The Music of Baking

Composer Philip Giffin ’76 can’t bake. Angela Logan, the subject of a recent film, can. When she was about to lose her house, she turned to baking—that and the community she had built over a lifetime of good deeds. Her apple cakes not only saved her home but inspired the movie Apple Mortgage Cake, which aired last April on the UP network.

Despite not knowing pinches from pounds, Giffin, the film’s Emmy-nominated composer, was tasked with creating music for Logan’s apple cakes. For him, telling her story through music became his own kind of baking, and a reflection on a life lived through shared values of kindness and community.

“Phil is completely invested in the project; he lives and breathes the story,” says Michael Scott, the director of Apple Mortgage Cake. In addition to scoring 12 movies for Scott, Giffin has earned Scott’s trust and was given control to decide where music should occur in the film—a rare honor in Hollywood.

For Giffin, it’s all for the love of the art. “If people knew how much I enjoy what I do they wouldn’t pay me!” he says, laughing. “I’ve been in this business 38 years and it’s true: If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”

Music has been a part of Giffin’s life since his childhood in in Wooster, Ohio. As a Berklee undergrad, he scored a documentary that got an Academy Award nomination. He has since orchestrated many features, including Die Hard and Die Hard 2 and Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2. He’s also composed scores for some 30 films and television shows, and his work on the NBC show Boomtown netted him an Emmy nomination.

As his career developed, Giffin always made a point to give back to the communities that helped foster his dreams. He lectures at the New Orleans Center of Creative Arts, passing industry knowledge to a new generation. He regularly opens his doors to recent Berklee graduates, allowing assistants to learn firsthand the ins and outs of the business. Some of those assistants, like pianist and composer Emir Isilay ’02 and Andrew Lembo ’12 have gone on to launch their own successful careers.

“Phil has an empathy that provides a supportive environment for young composers,” says Peter Gordon, the director of the Berklee Center in Los Angeles. He’s placed up-and-coming graduates with Giffin for more than 15 years. “Everybody I’ve known that Phil’s taken under his wing has been much better for it.”

In addition to his film work, Giffin does studio production for new artists. He recently finished producing a 12-song album for Genji & Laura, a talented duo from Los Angeles. Their record Road to Everywhere is available on all-digital download sites. He’s currently in the studio, producing an EP for Caity Krone, a 17-year-old singer and songwriter who Giffin thinks is a phenomenon. “I started working with her when she was 16,” he says. “She writes and sings like a seasoned veteran.”

He might not be baking apple cakes, but just like Angela Logan, he uses his talents to inspire, and the results are just as delicious.

“This is how I look at it,” Giffin says. “If I am resonating optimism and enthusiasm, it brings those qualities out in other people. It’s important to me to see the beauty in those who can’t always see it in themselves. That’s how I live my life.”

With Apple cakes and optimism, community, music, and inspiration, Giffin is a baker extraordinaire.

Sara Evans is a freelance journalist living in Los Angeles.