Ludwig Goransson Discusses His Score For Ryan Coogler’s CREED

Director Ryan Coogler’s CREED was released November 25, 2015 – nearly forty years after the original Rocky film debuted – and was an instant winner at the box office. CREED brought in $1.4 million from the Tuesday screenings, an industry record for Tuesday pre-shows for the Thanksgiving weekend. Ticket sales were $29.6 million for the three-day weekend.

It’s a terrific, perfect movie, with wonderful performances by Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson and especially Sylvester Stallone. (Review)

CREED focuses on the relationship between the late Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis Creed (Jordan), and the retired former boxing champion Rocky Balboa (Stallone). After meeting in Philadelphia, Rocky agrees to train Adonis, despite his own declining health.

The original Rocky (1976) film won the 1977 Academy Award for ‘Best Motion Picture’. Rocky composer Bill Conti, along with Carol Connors, were nominated for ‘Best Music: Original Song’ for “Gonna Fly Now.”

The early screenings had people cheering and clapping. This true crowd pleaser, which has played well across the board in every demographic, is a nostalgic reminder of how films used to be and there is already awards talk for the film and performances.

The movie reunites the director with composer Ludwig Goransson. The young composer combines Conti’s iconic score with a fresh sound to create a new legend that is CREED.

I recently spoke with Goransson about the process of creating the score for CREED.

WAMG: People were cheering at the screening – it’s been a long time since we’ve heard and seen that. There’s an emotional level that is found in your score to CREED. Fans will discover, when hearing your score, that musically, it brings the ROCKY saga full circle.

Ludwig Goransson: It was such an amazing movie to be a part of and an amazing movie to compose the score for. It’s a great movie.

WAMG: The movie is so fluid and just a great film to watch.

LG:  Ryan (Coogler) did such an amazing job on everything. The acting is incredible.

WAMG: What’s your background musically?

LG: My first interest at a young age was rock music. When I was nine years old I heard Metallica for the first time and it really steered me into becoming a musician. When I got older, in high school, I started studying classical music and made my way into learning the craft.

WAMG: What instrument were you partial to as a teen?

LG: The guitar, especially granular guitars.

WAMG: You previously worked with Ryan on FRUITVALE STATION – was a composing groove between the two of you already there?

LG: Definitely. He was one of the first friends I had when I moved to America. We both studied at USC and he asked me to score a short film (LOCKS) and we just hit it off. We’ve become great friends and great collaborators. A couple years later he asked me if I wanted to do FRUITVALE STATION, and after that CREED came up.

WAMG:  When did you first see ROCKY?

LG: I first saw ROCKY at a very early age, but I didn’t see the whole thing because my mom didn’t let me watch violent movies and came in and turned it off. (laughs) I really didn’t discover the movies until I was much older and only found out Ryan was going to do the movie right before he was going to film it.

But it’s funny, because I did know the music, even though I hadn’t seen the movies. I did know Bill Conti’s ROCKY theme.

WAMG: Did you go back and look at the 1976 film?

LG: I did. I went back and watched all the movies. I was floored by what an amazing franchise it was. It’s such an incredible legacy and I was a little nervous because of that iconic theme.

WAMG: That had to be imposing. “You’re A Creed” “Conlan Fight” tracks are very much like Conti’s theme where they’re triumphant and breath taking – the percussion makes these cues. What instruments did you feel the need to include in your score to get that same impact?

LG: When I went back to study his score and the original movie, I realized what Bill Conti was doing was, kind of like me – he has a classical and jazz background – but he infused it with music that was modern at the time. He has classical and jazz tunes running underneath it, as well as a disco drum.

What I wanted to do with the score was do a similar thing but use a contemporary element of today which is more of an electronic layer. I have an electronic percussion throughout the score that is gives it a special element, so that’s my take on it.

WAMG: How important then was it to retain the generational as well as the familial themes? The “Adonis” cue sets the tone of the film right off the bat.

LG: Something that helped me from the start when I began composing it was my conversations with Ryan.  He and I had a discussion where we knew we wanted to create something brand new. We wanted to tell Adonis Creed’s story and for it to be real. That helped me with writing and designing the music.

WAMG: The editing was crucial in this type of film – how closely did you work with the editing team?

LG:  I worked with them pretty close. It was also the same team that worked on FRUITVALE STATION. We’re kind of like a little family already. Ryan is very open to hearing my thoughts so when we have to extend a scene one second longer to get a note in there, he does it.

WAMG: You wrote several tracks for Tessa Thompson to perform in character – it brings the whole score to the next level. How was it to compose a score and produce and write songs at the same time?

LG: For the last couple of years in my career I’ve also been producing for a lot of artists. I’ve been working with some rappers and some pop artists (HAIM, Chance The Rapper, and ZZ Ward), producing their albums. What was fun for me on CREED was that I got to do both – producing for an artist and writing a bold score.

It was interesting because Tessa Thompson was cast as “Bianca” a couple weeks before she was going to shoot, so we had ten days in the studio to write all these songs that were included in the movie. She came to my studio and we basically took a couple of days and wrote the music.

WAMG: What feedback did you receive from Sylvester Stallone for the score?

LG: He came by to the recording sessions and was very involved with the whole filmmaking aspect of it. ROCKY is his baby, so he was very adamant about there being a lot of music in CREED. He wanted the music to be very present in the final part of the film during the fight scene.

WAMG: When Bill Conti’s ROCKY theme comes up during the Conlan Fight, it gives you chills. The “You’re A Creed” track nails it and what has audiences cheering.

LG: Adding the ROCKY theme was one I had early on. I waited to use it until the very end – until Adonis had earned it.

WAMG: You’ve written the scores for comedies  TOP FIVE and 30 MINUTES OR LESS as well as TV’s Community and New Girl.  Do you think you’ll look back on CREED and feel it was truly a special project?

LG: Definitely. For me, I’m 31 now, I’ve produced and written music for a bunch of TV shows, for films, produced for a lot of artists, but up until CREED I didn’t really feel like I had done anything musical for myself. What I got to do for CREED is something that I love and something that means a lot to me in such a special way. I don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard on a movie as I have on this one. I will definitely look back on this and feel that this was one of those special times in my life.

CREED is playing in theaters now.

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