One of our favorite composers, and one we’ve been fortunate enough to speak with several times over the years, is Nathan Johnson. With each film score, he’s continually gained an audience with a signature and stylistic approach to his work. That’s partly because he and his cousin are a package deal.
Nathan and long time collaborator, Rian Johnson, go way back…even before Brick. The two grew up on the East Coast bringing their stories to life any way they could, hoping to one day break into the biz. Well, they did, and in a very big way. Thanks to titles like Looper, The Last Jedi, and now Knives Out, the two continue to give the world high-brow cinematic escapism, narrative excellence and sophisticated soundscapes.
In this interview, podcast actually, we spoke with Nathan for almost an hour. We were a guest host on My Bloody Podcast which is run by our two good friends and Dallas film critics: Bryan Kluger of BoomStickComics and High Def Digest and Preston Barta of Fresh Fiction and the Denton Record-Chronicle.
This was fun catching up with Nathan. In addition to talking about his rousing string symphony, we also profiled Mondo’s vinyl release of the score (we’ve included some images of it below), Nathan’s work on Son Lux‘s videos, as well as his unreleased song written for The Last Jedi which, sadly, didn’t make the final cut. Maybe one day.
Anyway, go see the film, buy the Mondo record, and most importantly, enjoy our time with Nathan. And now *cue the strings* Knives Out!!
Mondo and Cut Narrative’s vinyl release features three bonus tracks not available anywhere else. This vinyl set is housed in a beautiful package designed by Jay Shaw, featuring a die-cut window and containing one of nine randomly inserted “Suspect” cards.
Pressed on 2X 180 Gram Black Vinyl, this album is available from Mondotees.com now.
