Thies Bouwhuis
Could you tell us a bit about who you are and the kind of sounds you enjoy creating?
Yes! So I’m Thies, I’m a freelance composer/music producer/sound designer based in Nijmegen. I compose music on a pretty wide scale but if I am to pick my favorite sounds those would definitely include a great deal of carefully crafted drums/percussion and (analog) synthesizers.
I really love combining the power of electronic sounds with the soul of analog and live-recorded imperfections. Over the years I’ve found that creating sound in the most creative and “free” way possible leads to great results. For example: when I started working on the Metroselskabet project I received a whole lot of field recordings from the Metro system. One of the first things I did was to create a sampled instrument out of a heavily EQ’d train sound to use as an instrument layer playing the melody of my track “Travel Gently”. Choices like these make my work super fun, and they also bring a lot of authenticity to the music.
How did your journey with sound begin?
I’ve been fascinated with music and sound for as long as I can remember. When I was about 7 years old I was constantly sitting behind my dad’s upright piano which had a boombox radio on top. I managed to play melodies of popsongs by ear on the piano and this felt super magical to me at the time. My mom then signed me up for piano lessons but these weren’t so fun for me as my ears were developed way further than my ability to read notes. For me it was all about being creative and as a 7 year old I just wanted to play songs. And so I quit after 2 years to start playing drums at age 9 which made things a lot better for me. The notes were easier, I could immediately play along with songs like “We Will Rock You” and many others and it just clicked somehow.
I kept practicing, playing in bands, bigbands and a youth orchestra and I eventually went to study at the ArtEZ Conservatory in Enschede. During my studies I of course became a whole lot better as a drummer but I also learned a lot about harmony and aplying that to the piano. I did a studio and vocal minor and always found myself nerding out about music gear and production techniques. When I became part of the band “The Cool Quest” in 2014 my career took a big step forward. We toured a whole lot of venues, festivals, radio stations and TV shows all over Europe and when we weren’t playing live we’d either be rehearsing or creating music in the studio. After about 5 years of touring my love for the studio grew so much that I felt I needed more time for it. So I left The Cool Quest in 2019 and focused on my studio work while teaching drums to make a living. After practicing a lot, and following an online course on making music for brands I quickly found myself gaining traction as a freelance composer and my portfolio was growing in a steady pace.
Today I’ve composed music for over 100 clients already and I feel like I’m only just getting started!
How would you describe your music or sound style?
Like many others I listen to my works quite a lot while producing them. This automatically challenges me to create music that stays interesting or enjoyable, even when listened to over and over again.
I guess since I’m a drummer I’m all about groove and finding the right pace. Then I also love processing instruments quite heavily, especially drums and vocals, sometimes even in an unconventional way, as long as it makes the final result better. I guess a lot of that comes from playing and listening to a lot of hiphop music. Also, I’ve always loved jazz harmony and even when I create popsongs I tend to spice up the chords here and there, or create some interesting vocal choirs.
Tell us a bit about the Copenhagen Metro project.
Getting to see and work on the whole process really taught me a lot about the Sonic Minds way of working which has been really interesting for me! With many projects in the ads world you create something, they run it under an ad, and you’re on to the next. But in the case of Metro we really worked hard to create a whole world of sound that can apply to all sorts of use cases for their world.
What’s your favorite part of the sound creation process?
I guess it’s the moment when you catch your first idea, whatever that might be and then to reach that flowstate and find yourself locked in, creating something that you know will be good, something you’ll want to share with the world. Being able to create something that makes people feel a certain emotion that I’ve put in the music feels like magic to me, it’s what I love most!
What inspires you outside of music?
Many things: I love taking walks with my dog, cooking, deep conversations with friends, watching great movies and doing sports like tennis, windsurfing and snowboarding. A lot of times I get an idea when I’m in the middle of something else, I then either write it down on my phone or sing it into my phone. Oh and singing in the shower is a big one too haha!
What’s the weirdest or most remarkable sound you’ve ever recorded or used in a project?
Good question. I think this must have been recording or playing drums. I wanted to mimic a vinyl scratch sound so I turned my snaredrum upside down, started scratching the snare wires with a stick. I even integrated this in a full drumgroove. The only downside was that the resonant head of the drum broke down pretty quickly because it’s quite thin.
How do you approach translating a brand’s personality into sound?
I listen a lot, ask smart questions and try to picture the message that the brand wants to tell the world. Usually this then quickly inspires me to find the right instrumentation, tone and pace for the sound.
How do you know when a track or soundscape is finished, when it’s in its final form and doesn’t need anything more?
A lot of this comes from experience and using reference tracks and having a good system set up within your DAW. As soon as I find my initial idea I think of a structure and start setting up markers in my DAW so I can fill out and develop the music in a structural and purposeful way.
I always start with a template I created for myself. My template consists of the most basic bus-folders like drums, bass, keys, guitar and vocals so I can always quickly fold them in so I only see 5 faders. This really helps me use my ears rather than visualizing all my mix moves while in the meantime keeping things neat and tidy. Other than these folders I have some tools in there I use for mastering, a track for referencing and some aux tracks with reverbs and delays I like to use. Everything else can be added whithin the process itself but being able to save time setting things up keeps the flowstate flowing. When I feel like the music is getting finished I like to run through the whole track while taking notes. When I reach 3 notes I stop, fix them, run through it all again and when I have no more notes I know it’s finished.
