harmonic voicing is thoughtful, when there's real breath in a performance, people perceive that craftsmanship even if they can't articulate why.

I always incorporate some live instrumentation - even if it's just one instrument. That live vocal buried in the mix or layered cello gives essential texture that prevents it from feeling boxy and pre-programmed.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for sample libraries and electronic tools. But I never want to lose the craft of actually playing instruments or writing good counterpoint and voicing. The decision usually comes down to what the scene needs emotionally. Electronics can give you precision, power, and otherworldly textures. Live instruments bring vulnerability, breath, and human imperfection.

MASA: You've mentioned using in your scores unconventional techniques such as Shepard tones and bowing unusual objects like you would a violin! Can you share a specific example of how these techniques enhanced a project?

TREVOR: Working with Night on Servant pushed me to explore unconventional sounds. He constantly wants something interesting and unexpected, which aligns with my classical background.

I'm influenced by composers like Penderecki and John Cage, who broke down barriers between what we expect from composers and listeners. If I'm trying to find unexplored sounds, why limit myself to traditional instruments or modes of playing?

In Season 1, Episode 1 of Servant, we needed something for a big twist. I discovered my speaker stand had this haunting sound when struck, so I miked it several ways and made it a central percussion element. The sound is so unidentifiable it creates this perfect uncanny valley effect.

This approach opens your creative world completely. Instead of reaching for your sample library, you start seeing everything as potential instruments.

MASA: And lastly, what will you be looking for when judging? What makes a piece of work worthy of a Music+Sound Award?

TREVOR: I'm looking for musical creativity and ingenuity above all else. I want to hear work that doesn't just sit alongside the picture but actively supports and enhances the narrative in unexpected ways.

There's something universal that happens when you encounter truly great work. It stops you in your tracks. You think, "I've never heard anything quite like this before.”

It could be an unconventional approach to a familiar genre, or traditional orchestration used surprisingly effectively. Maybe it's the composer finding the exact emotional tone that makes a scene unforgettable. I'm interested in work that shows real problem-solving.

I'm genuinely looking forward to reviewing the 2025 submissions in film and television alongside my fellow judges. It's going to be a fascinating year in review for music in media!