Including Silverchair’s ‘Tomorrow’ Reimagined in Mandarin Streaming!
New Gold Mountain tells an incredible story and to have Cat and Robby reimagine Tomorrow in Mandarin is both inventive and inspiring – I love it.
Daniel Johns.
The ground-breaking original soundtrack for New Gold Mountain is released today as the much-anticipated four-part drama series debuts on SBS.
Alongside an innovative original score by multi-award winning Australian screen composer Caitlin Yeo, the soundtrack includes an inspired new interpretation of Silverchair’s classic track ‘Tomorrow’produced by Robby De Sá and performed in Mandarin by Cat Stratton of Sydney based duo on the rise, Cat & Calmell.
“It’s such an iconic song, and it’s a song even my dad knows, which is testament to just how iconic it is,” said Cat Stratton. “Translating the lyrics into Mandarin was certainly interesting. For example, “fat boy” doesn’t sing as well in Mandarin as it does in English and contextually just doesn’t feel the same, so I had to take some artistic liberties with it and come up with lyrics that fit the narrative of the song. So, it was cool to rework it in that way. It was super fun to record.”
Bold, ruthless and darkly humorous, New Gold Mountain brings to the screen for the very first time, the remarkable and untold story of the Chinese miners who arrived in the Victorian Goldfields in their thousands in the 1850s to try to make their fortune.
“My approach for scoring New Gold Mountain was to find a sound world that explored the clash of cultures amidst the gold rush, from a Chinese perspective,” said Caitlin Yeo. “The music needed to imbue an off-kilter twist to the revisionist wild west whilst adding a sense of mystery to the show. I used Chinese instruments such as Dizi, Pipa and Guqin for the western characters, and western colonial instruments such as steel string guitars, low Irish whistles and fiddles for the Chinese. Dramatically this had a great effect to create a sense of antagonism and tension between the races.”
To echo the unifying drive that ties all of the series’ characters together, the search for gold, Yeo used one unusual but key sound across the score, the humble gold pan.
“I asked the producer to bring me back a gold pan from the set to see if there were any sounds that it could bring to the series. As it happened, it became a key element for the percussion, a real gold mine of timbres and tones!” said Yeo.
“Being mixed Australian/Singaporean Chinese, the process of working on the show was profoundly moving and transformational, as I found myself continuously reflecting on my own experiences as a Chinese woman growing up in Australia. Somehow this show has taught me more about myself and my heritage, and gave me the permission to embrace the Chinese part of who I am.”
New Gold Mountain airs over two weeks premiering tonight (Wednesday 13 October) at 9.30pm and continuing on Thursday 14 October, Wednesday 20 October, and Thursday 21 October at 9.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand.
New Gold Mountain Original Soundtrack is available on all streaming platforms now.
NEW GOLD MOUNTAIN
Original Soundtrack by Caitlin Yeo and Cat Stratton
The soundtrack is streaming on all platforms from today (Wednesday 13 October)
ABOUT CAITLIN YEO
Caitlin is an acclaimed, multi-award-winning Australian screen composer. Her signature style emerges from a fascination with music from different cultures and 20th century form. Her compositions are alive with a deep love of telling stories with music.
Caitlin has recently composed the music for the TV drama series’ Wakefield for Jungle Entertainment/ABC TV and the upcoming New Gold Mountain for Goalpost Pictures/SBS TV. She is currently working on the TV series’ The PM’s Daughter for Fremantle Media/ABC TV and True Colours for Bunya Productions/SBS TV.
Caitlin’s score for Priscilla Cameron’s The Butterfly Tree was awarded ‘Feature Film Score of the Year’ and ‘Best Soundtrack Album’ at the 2018 APRA Screen Music Awards. Her work on Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan won ‘Best Original Score’ at the 2019 FCCA Awards.
