‘Magical’: how I taught Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor to sing like folk troubadours in The History of Sound

Singer-songwriter Sam Amidon had just three weeks to make the two stars sound like seasoned balladeers. He recalls their charged harmonies in the little shed at the bottom of his garden

I was brought into The History of Sound as the music adviser, my main job being singing coach for the cast, especially Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.

My parents were folk educators. I grew up in New England, singing and playing all kinds of different folk including Appalachian fiddle tunes, as well as songs from the British Isles. My parents’ favourites were legendary Yorkshire singing family the Watersons. I now live in London and it was amazing how close History of Sound’s musical world matched my own. Ben Shattuck – who wrote the original short stories and the screenplay – made a playlist of all these different types of music so everybody could get a sense of the film’s world.