The Film Scorer

The Angel (Boiler Room, Kidulthood) joins The Film Scorer! Angel's latest score is for the crime thriller Heist 88, which came out last year but her score only released last month. As such, we spend much of our conversation talking about the score, including the hybrid palette, influences from Chicago's 1980s club/house music scene, and getting into Courtney B. Vance's head. We also touch on some of her other film and TV projects, her long career as a record producer and DJ, obtaining her early publishing catalog from Sony, and plenty more! Angel's score, and much of her other music, is available on all major platforms. Heist 88 is currently available on Paramount+ or on demand. You can find out more about Angel on her website.

12-15

47:51

In the latest episode of The Film Scorer podcast I'm joined by Wilbert Roget, II (Star Wars: Outlaws, Helldivers 2, Mortal Kombat). While Wilbert is best known for his work scoring video games, including recently receiving a Grammy nomination for Star Wars: Outlaws, our focus is on something a little different. Wilbert has just made his first foray into scoring for tv, with the limited series Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance! As such, we dig deep into his score for the six-episode series, including building out the eclectic sonic palette, working closely with the Japanese team, being the first non-Japanese composer to score a Gundam project (and the pressures that come with that, and plenty more. He even lists some of his favorite Gundam series, both in terms of overall show as well as primarily for their score. We also drive down other avenues, such as his work on other games, scoring 48-hour game jams, and how Japanese music his significantly impacted him. Wilbert's score, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms. Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance is currently on Netflix (at least in most territories). You can find out more about Wilbert on his website.

11-24

45:07

Season 5 of The Film Scorer Podcast continues to pick up steam as Kris Bowers (Bridgerton, Green Book) joins the show! The Academy Award winner and nominee (who was just nominated for a Grammy for his score to The Color Purple a few days ago) recently scored the hit animated film The Wild Robot. As such, Kris and I spend much of our conversation talking about his score, which is both adventurous and a tearjerker, and filled with thematic exploration. The conversation touches on the challenges of scoring for animation, the increasing amount of space the film made for Kris's score, how it let Kris run wild with his passion for thematic and melodic scoring (drawing a number of Star Wars parallels), and plenty more. Kris's score, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms. The Wild Robot is currently in theaters, and available to watch at home now. You can find out more about Kris on his website. Kris's score for The Wild Robot has since been nominated for a Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Oscar!

11-10

25:59

Season 5 of The Film Scorer Podcast is here! In the Season 5 premiere I chat with composer Amelia Warner. Amelia's latest score is for the Disney sports biopic Young Woman and the Sea (starring Daisy Ridley), about Trudy Ederle, the first woman to swim across the English Channel. As such, we spend much of our conversation focused on that score, including how her score and approaches developed over time, balancing the film's sports and family aspects, working closely with legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer, and plenty more. Along the way, we also talk about things like Mary Shelley and the pros and cons of temp music. Amelia's score, and much of her other music, is available on all major platforms, and Young Woman and the Sea is currently available on Disney+. You can find out more about Amelia on her website.

10-27

40:08

We've reached the end . . . of season 4. To commemorate the occasion, Daniel Hart (The Green Knight, A Ghost Story) joins The Film Scorer! Daniel is fresh off of scoring season 2 of Interview with the Vampire, which itself had its season finale only a couple of weeks ago. As such, Daniel and I spend a lot of the interview discussing his scores for both seasons of the show (and some hints about what's to come in the newly-announced season 3). We then break out from there, discussing Philip Glass, the prospects of writing a recorder concerto, and plenty more. Daniel's score, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms, and the series is available on AMC. You can find out more about Daniel on his website.

07-14

43:46

As season 4 draws to a close, I'm joined by someone all of you should know: Viggo Mortensen (The Lord of the Rings, The Road)! One thing you might not know about Viggo - it was certainly news to me - is that he's also a musician, making a number of albums with famed guitarist Buckethead and even scoring a couple films, including his latest directorial effort The Dead Don't Hurt. As such, we discuss his musical history, his score for The Dead Don't Hurt, his first foray into making music for film in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, balancing various behind-the-scenes roles in the same film, and plenty more. Even though this is a pretty short interview, we cover a surprising amount of ground. Candidly, this was the most surreal, hard to believe interview I've ever done. When I saw Viggo pop up on video to chat with me, I was certain I was being pranked, or maybe just dreaming; I'm sure I'll wake up at any second... Viggo's score is available on all major platforms, while The Dead Don't Hurt has just finished its theatrical run and will likely be coming to home video soon. I also want to flag that I accidentally attribute a (poorly) paraphrased quote to Ernest Hemingway that's actually from Mark Twain.

06-30

23:38

On the latest episode, I'm joined by Jason Graves! Jason is best known for a number of different video game scores, such as the Dead Space games, Tomb Raider, Far Cry Primal, and Moss 1 and 2, so it's no surprise that we spend much of our conversation talking about his latest game scores: Still Wakes the Deep and No Rest for the Wicked. They're two very different games, in terms of genre, style, gameplay, and more, and so Jason's scores are equally unique. We probably spend the most time talking about the former game's score, which is a combination of a string quarter, woodwinds, a bass synth, and a roughly two foot tall sculpture - it may seem weird, but I promise that it sounds good. Along the way, we cover things like his journey through scoring, how he works with game writers to understand concepts and plot points before they're rendered in-game, and differences (perceived and real) between scoring for film and video games.   Still Wakes the Deep (the game and the score) releases on June 18, while No Rest for the Wicked is currently in early access with Jason's score forthcoming. You can also find many of Jason's other scores physically or on all major platforms. Find out more about Jason on his website.

06-16

55:27

Recently anointed Grammy winner Carla Patullo joins The Film Scorer podcast! While Carla has over thirty scores under her belt, she might be most known for her non-score album So She Howls, for which Carla won the Grammy for Best New Age, Ambient, or Chant Album earlier this year. Unsurprisingly, then, Carla and I spend a fair bit of time talking about that album. However, and perhaps more importantly, we actually focus much of our discussion on the genesis of that album: Carla's cancer diagnosis a few years ago. Carla began by recording little voice and vocal snippets, which eventually evolved into a full album. She told me she was worried it might be her final album, but that if so she wanted a chance to sing "one last time". Fortunately, it isn't.  We also move into discussions on the scoring world, her love for short films, the concerns surrounding AI, and plenty more. You can find out more about Carla on her website.

06-02

42:51

In a Film Scorer first, a composer-director team joins the show! Composer Suvi-Eeva Äikäs & director Ben Steiner recently worked together on Ben's film Matriarch (which Ben directed and which Suvi scored). As such, we primarily talk about Suvi's score for Matriarch from both the director and composer perspectives (and with them each touching on sound design as well, particularly regarding the score edging into sound design and the sound design edging into score). Along the way, we touch on some big questions, like the role of film music, collaborating (and how to push back), and plenty more. Suvi and Ben actually connected in Bristol, England through a mutual friend, Ben Salisbury (Annihilation, Ex Machina). Suvi has also worked with Ben Salisbury and his longtime composing partner Geoff Barrow on several projects, including Devs and Men. You can find out more about Suvi on her website or about Ben on his website. Suvi's score is out on all major platforms, and Matriarch is currently on Hulu.

05-19

39:55

Fresh off of scoring Evil Does Not Exist, composer Eiko Ishibashi joins The Film Scorer podcast! Evil Does Not Exist is Eiko's second collaboration with acclaimed director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and the film itself actually stemmed from Eiko approaching Ryusuke regarding providing visuals for her live performance. Evil Does Not Exist grew out of that, while also spawning the film Gift, a sort of "composer's cut" of Evil Does Not Exist, which removes spoken dialogue and focuses on Eiko's music. Not surprisingly, we compare and contrast her work on Evil Does Not Exist and her prior score, Drive My Car (the Oscar winner for Best International Film). Along the way, we also cover things like Eiko's approach to music and preference to giving control to the director, trends in Japanese film music, and more.  Note that this is an interpreted interview, so you'll hear snippets of Eiko's responses in Japanese but the answers are primarily via English translation. You can find out more about Eiko on her website. Eiko's score releases digitally and on physical media on June 28, and Evil Does Not Exist is currently in theaters.

05-05

17:08

To celebrate his first full-length tv series score, Gareth Coker joins The Film Scorer podcast! You video game fans in particular may know Gareth from his work scoring games like Ori, Ark, and Halo Infinite, but Gareth hasn't stopped there. Given that he's already scored the various Ark games, it's no surprise that he was tapped to score Ark: The Animated Series, the animated adaptation of the Ark games. As such, we spend much of our interview talking about his scores for both the show and the game series and the interaction between the two, such as shared palettes and themes (including for the Broodmother fights). Along the way, we also talk about things like the score for Shōgun (Gareth's a fan), the keys behind making great exploration music (with a shoutout to Jesper Kyd's score for Assassin's Creed 2), and plenty more. Candidly I wasn't super familiar with Gareth's music previously, other than his work on Ori and the Blind Forest, largely because I don't really play video games, which in turn probably limits how much video game music I listen to broadly. So preparing to talk with Gareth gave me the chance/excuse to start digging into his other scores, primarily for the Ark games. With Ark: The Animated Series, Gareth is able to bring the Ark palette into tv, with a massive orchestral score that's actually packed but also heavily focused on building great character themes. The success and quality of the score is, in part, a testament to the resources given to Gareth in the scoring process, something I'd love to see every studio do! You can find out more about Gareth on his website. Ark: The Animated Series is currently streaming on Paramount+ while Gareth's score, and much of his other music, is widely available digitally.

04-21

46:03

Five-time Grammy winner Mike Post joins The Film Scorer podcast! A lot of you will probably be familiar with Mike already, who boasts one of the most impressive tv resumes of all time. For those of you that aren't, Mike's responsible for the two-note “dun-dun” sound in Law & Order, as well as themes and scores for shows like The Rockford Files, Hill Street Blues, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., NYPD Blue, L.A. Law, various Law & Order shows, and many, many more. He's also played for and with tons of classic artists, like Sonny & Cher and Kenny Rogers, and has produced albums for a number of artists, including Van Halen. Frankly, it's one heck of a career. Despite all that, Mike and I focus our conversation on something a bit different: his new album, Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta (though of course we still talk a bit about some of those other pieces too - they're too intriguing to pass up!). Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta marks Mike's first non-tv album in something like 55 years. I assumed that would be particularly exciting, releasing music that's his, but he surprised me by saying "[t]he music I make for TV is my own music, it’s just attached to somebody else’s art.” It's a very cool mixture, with half of the album being an exploration of an orchestra and bluegrass rhythm section and the second half exploring orchestra and the blues. He's also pulled in some of the heaviest hitters in each respective genre to make up the rhythm sections - highly recommend looking up each player! You can find out more about Mike on his website. Message from the Mountains & Echoes of the Delta is currently available on all major platforms here.

04-07

52:41

Last year's Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey drew a pretty divisive reception, but my favorite part, Andrew Scott Bell's score, rose above all the noise and discord. With Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 about to release, Andrew joins me on The Film Scorer podcast. Unsurprisingly, Andrew and I spend a good chunk of the interview talking about his scores for both parts, including the aspect that impressed me the most: how he crafts an organic, "real" sounding score in the face of a very limited budget. Along the way, he talks about the importance of staying a bit playful, he showcases some of the weird, custom instruments used in his scores (like the "beehiveolin", a cello made out of a bear's skull, and the "glorious box"), and Andrew plays some clips from his scores for parts 1 and 2. The latter aspect was really cool: Andrew had a number of cues ready to go to give a closer view into the sound of the score. You can find out more about Andrew on his website. Andrew's various scores are available on all major platforms, while Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 plays in theaters from March 26-28, with the score release likely to follow shortly thereafter.

03-24

55:28

Composer Tom Schraeder joins me for my first-ever in-person interview. Tom and I broke the ice by chatting for about an hour in my kitchen before heading downstairs and hitting record, and I think the comfort really shows up here. Tom has scored a number of horror films particularly, in addition to a long career as a folk musician, and we use both as jumping off points for our discussion, digging into more conceptual pieces rather than focusing on any single particular score or piece of music (although plenty still come up. As such, it's a pretty wide-ranging conversion, not only hitting a few of his old and upcoming scores, but also things like anxiety, finding musicians to work with, and music serving as a way to memorialize those who've passed.   You can find out more about Tom on his website. Tom's various scores, and much of his other music, are available on all major platforms.

03-03

52:07

Composer Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch joins the show! Emilie's latest score is for the film All of Us Strangers, a sort of romance-fantasy-supernatural film that I found absolutely moving. As such, we primarily talk about her score for that film, including talking about striking an emotional balance (one that feels organic but not manipulative), avoiding falling into "period" piece clichés, and more. We then meander into other topics, like the use of Michel Legrand's score from The Go-Between in May December and the freedom that horror gives composers. You can find out more about Emilie on her website. All of Us Strangers is currently in theaters, and Emilie's score is available on all major platforms with a curated vinyl release forthcoming. You may have seem me talk about how much I love when a score release is curated, so it shouldn't be a surprise to say I'm looking forward to that!