The sound of Cadbury

The brief was to ”write a musical motif that captures and encompasses the emotions of Cadbury,” he says, but among the marketing jargon (which Farley says he can take or leave) were two words that really sparked his imagination – ”coming home”.

“That is what struck a chord with me. I went to bed that night and I was asleep, but I heard this thing in my head [Farley hums ’de la dum’]. It’s a bit like an amen – it’s homely.”

In the morning, he went down to his studio and began playing the refrain on his one-of-a-kind 1895 Steinway upright piano. “I didn’t have a click, I didn’t have a metronome. I sat there and I tried different keys. Then I improvised a bit, I made it five notes, three notes, four notes, six notes. I did all these things, but the one they chose was the first three.”

Although he knew deep down that he wanted the antique piano to be the sound of Cadbury, he decided to experiment a little along the way. “I did countless versions of it on instruments like marimbas, glockenspiels and synthesizers from the 80s. With so many different choices for the same theme, [Cadbury] went back to that 1895 Steinway piano.

“From the conversation with Sascha at 6pm, it was written in my head by 8.30am the following morning. It was then played on the piano at home at 8.45am and it was recorded in my studio by 10am.”