Consequence Of Sound Composers Of The Year: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

December 24, 2020 6:50 PM

“It’s Been an Intimidating Journey” With Mank and Soul, the two musicians stepped out of their comfort zone in 2020. Medium-length insightful interview with Trent and Atticus about their movie score journey and where they are in life right now.
posted by hippybear (16 comments total)

I'll be honest, when I hear that one movie has music in the vein of 20th century modernism a la Bernard Herrman and another movie's music is straight up jazz, and both are composed by... two white rock musicians, I'm more than a little bit skeptical.

Seems more like filmmakers making the easy choice of the celebrity-turned-film-composer in front of them, instead of doing a little more digging to find someone with a particular connection to and sensibility for the specific movie itself.

But I should hold my tongue. I haven't seen either yet.
posted by lewedswiver at 10:18 PM on December 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

Seems more like filmmakers making the easy choice of the celebrity-turned-film-composer in front of them, instead of doing a little more digging to find someone with a particular connection to and sensibility for the specific movie itself.

This is not unusual for film. Film composers typically don't have the opportunity to be original; writing a film score is often about remixing a temp track made out of other music rather than writing their own compositions, and it has always been thus.

It's actually easier for a composer who has a connection to the subject matter to find work in video games, because that medium is unusual that it prioritises and values unique, memorable scores as an aesthetic choice.
posted by Merus at 12:15 AM on December 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'll be honest, when I hear that one movie has music in the vein of 20th century modernism a la Bernard Herrman and another movie's music is straight up jazz, and both are composed by... two white rock musicians, I'm more than a little bit skeptical.

And one should be skeptical because that's not actually what is going on. The jazz tracks from the soundtrack to Soul are by Jon Batiste. The Trent/Atticus tracks are not jazz at all. You can listen to the Soul soundtrack on YouTube here if you want to hear what is actually going on.
posted by hippybear at 3:31 AM on December 25, 2020 [7 favorites]

I liked this passage about working with Pixar on the Soul soundtrack:

Ross: I don’t really have anything to add beyond there is a bit of an amusing aspect. In the beginning, they did want to make sure that we were capable of making optimistic music. We had to do a bit of early writing.

Reznor: I wonder why. I don’t know why they wouldn’t know.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 5:50 AM on December 25, 2020 [5 favorites]

I wasn't a big fan of NiN, but I do think that Trent makes a pretty decent soundtrack artist. As someone who worships at the altar of Herrmann, I think Trent's homage is an acceptable offering.

Also note re: A Theory of Film link: I agree with the basic premise, but that Adorno quote... Adorno was smart but he could be a real snob and a crank when he talked about music.
posted by ovvl at 1:12 PM on December 25, 2020

This was an interesting interview, thanks for sharing. I had no idea what Reznor was doing with himself these days.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:19 PM on December 25, 2020

In the beginning, they did want to make sure that we were capable of making optimistic music.

"There is no such thing as happy music.“ — Franz Schubert.
posted by thelonius at 2:32 PM on December 25, 2020

But but... if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!
posted by hippybear at 2:55 PM on December 25, 2020

"There is no such thing as happy music.“ — Franz Schubert.

well, that's an intriguing proposition...
posted by ovvl at 3:28 PM on December 25, 2020

In the beginning, they did want to make sure that we were capable of making optimistic music.

I mean, really, if you dig into NIN, many of the songs are very optimistic and are even love songs. Even the incredibly dark We're In This Together from The Fragile has these words for the chorus:

"You and me
We're in this together now
None of them can stop us now
We will make it through somehow
You and me
If the world should break in two
Until the very end of me
Until the very end of you"

I mean, that's definitely optimistic, and definitely a love song. It's not very bright and shiny, but it's about determination to face adversity next to one's partner and being determined to make it work. Optimism to its core.
posted by hippybear at 3:36 PM on December 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just to help round out the thread, you can listen to the Mank score on Bandcamp here.
posted by hippybear at 4:46 PM on December 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Just to help round out the thread, you can listen to the Mank score on Bandcamp here.

tis a most exquisite offering! let us all worship together at the altar of Herrmann...

listening to the Mank score again, the Trent & Atticus style is more distinctive, it's groovy...
posted by ovvl at 6:14 PM on December 25, 2020

listening to the Mank score again, the Trent & Atticus style is more distinctive, it's groovy...

I wish more of it were, like, thought out complete tunes rather than 1m30s hints of something bigger. But I do enjoy the style. I bet it was sort of revealing for Trent & Atticus to work with this instrumentation. I'd welcome a more fleshed-out period offering from them in this style.
posted by hippybear at 6:39 PM on December 25, 2020

Also, just watched Soul. The score portions that T&A (um... oops?) did for the film are very atmospheric and almost 70s synth lovely, and the entire movie was great and inventive and I only cried three times.
posted by hippybear at 7:39 PM on December 25, 2020

We watched all of the extras directly after we watched Soul, and my overwhelming feeling afterwards was that they were incredibly... cautious... about the film. Having a cultural advisory board for example. But probably my favorite part of the extras was when Reznor uses the phrase "typically more gut wrenching" to describe his work. (That's a paraphrase, but I loved his chagrin.)

My husband really wanted to watch it, and I was kind of meh, but it was truly very good. It's not going to be one I put on in the background and "rewatch" like Moana or Zootopia, but it is definitely worth a second watch to truly appreciate how much work everyone put into getting it right.
posted by librarianamy at 6:47 AM on December 29, 2020

Also, just watched Soul. The score portions that T&A (um... oops?) did for the film are very atmospheric and almost 70s synth lovely, and the entire movie was great and inventive and I only cried three times.

I mentioned in the FanFare thread that it reminded me very much of the music that plays in EPCOT, especially when you’re walking around the entrance/Spaceship Earth. (I enjoyed it very much.)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 7:03 AM on December 29, 2020