Tell us a little about your background, both personally and professionally. How did you first discover film music?
I grew up in Minehead, a resort town on the south-west coast of England. It was kind of quaint, and to get most things that couldn’t be found in the local Woolworths, we had to go to the next big city. Then we moved to Bristol, and they had a lot more to explore, especially when it came to music. My professional background isn’t much to talk about, a few call centres, many days and nights at them working on my writing instead of my job.
Like probably 90% of Gen X, I discovered film music through John Williams and Star Wars, although not in the way you might think. I was obsessed with the original trilogy having been born a short time after the first Star Wars came out, and I had a bunch of the toys and would play with them constantly. At the same time, my parents would buy me the book and tape, where you read the story of the film in the book while listening to the tape or record. While the narrator would usually play the actor’s parts, each of them still had John Williams’ score and Ben Burtt’s sound effects, so I would listen to the tapes over and over while playing with the toys, essentially acting out the film scenes, and this made me familiar with the music. I then began to pick up music in other movies and TV shows, and I loved it.
My parents had soundtracks but they were all musicals, things like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, so I would get a portable tape recorder and hold it up to the TV speaker during main or end title sequences, because that was usually where the music was primarily played without sound effects back in the ’70s and ’80s. I taped Jerry Goldsmith’s Star Trek, but also his Omen titles too, and I would play ‘Ave Satani’ in the car when my dad drove wherever. A little later on in the early ’90s, Star Wars was culturally dead, but I caught it on satellite TV one time and it just relit the flame, so I started buying the movies on VHS and whatever toys were available, which was usually the vintage stuff. So I went to this stall that sold the older toys, and they also had a copy of the Empire Strikes Back LP, which I immediately bought, and then went out and got a cheap stereo unit with a turntable so I could actually play it. I was so enamoured, even though it was the 1-LP UK version, which had the Main Title start at the beginning of side 2. Most of the music at that time was on CD, and I couldn’t afford a CD player at first, but once I got one, my first purchase was the Charles Gerhardt Return of the Jedi album, and I never looked back.
How did you begin your career as a film music journalist? Tell us a little about that history, and what you do now in terms of film music journalism.
I always loved to write from when I was young, and I would read movie magazines and then try and write my own articles and reviews, sometimes copying them in full to get an idea of things like structure and phrasing. It wasn’t until I retook English in college that I was told I actually had some talent, and did some short stories and articles for the college magazine. Then the internet came along, and I joined the message board of a popular movie website and through writing reviews on there I started writing for the website proper, covering DVDs. I wasn’t paid, but I was sent DVDs to review, and I convinced them to let me review soundtracks. My first was in 2005, which was for the complete recordings of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and then I was sent a bunch of La-La Land discs, which opened things up, because I had no idea there were these boutique labels putting out soundtracks like the 1954 Godzilla. Eventually I moved away to try it on my own, and made relationships with a bunch of labels, and things evolved to where they are now.
In terms of now, I run a regular column for a print magazine called Film Stories, so every issue I write a feature, four reviews, and a few bits of news. That’s my main regular gig, so I flit between different places. I’ve written about film music for Roger Ebert, Fangoria, The Quietus, and I’ve also written liner notes for soundtracks and booklet essays for Blu-rays.
You often work as a freelance journalist, working for multiple different publications and outlets. Can you talk a little about that specific experience and how that influences your film music criticism?
It’s difficult, because the very nature of freelance means you’re always looking for the next gig, and as you know, film scores are a niche within a niche and often outlets will refuse to cover it unless it’s super specific to something new that’s coming out, and even then it’s a challenge to get a pitch accepted. Also living in a village in Wales as far away as possible from Hollywood is a difficult thing in itself, and even London is near-impossible to get to as my day job is a caregiver, so I have to be available most hours for that. The problem is accessibility, you get offered interviews and review copies of scores, but they’re usually very reluctant to let you see the film itself unless you can make it to the nearest screening, which is usually London or occasionally L.A.
How I write depends on my audience. For a mainstream mag like Film Stories, for example, I aim to come across as broad as possible, whereas the audience for The Quietus is a lot more focused towards audiences more knowledgeable about music, so I can afford to be a bit more cerebral and esoteric. Of course it depends on what the subject is, but my liner notes and booklet essays tend to be more analytical, because I’m usually dealing with films that have been out for a while, so it’s about breaking them down musically to see how they work. It still has to be an enjoyable read, but the structure is often completely different. That’s why I enjoy features a lot more, because the opportunity to tell a story is key. I like to try and educate a bit, and make sure I include as much context as possible. Because it’s such a niche thing, you can’t assume people know who the majority of composers are, bar John Williams, Hans Zimmer, and Ennio Morricone.
What, in your opinion, are the things that are necessary for a film score to be successful?
It needs to be able to tell the true story. The actors and the cinematography and such have their job, but what the film score does is tell you what they can’t just come out and say. It also has to be too careful that it doesn’t overwhelm the picture too much – a lot of films just have too much music, and it dilutes the overall effect, especially if there’s not much variety. You have to come away feeling like the film would not be as effective without that music, and that it feels as much a part of the picture as any other element. It would be nice if the score is good or interesting to hear away from the film, but that’s not a necessity.
What is your opinion of the film music industry as it stands today?
It’s a two-part answer. In the mainstream industry, it sucks. The problem isn’t inherently with the music, although that often doesn’t help, it’s that movies these days are so attuned to following set formulas that they end up micro-managing the composer and ensuring the music is as beige as possible with no risks being taken. The problem as well is that the film music landscape for the big movies is still dominated by Hans Zimmer and either the composers he has mentored, or composers that are told to ape that style. It’s also terrible when it comes to women, be them composers or orchestrators or assistant. There’s the tiny amount that get to actually work on the big jobs, which is getting bigger thanks to organisations like the AWFC, but also the tales of sexual harassment. It’s not welcome in any industry, and certainly not in one like scoring which still affords as few jobs for women as it does.
Outside Hollywood, I think it’s great. You have a lot of composers coming in from alternative backgrounds to traditional classical scoring or music, and this has meant a lot of diversity, not only in terms of gender or race, but also musically. And it seems like the composer has a more important role; they’re not just a cog but recognised as providing a vital part of the film, some say the one that has the most impact. So you have the World Soundtrack Awards and Krakow’s Film Music Festival and now the London Soundtrack Festival, which are more of a communal appreciation of all types of film music.
Who do you think are the best film music composers, historically and working today? What is it about their music that appeals to you?
This is tough, because there are just so many, and it’s like trying to pick faces to go on Mount Rushmore. Historically, Bernard Herrmann, Miklos Rozsa, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, and Jerry Fielding. They always felt like they were constantly at the top of their game but never rested on their laurels. Fielding also because he was such a fantastic composer but is still kind of an unknown quantity outside of enthusiast circles despite scoring movies like The Wild Bunch and a bunch of Clint Eastwood pictures. But they shaped film music outside of the traditional leitmotif and brought fresh ideas.
Today, I like Nicholas Britell, Mica Levi, Eiko Ishibashi, Daniel Pemberton. Again, they all feel like they bring new ideas to the canon, and often they just write absolutely gorgeous music. They have their own styles, but they play with them loosely, and really, pushing the boundaries of the medium and ensuring it continues without becoming stale. And then there’s John Williams and Joe Hisaishi, the two greatest living composers. They’re great because they compose amazing music outside of what they’re famous for. Some of Williams’ smaller scores like Jane Eyre or Lincoln, they’re just sublime, and the same with Hisaishi and his music for Takeshi Kitano’s pictures. They’re not just on a different level, they’re in a different stratosphere.