The Film Scorer Podcast features a wide array of long-form interviews with film composers, including up-and-comers, established veterans, and everybody in betwe...
Although we've just entered 2025, this series is deep in the middle of 2024. The months of April, May, and June released some of my favorite scores of the year (feel free to guess which) as well as arguably the most popular score of the year in Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's Challengers, and plenty more scores, both big and small. I also noticed that I've interviewed almost a third of the composers mentioned during this period - I still get surprised now and again with just how many folks I've interviewed!
Keep your eye on The Film Scorer website for reviews and articles covering some of these scores, including detailed writeups and lists.
April: https://thefilmscorer.com/the-best-film-scores-of-april-2024/
For a full list of the scores discussed in this episode, see below:
Challengers - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Confidenza - Thom Yorke
Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1 - John Debney
The Dead Don't Hurt - Viggo Mortensen
Le Comte de Monte Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo) - Jerome Rebotier
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - John Paesano
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - Tom Holkenborg
Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver - Tom Holkenborg
Young Woman and the Sea - Amelia Warner
The Rooster - Stefan Gregory
The Swimming Diaries - Donna McKevitt
Evil Does Not Exist - Eiko Ishibashi
The First Omen - Mark Korven
All You Need Is Death - Ian Lynch
I Saw the TV Glow - Alex G
The Glassworker - Carmine Di Florio and Usman Riaz
Back to Black - Nick Cave and Warren Elli
Sasquatch Sunset - The Octopus Project
Civil War - Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury
We Grown Now - Jay Wadley
Unfrosted - Christophe Beck
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare - Christopher Benstead
If - Michael Giacchino
Hit Man - Graham Reynolds
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27:33
Bryce Dessner Scores Sing Sing
In a quick 1-2 punch after talking with Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist), Bryce Dessner (The National, The Revenant, The Two Popes) joins The Film Scorer podcast! Bryce released two scores last year, for the films Sing Sing and We Live In Time. However, Bryce and I were under a tight time constraint and so had to pick and choose what we chatted about; no time for a classic rambling conversation. As such, we spend much of our conversation covering his score for Sing Sing. This includes, among other things, choosing to focus the music on nature and escapism (rather than the more obvious matching of the prison setting), making space for the performers, and the film's equitable compensation system. Of course, we still manage to pack a lot in, so we cover quite a bit more as well, both about Sing Sing and various unexpected topics.
Bryce's score, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms. Sing Sing was released earlier last year and will be re-released in theaters (at least in the US) on January 1. You can find out more about Bryce on his website.
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27:09
Daniel Blumberg Builds The Brutalist
Much to my dismay, The Brutalist is not an industrial grindcore band. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to talk about it. As such, composer Daniel Blumberg joins the show! It should be no surprise, then, that we spend much of our time talking about his score to Brady Corbet's 3.5 hour epic, which is only Daniel's second feature score. This includes discussing the balance between improvisational and written music (especially when scoring to picture), using prepared piano to mirror the imagery and plot of the film, and how he and the sound design team overlapped their crafts to confuse the audience (and some of the other crew). Of course, we chat about a bunch of other things in between.
Daniel's score, and much of his other music, is available on all major platforms. The Brutalist is forthcoming, currently in limited theatrical release and will expand shortly.
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40:35
Donna McKevitt
Composer Donna McKevitt joins The Film Scorer Podcast! Donna is someone that I've chatted to here and there over the last few years, so it was a treat having her on the show and finally getting the chance to "meet" her. Her latest scores are for The Swimming Diaries and My Name is Alfred Hitchcock, two very different documentaries and very different scores. Unsurprisingly, we spend much of our conversation talking about those two works, while also pivoting into other topics like the discrepancy in representation of male and female composers, the challenges that touring musicians face (and how much better things used to be, such as during her time in Miranda Sex Garden), and plenty more.
Donna's scores, and much of her other music, is available on all major platforms. The Swimming Diaries and My Name is Alfred Hitchcock are both forthcoming. You can find out more about Donna on her website.
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44:53
The Angel
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.
The Film Scorer Podcast features a wide array of long-form interviews with film composers, including up-and-comers, established veterans, and everybody in between.
Hear first-hand from masters of the craft about the film scoring process, see behind-the-scenes, and learn all about the art of film and film music.
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