Thrilled to have my unusual cover of the Roy Orbison classic “In Dreams” featured in the trailer for season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers, out now on Hulu & Amazon Prime. Check it out from 1:00 until the end.
This track is extra special for me, as I have loved the song since the 1990s when I heard it in the iconic scene from Blue Velvet, David Lynch’s psychological thriller. Mimed beautifully by Dean Stockman, while Dennis Hopper slowly goes crazy in front of an assortment of misfits and a quietly terrified Kyle Maclaughlan.
I decided to rework it in 2017, using piano and drums from my scrapyard recording session, cello and sound design. Live violin courtesy of my friend Ben Green lifted it beautifully. I sang the vocals on the 1st version.
My trailer agent Pusher Music in LA loved the track, but said my vocal sounded a little strained on the high notes (if you’ve ever heard my deep gruff voice, you’ll agree that’s a fair comment). So I felt female vocals were the way forward.
I tried 7 different session vocalists, none of whom had the range of the legend Roy and couldn’t handle the song. They all asked if I could transpose it – nope, sorry. I wanted to keep it in the original key. I was so frustrated, I thought I would never be able to finish this track. So much effort had gone in to the production and mixing, and now it was stuck in limbo.
Fast forward 4 years. I met a girl, Claire, who became my girlfriend. She was a singer too. I asked if she would like to try a pass at In Dreams – and she absolutely nailed it!
She had the range, passion, pitch and flair. I couldn’t believe it! She did a masterful lead vocal, and together we built a huge choir of both our voices layered up for the backing vocals. Finally, my In Dreams cover was back in action.
Many more hours of mixing and mastering later…. in 2023, 6 years after the original mix I had a trailer version which sounded wild, and a straight cover which was true to the original arrangement. The trailer version was sent to Pusher for pitching, and the regular mix was released on Spotify and other platforms. The song was finally out there!
July 2024 – Hulu were cutting their trailer for Nine Perfect Strangers S2 using the track and loving it! They requested custom edits, so I obliged. It was looking promising. Then they came back asking if I could edit Roy Orbison’s original iconic vocal in – of course I can! (Lucky I insisted on keeping true to the original key all that time too). Claire understood – if you’re going to get bumped from lead vocals, it may as well be to Roy frikkin’ Orbison! She was still present alongside me on backing choir too.
I didn’t hear anything for a year. I assumed it had not landed in the end, as is often the case in the competitive world of trailer music. But then out of the blue I got the “Confirmation” email. It landed.
Even though I have landed music in the trailers for Alien: Covenant, and Star Wars: The Book Of Boba Fett, this one is almost more special to me because the track was such a journey to complete, and also I did it with the woman I love. I had lost hope of that track, and was at a point of losing hope for love too, and this track tied it all together, like something from in dreams.
Check out the non-trailer mix cover on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, Tidal and Amazon here
Mixed and mastered by me at Fat As Funk studio, my other job.
Automated Acoustics 