Demand for Indigenous composers is growing worldwide, say industry insiders – CBC

Mar 09, 2023

Métis composer Justin Delorme on what it takes to elevate story with the right music

It’s a short trip to the office for Justin Delorme, whose home studio begins where his living space ends. The room is filled with recognizable instruments — a drum kit, cello and guitar among them. But the tools of a composer differ from those in a typical music studio, and so there are also instruments such as the pedal steel guitar, which Delorme says is a bit of an oddball in the guitar world.

“It’s like a slab of wood with, in this case, 10 strings. And you play it like a guitar but it uses a bar instead of your fingers and you operate it with your feet and your knees,” said Delorme, who is Red River Métis with Métis and settler ancestry.

The uniqueness of an instrument like the pedal steel guitar adds to the immense catalogue of sound Delorme uses for his compositions for film, TV, podcasts and video games. With a double monitor setup for his computer, he watches a silent film or television episode on one side while controlling all of his recording tracks and virtual instruments on the other.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/indigenous-composers-justin-delorme-1.6771889