David Bowie discusses John Lennon’s sense of humour in 1999
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David Bowie was someone whose reputation preceded him, as he was known for his quick wit and keen ear for music. But his various personas on stage meant it was hard to know what the man himself was truly like. Composer and sound designer Sefi Carmel worked with him at his Tel Aviv concert and got an insight into who he really was.
For most fans, meeting their idols is an exciting, but also frightening experience.
If they do not meet your expectations, that can be a crushing blow to your fandom.
For Sefi Carmel, whose work in the entertainment industry spans decades, meeting David Bowie did not disappoint on any level.
In an exclusive interview about sound design, and the way in which his work has evolved over the years, Sefi explained how David was ‘down to earth’ and surpassed all his expectations.
Sefi was mixing a recording of a concert David performed alongside Massive Attack and Howie B in Tel Aviv in 1996, and David came by to find out how things were going.
Sefi said: “I’m a huge Bowie fan and I don’t get starstruck easily. But you know, that [Bowie] was kind of a small deity for me…
“Dave, as he asked to be called, came to the studio and we were speaking to the studio where I worked, speaking to the promoter that had brought him to Israel.
“And [we asked], ‘Is there a rider? You know, should we have anything special?’
“And he [Bowie] came over and he said, ‘Where’s your kettle, I’ll make the tea. Got any biscuits?’
“He was so down to earth and lovely. And, you know, I played him what we were mixing, and he said, ‘That’s good, that is,’ and patted me on the shoulder and left.”
Despite such a short exchange, Sefi said he was amazed at how kind David was, and how willing he was to let the producers and mixers do their job.
However, in Sefi’s career, where he has worked with some greats of the big screen and the music business like Phil Collins and Ridley Scott, this is not uncommon.
He added: “I think the really, really big stars, I find, are usually really lovely people. They don’t have anything to prove.”
Outside of working with David, Sefi’s career has been incredibly varied, working in film doing everything from sound mixing to over-dubbing and foley art, which is the creation of sound effects.
Speaking of his work in foley, Sefi explained some of the stranger sounds he has had to create, and how directors he has partnered with felt about them.
He said: “I was working once on a documentary where there was a shot of someone slaloming on a mountainside, and we couldn’t really find something [a sound for it].
“We were looking for kind of washy sounds and they were not distinct enough for what the director wanted.
“We tried various stuff, and then the director went for lunch and he came back and I’d found something and I put it onto the movie, and he said, ‘This is amazing. What is this? It works so well with the slaloming.’
“And I said, ‘I’m not telling you, because if I tell you, that’s all you’ll hear.’”
The director, needless to say, continued to push, and eventually Sefi admitted to the incredible sound he chose to replicate skiing down a mountain.
He said: “It was toast. It was a knife on a toast – and it worked to a tee.
“And then, of course, he [the director] said, ‘Now I can just hear those, take it away. We have to lose that.’”
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