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Before starting with the questions, we would like to thank you for your participation; it's a privilege for us to have the chance to interview you.
Let’s start by your beginnings. You were born in Scotland, right?
Actually I was born on a Scottish cross-channel ferry between Dieppe and Dover during a power failure, so everything happened by candlelight as the ship drifted for an hour or so.
I became interested in film music because at 12 years I loved to play and create music, and I loved films and found the themes so captivating. So I started thinking how great it was to have music which was associated with romance and adventure, and how i'd like to do that.
Although you get involved in a lot of comedies, your perspective is always very emotional and psychological. As far as that approximation in concerned, have you been influenced by your studies of psychology? Do you intend the film music as a discipline, to show the emotions which can’t be entirely expressed through the pictures?
I don't think my training as a psychologist influences my music at all, but I do think music can contribute the emotions that may be missing in a film. My approach is very intuitive; I don't have any theories about why music works, I simply find that if it comes from your soul the music can be very powerful.
Your music always has very enjoyable melodies and original orchestrations. Is it difficult to get the inspiration in order to compose the particular musical “themes”?
It is the most difficult part, and sometimes it can take a couple of weeks for the right idea to appear. It is because it has to really feel like part of the whole film, so I have to have a feel for the soul or emotional centre of the film before I can really make the music.
How is your relationship with the orchestrator, Tony Blondal?
Tony takes my finished arrangements, which are very detailed, and transforms them into complete orchestral parts. I am very specific about tone and colour in my music, and Tony preserves all the detail while making it work for the full ensemble.
After the success of the theatrical piece “Gross”, you worked on the TV Film “Shalom Joan Collins”, what can you tell us about the experience of doing that?
The writer and director of Gross, Peter Morgan, came to me a few years later as he'd just become involved in this SJC show, and introduced me to Mandie Fletcher, the director. It was the first professional dramatic work I did for TV, and involved just 3 musicians plus me, but it was a nice introduction to the kind of work I really set out to do.
You moved to the United States in the early 90’s. There, before you met Alexander Payne, with whom we´ll be speaking sometime soon, you worked with Mark Waters in “The House of Yes”, and later in “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls”. How is it working with him?
I met Mark long after working with Alexander Payne on 2 short films and his first feature, “Citizen Ruth”. Mark Waters is a very decisive director; he is very open to creative ideas and then he makes his decisions very quickly. He is amazingly efficient, and an impressive and charismatic character. In “Mean Girls” I wanted to do a choral score with African voices, and he enjoyed what he heard and it was wonderful. With “Freaky Friday” I suggested a string orchestra and Taiko Drums, and again he was responsive and encouraging. So I love working for him.
One of your first successes was “The Theory of Flight”. A score with a remarkable use of the strings and a nostalgic romanticism. Did you composed it under the influence of John Barry´s classic style? In the credits of the cd, we see a special gratitude to Helena Bonham Carter, what was her involvement and contribution in the making of the music?
I love that style of writing, with sweeping emotions and stirring strings. I wish I got to do more.
With Helena Bonham Carter, I have a very good friendship. She was in Los Angeles filming "The Fight Club" while I was composing "The Theory of Flight", so she and I discussed the music many times and she was very helpful.
For “Gunshy”, you wrote a score very funny and eclectic, mixing colombian, italian, american and irish music, but you also did included the character´s psychology. Why did you choose that approximation?
Intuition- I liked the way those ideas worked together. Also because I am drawn to certain sounds and like the way they record, the way they fit against an orchestra.
You worked with Neil Labutte in “Nurse Betty”. A score very appreciated by the fans, with a very complex structure. What aspect of the film was more attractive for you?
It´s correct. There are 3 parts in the score. First, I write a very dark music in a thriller way associated with the real world; a second part, where I try emphasized the romantic vein of the story, and wrote for the imaginary world of Betty, and the third part is the Soap Opera "A reason to love" which had it's own theme which gradually is integrated into a love theme.
I really enjoyed the way that worked, to take a bad TV tune and develop it into a heartfelt emotional theme. I think Betty's own theme, the nutty but wistfully sweet melody was my favourite.
You have worked in other romantic films like “Kate and Leopold” and “Someone Like You”. In “Kate and Leopold”, not only you wrote a beautiful love theme but also a powerful and rhythmic theme. How did you get involved? What did you think about those films?
The producer of Citizen Ruth called me to look at Kate and Leopold", and I loved the film; it was such a classic old style romance. I did the score in 4 weeks. It was exhausting and very intense, and Jim Mangold worked me very hard, but I still love that film. “Someone Like You” was a pleasure to work on because it again had Hugh Jackman in it, and because the director Tony Goldwyn was really nice and imaginative. It was fun.
With “The Jury”, you returned to Great Britain. This is a very dramatic score where you use the duduk, and Allison Jiear’s voice. How was the experience?
It was great. Alison's voice brought the whole score alive - really soulful and moody.
Let´s talk about your relationship with Alexander Payne. How did you met him? How did you remember about your experiences in “Citizen Ruth”, a film about the difficult question of abortion?
As I told you, I met Alexander Payne by scoring two short films for him. We share a sense of humour, and so we have been friends ever since. "Citizen Ruth" was a comedy, and I was able to come up with some quirky ideas for that music. For example, Alexander Payne and I both whistled in the "Baby-Savers March" sequence.
With Alexander Payne, was there creative freedom or did he set some musical paths to follow?
He always indicates some direction, but then leaves it very open for me to experiment. Then he and I sift through the experiments and see what we like and how it needs to develop.
”Election” is about the American way of life, in our opinion a film brighter than “American Beauty”. It’s a very eclectic work, with an approach to the Italian music, with some references to Morricone’ spaghetti western scores. Why did you wrote such funny music for a film with such an unhealthy story?
It's a comedy. and I like to juxtapose music against the images. I really enjoyed to score this film, and the reference to "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" was very funny!
”About Schimdt” is a clear vision of the old age. Here you used exotic orchestration, and wrote a rich melodic score, in contrast to the explicit and egoist loneliness of the main character. What did you want reflects with the music?
I try to show the audience the positive nature of Schimdt, I wanted to show that he was human, that we could care about him even if we thought him mean and self-centered. And this positive nature only emerged at the end of his long journey.
“Sideways” has been currently a hige success, where both film and score are concerned What could tell us about this work? In this film you have worked with soloists like Dan Higgins, Alex Acuna, Ron Feuer and Dan Savant. How was the experience?
Alexander Payne thought jazz works well with wine. He is in love with the musical spirit of the Italians composers like Piero Umiliani ("I soliti ignoti" specially). So I wrote a jazz score.
About the second question, It´s very different to orchestral recording - you record many times to see what each new recording may bring. The soloists bring the sound alive in different ways, depending on the character they bring to the music.
For this score you have won some awards, and you have been also nominated for a Golden Globe. How do you think about this recognition? Do you think your life and career has changed?
I don´t think anything will change, because I am already doing what I love.
You have also worked with director Richard Shepard. With him, you have written music for films so different like “Oxygen”, a thriller for which you use an orchestra increased with “resonating plate and rod assemblies”, or “Mexico City”, where you use a guitar. What could you tell us about this works and your relationship with Shepard?
He is a friend and through him I get to compose for thrillers. It is also vital to me to be able to experiment with sounds, and Richard enjoys that part of what I do.
You aren´t very comfortable working with temp-tracks, is that right? Have you ever had any problems with them in any of your scores?
Sometimes, but normally I don´t hear them. Why listen to a load of old music before I have creative ideas of my own? This isn´t mathematics, it´s creativity, and it should be original.
You have worked for films with scores never released on cd. However, some of them were edited on an album with songs only . What do you think about this affair?
Well so few people buy film scores on CD it is hard for the companies to make a profit. I hope that my music gets more interesting, so that people will want to buy it.
23-april-2005
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