Tag: composer

Cristobal Tapia de Veer, Composer of the Viral ‘White Lotus’ Theme Song, Reveals His Process and Expectations for Season 3

June 8, 2023

Plenty of TV sitcom theme songs stand the test of time. The singability of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, clap-infused pop of “I’ll Be There For You” from Friends, and nostalgic harmonies of “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” from Cheers each holds a notable slot in the cultural zeitgeist. It’s less common for a drama’s theme song to meet the same reception. And that picture is even more complicated when the theme is a wordless instrumental used—in the first moments of the show—to set the scene for dead bodies washing ashore.  

Yet composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer’s “Aloha!” and “Renaissance,” which serve as the theme songs for first and second seasons of The White Lotus, respectively, have reached such success. Each track features a consistent melody with high-pitched instrumentation, a  danceable beat, and breathless vocals. Each is also tailored to reflect its season’s location—Hawaii in the first and Sicily in the second. 

Each season, The White Lotus offers colorful, suspenseful commentary on exploitation, wealth, class, and race with a backdrop of murder and dysfunction set in a fictional luxury resort. The combination of Cristobal’s masterful composition, the show’s alluring storytelling, and a rabid global fan base has propelled both themes to viral fame and millions of Spotify streams, and raised the profile of their composer. 

Fans on the prowl 

Since its July 2021 release, “Aloha!” has been streamed most by fans in Warsaw, Berlin, and Paris. The song’s popularity only grew in the lead-up to the October 2022 premier of the second season, with fans taking to the internet to share commentary on the song. 

One popular fan theory was that its repeated notes created a musical allusion to the Gregorian chant “Dies Irae,” or “The Day of Wrath.” In a rare interview with For the Record, Cristobal explained that this is but a coincidence. “Those melodies are the result of chanting with voices and finding a melody that works with the sound. For lots of reasons, I ended up with those types of harmonies, but I wasn’t specifically inspired by that music or trying to use it intentionally.” 

Following the debut episode of the second season on October 30, 2022, searches for “White Lotus” on Spotify increased more than 500%. But to the chagrin of fans, “Renaissance” wasn’t released on Spotify until December 11, the end of the season. 

Even so, dedicated fans steadily played “Aloha!” on Spotify while they waited, and on December 12, streams of “Aloha!” jumped 200% compared to the month prior. Searches for “White Lotus” soared to 4,800% compared to two months prior. 

Once released, daily streams of “Renaissance” hit an all-time high on December 13, 2022, with fans in Paris, Oslo, and Berlin leading the charge. And as for Cristobal? The composer saw a 162% lift in his own catalog’s daily streams following season two. 

Even after the season came to an end, fans continued to circulate the song, using it as the musical background to their viral videos. On February 17, 2023, Dutch DJ Tiësto put out his own remix of “Renaissance,” which became a favorite among fans in Sydney, New York, and Oslo in particular.  

Soundtracking suspense

So what went into creating the right soundtrack? Cristobal employed wind instruments to create the whirling bird sounds on “Aloha!” “For the first season, I wasn’t trying to make Hawaiian music. It was more about making something about nature kicking the characters in the ass, and the wild stuff coming for the characters,” Cristobal explained. To hit his mark, he combined bird calls with tribal chants for an island feel with a spooky tropical depth.

Composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer

“The temp score was this loungy, rather soft thing—something that would be playing in a nice luxury cafe when you’re on vacation somewhere,” he recalled. “It was very different from what I came up with. I went with a tribal, rather aggressive screaming, and drums and flutes.” 

That “screaming,” which seems to be the best way to describe the vocal sounds, became a driving force behind the song’s virality when it came time to adapt it for the second season. Cristobal knew he wanted to match the vibe of the location and utilize disconcerting vocal tones.

“The ‘oululus’ are the most important thing,” said Cristobal, using his tongue heavily to propel the sound from his own mouth. “For the second season, I was trying to fit into the Italian and the Sicilian vibe. We spoke about having some renaissance sounds, some harps, mandolin, violin, things that we’d connect with Italian music and opera. I did a demo of some classical Italian music, something operatic, and that’s the beginning of the track. From there, I wanted to somehow bring back the sound of the first season, which is these screaming voices that are so recognizable.” 

He also wanted to evoke a different journey for a new cast of characters. 

“In the first season, there’s a lot of conflict in the music,” he said. “It feels very stressful and more tense than how it should; it has more dissonance. But this was something calculated. And I think the second season is funnier because things become dark later, towards the end of the show. So the song keeps it more playful, more light and harmonious.” 

A trip to Thailand

Cristobal finds the composing process as tumultuous as life is for the White Lotus patrons at times. “I don’t do anything particular to get into the zone,” he notes. “Sometimes people try to have the best conditions—relaxed and with a view—but surprisingly, for me, I like to see the stuff that results from being in a bad situation, a stressful situation, not having the right equipment, or not being in the right place.” 

For Cristobal, discomfort is more impactful, motivating, and conducive to creativity than pleasure or perfection. “When I feel that I’m in danger, it feels like I’m gonna probably come up with something better, a more original idea—as long as I’m surviving a situation—than if I’m too comfortable.” 

With the third season of The White Lotus confirmed for Thailand, we asked Cristobal to hint at some musical elements fans might expect when the show debuts.  

“For Thailand, I want to bring in some Eastern philosophy, something a little bit spiritual,” he said. “I love the Buddhist temples there, and funnily enough I have a collection of Thai gongs. I have 36 Thai gongs to make melodies with, so you can expect to hear some of those. I’d really like to go deep with it, make it take a journey.” 

Prepare for the third season of The White Lotus with The White Lotus Official Playlist on Spotify.

Poland’s EQUAL Artist of the Month Hania Rani Composes Music That Lights Up the Soul

July 20, 2021

She’s a neoclassical pianist, musician, singer, composer, and award-winning artist, but Hania Rani’s resume only tells one side of her story. To get the full picture, you have to listen to her music, which features scores of wistful piano touched by sparse vocals and subtle synths. 

Hania grew up in Gdańsk, Poland, and later split her time between Warsaw and Berlin, where she studied piano and gained exposure to jazz and electronic music. Her career includes credits on full-length feature films, performances at iconic European venues, and accolades from across the Polish music industry, including multiple Fryderyk nominations, the country’s equivalent to a Grammy or BRIT award. 

Hania’s reign continues as Poland’s EQUAL artist of the month. Spotify’s EQUAL Global Music Program aims to combat gender disparity in the music industry by amplifying the work of women creators globally through an extension of resources and opportunities and by creating a global, cohesive, branded experience. As an EQUAL artist of the month, Hania will also be featured on the program’s bespoke playlist.

For the Record asked Hania to fill in the blanks and share her inspirations, creative process, and hopes for the future of music. 

The artists who have most inspired me are ____.

At the end of the day, I have to say that many of the artists who have had a really deep impact on my music are women. I really need to mention names like Agnes Obel, Juana Molina, Martha Argerich, Maria João Pires, and Mica Levi. Watching their creative process is always a huge lesson for me. Apart from these, I also need to mention Nils Frahm, who will always have a very special place in my heart.

One piece of advice I’d give other women artists is ____.

Learn, research, create, and go for things that make the blood in your veins flow a bit faster. Be curious, look deeper, and don’t be satisfied with shallow solutions. Don’t worry about whether something is reserved for women or men. If it interests you deeply, go for it. 

One notable moment in my career so far ____.

Releasing my first solo album, Esja. Everything that has happened afterwards was just a result  of this decision.

My creative process consists of ____.

Improvisation, craft, and intuition. I consider these to be very important elements of music I would like to create, music that is a source of freedom and spontaneity but is also rooted in skills and technique. I search for things that can’t be explained, things that sound intuitive but actually are deeply processed and planned from the craft side. My songs seem effortless but are created as a result of knowledge, experience, and confidence. When composing, I spend a lot of time improvising, recording, and deciding on the motifs worth developing. 

One way I’d like to see greater gender equity in the music industry is ____.

Simply seeing girls and women working in the music business and achieving their goals. I am always happy seeing women being awarded, mentioned, seen, and admired—not as an exception or because they are women—but because they delivered to the world a high-quality work of art or their voice played an important role in a discussion. 

One up-and-coming woman artist I’m excited to watch is ____.

Sama’ Abdulhadi! She is an extremely brave and exciting artist from Palestine who is not only producing amazing music, but is also an exceptionally fearless human being. I hope her voice will change more than just the music scene.

My girl-power anthem right now is ____.

I was always more interested in fragility, empathy, and intensity of sight than the idea of bringing even more power to a world overwhelmed with noise, chaos, and violence. But if my values could have a voice, it would probably be the soft but hypnotizing sound of Melanie De Biasio singing “I’m Gonna Leave You.”

Experience Hania’s unique sound and other women artists on Spotify’s EQUAL Global playlist below:

Tchaikovsky, Composer of ‘The Nutcracker,’ is the Top-Streamed Russian Artist Outside of Russia

December 18, 2020

The holiday season is filled with festive modern hits from Mariah Carey and Michael Bublé, but when it comes to wintertime magic and timelessness, The Nutcracker ballet often takes center stage. With compositions like “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” and “Waltz of the Snowflakes,” composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky made his mark, and the streams show it. Tchaikovsky, who is behind both The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, is the most popular Russian artist among Spotify listeners outside of Russia, with a monthly audience of 5.1 million worldwide.

Tchaikovsky’s use of rhythm and melody and his mastery of compositional technique are hallmarks of his work, which remains relevant 150 years later. Today, more than 100 playlists of his compositions are available on Spotify.

To celebrate the musician, we curated a special playlist, “This is Tchaikovsky,” that showcases some of his popular works. Spotify also commemorated the moment by featuring the playlist cover of Tchaikovsky on a billboard in New York City’s Times Square—a first for any Russian artist. 

Revisit Tchaikovsky’s classics with his top five most-listened to tracks on Spotify: 

1. Swan Lake, Op. 20, Act 2: No 10, Scene (London Symphony Orchestra)

2. The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act 2, No. 13, Waltz of the Flowers (Berlin Philharmoniker) 

3. The Nutcracker, Op. 71, Act 2, Tableau 3, Variation 2, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Russian National Orchestra)

4. The Nutcracker Ballet, Op 71, Act 1, No 2, March (Berlin Philharmoniker) 

5. Album for the Young, Op 39, No 3 Mamma 

Can’t get enough of the timeless composer? Stream “This is Tchaikovsky” below.

The Homemade Music of ‘Al Shak’: From Soundtrack to Spotify Playlist

August 4, 2020

While homebound during the pandemic, people are often turning to television and movies as a form of escapism. But creator, writer, and composer Firas Abou Fakher and the rest of the team behind the new acclaimed television series Al Shak (“the doubt”) did just the opposite, instead leaning into the very circumstances of the moment for its inspiration. The new show, available on the Middle East and North Africa’s leading video-on-demand streaming platform, Shahid, was entirely created, written, and produced by a team that was working from home.

“I wanted the starting point to be something familiar that everyone could recognize. The COVID-19 pandemic, which is at the heart of the mechanics of the show, is a global shared experience,” Firas, who is known for his role in indie rock band Mashrou Leila, explained to For the Record.

Al Shak centers on a young woman named Samar who is isolated in her family’s old house during lockdown. One day, she mistakenly logs into the wrong video chat and witnesses a murder. From there, through Samar’s experience, the 10-episode psychological thriller explores themes of isolation and connection.

As with most thrillers, music is used in Al Shak to heighten and amplify the characters’ moods throughout the show. The eerie and solemn soundtrack, which can be found on Spotify, also has an official copartnered, curated Spotify playlist to match. This playlist provides a unique, in-depth listening experience for fans—one that’s been carefully designed to complement and support the series.

In order to create these types of playlists, Spotify’s editors work alongside film and television showrunners, music supervisors, or composers to provide suggestions and guidance, as well as package the final product for fans. The copartnered Al Shak playlist, for example, was curated hand in hand with the show’s team, including Firas. The playlist even took Firas’ own inspiration for Al Shak’s soundtrack into account.

“I did a lot of research into the scores of psychological thrillers and horrors, from Bernard Hermann’s work with Alfred Hitchcock to the work of John Carpenter to contemporary scores by Mica Levi, Colin Stetson, Bobby Krlic, and more,” Firas said.

The playlist, therefore, includes Firas’ compositions from the show’s soundtrack, but also goes further, adding pieces from other composers, like John Williams and Thom Yorke, as well as songs from cult classic and more recent psychological thrillers and horror movies, like Psycho, Annihilation, and Midsommar.

The soundtrack also features a bit of whimsy—many of the sounds heard in the show are actually made from household items played like instruments. When combined with more traditional instrumentation, this creates emotional music that serves to highlight the show’s thematic content.

“I didn’t have access to the studios, musicians, and orchestras that I usually do,” said Firas. “I tried to create musical instruments from the items around me that are usually seen as boring or mundane, creating drones, percussion, and even piano-like sounds from them. I wanted all this to help create the dark and lonely world our protagonist inhabits, even within a highly connected world. The tactile reality of these everyday found objects plays a big part in the world-building of the show.”

Firas played on the lids of pots and pans with cello bows to create pads and drones—not that you’d ever know just from listening to the soundtrack. “These could be played in a very musical way, or very menacingly,” he said. “I also used superball mallets to create what would become the signature sound of our antagonist by making metal trays ‘talk.’ I used lots of salt and pepper grinders, as well as wooden sticks and metal cutlery to create the percussion, and I used soft mallets on metal trays. Glass windows created a ‘musical white noise’ that I think is felt rather than heard. Several doors were slammed to create the deep thuds throughout. The neighbors were not happy.”

By partnering with Spotify to create a customized playlist alongside the soundtrack, Firas can also look forward to insights our editors can provide (like unexpected regions that may stream the playlist). It’s also a great avenue for discovery for fans of the show who may not know where to go after streaming the series, and for furthering artist discovery for the music community in the Middle East and North Africa.

Yet technology can’t do everything. “I am a big believer that the human touch in music is essential,” adds Firas. “Even a human bowing the lid of a pot can express the intention of a scene or a moment in a unique and powerful way.”

The human touch—though something Samar’s character may be missing in her life—is truly felt in every aspect of Al Shak, from its carefully crafted story to the creation of intricate homemade music to its origination during a time when many are staying home.

Composer Terence Blanchard Riffs on Music in Spike Lee Movies, from ‘Do the Right Thing’ to His Latest Joint, ‘Da 5 Bloods’

June 23, 2020

Photo credit: Henry Adebonojo

Jazz musician and composer Terence Blanchard has created the music behind 17 of director Spike Lee’s films—but composing for film was never his original intention. “I wasn’t aware of the role of a film composer until I met Spike’s dad, [jazz musician] Bill Lee. But once I witnessed the process of creating music for movies, I was intrigued and thought to myself, maybe one day,” he told For the Record.

That day came sooner than he could have hoped. Originally a session player for some of Spike’s early works, such as 1989’s Do the Right Thing and 1990’s Mo’ Better Blues, Blanchard piqued Spike’s curiosity when the director heard Blanchard’s piano version of his original composition, “Sing Soweto,” on a break. From there, a decades-long partnership began.

Music has played a powerful part in Spike Lee’s joints since Do the Right Thing. Spike’s father, Bill, composed and performed much of the movie’s score, which was punctuated with top hip-hop tracks such as ”Fight the Power” by Public Enemy and “Don’t Shoot Me” by Take 6. Do the Right Thing, which covers racial tensions over a summer day in Brooklyn, hasn’t become any less relevant through the years, and has taken on a particular meaning and significance in recent weeks. The soundtrack, too, recently saw a surge in Spotify streams—spiking 249% on June 3 as compared to the previous week.

June 12 saw the release of Spike Lee’s newest movie, Da 5 Bloods, about four African American Vietnam War veterans who return to Vietnam many years later on unfinished business. The Da 5 Bloods Official Playlist, which began streaming on Spotify May 29, speaks volumes of the powerful Lee-Blanchard partnership. The playlist includes a message from the director himself, as well as Blanchard’s original compositions.

“Da 5 Bloods was such a pleasure to be a part of,” Blanchard said. “Creating something entertaining, yet still paying homage to soldiers who have given the ultimate sacrifice, was something I can’t find words for. I wanted to create music that would bring respect to what these soldiers have given us and also hopefully show them how much we care.”

Spike Lee and Terence Blanchard at the scoring session for ‘Da 5 Bloods.’ © 2020 Netlfix Inc. All rights Reserved. Photo by Matt Sayles

In composing the music for Da 5 Bloods, Blanchard hoped to “draw in a wide array of viewers and broaden the viewing experience.” His last project with Lee, 2018’s historical dramedy BlacKkKlansman, certainly attracted a broad audience—and earned him a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for the track “Blut Und Boden (Blood and Soil)”; an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score; and for the director, an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

“BlacKkKlansman was a film that was so unique,” Blanchard noted. “It allowed me to explore my early roots in R&B and rock ’n’ roll. Having a 96-piece orchestra and my band, The E-Collective, featuring Charles Altura, perform the music was a pure honor and joy.”

Even though Lee and Blanchard have collaborated since the ’80s, Blanchard says they’re constantly learning by experimenting with stories and sounds.

For example, in 1992’s Malcolm X, Blanchard tried to bring his personal experience of hearing the renowned orator speak, and match it to the score so the music would cause similar reactions of shock, bewilderment, and curiosity. 2006’s Inside Man, a thriller, was the first of its kind for Blanchard, and it “allowed me to try new sonic palettes more in line with that genre of filmmaking. I tried my best to create a score that was riveting, compassionate, and yet still had the flexibility to support the story.”

Blanchard’s background in jazz is what gives him the ability to amplify the motion of a scene. “Jazz has always aspired to reach the highest level of performance and expression while having the freedom and flexibility to say what’s on your mind,” he says. “These elements have found their way in many forms of music and have been inspired by the ideology of great jazz composers and performers.”

He also extends himself to the classical and opera worlds (he’s even written two operas— his second, Fire Shut Up in My Bones, is the first composed by an African American composer to premiere at the MET). “I stand on some broad shoulders of many African American jazz musicians, composers, and performers,” Blanchard said. He is known for making powerful statements concerning American tragedies and realities—like the lack of Black musicians in classical music.

Blanchard is currently working on the score for the Perry Mason HBO series which premiered on June 21. He notes that the main difference between a series and a movie is the ability to create a world for a much longer, extended period of time. “Over that period of time, the colors and textures that are used become characters as well—like the characters on the screen.”

Ultimately, Blanchard pieces together the fabrics of history and character to create the pieces of music in all his works. “What I have tried to bring to the table is the same level of artistry and mastery that Spike brings to the screen with his cinematic vision.” Considering the pair’s track record, it’s safe to say these visionaries have—and will continue to bring—ever-important stories to the eyes, ears, and minds of eager fans.

Stream Da 5 Bloods Official Playlist below.

How ‘Joker’ Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir Ventured From Iceland’s Underground to Hollywood’s Red Carpet

April 6, 2020

When For the Record connected with Hildur Guðnadóttir at her Berlin home, it was a few months after the Icelandic composer had accepted the Best Original Score Oscar for her soundtrack to Todd Phillips’ anti-hero epic, Joker.

On its own, the Oscar win would be a life-altering event, but for Guðnadóttir, it’s merely the exclamation point for a remarkable awards-season run. It’s not just her iconic work for Joker that’s earning her trophies—her score for the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl netted her an Emmy and a Grammy. Essentially, in six short months, this unassuming artist from Iceland’s avant-garde fringes has swiftly moved three quarters of the way to an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

But for those who’ve been following Guðnadóttir’s career for the past 15 years, the most amazing thing about her Oscar win isn’t that she’s the first Icelander to ever win an Academy Award, or that she’s only the fourth female composer to take home the statue. It’s that she’s the first Oscar winner who has also collaborated with electro-punk provocateurs The Knife, industrial pioneers Throbbing Gristle, and experimental metal band Sunn 0))). 

From a young age, Guðnadóttir was positioned to pursue a composing career—her father is a clarinetist who leads a chamber ensemble, and her mother is an opera singer. But if Guðnadóttir’s parents provided her with the tools and training to become a musician, Guðnadóttir found her true artistic calling when, as a teen, she fell in with the ’90s Reykjavik indie music scene—a close-knit, creative community that spawned the groove ensemble GusGus, post-rock maestros Sigur Rós, and electronic experimentalists Múm (with whom she’d become an on-again, off-again member over the years).

“When we were starting out, none of us really saw any career opportunities in music,” Guðnadóttir recalls. “None of us started to make music because we thought we could live off of it. We were just making music to hang out with each other. So there was a lot of exploration that happened through that.” By the mid-2000s, Guðnadóttir had moved beyond the Reykjavik scene to become part of a global community of artists blurring the lines between neoclassical composition, found-sound experimentation, and post-rock grandeur. On top of establishing her own solo career, Guðnadóttir had become an in-demand session player for boundary-pushing artists like Nico Muhly, Ben Frost, and Pan/Sonic. But her forays into film scoring were abetted by another Icelandic native: the late Jóhann Jóhannsson. 

Best known for soundtracking Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario and Arrival (on which Guðnadóttir performed), Jóhannsson was instrumental in building the bridge between Hollywood and the avant-garde that Guðnadóttir would later traverse. “We came from basically the same scene in Iceland,” Hildur said of her long-time collaborator, who passed away suddenly in 2018 at age 48. “Then we started working together in 2003. He was super influential in opening people’s ears in Hollywood. He did an incredible job of bringing more inaccessible sounds to film-scoring.”

As Guðnadóttir has attracted more high-profile projects, Jóhannsson’s influence on her work has become more evident, especially when it comes to her methods for capturing those “inaccessible sounds.” Her approach to Chernobyl was not so much to complement a scene as seep inside of it, building her unsettling score from field recordings captured inside Lithuania’s decommissioned Ignalina Power Plant (where the series was shot) and investing her dread-ridden drones with a degree of claustrophobic unease.

“Radiation is such a strong character in the story, and I thought it was really important that the music was the radiation … I basically tried to make a musical instrument out of a nuclear power plant, and really root the music in the facts of this story.”

Naturally, a fictional work like Joker demanded a considerably different treatment. “The music has more space to make bigger statements,” she said. The results are no less effective, and Guðnadóttir’s Joker score—all trembling cellos and marauding percussion—deftly mediates between the melancholy and the frightening.

Needless to say, no one was more surprised by the score’s success than Guðnadóttir, but her journey from the underground to the red carpet has been a pleasant experience. Even before her award wins firmly established her as one of Hollywood’s most in-demand composers, the Icelandic outsider found a welcoming scene in L.A. not entirely unlike the one that nurtured her in Reykjavik. 

“I imagined Hollywood to be this competitive world, but I’ve been so wonderfully surprised to see a sense of community between film composers—people seem to be really happy to support each other’s work and cheer each other on.”

Tune into This Is Hildur Guðnadóttir to experience the avant-garde composer’s Oscar-winning scores.

Composer Hans Zimmer Talks Music’s Starring Role in Movies

April 3, 2019

Do you feel your pulse starting to race as the orchestra picks up in pace and volume during the final sword fight in Pirates of the Caribbean? That’s all Hans Zimmer. Emotion-heightening music is the hallmark of the legendary composer, who curated Spotify’s Film & TV Favorites playlist in honor of National Film Score Day today, April 3.

Zimmer has more than 119 credits across film, TV, and video games, as well as an Academy Award for his score on the classic film The Lion King. Over the last decade, his compositions have elevated a slew of high-profile films, including Interstellar, Hidden Figures, 12 Years a Slave, The Dark Knight Rises, and dozens more.

Zimmer spoke to For the Record about his process for matching music with a scene, what it’s like performing for a live audience, and what he listens to when he’s not working (spoiler alert: he rocks out).

Your scores can be subtle, as with the Christopher Nolan films, or lively and upbeat, as in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. How do you strike the balance so the music doesn’t overpower a character or scene, and instead elevates and enhances the moment?

I suppose if you’ve done roughly a hundred movies, you learn how to balance these things—that’s all part of the learning curve. Certain actors you can push much harder. For instance, I could always be more romantic in my scores to a Jack Nicholson film because Jack himself is so tough that it doesn’t become sentimental. It depends entirely on the character and the actor. I’m sure there are a few times that I’ve goofed and overpowered the character.

How do you decide how little is too little, or how much is too much?

You really look at the whole movie. If you look in the long form that the storytelling of a film really has, you figure out pretty quickly if you’re doing the right thing—if your balance is right or if your balance is off.

What other films and composers inspire you?

To be really honest, any composer who manages to get a film finished and done and released is a hero of mine. It’s so hard to get a film, come up with an original idea, execute the original idea, not get trampled underfoot by the sound effects, and actually have your film released. So, I think anybody who actually makes it through is a hero.

I think Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer wrote the best cue of last year for the TV series Babylon Berlin, which is absolutely amazing stuff.

Talk about the reactions to your music when you perform for live audiences—particularly at Coachella two years ago, when you played music from Inception, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Dark Knight, Gladiator, and The Lion King.  

Coachella was like a dare. Somebody asked if I wanted to do Coachella and I thought, “Take an orchestra and a choir out into the desert? I don’t think that has been done before.” So, it was exciting to put that sort of music in front of an audience that doesn’t expect it. And we were doing something new, something different. Performing The Lion King meant something because everybody who was there had at one point heard it as part of their life. It was quite emotional for me that night.

What is it about modern scoring, such as your music or that of Ramin Djawdi of Game of Thrones, that is so attractive to live audiences?

It’s because we’re starting to break down the walls. I thought long and hard before we did Coachella about what I didn’t want to do: be boring, dull, not put on a show, have somebody conduct and have my back to the audience. That’s not who I am, and that’s not who Ramin is, either. Yes, he’s conducting, but then he suddenly gets his guitar out. We’re much more rock-and-roll, and we treat the orchestra as a big band, which I think makes a difference. It certainly allows the audience to connect with the orchestra. Suddenly they realize that these musicians are human beings and they are part of us and we are part of them, and it’s not some sort of weird, elitist thing.

When you’re not scoring, what music—or which artists—do you like to listen to for fun?

Always for fun is Manu Chao, and Kraftwerk is always good. Usually I don’t listen to film music (when I’m writing, it’s impossible to listen to other people’s music), but I’m rediscovering things like John Williams’ Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which is just a magnificent piece of music. Oh, and The Clash—“London Calling” just popped back up. And The Damned’s The Black Album, which I had something to do with.

Enjoy the updated Film & TV Favorites playlist curated by Hans Zimmer.

Composer Carter Burwell Reflects on the Vital Role of Film Music

December 12, 2018

A piano melody that brings you close to tears. A suspense-inducing crescendo that has you at the edge of your seat. An experience-enhancing soundtrack is key to any great movie—something the film music producers at Varèse Sarabande Records know well. In celebration of its 40-year anniversary, the prolific record label is putting out a retrospective of film music from the last four decades, since the release of their first soundtrack in 1978.

The company is behind soundtracks such as A Little Princess, Back to the Future, Part III, Driving Miss Daisy, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix, Whiplash, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and How to Train Your Dragon, as well as the composers of said works—Patrick Doyle, Alan Silvestri, Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, Don Davis, Justin Hurwitz, Carter Burwell, and John Powell, respectively.

We sat down with one of these composers, Carter Burwell—the mind behind most Coen brothers movies, including Oscar-nominated scores for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as well as soundtracks for films such as Todd Haynes’ Carol—to find out what goes into the making of a movie score.

The first movie soundtrack Burwell fell in love with was that of the James Bond film Goldfinger. “I thought I was going to grow up to be a spy,” he tells Spotify. But he didn’t—he became a composer. But more than that, he became a filmmaker.

“I feel that I have two jobs, and my number one job is to make a great film. The number two job is to also make good music, make interesting music. What I’m paid for is job number one, but for my own pride and satisfaction, I try to also achieve job number two.”