If you visit the site often, or know me personally, you know that I love film…but I love film scores a whole lot more. Our “Composer Series” has become a large part of the site, and it has been incredibly rewarding being afforded the opportunity to speak with those who have created some of the most iconic and indelible themes of the last half century. Case in point. When we spoke with Patrick Doyle last year, we discussed his and Kenneth Branagh’s efforts to reboot the Jack Ryan franchise. His hybrid approach to the tech-thriller score was an exercise in tension and excitement, and everything you could want in a…
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Interview…Composer Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) on the Emotion Behind the Adrenaline in ‘Run All Night’ and ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
When it comes to working in the film industry, and if you happen to be a talented and in-demand composer like Junkie XL, 16-to-18 hour days are the norm. Suffice to say, a composer’s work is never done but they also need to carve out time for necessary levity. A bit of a practical joker when it suits him (just ask his then assistant and now good friend Sam Estes about the in-office pranks), Tom Holkenborg has put his stamp on the music world with his bombastic drum kit and adrenaline-themed cues. He also knows how to help the director get to the heart of their story. Whether it’s a segment or two in The Animatrix,…
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Interview…Film Composer Mark Adler on Robert Kenner’s ‘Merchants of Doubt’
Mark Adler brings to his work as a composer a broad background in both film and music. At 16 he created an award-winning animated short which the New York Museum of Modern Art acquired for its permanent archive collection. A year later, he was the recipient of an American Film Institute grant for his original screenplay. He studied piano privately for fifteen years, and was initially a music major. His return to music followed graduation from film school at UCLA, where he studied film scoring with David Raksin. The 1980s were a renaissance for documentary film in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mark was soon scoring many of those projects. During…
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Interview…Composers Henry Jackman and Matthew Margeson Bring New Life to the Old-Fashioned Spy Game in ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’
When it comes to larger-than-life comic book universes playing out on the big screen, both Henry Jackman and co-composer Matthew Margeson are the reigning champions of super hero themes and kick-ass action sounds. Kingsman: The Secret Service tells a story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined, but promising street kid into the agency’s ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius. While they intended to make this score their own, they still included a fair amount of hat tips to the likes of John Barry, and David Arnold. Well, Kingsman is a movie about the spy world so some things can’t be helped. It’s a…
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Interview…Film Composer Ilan Eshkeri on the Emotional Depth and Makeshift Magnificence of ‘Black Sea’
Kevin Macdonald‘s Black Sea, which hits U.S. theaters this week, features top-notch acting and, like the submarine, is air-tight, but music is also another highly effective component to the thrilling story. In addition to pulse-pounding sounds and pensive themes, British composer Ilan Eshkeri also adds a thick layer of humanity to the story about about greed, hard metals and icy depths. Best known for his film scores to Stardust, The Young Victoria and Kick-Ass, as well as his collaborations with recording artists and his concert work Eshkeri’s career is notable for its diversity; recently Eshkeri scored Still Alice starring Julianne Moore, Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart, 47 Ronin starring Keanu…
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Interview…Composer Reinhold Heil Discusses Scoring Helix for Syfy
Reinhold Heil is a German-born, L.A.-based Golden Globe nominated film and television composer. Prior to Reinhold’s career as a film composer, he was well known throughout Germany and Europe for his monster synth chops. At 21, he became a fixture in the Berlin music scene as the keyboardist of a popular jazz funk fusion band, marrying jazz, rock, and electronica into a sound all his own. Soon after, Reinhold toured Europe as the keyboardist, co-producer, and co-writer of the legendary German punk band The Nina Hagen Band and later Spliff, one of Germany’s most popular rock bands of the 1980s. Reinhold was also a prolific music producer. “99 Luftballoons,” which…
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Interview…Composer J. Ralph on Documentaries, Real Life Heroes and the Call to Action
J. Ralph is an Academy Award-nominated composer, singer/songwriter and producer. He is also the founder of the internationally award-winning music production company The Rumor Mill, and has written and produced the music for numerous Grammy winning artists, Oscar-winning films, and The President of The United States, Barack Obama. Considered by many to have had a profound impact on the documentary medium, J. Ralph has helped elevate the experience of what it feels like to watch a documentary through his scores. Incredibly he has written and produced the music for 4 out of the last 5 Oscar winning/nominated documentary feature projects. In the 85 year history of the Academy Awards, J.…
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Interview…Film Composer Henry Jackman on Big Screen Heroes and Even Bigger Themes
Since 2009, composer Henry Jackman has been adding blockbuster films to his resume at an incredible rate. And there’s a reason for it – he’s extremely good at his job. Jackman has consistently been providing the modern film world with some of the most thrilling, weighty, and substantive music of the last decade. That’s high praise, but he’s certainly earned his laurels with the likes of X-Men: First Class, and things haven’t slowed down since. In just five years, the Oxford educated British musician has ascended into the ranks of Hollywood’s elite composers. This year he was tapped to create an epic, futuristic score for Disney and Marvel’s Big Hero…
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Interview…Composer Antonio Sanchez on the Drums and Jazzy Ambiguity of ‘Birdman’
Thanksgiving is just a few days away, but before we dig into the seasonal fowl, let’s digest this year’s other most buzz-worthy winged creature. We wrote a rather glowing review of Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (check it out here), and last week we got to speak with Antonio Sanchez about his background and experiences on such an exceptional project. Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu‘s one-of-a-kind film hit theaters in October, and people are still talking about it – a rarity for an independent film in the weeks before the awards heavy holiday season begins. Picking up speed on a weekly basis, Birdman is certainly the one to beat in 2014. It’s a tour…
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Interview…Film/TV Composer Claude Foisy
For nearly 20 years, film and television composer Claude Foisy has written scores for a variety of projects. Some of his highlights include music for Pontypool, (starring Stephen McHattie), White Noise (starring Michael Keaton), and his TV credits include CW’s Beauty and the Beast, The 4400 and some of the Outer Limits TV show episodes to name just a few. Though he has a long history with the Wrong Turn films – Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort was released earlier this month – Foisy is a well-versed and accomplished musician. Enjoy our session with Claude. GoSeeTalk: Depending on who you speak with, horror films have unfortunately sort of de-evolved somewhat into mindless slashers. Regardless…
