Will Bates is an award-winning composer, multi-instrumentalist and founder of music production company Fall On Your Sword. As a solo artist and multi-instrumentalist, Bates has recorded and toured around the globe. As a saxophonist, Bates has collaborated with legendary artists ranging from 60’s icon Lulu to techno legend Marshall Jefferson. Bates works frequently with director Mike Cahill, and the two weave mind-expanding narrative magic for TV and film. Cahill (Another Earth, I Origins) wrote and directed the new film, Bliss, which is being distributed by Amazon Studios and the soundtrack will be released by Milan Records. It tells the multi-layered story of a man whose life lacks purpose, and he…
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Interview…Ilan Eshkeri on Honesty and Hope in BBC’s ‘A Perfect Planet’
Ilan Eshkeri is an award-winning composer, artist, songwriter, producer and creator. We spoke with Ilan in 2015 (about 47 Ronin, Black Sea and The Snowman & The Snowdog) and were happy to catch up with him to discuss his process writing music for BBC’s A Perfect Planet. This new nature series is his fourth collaboration with legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The bulk of this interview focuses on his efforts to write that music and the underlying idea of hope in many of the themes (we’ve included selections from his score below). Recently, Ilan and Ralph Fiennes completed their third film together – a biopic about Rudolf Nureyev, The White…
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Interview…Composer Zach Robinson on Synthwave, Musical Influences and ‘Cobra Kai’
Zach Robinson is an LA-based composer, music producer, and electronic musician. Since 2009, Zach has created 1980s inspired electronic music under the pseudonym D/A/D. His most recent album The Construct (2013) was named one of the best cassette releases of 2013 by NPR and received critical acclaim from numerous online publications including Pitchfork, Ad Hoc, and FACT Magazine. After receiving his degree in music composition from Northwestern University, Zach cut his teeth working with acclaimed film composer, Christophe Beck, writing additional music for films such as Ant-Man, Edge of Tomorrow, Frozen, Hot Pursuit, Sisters, and The Peanuts Movie. He most recently composed the score for Quibi’s action comedy Die Hart, starring…
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Exclusive: Interview…The Album Leaf’s Jimmy LaValle on Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s ‘Synchronic’
The Album Leaf has been making its mark as a soft-spoken innovator steadily and surely since 1999. One year after forming the influential San Diego instrumental group Tristeza, songwriter & multi-instrumentalist Jimmy LaValle turned the solo studio project into a full-fledged live band. The diversity of The Album Leaf’s music is second only to the diversity of the music that has inspired LaValle through the years – the artist has named everything from German Ambient/Pysch bands like Can, Cluster and Harmonia to traditional mariachi music, electronic music and Brian Eno as some of his primary influences. Icelandic band Sigur Rós discovered LaValle and took The Album Leaf on tour with…
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Interview…Daniel Pemberton on Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’
UK-based composer Daniel Pemberton has such a distinctive voice, er sound, and his compositions never fail to leave us awestruck. The work he creates is as impacting as it is innovative. If that wasn’t enough, this multi-Golden Globe, Emmy and BAFTA Award-nominated musician has worked hand in hand with Ridley Scott, Darren Aronofsky, Guy Ritchie and other legendary directors. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is lauded as a game-changer in the action genre and really put him on the map, Steve Jobs is a masterful progression of digital bits and beeps that segues beautifully into lush symphonic splendor, the Black Mirror episode, U.S.S. Callister, is a darkly memorable alt.…
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Interview…Amelia Warner Captures Irish Mysticism in the Score to ‘Wild Mountain Thyme’
Breakthrough neo-classical composer Amelia Warner is best known for her stunning soundtrack for the 2018 Irish-American film Mary Shelley. It won Amelia the ‘Breakthrough Composer of The Year’ at the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) Awards in 2019, and a nomination in the ‘Discovery of the Year’ category at the World Soundtrack Awards. However, before anyone got to hear her musical gift, she had a career in acting as she followed in her mother’s footsteps. Yet the desire to stay out of the spotlight and dabble in composing took root and quickly flourished. Warner’s debut major scoring project was the British short film ‘Mam’ which won several awards on…
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Interview…Howard Blake Career Retrospective: The Avengers, Commercials, Ridley Scott, Queen and ‘The Snowman’
Truly great pieces of art and entertainment come along once in a generation. They are so expertly crafted, and are so well appreciated that they eclipse a label like “iconic” and, by doing so, become legendary. When that happens, we can be moved, inspired and forever changed by what we’ve witnessed as a culture, population or individual. Sometimes you don’t even have to be part of that time/era or culture to recognize and value the impact, the power and the reach something has. Case in point: Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Babe Ruth calling his shot, even a quaint animated children’s story. If we lost you on that…
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Interview…Director April Mullen on Paranoia and Skewed Reality in ‘Wander’
This month, April Mullen‘s thriller Wander hits on Demand and Digital. The film sports an all-star cast including Aaron Eckhart (Midway, Thank You for Smoking), Katheryn Winnick (“Vikings,” The Dark Tower), Heather Graham (The Hangover, Boogie Nights), and Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones (The Homesman, No Country for Old Men). As a mixed Anishinaabe Algonquin (Indigenous) director, from Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Mullen’s latest directorial effort is created in honor of all Indigenous, Black and People of Color who are targeted and have been displaced through border control on stolen land. It’s a vibrant yet sly neo-noir set in the Southwest, and it’s clear from the noteworthy opening that something is rotten in Denmark, I mean Wander. Whether it’s an unreliable…
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Interview…Composer David Fleming on Ron Howard, Hans Zimmer and ‘Hillbilly Elegy’
This year has taken a toll on all of us, and yet one constant has surfaced: family can get us through almost anything. Or maybe it’s that we’re more likely to survive Covid than our families? Either way, even though every family has its problems, we’re certainly better together than we are apart. As such, Hillbilly Elegy is about family and a whole lot more. The film adaptation of the best-selling book is directed by Ron Howard and, like all his films, there’s a real emotion weight because the story highlights the struggles and triumphs of characters who are broken or about to break. Helping give this tale its heart…
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Interview…Nick Urata on DeVotchKa, Unique Instruments and ‘The True Adventures of Wolfboy’
Formed in Denver by multi-instrumentalists Nick Urata (vocals, guitar, trumpet), Tom Hagerman (violin, accordion), Jeanie Schroder (sousaphone, bass), and percussionist Shawn King, DeVotchKa is a four-piece multi-instrumental and vocal ensemble. Originally a backing group for local burlesque shows, they take their name from the Russian word meaning “girl” and recorded their debut album, SuperMelodrama, in 2000. The band finds their groove as a cross-pollination of numerous influences, and styles of gypsy punk, dark cabaret, indie folk, and indie rock. We spoke to Urata about his amazing career which has been just as varied and unique as his musical tastes. Nick comes from a musical family and his love of music…
