It’s been a while since we chatted with Tom Holkenborg (aka Junkie XL), and boy how his career has soared. It wasn’t enough to follow George Miller to the ends of the ear and destroy the sonic landscape with such raw and powerful drums. As an artist, he had to push farther, and we’re so glad he did. His signature blend of rhythms – a style that comes from deep down in his DNA – can be heard in all his scores no matter how far apart they seem on the surface.
Are we saying that Mad Max: Fury Road, Mortal Engines and Sonic the Hedgehog are the same? Yes. Yes, we are…but only because Tom told us himself.
But just look at that diversity in his work. Sure, it’s a lot of blockbusters and mega-budget films, yet the stories are so varied – from cybernetic organisms to surfing documentaries and from teenage detectives to big blue boy scouts. His work is not just crazy drums (which is both incorrect and also undervalues his talents). Holkenborg’s scores can be emotional, tender, heroic, pensive, bombastic, and ultimately do what film music needs to do: underscore what’s happening in the narrative.
With a runtime of four hours, Zack Snyder’s Justice League needed a lot of music. As far as the story goes, there are six completely different heroes with vastly different motivations and powers, so it wasn’t exactly going to be a one-note score. Tom had to find the identity for each (and some characters finding new and enhanced cues from previous films) and set in such a way that they while the players were dissonant, they still found a way to coalesce.
The complete score to the film touts 54 tracks. Some of the standout cues are: ‘At The Speed of Force’, ‘No Dog, No Master’, ‘The Path Chooses You’, ‘We Do This Together’, ‘A Splinter from the Thorn That Pricked You’, ‘Earthling’, and some of the glorious tracks which shine because of the long length like ‘Cyborg Becoming / Human All Too Human’.
We spoke with Mr. XL for nearly an hour to get his musical origin story, and learned about the instruments and sounds that called to him. We also spent a chunk of time talking about this superhero passion project. We’ve been looking forward to catching up with Tom for a while, and what better subject to do so than this MASSIVE 7X LP box set from Mondo?? One this is for sure: the Mother Boxes have nothing on the power contained within this vastly impressive soundtrack release.
So sit back as we dive into music, mayhem, cooking and coffee with the one, the only, Junkie XL!!
You can still get yourself a copy of this impressive set. It’s up for pre-order at Mondo and retails for $200. That’s a steal for what you get within the spectacular packaging of this vinyl release. Check out the images from the set and the track list below, and don’t forget to follow Tom on Twitter to learn about his music and all his upcoming projects!
Tracklist
DISC 1 SIDE A
1. Song to the Siren (3:17)
2. A Hunter Gathers (7:56)
3. Migratory (0:56)
4. Things Fall Apart (1:03)
5. Wonder Woman Defending / And What Rough Beast (7:19)
DISC 1 SIDE B
6. World Ending Fire (9:22)
7. Middle Mass (1:18)
8. Long Division (1:12)
9. No Paradise, No Fall (4:10)
DISC 2 SIDE A
10. The Center Will Not Hold, Twenty Centuries of Stony Sleep (8:56)
11. As Above, So Below (2:27)
12. No Dog, No Master (8:13)
DISC 2 SIDE B
13. Take This Kingdom by Force (1:44)
14. A Splinter from the Thorn That Pricked You (1:09)
15. Cyborg Becoming / Human All Too Human (10:35)
DISC 3 SIDE A
16. The Path Chooses You (2:11)
17. Aquaman Returning / Carry Your Own Water (8:22)
18. The Provenance of Something Gathered (1:14)
DISC 3 SIDE B
19. We Do This Together (12:57)
20. The Will to Power (5:20)
21. Smoke Become Fire (1:39)
DISC 4 SIDE A
22. I Teach You, The Overman (4:18)
23. A Glimmer at the Door of the Living (1:00)
24. How We Achieve Ourselves (1:42)
25. The Sun Forever Rising (1:30)
26. Underworld (5:49)
27. Superman Rising, Pt. 1 / A Book of Hours (2:40)
28. Beyond Good and Evil (4:24)
DISC 4 SIDE B
29. Monument Builder (2:29)
30. Monument Destroyer (6:07)
31. Urgrund (1:49)
32. So Begins the End (4:49)
33. The House of Belonging (2:37)
34. Earthling (3:23)
DISC 5 SIDE A
35. Flight Is Out Nature (1:54)
36. Indivisible (2:32)
37. And the Lion-Earth Did Roar Pt. 1 (5:22)
38. And the Lion-Earth Did Roar Pt. 2 (5:32)
39. Superman Rising, Pt. 2 / Immovable (1:55)
40. At the Speed of Force (4:20)
DISC 5 SIDE B
41. My Broken Boy (2:15)
42. That Terrible Strength (1:51)
43. An Eternal Reoccurence of Change (1:44)
44. We Slay Ourselves (5:52)
45. Your Own House Turned to Ashes (3:16)
46. All of You Undisturbed Cities (6:15)
DISC 6 SIDE A
47. The Art of Preserving Fire (1:27)
48. The Crew at Warpower (6:49)
49. The Foundation Theme (2:07)
50. Batman, a Duty to Fight / To See (5:29)
DISC 6 SIDE B
51. Batman, an Invocation to Heal / To Be Seen (8:36)
52. Wonder Woman, a Call to Stand / A World Awakened (5:09)
DISC 7 SIDE A
53. Flash, The Space to Win / Our Legacy is Now (11:13)
54. Hallelujah (6:10)
