PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Travis Sedg Bacon has quietly carved out a space for himself in the darker corners of music and film — not by following tradition, but by actively pushing against it. Known for his work in the industrial metal band CONTRACULT and for composing genre-bending scores for film and television, Bacon brings an experimental, fearless mindset to everything he creates.
His score for the vampire short 15 to Sunrise showcases that approach in full force. Merging industrial soundscapes, unsettling vocal performances from Mayhem’s Attila Csihar and actress Rebekah Rawhouser, and a reverence for early 2000s horror, this score is proof that sound can fundamentally alter how a story is told and felt.
In an interview with PopHorror, Bacon reflects on his journey into film composition, collaborating with unconventional voices, his appreciation for horror influences and why the genre continues to offer endless sonic possibilities.
PopHorror: 15 to Sunrise premiered recently at the Atlanta Horror Film Festival. How has everything been for you as people are starting to see it and hear the score that you created? Has any feedback really stood out to you?
Travis Bacon: I had a lot of people get in touch with me through one of the performers that is featured in the soundtrack, my friend Attila Csihar, who most notably sings for a metal band called Mayhem. I had a few people reach out and say that they’ve always wanted to hear his voice on a film score. That was cool because sometimes — and I love metal music and the metal community — it can be one of the most gatekeeping, hostile genres of music that exists, and anytime an artist makes a departure outside of the general sphere of their genre, sometimes there’s a lot of pushback from that. But I got a lot of positive feedback from some of his fans saying, “I really wanted to hear him in more film composition, the formulation of his sound and his vocal performance.” So that was nice to hear because that’s what I wanted out of it as well.
PopHorror: Has Attila never done something like this before?
Travis Bacon: He’s done a lot of different projects, but I’m not sure if he’s ever done anything directly for film. He’s done a lot of ambient works, whether that be with full-fledged orchestras or he went and performed inside of a mosque for eight hours with a mild horn section. He used to sing for a project called Sunn O))) as well, which is famously just guitar and bass tones over and over again with no real percussive elements. He was part of that project for a while, and he has a solo project that’s just vocal based as well. So he’s done a lot of things outside of the sphere of Mayhem, but I don’t know about necessarily anything directly to picture like this project was.
PopHorror: How did you get into this line of work, especially creating these darker sounds for horror movies such as 15 to Sunrise? Was there a moment where you realized, “This is my thing,” while growing up?
Travis Bacon: I’ve always been a musician and a huge fan of film, as well as music. There was a pretty major shift in film composition through the early 2000s where people wanted something larger outside of your typical orchestral scores, artists that weren’t necessarily your typical echelon like John Williams or Hans Zimmer and so on…although that’s not completely true because Hans Zimmer came from punk bands. I love orchestral scores as well, but I’ve been really drawn to seeing what else people can do sonically and creatively.
When I started following some of the works of composers a little closer, The Haxan Cloak, Trent [Reznor] and Atticus [Ross] or Tyler Bates, I saw film composition as being something much larger than just a typical, classically-minded orchestrator. That’s really what got me interested in it. I was already producing a lot with a big background in production and I had an industrial band. But it was probably around that time, just watching some of those films and just hearing what could be done, that I got excited about the idea of composing primarily for horror and genre stuff. Because usually, that’s the content that’s a little more open to those really cold sounds.
PopHorror: How did you come to be involved in 15 to Sunrise? And what drew you to this project?
Travis Bacon: I have a horror company called Slashtag Cinema. We had a short film that premiered two years ago and we went on a little festival run with it. It’s a film called Keep Coming Back. We were at a festival called FilmQuest and there was another film that was in our shorts block, The Harvester. Really incredible sci-fi film that was without a doubt my favorite one in the bunch, mostly a non-dialogued film centering around this post-apocalyptic character that needs to harvest some kind of natural resource from this decrepit earth to keep his life going. One of my co-creators on the project and I were in Utah at this festival, and we just ended up becoming friends with the filmmakers and star of The Harvester, Joel Austin, who directed and created 15 to Sunrise. While we were there, he told me about the project and said he needed a composer.
Partially what drew me to it, he was really open for what the music could be. He also had temp music that had a vocal component on it, and I had previously recorded some vocals with Attila to pitch for another project, which they didn’t want the sound for and thought I was crazy for the idea. But I had a feeling that I might be able to segue that into this project. I was really excited about the possibility of using it.
And really what drew me to it and made it such a great working experience was just how open he was to experimenting and also open to the fact that I, having seen the film, saw the film a little bit differently than maybe what he had anticipated. He was open to my notes of how I saw it differently and he was open to seeing how the music would change that — and it really did. He was excited about it, not resistant of it. It can be an interesting place to be in because somebody has a very strong vision for what they want their project to be, and the music can ultimately change that vision.
PopHorror: That’s so interesting that you had some of the vocals already recorded even before meeting Joel Austin. Is the final result for 15 to Sunrise similar at all to what you were envisioning when you first recorded with Attila?
Travis Bacon: Somewhat. If you compared both, the pitch that I made for the previous project and then this one, you’d find some similarities. But they’re not really in the same world or sonic sphere as each other. But I at least had the vocals done, so I was able to use them for some similar melodies and then some for just other moments that were there. When I had Attila here, I had him record a series of a couple rises, grunts and things of that nature. And then in one or two areas where I needed a specific melody that followed a theme, those themes were reworked. But I think the overall sonic sphere of both projects are really different from each other.
PopHorror: What does your creative process look like? How do you go about building this sonic world that these characters live in?
Travis Bacon: It’s always a little different. I’ve had projects where I’ve come in really early on, even before the filmmaker starts making their film, and they want to hear some music and I’ll give them a certain amount for them to cut to. And there’s been times when all of that music is used in the final edit, production and mix of the film, and the baseline I started with actually becomes the movie. Then there’s been times when I’ve either just not done that and I’ve let the directors ride with the temp for a little while, and they create what they want and then we find a place for that. Sometimes, quite simply, the initial intention that I thought something could be is just not what it becomes. Or I realize partially the way through, once a film is actually delivered to me to put final music to picture on, it could take on an entirely different character. Maybe something was used in the temp music that now makes me realize that the film needed a different component that didn’t exist there before, or wasn’t what I had intended.
You have to trust the process and trust the thing that you’re working on. I mean, as composers, we all want to have our big Trent Reznor or Cristóbal [Tapia de Veer] — who scored White Lotus and Smile — moment, those big collaborations where the music becomes a whole other character of it, and you’re really known for it and recognized for it. But ultimately, you’re there to make music for somebody else’s project, so you have to have some willingness to adapt.
PopHorror: In addition to Attila, the score also features some vocals from 15 to Sunrise actress Rebecca Rawhouser. What was it like working with her and blending her voice in, which is very different from the rest of it?
Travis Bacon: In the film, she actually sings that little Hebrew passage and initially, the first score delivery didn’t have those vocals there. The director really wanted it on the final score and we tried to pull it from the initial film audio, and it just wasn’t working. So she emailed me a passage of her singing it clean. She had no key reference, she had no metronome or anything. But I thought she did really well on it and I can’t see that cue without her vocals on it. So it was really great that she was willing to get involved after shooting it.
PopHorror: This film really has a strong early 2000s horror aesthetic to it. Did that visual tone influence the style of the score at all? Were any of your personal favorite horror movies on your mind during the creative process?
Travis Bacon: When we first watched it in my studio, Joel and I, he just had a different idea for what it was. The music was kind of smaller, or more minimal. He referenced films that he loves, like Only Lovers Left Alive and Let the Right One In, some of these more elevated vampire stories. I felt that with what we were watching, but also, the characters are so pronounced. There’s some of them that just feel so iconic and the kind of thing you could build a Halloween costume to.
So I told him after watching, “I hope this doesn’t offend, because it wouldn’t offend me, but people have different tastes and this isn’t exactly a Siskel and Ebert reference, but I’m really getting some Blade, Queen of the Damned vibes from your movie. Are you okay if I try to bring that into this score a little bit? I’m not saying it’s going to be pumping house music, but a few more synthesizers at key moments.” I did want it to be a hybrid score and I wanted to have some aspects of orchestration and everything. And it’s vampiric, so it does have to feel a little larger than life, at least in what this was. So I pitched that idea to him, saying, “Are you willing for that? Because this is what I’m feeling and seeing, and that, I think, is at least missing from the temp that you used here.”
He didn’t slam the door and walk out of my studio immediately. [laughs] I know he was actually excited about that and didn’t really think of it that way, with more industrial tense textures, more heavy guitars and deep, arpeggiated synthesizers and all that stuff. That definitely influenced the music a lot.
PopHorror: Was there anything unconventional that you experimented with when you were making the score?
Travis Bacon: The vocals, for sure. And I used a harpsichord a lot, which we kind of know as a pretty quintessential vampire score instrument. I think it can be used in a really exceptionally cheeseball way. So I tried to do that a little differently just by the way that I processed the sound, which notes and tones I chose to use, especially the really deep notes and lower notes on the scale of that instrument, which can sound like an anvil hitting metal. I wanted to emulate that as much as possible so that you really felt those hits.
PopHorror: We touched earlier on the horror movies that influenced the score of 15 to Sunrise. Outside of that project, are you a fan of horror? If so, have any inspired your sound in other areas, such as your band CONTRACULT?
Travis Bacon: I’m a huge horror fan. Massive horror fan. The G.O.A.T. for me is [John] Carpenter and Halloween, the night he came home. I still hold that to an incredibly high standard when it comes to horror films. The Exorcist, Rosemary’s Baby, especially from a music standpoint. I really love the score to films like Devil’s Rejects, for sure. Just something that’s so dissonant and dirty, and really encapsulates what we’re watching. And then some newer ones, I think all the Purge movies have really great music. It’s very much in my wheelhouse of what I listen to, what I play, what I enjoy. They’re very industrial, but also really thematic. There’s a lot there to hold on to than just noisy sounds. If I had to pick another favorite one right below Halloween, it would be a Japanese film called Audition. I just love that movie. It’s fucked up.
PopHorror: I’d love to learn more about your band. Did that creative path come before your work composing? Do those different avenues influence each other at all?
Travis Bacon: I’ve been playing in bands since I was about 11 years old, so the band work definitely came first. This band, some version of it started around the same time that I started composing for film. We’re called CONTRACULT and we play a heavier metal industrial sound with some more hooks and modern rock elements to us. I find constantly that one ends up inspiring the other in some way, whether that be I need a really great pummeling bass synth pattern for a film I’m working on or I need a really great swell into a chorus for the band. I’m always trading off samples, ideas and sounds from one to another. They both just make my work in separate fields better because of each other.
Even if I am in a position to use some of the same samples for either project, I always make an extra effort to — and that’s probably giving myself away — manipulate whatever sound it is so there’s some authenticity to the purpose of using that sound for said project. I want to be known for having a thing, but not be known for, “Oh, there’s that string bend again,” “There’s that cluster I heard already from X, Y and Z.”
PopHorror: Regarding your composing work, you also wrote the soundtrack for The Bondsman, which is a totally different vibe from a vampire movie. What did that project teach you about yourself and your craft?
Travis Bacon: That was an interesting project because I had pitched for it initially and I didn’t get it. Then my good friend Tyler Bates pitched for and was offered it. It was kind of the perfect storm of timing because he had some touring booked and some other conflicts around the same time, and was going to need to bring some people on in order to make all of that work. So he asked me to come on for that because he knew that I was going after it and wanted it.
That was one of the first times that I really exercised and developed some of my more orchestral-minded skills. I’m not classically trained. I definitely don’t have any typical experience working with notation or really writing out scores in a way that we’re known to do, that skill. So there was a lot of thinking on my feet and figuring things out. I listened to a lot of orchestration, really studying and saying, “Okay, so I see when a horn section is doing this and the string sections are doing this, we might need a component that gives this here.” Truthfully, it was tough with that project because they were developing what they wanted in the beginning, and the first pass of music that we did on an episode was vastly different than what they ended up wanting later on and what they ended up getting. As with any project, there was definitely some disappointment from being excited about the thing that we were going to create for the medium and then having the powers that be say that it wasn’t the right thing.
I learned a ton from that experience. I really strengthened my orchestration skills, which I think shows in 15 to Sunrise. It was just a really fun and interesting experience working on something of that professional caliber, but also working with Tyler and his team and seeing what can happen when you’ve done enough films. You’ve made your way in the industry enough to have a real crew and have a real team behind you, be able to outsource some of the work that way, know how to communicate and what spotting sessions look like with full networks on board, how to keep everybody happy and also try to not drive yourself crazy. I wouldn’t have changed any of that, though.
PopHorror: Looking ahead, is there any genre or type of film/show that you haven’t scored yet, but you hope to someday?
Travis Bacon: I’d really like to do some heavy action stuff, something like a John Wick or something of that nature. It’s a tremendous amount of work. It’s wall to wall to wall music. But I would really love to lay down some stuff for some heavy chase scenes and big fighting scenes, that kind of thing.
PopHorror: Is there anything upcoming that you’d like people to know about?
Travis Bacon: I have another soundtrack coming out this year for a film called Carry the Darkness. That’s a fun one. It’s a supernatural story that takes place around the satanic panic era and focuses around some teenage kids that listen to metal. It’s definitely a pretty atmospheric score, but I primarily used only instruments that you would use in metal bands in kind of unconventional ways. There’s a lot of bowed guitar and ambient textures that are made with feedback and EBows and such, and I’m excited to release that. They got distribution for the film, so that’s exciting as well. And then I’m going to be dropping a solo EP at some point.
PopHorror: Have you done solo work previously? And is there anything you can share about the EP at this point?
Travis Bacon: Not like this. It’s always been soundtrack work, but it’ll be under the same moniker that I’ve been putting my soundtrack work out on, just my full name — Travis Sedg Bacon. The EP is definitely a departure from anything that I’ve done before. It’s something you’ve never heard. It came about similarly to how 15 to Sunrise did, where I had some rejected dark acoustic cues laying around and I started dropping heavy beats to them, and this is what came out of it.
PopHorror: Do you have any final words for readers, especially regarding the 15 to Sunrise soundtrack?
Travis Bacon: I think it’s open to people’s interpretation. And the only other thing I would say is, if you like the movie, try to listen to the soundtrack. It’s definitely a tough sell. I get it. You could be listening to a lot of just tonal space. But the composers put a ton into these projects. Given mixing, taste and everything else, our full vision is hardly fully realized when you’re watching a film, and that’s okay. I’m not trying to make a pity party for the composer or anything. But if you have the time to check it out, usually on a soundtrack, you’re going to hear what the initial intention was for the project. So take the time if you love a film. You can usually find our work on streaming platforms if we took the time to do it. And we did it because we want the fans to hear it that way.
Thanks for speaking with us, Travis! The 15 to Sunrise soundtrack is available on all music streaming platforms.
