WAMG Talks To THE LEGO MOVIE Composer Mark Mothersbaugh

“Everything is awesome. Everything is cool when you’re part of a team”

Kids and adults alike went to see THE LEGO MOVIE this past weekend to the tune of $69 million in ticket sales. The film that everyone loves is set for another awesome weekend at the box office.

Visually, it is a photo-real, non-traditional computer animation style resembling stop-motion, which gives the characters and settings the endearing homemade aesthetic that defines LEGO construction. THE LEGO MOVIE contains 3,863,484 unique LEGO bricks. Some are reused and reconfigured in multiple scenes, making up sets, characters and props, for a total of 15,080,330 bricks—the number that a person would need if he or she wanted to recreate the entire film by hand.

As much as the visuals and storyline were important to this animated film, much of the credit to the overall success of this delightful movie has to go to the irresistible and exciting music.

I recently spoke with film composer Mark Mothersbaugh – also a movie geek (a claim he makes himself). He produced the soundtrack to the film, including the single “Everything Is AWESOME!!!” featuring pop culture mainstays Tegan and Sara and The Lonely Island.

Depending on your generation, some of you may know his name from TV’s ‘The Rugrats’ and  ‘Pee Wee’s Playhouse’ and from the big screen with CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS and 21 JUMP STREET.

Many of us 80’s music fans remember Mothersbaugh and his iconic red energy dome hat and yellow haz-mat suit on stage, singing “Whip It” and “Working in the Coal Mine” as a founding member of DEVO.

After THE LEGO MOVIE he also has several different projects in the works; there’s the prep for a long developed touring show at a half a dozen major museums across the country showcasing his art works, as well as the score for 22 JUMP STREET to be released in June.

After seeing THE LEGO MOVIE, the big thing the majority of viewers notice is the ingenuity of the music.  In our conversation, Mothersbaugh and I talked about the enormous work that went into creating the sounds of the Lego world, his DEVO days and how a movie with Batman wouldn’t be complete without a “Batman Song.”

WAMG: Your score is so important to this kind of film right down to the “clicks” of Legos bricks. From the film’s beginning, ‘Emmet’s Morning’ sounds like bricks building with synthesized sounds of the city of Bricksburg waking up.

Mark Mothersbaugh: The goal was when I started seeing test footage, how do you make the sounds that illuminate the Lego world? I had to do a lot of experiments with all different kinds of electronic instruments.

WAMG: What standard instruments did you use and how about the non-traditional?

MM: I had a very wide arsenal for this one. I had a hundred-piece orchestra. I had a 40 voice choir. I also used 35 synthesizers and things that were from modern rave – a lot of circuit bent, crazy things that are often times just one off to get that sound.

It’s kind of like what my little brother, Jim, used to do back in the 70’s before we had a name for it, where they take toys and musical instruments and make them sound better than they really were supposed to sound.

I also used old DEVO sounds, so I could give it an electronic, Morton Subotnick kind of feel.

(L-r) Director CHRISTOPHER MILLER, ELIZABETH BANKS (voice of LEGO® minifigure Wyldstyle) and director PHIL LORD at an ADR session for the 3D computer animated adventure.

WAMG: The film is so great and your score has so much humor in it. When were you brought into the project?

MM: This is the fourth movie I’ve done with these guys (Phil Lord and Christopher Miller), so I knew about it from the beginning.

I was actually hired before them. Five years ago, Dan Lin (one of the producers) called me up and showed me a different idea for the film and asked me to help him put together a reel. I gave him some ideas on what to do, but in the process I had just finished a film with Phil and Chris, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS, and I told him to check it out. They’re an excellent writing/directing team.

So I think this movie would never have happened if it wasn’t for me. How’s that? (laughs)

WAMG: How much of the film were you seeing as it was coming together?

MM: I am inspired by the visuals, so I tried to see everything as it was coming together. I was recording the score in Australia and they were editing the film in Los Angeles. It was kind of wild.

To be safe, I double wrote the score so that Lord and Miller would have enough music once they got on the sound stage. I scored a lot more orchestra and electronics than you hear in the movie.

They had the freedom to dial, one way or the other, depending on if they needed more emotion or needed more of a traditional orchestra sound or if they wanted to dial more to the aggressive electronics, they could do that. It was an interesting project from that point of view.

WAMG: The TV spots for the film have every kid singing “Everything is Awesome”. It’s all over the place. It’s an insanely catchy theme song. Was it there from the very beginning?

MM: It was in the script from the very beginning and a very clever idea on their part – to take a song where the lyrics are irritating and the tempo was way-up speed. The whole song was obviously some mantra like Big Brother was using to control everybody in Lego Land and keep them working and keep their noses to the grindstone.

But by the end of the movie, just the story plotline makes the sentiments in the song flip upside down. What was once irritating all of a sudden becomes meaningful, and you realize it’s a song about cooperation and working together through all the problems.

It’s Chris and Phil at their best.

WAMG: What was your collaboration with Canadian singers Tegan and Sara and Lonely Island for the song?

MM: I was producing the songs and playing a lot of the instruments. I recorded it with an orchestra, and other things on top of the songs, so they could have all sorts of ways to ingest it. Tegan and Sara came over to my place and sang on it and I sent all the tracks to Lonely island so they could work on it in New York.

It was the last few weeks on the film, so it was a sprint to the finish line.

WAMG: Tell me about the funny Batman song – “Untitled Self Portrait” – written by you, Will Arnett, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. It’s become the big song that moviegoers remember. Everyone thinks it’s hilarious.

MM: After hearing the finished song, I felt like Batman should have his own album.

Who knew he could sing, huh?

WAMG: He and Will Arnett… go figure.

MM: Laughs.

WAMG: Did you ever dream that you’d be doing film and TV work back in your DEVO days?

MM: I probably had mad nightmares that that was going to happen. When we were doing DEVO, (laughs) I didn’t think I was going to be alive this long.

When I was coming off the stage in my 20’s, I thought, I’m not going to be able to do this when I’m 30. (laughs)

I remember sitting around thinking, this is too hard… I can’t do this. Somehow I got a “life” after DEVO.

From WaterTower Music, the THE LEGO MOVIE album is available everywhere:

I-tunes: HERE
Amazon: HERE
Barnes & Noble: HERE

Play The LEGO Movie Music Maker to remix tunes and watch ’em dance away: http://appcloud.warnerbros.com/lego/legomusicmaker/

THE LEGO MOVIE, starring Chris Pratt, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie and Charlie Day, with Liam Neeson and Morgan Freeman, is in theaters now.

Photos: ©2014 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. Eric Charbonneau