Over the years, I’ve had the great opportunity to speak with many multi-hyphenates in the entertainment business. My pursuits fall somewhere between a hobby and an obsession as I chase conversations and laughs with creatives I admire. And so many conversations have been meaningful, fun and a fantastic peek into the creative process. One session with a composer is good. A second is great. Three…well, you see where I’m going. There’s no such thing as diminishing returns here! Now enter composer Joseph Trapanese. He’s someone we always have fun with and Joe has had wind in his sails for many years. His credits go back twenty years and Joe has…
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Interview…Composer Rock Burwell’s Strange, Sincere and Spooky Sounds in ‘Obsession’
They say that “Love is a many-splendored thing.” It can also be a hair-pulling, skin-crawling nightmare that will keep you awake in terror. Well, maybe that’s not a great many people’s experience, but it’s certainly the case in Obsession. The massive box office hit succeeded because it was a compelling story that was also an alliteration of descriptions; it is simple, scary, sombre, sincere, and psychotic. You’re probably saying “Marc, psychotic begins with P.” Well, you’re right, but I don’t see it that way because Obsession scared the P right out of me. And part of what made Curry Barker’s film exceptionally unnerving (aside from Inde Navarrette‘s now legendary turn)…
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Interview…Jared Michael Fry Combines Classical Compositions and Indigenous Voices for ‘Heart of the Beast’
A film is far more than the sum of its parts. When images and sound combine, the results echo in eternity. We had the absolute thrill speaking with composer Jared Michael Fry about his score to David Ayer’s Heart of the Beast. This film is their third time working together and the duo hit this one way out of the part. To provide an authentic, culturally specific foundation for the score, Fry brought in the award-winning Alaskan Inuit group Pamyua, whose vocalizations, Yup’ik-language singing, chanting, humming and drumming were recorded remotely. He merged these elements with ethereal vocals from the London-based choral ensemble London Voices. “With the music, I was…
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Interview…Composer Steven Price on the Looney Fun of ‘Coyote vs Acme’
After enduring years of catastrophic product failures at the hands of ACME, Inc., a tenacious, unemployed coyote uncovers a corporate cover-up and spearheads an unhinged battle against the multinational conglomerate that’s been blowing him up in the name of profit. The film has it all. Humor, heart, a legal battle and much more. There’s also a roadrunner. And dynamite. So that goes a long way to say that Coyote vs Acme is a blast! As such, we were thrilled to catch up with an old friend of the site. And it’s shocking to realize that it’s been more than ten years since we last spoke with him. Steven Price, the…
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Interview…Christian Lundberg’s Score Turns Up the Heat for Season 5 of ‘The Bear’
Composer Christian Lundberg is an anomaly in music and, his atypical career finds him breathing some of the rarest existing air in Hollywood. The Swedish born guitarist is proof that there is no “right” way to make it in Hollywood. The man who is bringing unbelievable amounts of chill and high intensity to The Bear on FX didn’t start out wanting to be a composer. He started off doing music tech services. As LA is the city of dreams, it seems quite fitting that he took the opportunities as they came and built upon that to get where he is. There is no rulebook for success, and that goes doubly…
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Interview…’Metropolis’ Redux Jam Session with Jazzy Jeff Beal
Five-time EMMY winner Jeff Beal’s improvisatory method, sense of timing, and sophistication have made him a favorite of directors including Ed Harris, David Fincher, Oliver Stone, and Rob Reiner, and his contributions to powerful documentaries and dramatic scores for TV shows have shown him to be one of the most distinctive and recognizable composers working today. In addition to his distinguished scoring career, Beal is a prolific composer of concert music. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Beal’s grandmother was a pianist and accompanist for silent movies. An avid jazz fan, she gave him Miles Davis’/Gil Evans’ Sketches of Spain album that would influence his development as…
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Interview…Henry Jackman and Kevin Olusola on the Cornucopia of Chaos in ‘The Bluff’
Composer Henry Jackman is on the short list of seasoned composers who can concoct and deliver an elevated musical palette. Whether the story is about mutant, vigilantes, pirates or the mighty Kong, his work serves as more than the backdrop to the narrative. It is the jet fuel that courses through the picture and literally makes characters fly. We’ve spoken to him a handful of times over the years and his approach to composition and the ideas he manifests live on long after you’ve left the theater. To help make his latest cinematic confection oh so sweet, he enlisted an equally talented and courageous musician to try things that, as…
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Interview…Martin MacPhail on the Sound of Adventure in ‘Deathstalker’
We had a fun chat with composer Martin MacPhail. to talk about their work on the ultra rad reboot of Deathstalker. If adventure has one name, then music for the adventure needs two…BLITZ//BERLIN. We spoke to this highly talented and ultra prolific group last year to talk about their career and the trio of genre titles. This time, we dug deep to get into the nitty gritty (and the fun) of the Deathstalker reboot. From the mind (and hands) of Steven Kostanski, this fun throwback film is full of action, humor, excitement and some of the best practical effects & gore since, well, his last film. Herein, he has a…
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Interview…Composer Tom Howe on Unfailing Optimism of Character and Honesty in Music
Tom Howe is an award-winning composer of over 100 films and television projects like Reminders of Him, Wonder Woman, Exodus: Gods and Kings, The Legend of Tarzan, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, and Dog Man. From sweeping orchestral scores and imaginative sonic landscapes to iconic main title themes and hit songs, his versatility as a multi-instrumentalist—combined with his expertise in classical, pop, rock, and electronic sound design—has made him one of today’s most in-demand composers. A gifted songwriter, and two-time Emmy nominee, Howe has collaborated with leading artists and songwriters on original main title themes and songs. He co-wrote the Ted Lasso main title theme with Marcus Mumford and the Shrinking main title theme…
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Interview…Nathan Johnson on the Tense and Beautiful Gothic Score to ‘Wake Up Dead Man’
Towards the end of last year, writer/director Rian Johnson and Netflix released the third entry in the Benoit Blanc mystery series. As expected, it was thrilling, engaging, taught, layered, and chock full of the Kentucky-fried wit that makes the series and character so enjoyable. It was also the most complex head-scratcher in the saga. If you weren’t busy enough asking who? why? and how the hell? in this gothic whodunit, you were likely asking the same thing about elements of the score. And who is the culprit behind this soundtrack? That would be Nathan Johnson – series regular and usual suspect in the Johnson-verse. Their collaboration has spanned decades and…
