Horror composer Andrew Scott Bell decided to do something that would bee a little different when composing the score for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Courtesy of Dread Central, we’ve learned that Bell utilized a violin-turned-bee-hive for the score. According to the composer, his involvement with the film started with a simple Instagram DM.
After that, Bell contacted Frake-Waterfield and got the gig. Then, as soon as he started, Bell discovered the work of luthier Tyler Thackray, who makes stringed instruments. A project that he had been working on was a be-filled violin. So Bell reached out via Instagram, asking if he could use the instrument and help remove it from the hive. To which Thackray said yes.
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Getting The Violin
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“Okay, so I just had the most amazing, wild, weird, crazy, fun, experimental, interesting, wacky trip I’ve had my whole career.”
Bell documented his journey to retrieve his new bee-filled violin from Thackray in a video that was exclusively for Dread Central. In order to do so, he needed to make a two-day drive to San Francisco, where the beehive was. Bell’s good friend and manager, Mike Rosen, was accompanying him on the journey.
Upon reaching the property, Bell and Thackray donned their protective beekeeping gear and went to retrieve the violin. The instrument was part of one of the frames of the deep brood box, the inside filled with bees and honeycomb. After that, it became a matter of adding the other pieces of the violin, the neck, the bridge, and the strings, to the instrument. Both Bell and Rosen were confident that Thackray, as a “Mad scientist genius,” would make it playable.
As Bell explained at the tail end of the video, he would keep releasing bees in the backyard as he did the score for Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. He closed the video by saying, “it was an incredible trip. I’m so thankful for Tyler Thackray for having us and letting us into his world and letting us experience that, but also letting us take it home and record music with it.” He was also thankful to Rosen and for anyone who watched the video, who were a part of this too.
You can see the journey for yourself here:
