In the span of 30 years, composer/orchestrator Conrad Pope has worked on more than 420 films. We spent an hour with Pope, and he is an infectious joy as well as one of the most laid-back people you’d ever meet. But he’s also a legend. Name any film or topic, and you’ll sit there in awe of the stories he could tell. I sure did. It’s been said that Pope is the best kept secret in film music – if there’s a successful score, it’s because Conrad Pope is attached to it. He will quickly and humbly shoot that down, but as his mentor used to say, “It’s always amazing…
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Interview…Composer Joe Kraemer Conducting Original Music at the Hollywood Music Workshop
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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Hans Zimmer to Receive Max Steiner Award During Hollywood in Vienna Gala
Hans Zimmer’s illustrious career has spanned over 150 film and television projects and encompasses about every genre and popular film franchise one can think about, from “Driving Miss Daisy” to “The Dark Knight” and from “The Lion King” to “Dunkirk”. Hollywood in Vienna CEO and Founder Sandra Tomek is proud to announce that Academy Award, Tony Award, 2-time Golden Globe and 3-time Grammy Winner Hans Zimmer will be honored with the 2018 Max Steiner Award in Vienna during the Annual Hollywood in Vienna Concert Gala. It is such an honor to be celebrated and receive this award – it lauds the contributions the composer has made to the industry and cements…
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Director Matt Schrader and Team Launch SCORE: The Podcast
A few years ago, we got to speak with Matt Schrader while he was in the thick of amassing his one-of-a-kind feature film, SCORE: A Film Music Documentary. While things were a work in progress, Schrader offered up plenty – everything from his love of film scores, the impetus for the doc as well as the staggering number of high-profile artists he had already sat with. Check out that insightful piece here. When the film finally hit theaters (during a very successful run on the film festival circuit and beyond), the doc was ever so much more than discerning, demanding and devout film score fans expected. For all involved, calling…
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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…
