Album 9 - Murder Detective -Roseanna Angel Lawrence

I compose around characters that I create through fiction. This time one of the characters came from reading some forensic psychology research papers on psychopathy and killers. Ideas can come from anywhere. It was purely accidental and I hadn't planned on doing this type of story or album.

There are three characters in this album. A detective, a young female victim and a killer. The detective is obsessed with catching the killer. The killer believes he is cleverer than everyone else around him. He is egotistical. He believes others are to blame for his behaviour. The victim is able to see into the world she once lived and watch what is happening with her case. But no one else is aware of her presence.

I'm really interested in creating music that shows the psychological characteristics of people. Revealing personality through sounds and creating stories through music. That's probably because I studied psychology and I'm very interested in human behaviour and how people think. How music can affect the mind of the listener. How stories have different effects.

In the track 'Girl meets predator', you can hear the aggressive sounds of the predator through strings, bass and brass and sound design. You can also hear sounds that represent the innocence of the girl, both are moving within the same space. I cannot work without using orchestral instruments, they can bring characters to life. I compose with orchestral instruments and synthesisers in all my music.

We all know that childhood abuse can be linked to some serial killers but we also know that not all abused children become killers. Some research suggests that crime scenes and the killer's behaviour at a crime scene may be linked to how they were treated in childhood. Early caregiving is one part of a very complex puzzle.

There are a number of different theories for how some people become serial killers. One might look at genetics and epigenetics, also personality disorders like anti-social personality disorder and psychopathy are important. There are also different branches of research that can provide answers - psychosocial development, neuropsychological theories, neurobiological factors, the neurochemistry of violence and evolutionary Forensic Psychology are just a few. So it is a complex area that has been researched for years.

Brain scan's have been taken to see if there are differences between the brains of criminals and non-criminals. Adrian Raine is a British Psychologist who studied criminal behaviour and biology and took brain scans of criminals to see if there were distinct differences. Dr Raine said that in his opinion “Genetics and environment work together to encourage violent behavior.”

In criminal cases the killer tends to take centre stage and the victims can often be more in the background. The victims worlds, dreams, the interior of their minds and their lives are often not the focus, except for the detective and the families. In this album you can hear all the characters speak through the music soundscapes and words on this album.

There were also some coincidences that all came together when I was reading these psychology research papers.

I just happened to watch the film ‘No man of God’ starring Eliah wood and Luke Kirby. Eliah Wood often takes very diverse roles in films and seems willing to explore different territory. This is an excellent film and the FBI analyst Bill Hagmaier was an executive producer on this film. He used some of his own memories of this time in the prison in the scenes created. Which gives the film more authenticity. Due to the title, you can see that it has a religious angle, as the FBI agent was a religious man and there is the premise that a killer will meet justice after death. But you do not have to be religious to appreciate the film and the acting . Whether you have the belief that we all pay for crimes committed in our lifetime after death or you do not believe this. It's a great film.

I wouldn’t say I sing on some of the tracks. I'm not a singer. I’d say I use sentences some of which just came to me often without any planning or thought while standing in front of a microphone. There is no firm structure. Some words took two minutes and I used them without re-doing them to sound better . Nor are they all particularly melodic. I had covid at this time and was very ill with it. I lost my voice for about 4 weeks so could only speak a few words at a time. I could have stopped and waited but I carried on and left the words as they were. This album does have a lack of 'pristine' sounds at times, however, it seemed to work. I also have the music playing a different beat to the words. This can create a feeling of unease for the listener.

I wanted this to be quite a haunting album. Music effects the mind of the listener and this album is really a story told through music.