WAMG Talks To LOVE & MERCY Score Composer Atticus Ross

Paul McCartney has called “God Only Knows” his favorite song of all time. In an interview with David Leaf in 1990 he stated,

“It’s a really, really great song — it’s a big favorite of mine. I was asked recently to give my top 10 favorite songs for a Japanese radio station … I didn’t think long and hard on it but I popped that (God Only Knows) on the top of my list. It’s very deep. Very emotional, always a bit of a choker for me, that one. There are certain songs that just hit home with me, and they’re the strangest collection of songs … but that is high on the list, I must say … God Only Knows’ ‘ lyrics are great. Those do it to me every time.”

Opening this weekend is the film, LOVE & MERCY. It presents an unconventional portrait of Brian Wilson, the mercurial singer, songwriter and leader of The Beach Boys. Set against the era defining catalog of Wilson’s music, the film intimately examines the personal voyage and ultimate salvation of the icon whose success came at extraordinary personal cost.

To create an original score that incorporated Wilson’s work but stood on its own, the
filmmakers brought in composer Atticus Ross, who won an Academy Award (along with Trent Reznor) for THE SOCIAL NETWORK. “Working with Atticus was exciting,” says director Bill Pohlad. “We envisioned the music that goes on in Brian’s head as a big part of the movie. Choosing the right person to create a score that delivered on that idea was an important decision.”

Made with the full cooperation of the musician and his wife, LOVE & MERCY offers a neverbefore- seen glimpse of Wilson, the boy genius who co-wrote such ebullient pop hits as “Surfer Girl” and “Fun, Fun, Fun” and the game-changing masterpieces “Good Vibrations” and “God Only Knows” before disappearing from the public eye for years.

Actors Paul Dano and John Cusack share the role of the troubled musical virtuoso who defined the “California sound” with sumptuous harmonies and visions of endless summers of surf and sand.

Spanning more than three decades of Wilson’s life, the film reveals the darker and more complex story that lies beneath the music’s sun-kissed surface and his redemptive relationship with Melinda Ledbetter (Elizabeth Banks), all in the context of his unparalleled musicianship.

I recently discussed with Ross the importance of his score for this very intimate story of Brian Wilson as well as the Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows” and what melodies did, and didn’t, make into the much loved song.

WAMG: The film is so well done and while both John Cusack and Paul Dano don’t resemble Brian Wilson, they both captured the essence of the musician. I really loved it.

Atticus Ross: I did too! I’m very proud to be involved with it. I really enjoyed working with Bill (Pohlad) and we’ve become good friends through the process. I’ve had enough experience to know when you’re dealing with someone who has a real vision and Bill had a clear vision right from the start. It was such a pleasure to work with him.

WAMG: When were you brought onto the film?

AR: I met with Bill way before they started shooting. I was sent the script by my agent, Brian Loucks. He’s a real man of taste and he kept telling me it was such a good script and that I should read it. I felt like maybe it was out of my wheelhouse. But I did read it and agreed with him. Then I had an idea that there’s this mythology because you know Beach Boys music – it’s hard not to be a fan of “Pet Sound” music.

There almost a cliché aspect to “Pet Sounds” and it’s hard not to be a fan when you’re a musician. I had heard rumors over the years that there was this material that had been recorded but never released. When I went to see Bill, I said what I think would be interesting is if Brian Wilson gave me all his material, I could sample it and make the score that supports the story. There isn’t any point in the story that Brian isn’t present in one form or another. His voice is always there in the songs, even if it’s buried somewhere.

The original idea for the score was a bit more radical in what I had imagined – more like “The Grey Album” where you can’t recognize a source at all. I started off what that but it didn’t resonate with everybody, until I made it clearer and weaved Brian’s voice into it. It was a really interesting process and I probably wouldn’t do it again. It was such a lot of work.

Director Bill Pohlad

WAMG: How did you conceive the LOVE & MERCY score to make it the Brian Wilson movie without it becoming the Beach Boys movie – there’s such a harmonic balance between the two?

AR: There were two things. One is my brother was heavily involved and I couldn’t have done it without him, just purely in the hours that it took. There are scenes that just fly by that are maybe two minutes, like when Brian (Paul Dano) is lying on the hood of the car, and he’s working on “Good Vibrations” – we wanted it to feel like the music was coming into his head. Doing that piece took like ten days of solid work to get it perfect.

We also found going through the tapes there was a lot of cuts with only four tracks because that was all that was available, so everything needed to be timed – but it all clicked.

What was interesting on the “God Only Knows” tapes was there were some melodies that are beautiful that aren’t in the final version of it. When he’s lying on that car, we actually included them in there. It became this collage, but it was a long process. It’s hard when you’re trying to do storytelling to work someone else’s music into it and to keep it true.

To me, on one level, people seem to think of the Beach Boys as this very happy bunch when in fact it’s a very dark, real film. There’s great joy and triumph in the story that you come to love the film and that’s Bill’s triumph.

WAMG: Tell me about the dining room dinner scene after they’ve toasted Brian for his success with “Good Vibrations”? The clattering percussive noises with the silverware and glasses convey he’s in a bad state of mind.

AR: That was another thing that took ages to get right. It was a mixture of his original music and sound design with knives and forks and we built this cacophony of sound. We used this at the beginning of the film as well.  It divided itself into original composition, sound design and reinterpreted Beach Boys songs. There are some intense scenes that give way to the emotional context of the film – regardless if you’re a music fan or not. I didn’t know how deep Brian’s story ran.

WAMG: The film reveals the darker and more complex story that includes Wilson’s battle with mental illness and drug abuse, as well as his years under the influence of his therapist. (Eugene Landy – Paul Giamatti).

AR: Before I started I interviewed some people who were around at the time – some of the engineers. They said everything was literally monitored. If you made a phone call, it was monitored. If you said something to Brian, Landy would ask what you said to him. It was extreme. The film isn’t taking license.

According to people I spoke with, it’s not even close to being as extreme as it was. There were bodyguards around all the time – it was bizarre. And to have Melinda come in to do what she did. It’s an incredible story about one of the greatest musical minds. He’s brilliant.

WAMG:  Did you want to meet Brian Wilson?

AR: I didn’t want to hang out with him, but I have met him in passing. I was very concerned that everything we did had a purpose – that it never ventured into something he would find distasteful. At the same time, in the same way the film doesn’t pull any punches, I wanted to make sure that it was an honest score. From a musical standpoint, he’s a genius.

In addition to Ross’ score, Brian Wilson contributed an original song to the film, appropriately titled “One Kind of Love.” Featuring Wilson’s trademark soulful harmonies, the song is an ode to the woman who changed his life.

“It’s about Melinda and me,” he says. “She is my one love and the song is about the way we fell in love and the way we are in love. Love is timeless in the same way great music is timeless and this is an expression of that.”

LOVE & MERCY opens Friday, June 5

loveandmercyfilm.com