Film and TV composer Ames Bessada, who composed music for five seasons of Holly Hobbie, three episodes of Irish Blood, and two episodes of Black Mirror (including the much-discussed “Joan Is Awful”), is sitting in their home studio in Los Angeles. With two guitars on stands right behind them, Bessada reaches for a mandolin just out of the Zoom frame.
“I have seven or eight guitar or stringed things, like resonators, mandolins, banjos; then I have a bunch of percussion; and the synth setup is growing, but needs to slow down. I do a lot of Euroracks, where it’s modular, and you have wires everywhere. It’s fun, but it’s ugly-looking,” Bessada laughs.
“I keep things manageable. I like to be able to access all the instruments. I try not to write, at this point, for too many big orchestral things, because I’m not a conductor. I’m trying to keep everything as live as possible. The whole synth section is covered up right now, because it’s not happening, but I love diving in there.”
If Bessada can’t play it themselves, they have go-to musicians – like drummer Morgan Doctor, who played the bodhrán (Celtic hand drum), or fiddle player Rowen Merrill, both for Irish Blood. “But I try to keep it all within arm’s reach,” they say.
Select the image to access music by Ames Bessada from Black Mirror
Since composing 10 episodes of Astrid and Lilly Save the World (2022); eight episodes of reality show Shine True (2021); and 32 episodes of Holly Hobbie (2018-2022), Bessada has composed for longtime friend Ally Pankiw’s debut film, I Used To Be Funny; Jen Markowitz’ Summer Qamp; and Michelle Mama’s The Nature of Things episode “Fluid: Life Beyond the Binary,” among other projects. Next year, Mama’s documentary Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, is expected to drop.
“We wanted to distinguish the score from Carole’s music, because why would I try to compete with that?” says Bessada. “You’re trying to stay out of the way of dialogue, and just want to be there to support the moments. We were really trying to find the inner world of Carole, which I hope we did.”
Bessada, who was born in Toronto but now lives in Los Angeles, didn’t set out to be a screen composer. In their mid-teens through their twenties, they wanted to be a performer and songwriter, and toured with various bands. Their first big opportunity was when they appeared on the 2014 VH1 reality show, Make or Break: The Linda Perry Project, which cemented a mentorship with the songwriting legend (who’s worked with Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, and P!NK). Perry signed Bessada to her label, and produced their 2015 debut EP, A Dream, A Coast. “It never really went anywhere, and I shifted focus,” they say.
But while bartending to make ends meet, Bessada also dabbled in acting, working on a short film, Stake, with Pankiw – who asked them to write some music for it, too. Bessada says, “Then, someone else who was familiar with the CFC [Canadian Film Centre] was, like, ‘You should try to get into this.’ They said, ‘It’s life-changing. It’ll really re-direct you.’”
Bessada says the nine-month, part-time CFC lab program, the Slaight Music Residency, required them to work on a handful of short films. During the mentorship portion, she met Toronto’s Lesley Barber, one of the industry’s most successful composers (Manchester by the Sea, You Can Count on Me, Hysterical Blindness, Little Bear).
“After we’d finished the year, I asked to apprentice with her, if we could continue the mentorship,” says Bessada. “I worked on a couple of films, and I had to leave the bartending. I just didn’t have time to do both. Removing that safety net was the best thing, because then it was, like, ‘Aright, I have to figure this out.’ My personality is a bit all-or-nothing. This is the path I’m choosing… [and] in order to succeed and exceed as a composer, you need to dedicate 12 or 14 hours a day.”
Select the image to access music by Ames Bessada in the trailer for Irish Blood
During their apprenticeship, Bessada worked with Barber on the series Four Weddings and a Funeral, and feature films, including Late Night and American Woman. One piece of advice from Barber that stuck was, “treat it like it’s brain surgery, and remember that it’s not.”
Their goal is to service the picture. They consult with the director – or, if a series has multiple directors, the showrunner – on what they want, and the vibe of the project. “Sometimes, I feel like it’s better when I get to see the script before they’ve shot anything, because there’s more freedom in that,” says Bessada. “But a lot of the time, [when] the show is in post-production, they realize they need so much more music than they initially thought, and the first idea has to be the best idea – because you have to catch up.”
Bessada has a lot of repeat clients now, and new ones often come from word of mouth. Recently, they finished contributing to a Tubi film directed by their friend Fawzia Mirza, Kissing is the Easy Part, and Irish Blood is getting a second season. There are also a couple of other potential projects for which Bessada is hoping to work.
The beautiful music they create could exist as a collection of stand-alone pieces, but only snippets are used in a film or TV show. They never compose full suites, they say. Would they ever put out an album of their instrumental compositions?
“Netflix was great, because we when we finished the episode of Black Mirror, they came back and were, like, ‘We want to release it as a Spotify soundtrack, and we’re going to master it,’ and do these extra things that you don’t often do when you’re working on your own as a composer. So, that was nice,” says Bessada, adding, “I don’t know if there could be a point where I go, ‘I’m going to take a bunch of these and put them together in an album.’ To me, the Irish Blood stuff is one thing, and then I leave that and I do the next thing. They just [each] exist in their own world.”