I am currently writing horror music for my orchestral horror music project, The Daemon Symphony.
The basis for all the music I will write for this artist comes from using search terms as the starting point, “Horror music for…”
For example, “Horror music for exploring an abandoned asylum at night.”
Super creepy!
I used the awesome free tool Keyword Sheeter to generate keywords, and then Google Gemini to help compile them into a list that I could use as my starting point.
Each of those terms will be the starting point for an album of tracks.
That's the plan anyway.
This first album will be called
“Horror Music for Exploring an Abandoned Asylum at Night”
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Starting by creating an atmosphere
The track starts with some atmosphere supplied by one of my favourite instruments, Photosynthesis.
I layer that with a low, moving string drone.
I added some more strings to emphasise the major tonality and also give some more movement and texture.
These samples are courtesy of Spitfire Audio’s EVO Grid, which is just excellent for this type of stuff.
Adding the creepy "musical" elements
As we are introducing the idea of an asylum on the hill, I want it to feel a little creepy, like there is a ghostly piano track playing in the next room.
The first step to this is to compose the piano idea.
Then I change the key of it so that it clashes with the drone, creating more tension. I dropped it down from the key of C minor to F#minor so that it is a tritone away from the root.
To make it feel like it is coming from somewhere else, I put the piano through a reverb send and set it to pre-fader.
This just means that the signal to send is not affected by the channel volume. Which means I can remove the dry signal by turning the channel volume down and then have the piano signal only come through the reverb send (completely wet).
I then automated the send amount so the piano feels like it is wafting through the air, in a ghostly fashion.
To finish it off, and to keep the theme of ghostly music from another room, I created a music box theme in another key and sent that through the reverb in the same way I did with the piano.
Adding extra layers to give it more development
To give the track some “development”, I layered the strings with some pads that are playing more tense, extended chords (diminished and min/maj7).
The Finished Track - The Asylum on the Hill
Now you have seen the stages I went through, let's listen to the finished track, The Asylum on the Hill.
I admit, with this music playing, I look a little creepy sat there in the corner 😂
What do I do now that I have finished the track?,
I have decided that my main marketing focus, the main way to find listeners, for my record label and all the music I write for it, is to use YouTube.
Each of my artists has their own YouTube channel (here is The Daemon Symphony’s YouTube channel), and I also have various themed channels to showcase my music to different audiences based on genres/vibes, etc.
Here’s the full breakdown of my YouTube music marketing strategy.
For my darker horror/thriller music, I use my channel ‘The Tenebrae Projects’ to share it.
Over the years, YouTube has been my biggest driver for listeners (except for the one time I was randomly put on a curated Apple Music playlist).
So, if I apply the 80/20 rule to “what action brings in the most listeners to my music?”
Then the answer is YouTube!
