The Song That Made Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell Dance at the Golden Globes
That impossible-to-resist song, and what’s surprising and special about its composer Kevin MacLeod
The song that Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell couldn’t help but dance to is special. It was composed by Kevin MacLeod, and is called Fluffing a Duck.
Kevin MacLeod has an extensive library of music, and most likely you’ve heard a lot of it, because MacLeod has allowed all of his music to be used royalty-free. I’m grateful for this generosity because he helped me complete a project I was working on.
I wrote a play called “Mindfulness the Musical.” I’m not a musician, but I hoped to find someone to write songs for the play. I work at a school and offered the script to the drama department.
In the play, a middle school girl goes to school with the best of intentions. She wants to be do well, be popular, maybe find romance. But two parts of her brain are embodied outside of her, her amygdala (Amy, dressed as a dinosaur to represent her reptilian part of her brain) and her prefrontal cortex (Cory, dressed in a business suit and ready to organize). As she starts to experience academic and social stress, Amy and Cory demonstrate how hard it is to think when your body feels stressed. The play is meant to help middle school kids understand how parts of their brains work, and teach them skills to keep their amygdala from short-circuiting their own prefrontal cortex.
The play was performed at the school last year, with a student director. She asked for music, and I suggested we do it as a straight play, as I had no one to write the music.
Then I stumbled upon Kevin MacLeod’s extensive library of free music. There are only seven songs in my play, and I chose ones that sounded like they belonged in a middle school musicial. There was much to choose from.
Kristen Wiig and Will Ferrell danced to Fluffing a Duck, a great example of the catchy, sweet, joyful music that Kevin MacLeod is known for.
If you are on social media, most likely you’ve heard his music over and over. My director said of one of the songs I originally picked, “Oh, the TikTok song.” I went back to MacLeod’s library, as I wanted music that would be fresh to the audience’s ears.
It took me several weeks to change up my lyrics to fit his songs, but the end result was fun and entertaining, and communicated the message I was trying to convey.
I’m grateful Kevin Macleod’s decision to give his music away royalty-free helped me make my project a realty. I guess the Golden Globes can say the same.
If you need music for a project, you’ll find his library extensive, and all he asks is that you credit his work. He has made a generous gift to the world, and now his music has an unpredictable life all its own. I wonder where it will surface next.
