american cannibal

Doug Gillard:
Creative Process 101

By Randy Harward

Beneath the bombast and triumph of Doug Gillard’s guitar leads in Guided by Voices, there was a workmanlike quality, a craftsmanship that served the songs. It has made him a popular sideman (most recently backing up Knoxville singer-songwriter Stewart Pack on his new album, which also features Emily Haines on bass) and, now that GBV is dead the Charlotte-based musician is plying his trade in the film industry. In addition to 2005’s feature-length Donnybrook and the short films Creative Process 473 (for which a soundtrack was released in 2003) and porn spoof 101 Salvations (starring Ron Jeremy), Gillard has scored Acme Pictures’ reality documentary spoof American Cannibal. The film, released on DVD this fall, follows a pair of writer-producers as they try to hop on—and eventually fall off—the reality TV gravy train.

HARP: Did you whip out the wah pedal for 101 Salvations?

I really did, yeah. It’s about a gal and her husband… they throw a 101-man gangbang. It’s not graphic, visually—it’s clean—but it alludes to things.

HARP: What is it about the wah and porn?

It’s the stereotypical thing that everyone expects. So, since it’s the stereotype, people who do porn-themed films want that. I think [its sound] lends itself to porn, but I also think they started using it in the early 1970s because it… became popular in any sort of suspense situation in movies and TV shows, Mission: Impossible and Mod Squad and stuff like that. And the porn industry at the time probably [recognized] that it was the lowest budget thing you can do.

HARP: How do you score a reality documentary?

I worked with Terry and Michael, the directors of [American Cannibal], pretty closely for a lot of the scenes. What I would go for, in my mind? Turns out [it] wouldn’t be right for what they wanted. So it really helps to work with your directors intimately. A lot of times we had the computer with a QuickTime version of the movie and they’d give me dialogue cues. They knew what they wanted, which was good. There’s certainly an element of free reign with these film scores, too. Sometimes I’ll just do some beds of music that I think might fit in—there’s a few of those in American Cannibal.

HARP: You’re making music to order—was it similar to working in Guided by Voices where Robert Pollard wrote the songs?

I co-wrote a few things with him, but it was largely Bob. I would get these demo tapes of Bob playing into a boom box and… if there were any leads or licks involved, I would have free reign; I could bring it to the table. If it was something he didn’t think fit the song he would say so. And there were a few times that he did.

Reality Remix: American Cannibal

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