For most things, they say that the third time is the charm. While the latest installment of the Avatar series seems to be trailing the two previous installments by just a bit at the box office, one thing is clear: the music and emotions in this franchise have never run higher. And to that we’re giving hat tips, golf claps, and jumping high-fives to composer Simon Franglen. He’s a pillar in James Cameron’s acoustic armory and has been carrying the musical torch/thematic through-lines established by James Horner for that little blue mega blockbuster way back in 2009.
We had the incredible opportunity to speak with Simon about his work on Avatar: Fire and Ash. Franglen‘s approach to music, coupled with the lessons he’s learned over decades, have allowed him to give us something that is not just a head-nodding and enjoyable tune, it’s one that really is inspired by and tethered to the narrative.
Now I’m not just talking about how he picks up on the themes in the film and under-scores emotional scenes or over-scores gigantic action pieces. Just listen to how he describes the logistics of the cue “You Said You Could Protect Us” (Skip to 28:57 below) where he talks about how the themes drift apart from one another, just like Jake and Neytiri are doing in the same scene.
You could say that’s overthinking it. But when you write seven or seventeen versions of something just to get Cameron‘s buy off, all of the efforts writing and revising make each cue a truly exceptional piece of music that can stand up to everything happening on screen.
So if you haven’t heard the name Simon Franglen before, let us give you a brief recap. He is a composer, orchestrator, arranger, programmer, drummer, pianist, synth wizard, and he has worked with some of the biggest names you could think of – Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Madonna to name just a few outside of film circles.
He continues his great working relationship with The King of the World…then I guess that makes him the Archduke? Well, that’s just one of the many questions we have for today’s show. Now jump in, buckle up, and join us as we take to the skies for lots of fun with Simon on this episode of The GoSeeTalk Podcast Experience!
You can find out more about Simon’s work on his official website, or you can follow him on Instagram. We’re looking forward to his future projects on or off Pandora, especially a project called The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu. See you around, Simon! We see you!
