The Film Scorer

Kris Bowers

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.

Amelia Warner

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.

Season Five Trailer - The Film Scorer Podcast

Season Five of The Film Scorer Podcast is almost here! The new season launches on Sunday, October 27th, with new episodes continuing every other Sunday after that (more or less). Given the breadth of guests in season three, including Academy Award nominated actor-turned-composer Viggo Mortensen, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Abels, 2024 Academy Award nominees Jerskin Fendrix and Laura Karpman, Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, you never who will show up this time around - all I can say is I already have some great guests lined up!

So subscribe on your favorite podcast platform, follow The Film Scorer on Instagram, Twitter, and Threads, and keep those ears open!

Film Score Review III: 'She Dies Tomorrow' by Mondo Boys

Dipping back into the well again, reaching to September 2020, here's the audio version (cleaned up and shortened) of my review of Mondo Boys' score for She Dies Tomorrow. Again, the audio is still a little rougher but after thirty seconds or so you don't really notice (or at least I didn't as I was editing). There's also a nauseating little cue thrown in the middle - which I embarrassingly called a "song", which Sony was kind enough to give me permission to use when I first recorded this.

I don't have a written review of this one, but I did end up reaching out to Mondo Boys shortly after and interviewing them: https://thefilmscorer.com/an-interview-with-mondo-boys/

This is one of my favorite interviews, because we recorded for about two and a half hours on a Saturday night, drinking whiskey. How I turned it into a tight, coherent, sub-hour interview I don't know...

Brooke & Will Blair (The Blair Bros.) Score Rebel Ridge

Just because the podcast is between seasons and on a brief hiatus doesn't mean that the work stops. To keep me busy, I chatted with Brooke Blair and Will Blair (Blue Ruin, Green Room), the very rare sibling composer duo, about their latest score: Rebel Ridge. Rebel Ridge marks the fifth collaboration between the Blair Bros. and director Jeremy Saulnier, and is arguably their best. As such, we spend much of our time talking about their score, including developing the palette, experimenting with and avoiding musical clichés, and mimicking cicadas as a “symphony of terror”.

Beyond that, though, we discuss what it's like to build your career alongside a director, how to uncover a director's preferences (and the benefits in doing so), working as brothers (including when their third brother, Macon (I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore) gets added to the mix, and plenty more. I even try to get a little inside information about the forthcoming Toxic Avenger film, which they scored and their brother Macon directed, but no luck. For your benefit, the first long answer you'll hear comes from Will.

Brooke and Will's score, and much of their other music, is available on all major platforms, and Rebel Ridge is currently available on Netflix. You can find out more about Brooke and Will on their website.

Film Score Recap: January Through March 2024

Welcome in the new year (and forget that it's already September) by hearing about some of the best and most notable film scores kicking off 2024, including Dune: Prat 2 by Hans Zimmer, Spaceman by Max Richter, and plenty more, both big and small. Remember: the show is still in hiatus between seasons, but hopefully this can hold you over a little bit.

Keep your eye on The Film Scorer website for reviews and articles covering some of these scores, including detailed writeups and lists.

January: https://thefilmscorer.com/the-best-film-scores-of-january-2024/

February: https://thefilmscorer.com/the-best-film-scores-of-february-2024/ 

For a full list of the scores discussed in this episode, see below:

• Dune: Part 2 - Hans Zimmer
• Kung Fu Panda 4 - Steve Mazzaro and Hans Zimmer
• The Primevals - Richard Band
• Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Dario Marianelli
• Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Antonio Di Iorio and Tom Holkenborg
• How to Have Sex – Jakwob
• Happy Palace - Adrian Leung
• Silent Love - Joe Hisaishi
• The Seeding - Tristan Bechet (aka TRZTN)
• Night Swim - Mark Korven
• When Evil Lurks - Pablo Fuu
• Out of Darkness - Adam Janota Bzowski
• Femme - Adam Janota Bzowski
• Drive-Away Dolls - Carter Burwell
• Spaceman - Max Richter
• Love Lies Bleeding - Clint Mansell
• Problemista - Robert Ouyang Rusli
• Cop vs. Killer - Shaun Hettinger
• The End We Start From - Anna Meredith
• Home Sweet Home - Michael Kamm, Paul Rischer, and Maximilian Stephan
• Custom - Ted Regklis
• Des Teufels Bad - Anja Plaschg (aka Soap&Skin)
• Asphalt City - Nicolas Becker and Quentin Sirjacq
• Vivre avec les loups - Armand Amar

Film Score Review II: ’Five Shaolin Masters' by Yung-Yu Chen

Somewhat early on in The Film Scorer days, I did a few video reviews of film scores. The first was the 1974 score for Five Shaolin Masters, by the prolific Chinese composer Yung-Yu Chen. Given that the show is currently between seasons, there's a bit of time to kill (and I know you're all clamoring for new episodes), so I've decided to clean these up a bit and release them through the podcast as well. First off: Chen's score.

The audio here is a little rougher than you're used to, as it may have been before I even owned a mic. But that's balanced out by a nice little capture of the main motif of the score that comes about halfway through. This also went surprisingly "viral" on YouTube, racking up nearly 60,000 views. If you enjoy this and want some more, just let me know - I've been meaning to record some more reviews and keep procrastinating...

You can also read my review here: https://thefilmscorer.com/five-shaolin-masters-yung-yu-chen-1974-film-score-review/

Daniel Hart

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.

Viggo Mortensen

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.

Jason Graves

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.