A la cult classic film, “High Fidelity” featuring John Cusack, Burlap Productions’ sound designer Glenn Swan has a top ten list you should tune into while reading this article:

1. Boxhead Ensemble – Telegraph Hill

2. Brian Eno – Neroli

3. Burlap Productions – Citrus Pulp On Board

4. Cinematic Orchestra – Child Song

5. Dave Brubeck Quartet – Broadway Bossa Nova

6. David Snell – International Flight

7. Harry Mudie Meets King Tubby – Heavy Duty Dub

8. The Meters – Ease Back

9. Nightmares on Wax – Fire in the Middle

10. Tortoise – DJed

Swan collects music like an artist shops for paint. He stockpiles sounds in his physical and digital libraries, always awaiting the right story to find their perfect match. This tendency stems from his youth making mixed tapes for friends. He applies the same principles to his sound design and his unique process can be heard at the All Saints Cinema’s screening of silent film “Nosferatu” on Oct. 10. 

“When you make a mixed tape for somebody the music you pick is really about what that person means to you or what you think they might enjoy,” says Swan. “[For Nosferatu] it is really about sharing the music. I want to reintroduce a great film and give it some contemporary exposure with some unusual, exciting, exotic and surprising music choices.”

The studio is Swan’s primary instrument, though he’s dabbled in keyboards and drum machines. During his time in Chicago, he recorded with a band that would play “round robin” with their instruments. Every new track involved passing a guitar, drum machine, keyboard and microphone around the circle.

Swan released an original album as Burlap Productions a few months ago. He also enjoys making thematic “mega-mixes” which he shares for free on SoundCloud, an online music-streaming platform. Swan recently compiled an 80-minute mix as an ode to 50 years of Japanese pop, traditional and electronic music and sound bites.

Another project was made in honor of his 30th high school reunion with 300 songs sourced from the 1980s.

“It’s the equivalent of three CDs worth of music, all overlapping, splintered and spliced together,” describes Swan, who took eight months to build his celebration of the decade. “I lean heavily on layering, treatments and effects.”

Though both of Swan’s parents were musicians — his father was a horn player and trumpet teacher and his mother directed music for her local church — it was his involvement in theater and acting that got him into sound design. Swan earned his BFA from Florida State University where he provided pre-show and intermission music for shows.

Swan continued acting professionally in Chicago and Los Angeles with sound design as a constant background accompaniment. Eventually it turned into a main focus as he created scores for more than 40 shows and won awards and recognition for his work.

“In theater, I’ve often said to people that sound design is a mixed tape for a script,” says Swan. “Your job is to read the script with your ears and figure out what sounds are needed to support the story. My goal and desire is to continue to suspend the disbelief and do everything I can sonically to keep audiences engaged.”

Even as he reads, Swan takes in the words with ears poised. If a scene describes a car pulling up into the driveway, his mind launches into a series of follow-up questions and decisions to be made. Is it an old, terribly loud jalopy that backfires or is it a modern electric car? Is the driveway gravel, smooth or dirt? Is it nighttime, are there crickets, is it raining? Does the character getting out of the car listen to music, and if so, what muffled music do we hear as they pull up?

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