Hollywood Music Workshop celebrates its 10th Anniversary this year, and part of the festivities outside the classes in the workshop include a live concert in association with Warner Brothers at the Casino Baden, featuring iconic film music performed by the Synchron Stage Vienna Orchestra under the baton of Joe Kraemer and Conrad Pope. The set list is chock full of iconic film scores from Warner Bros. films and brings the sounds of Max Steiner, Erich Korngold, Ennio Morricone and John Williams (to name but a few) to the Baden concert hall. The program will also include original music by Joe Kraemer and Nan Schwartz. I just returned from L.A. (where I spent some time at the WB studio), and as Casablanca is…
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Interview…Carl Thiel Composes Big Themes for Small Town Heroes in ‘Lazer Team 2’
Austin-based composer/musician Carl Thiel is a great friend of the site, and we love chatting with him about his film scores. An accomplished musician in his own right, Carl has made a name for himself working with Robert Rodriguez and on many films under the Troublemaker Studios banner and the El Rey Network. In past interviews, Carl has talked to us about doing work outside that umbrella s flexing his other musical muscles. Now you can take the man out of genre films, but you can’t take the genre film out of the man. As such, Carl is getting to try some new things with his score to Lazer Team 2, the…
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Interview…Aesop Rock Injects ‘Bushwick’ with Haunting, Gritty and Emotional Hip-Hop
Lakeshore Records recently released the original score to Bushwick, which was scored by underground hip-hop pioneer Aesop Rock. His first ever film score, Bushwick-Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a mind-bending collection of instrumental tracks providing an exhilarating beat-heavy backdrop to the Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott directed thriller starring Brittany Snow and Dave Bautista. Building on the rapping style of eccentrics Kool Keith and Del the Funky Homosapien, Aesop Rock (AKA Ian Bavitz) became one of the hottest MCs in the post-millennial underground. With seven albums, five Eps, production credits and appearances in film and television, Aesop has made an indelible cultural impression since the late ‘90’s. Rock is celebrated for his…
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Interview…Benjamin Wallfisch on the Strength of ‘Hidden Figures’, and the DNA of His Scores
Editor’s Note: This interview was originally published in March of this year. We have posted it again to coincide with the digital/Blu-Ray release of Gore Verbinski’s A Cure For Wellness on June 6. Golden Globe and Emmy nominee Benjamin Wallfisch is recognized as one of the leading film composers of his generation, with a career spanning over a decade and 60 feature films. He has composed music for such legendary film makers as Steven Spielberg, Rupert Wyatt, Gore Verbinksi and Lars von Trier, and has worked on scores that have been recognized with awards and nominations at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs and World Soundtrack Awards. Wallfisch fit us into his extremely…
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[DIFF Video Interview]…Matt Schrader Screens ‘SCORE: A Film Music Documentary’ at the Dallas International Film Festival
The 2017 Dallas International Film Festival brought many amazing films and documentaries to DFW, but few hit as close to home (musically speaking) as Matt Schrader‘s feature, SCORE: A Film Music Documentary. Schrader’s film profiles various personalities and titans in the industry to chronicle the history of film music, reaffirm its importance in our culture, and attempt to explain why certain scores continue to resonate decades later. I can honestly say I’ve been a music fan longer than I’ve been a film fan, and as such, forgive the pun, this doc was music to my ears. We spoke to Schrader in 2015 while he was in the middle of interviewing the composers for…
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Interview…Composer Carl Thiel Delves Into Docu-drama and TV Music
We recently reconnected with composer Carl Thiel, and realized that it’s been three years since we last chatted. At the time, he had completed recording the music for Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (with Robert Rodriguez), and was also about to begin work on the From Dusk Til Dawn TV series on the El Rey Network. In that time, Thiel continues to grow as an artist. Born in Mexico City, and after living in Canada for a while, Thiel now calls Austin home. He comes from a family of musicians, and has a lot of music he’s interested to work on away from projects under the Troublemaker Studios banner. As such,…
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Interview…Stephen Dorff on the Music & Songs of ‘Wheeler’
Ryan Ross’ Wheeler is a captivating film, one that really shines due to a trifecta of story, acting, and music. The baby of both Ross and Stephen Dorff (Blade, The Power of One, The Gate), this story follows a middle-aged musician trying to make a name for himself in Nashville. Only this isn’t a fictitious endeavor; Dorff becomes his character – the titular Wheeler Bryson – in this documentary style narrative and very few people know what’s happening. Each and every interaction caught on camera is legitimized by Dorff (under impressive prosthesis) as everyone he meets he wins over with his story, his persona, and some truly amazing “outlaw” Western songs. In…
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Interview…Guitarist Derek Mount (aka Brique A Braq) Talks Rocking Out, Giving Back, and Family Force 5
For more than a decade, Derek Mount has been shredding guitar and having a laugh with Family Force 5 (if you’ve never heard of them, really, go check them out). They are truly dynamic, and while you can liken their music to having an edge like 311, or Rage Against the Machine, these guys just have a lot more fun on the job. A bit of rap, a bit of metal, a whole lotta crazy, but it’s mixed together with that distinctive southern flair by those country gentlemen who can bring the goods. Mount may be the guitarist for Family Force 5, but he also composes, creates music libraries, records as a…
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Interview…David Wingo Trades Synths for Strings Composing Jeff Nichols’ ‘Loving’
In what some consider the start of awards season, November gives us the release of Jeff Nichols’ incredibly moving story, Loving, (about Mildred and Richard Loving) featuring the original score by David Wingo, as well as a new original song, “Loving,” by Ben Nichols of the band Lucero. The seasoned composer has been active with his band Ola Podrida since 2006, releasing three acclaimed full-length albums, and touring the U.S. and Europe multiple times. But Wingo has also been racking up a number of distinctive and high profile scores to celebrated features directed by some of this century’s most sophisticated independent filmmakers. Loving marks the fourth time he and director Jeff Nichols have…
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Interview…Steve Jablonsky on ‘Keanu’ and ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’
If you’re a film fan and just now getting interested in film music, we’re going to let you in on a little secret. See the happy guy in the picture above? That is Steve Jablonsky. He works in Hollywood. He writes music, big music in fact, and he’s been at the forefront of high-octane films, video games and TV shows for almost two decades. But if you’re a fan of his, or this site, you already know that. Of all the composers we’ve gotten to know over the years, Steve is one of our favorite people to talk to. Right before Father’s Day, we caught up with Steve to talk…
