daniel pemberton – We Are Movie Geeks

Listen To Composer Daniel Pemberton’s STEVE JOBS Score

Back Lot Music has released the soundtrack album for STEVE JOBS, the new film from Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle and Academy Award-winning writer Aaron Sorkin. The album is available now on iTunes and Amazon.

The STEVE JOBS Original Motion Picture Soundtrack features new music by Award-winning composer Daniel Pemberton, as well as two iconic tracks from Bob Dylan, and songs by The Libertines and the Maccabees.

Universal Pictures’ STEVE JOBS, which stars Michael Fassbender as the pioneering founder of Apple, was released in New York and Los Angeles on October 9. The film will expand to additional North American markets on October 16 and wide on October 23.

“Fassbender’s Jobs is a tornado of roaring ferocity and repressed feeling.” – RollingStone.com

Enter to win passes to the St. Louis screening HERE.

Director Danny Boyle says, “The first act was influenced by the early sounds of computers. The vast majority of the audience – and this is more and more the case with every year that passes—are digital natives. They don’t remember what it was like in the early days of the digital revolution, at the birth of a digital sound that – at that time – seemed almost futuristic. That notion interested me, and Daniel made use of that sort of retro sound beautifully.”

Prior to the beginning of principal photography, Pemberton worked alongside the filmmakers to develop a unique approach to composing the music for the three distinct periods of time depicted in STEVE JOBS. What they’ve created is a symphonic tour de force with three distinguishable aural points of view to complement the film’s narrative arc:

The first movement, set in 1984, expresses the optimism of Jobs’ first product launch, the Macintosh. Restricting himself to equipment of the time and embracing their limitations, Pemberton utilized what is now technology of the past – synthesizers such as the Yamaha CS-80, Roland SH-1000, Roland Juno-60, and Moog Minimoog – to reflect that era’s visions of the future, while still creating a sound world that would sit comfortably alongside Sorkin’s dialogue and Boyle’s direction.

The second movement, set in 1988 at the San Francisco Opera House, sees the unveiling of the NeXTcube with a theatrical orchestral fantasia. With composed, large-scale operatic pieces, elaborate emotional transformations of a simple tuning-up sequence, and a dramatic symphony, the score reflects both Jobs the conductor and ringmaster – as well as a man focused on revenge.

The more reflective, internal, and emotional third movement takes us to 1998 with Jobs’ unveiling of the iMac, and echoes the various ways in which we utilize computers as we know them today. “Today, I write pretty much everything I do on an Apple machine descended, in part, from that iMac,” said Pemberton. “I use a piece of Apple software called Logic. I can write music, manipulate sounds, produce recordings, and express myself as an artist without ever leaving the computer.”

This year has seen the release of Pemberton’s acclaimed soundtrack to Guy Ritchie’s THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Read my interview with the composer HERE.

What impact did the screenplay for Steve Jobs have on you, and what were your initial thoughts about scoring?

I read it in one sitting – it was so compelling. I was buoyed along by this current of amazing dialogue. I did hear scoring possibilities as I read it, but I knew that I didn’t want to detract from all that was being said. Film composers instinctively look for places where music can expand the story during wordless scenes, action sequences, things like that. In this, every page is driven by dialogue.

Then I began thinking of the dialogue as the soprano of the score, in certain ways. It’s a fast, constantly flowing stream of information, and I felt it demanded some space to breathe. But at the same time, we didn’t want the music to become so nondescript or anonymous that it had no identity. So the challenge became how to compose music, with a unique identity, that would support the dialogue and allow it to “sing” on top of it.

As a musician and a composer, how have Jobs and his accomplishments impacted your life?

In some ways, an orchestral score is one of the oldest pieces of computer code. Computer code is instruction. But with an orchestra, you have the most amazing computer that’s ever been made – 74 human beings responding to what is, in effect, code, and bringing their own personality and emotion to that code. That’s why they still exist, because no one has ever beaten that effect.

The impact that he’s had on me as a composer means I can be writing opera music one minute, and then suddenly switch to designing electronic sounds or composing for synthesizers. Now, alone, I can dream up and compose anything – and then play it and hear it, every single note, without having to involve anyone else and never having to leave my room. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing like hearing your music being played by 74 musicians. But it’s great not having to rely on them to listen to your latest composition, especially when you’ve just completed the work and it’s 3:30 in the morning. That’s freedom in composition.

Set backstage in the minutes before three iconic product launches spanning Jobs’ career – beginning with the Macintosh in 1984, and ending with the unveiling of the iMac in 1998 – STEVE JOBS takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to paint an intimate portrait of the brilliant man at its epicenter.

STEVE JOBS is directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle and written by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin, working fromWalter Isaacson’s best-selling biography of the Apple founder. The producers are Mark Gordon, Guymon Casady of Film 360, Scott Rudin, Boyle, and Academy Award winner Christian Colson.

Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs, the pioneering founder of Apple, with Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet starring as Joanna Hoffman, former marketing chief of Macintosh. Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple, is played by Seth Rogen, and Jeff Daniels stars as former Apple CEO John Sculley. The film also stars Katherine Waterston as Chrisann Brennan, Jobs’ ex-girlfriend, and Michael Stuhlbarg as Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the Apple Macintosh development team.

www.stevejobsthefilm.com

Track List (all tracks by Daniel Pemberton, unless otherwise noted):

The Musicians Play Their Instruments…
It’s Not Working
Child (Father)
Jack It Up
The Circus of Machines I (Overture)
Russian Roulette
Change the World
The Skylab Plan
Don’t Look Back Into the Sun – The Libertines
…I Play The Orchestra
The Circus of Machines II (Allegro)
Revenge
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 – Bob Dylan
It’s An Abstract
Life Out of Balance
The Nature of People
1998. The New Mac.
Father (Child)
Remember
Grew Up At Midnight – The Maccabees
Shelter from the Storm – Bob Dylan

Order the album: http://smarturl.it/SteveJobsOST

Composer Daniel Pemberton Talks His Score for Guy Ritchie’s THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Working across a wide range of musical mediums, Ivor Novello Award-winning and BAFTA-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton has embraced everything from large scale orchestral and choral works to innovative electronic sound design, live salsa bands to post-rock guitar line-ups.

From THE COUNSELOR, THE AWAKENING and the upcoming STEVE JOBS film, to name a few, Pemberton has delivered another eclectic score – this time Guy Ritchie’s latest movie THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., in theatres Friday, August 14.

Fans of the TV show are familiar with the theme music from composer Jerry Goldsmith, with additional music for the various seasons provided by Morton Stevens, Walter Scharf, Lalo Schifrin, Gerald Fried, Robert Drasnin and Nelson Riddle.

Now comes the film version and a 5-star, international score that exudes the 1960’s as if it was pulled from a time vault. You’re right into the film from the first musical note and drum beat.

Recently the composer and I spoke about his affection for spy movies and on being chosen by Guy Ritchie to take on the music for THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

WAMG: Guy Ritchie said of your MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. music, “The score was a very important, fundamental part of the film.” When were you brought onto the project and what did he tell you he was looking for?

Daniel Pemberton: Right from the start. I had a meeting with Guy and he asked me if I wanted to do it. I try to get involved in films as early as possible, that way you write a better, more unique score. I was involved as they edited and we worked in tandem. Guy has an amazing editor James Herbert who had some important musical ideas. I worked with them all the way through the process and we would add my music to the film in different ways.

We would do that 4 or 5 different takes. James is great. He’d say, “We’ve got the scene. Let’s try it a different way.” They’d always be pushing you to try different music that was the most surprising and exciting ones that would end up in the movie.

WAMG: It doesn’t sound like something from today – it’s as if you’re watching and listening to a score set in the 60’s from one of the composers of the time – like Henry Mancini, Elmer Bernstein or Jerry Goldsmith.

DP: I love 1960’s spy scores. It’s probably my favorite movie genres and I grew up with that. I spent decades absorbing every great spy score. This world wasn’t new to me. I didn’t have to do the research as it was already running through my blood.

I wanted to make it feel it was of the time and a 1960’s spy score. I wanted every one of the tracks on UNCLE to feel like the tracks on those spy scores.

WAMG: Was it a conscious decision to stay away from using the Goldsmith/ Lalo Schifrin themes from the TV show?

DP: Guy wanted a very different take on the film’s theme. He had a vision on how he wanted the film to look and sound, that you have to respect, and we had it in there for a while, but it didn’t feel right.

It wasn’t like it didn’t go with the tone of the film, Guy just wanted a new take on the music. In the same way when Christopher Nolan did BATMAN, he didn’t use the Nelson Riddle TV theme – although that would be quite funny.

But I was quite keen on getting THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. in there somewhere. There is a short little musical cameo of the TV theme that’s in there. It’s in the scene where Napoleon Solo is changing the radio channels in the car and he hears it for a second, dismisses it and keeps changing the channels. Once again the film’s editor, James Herbert, while doing the sound mixing, quickly edited it in the scene.

WAMG: The soundtrack is filled with some fabulous tracks of a Cold War, espionage score. “Escape From East Berlin,” “The Vinciguerra Affair“ and “Bugs, Beats and Bowties” to name a few. It’s what you’d expect in this type of exotic film. What did you use to get a bold, 60’s type sound?

DP: Another great thing about scores from that era, everyone was using crazy instruments. I love using crazy instruments because it gives you something new and something you haven’t heard before.

Guy loves anything that’s unexpected and unusual. There’s an amazing flute player, Dave Heath, who we used a lot. He plays a lot of the crazy sounds you hear in the “East Berlin” track.

We’ve got a lot of percussion, organs and a Marxophone, which is a bit like a zither and a cymbalom which is like a giant zither, famously used by John Barry on THE IPCRESS FILE. It gave it a classic, Cold War sound.

We’ve got vintage guitars and genuine old 1960’s harpsichords. We had two harpsichords – an old classical one and a 60’s boxy one. The classical one had this beautiful range, but didn’t have the punch or the attitude that the 60’s one did and it had such a great sound to it, so we used more of that. That harpsichord sounded brilliant. We also put it through an old 60’s mixer which compressed everything a bit more heavily.

WAMG: The percussion section on “The Drums of War” is just insanely great.

DP: That was the result of a crazy evening in the edit suite. Everyone was pleased with the cue, but felt like we’d heard that before. Everyone on this film loves mad percussion and wanted mad bongos, so it was 7 or 8 in the evening and they tell me there will be a first screening the next day and to just throw in some big percussion. I went home and worked all through the night until 3 in the morning and pretty much what I wrote that evening is in the film now. It’s all the different drums playing the different tempos together as they’re going in and out of time.

WAMG: What’s going on in the “Take You Down” track? Is it Vocals run through a mixer or purely instruments?

DP: That’s vocals run through really heavy distortion. I really enjoy that track and it was great to write crazy bold cues. My favorite kinds of movies are ones where you don’t know what’s going to happen – where you’re ready for a surprise. And when it’s accompanied by crazy music, you go, whoa what’s that?! It’s a great moment when it enters the movie and it was a really fun track to do. We did that cue with two drummers playing at the same time and that’s why it sounds so big – we wrote each drummers part full out and had them play it together at Abbey Road and it sound huge.

It’s very much like the “Drums of War” track where you have this polyrhythmic music to create these crazy sounds.. It’s chaotic in the middle and eventually comes back together at the end. It’s very complicated to do but sounds very cool.

WAMG: The songs mixed throughout are fantastic! Nina Simone, Louis Prima, Tom Zé and Valdez – you could almost swear the film was made 50 years ago. The selection of these songs just makes the soundtrack even more fun to listen to.

DP: I’m a massive soundtrack album geek and anytime I put a soundtrack out, I’ve gone over every single detail down to the pauses between each track. Those songs are a big part of the film and they had to be on the album. “Jimmy, Renda se” by Tom Zé and Valdez was one of the first songs we added and Guy loves that song – he hadn’t heard it before. None of the songs feel out of place alongside the score.

WAMG: During the action sequences and transitions, there are kaleidoscope split-screens, where the score is very important. How did you approach these?

DP: There’s a scene where the screen is starkly divided into eight parts, along with these cutting sounds effects, and I wrote in the bongos cues, so as the screens divides, you hear the bongo player’s music as an added sound. We spent a lot of time trying to get details like that spot on so it feels really cool.

WAMG: You previously worked with Ridley Scott on THE COUNSELOR, which was a very modern score. Depending on the genre, how much do you like to experiment and come up with new sounds for your scores?

DP: Every film I do, I want to come up with a unique sound for that world. When I get hired, people want my take on the story and on the world, and I often come up with different ideas very early on and usually they’re not like the film.

I did another project with Ridley called “The Vatican” where I used Italian choirs with organs and hip-hop breaks. I love coming up with different ideas of how to approach a film and I often start with the main cue because there are so many different ways to tell a story. I want it to be unique and its way more work and way more grief, but when you get it right it’s exciting because when I go to see a movie, I want to think anything could happen here – not just two hours of an obvious sound.

WAMG: Your next score is for Danny Boyle’s STEVE JOBS and it was just announced that the movie will close the 59th BFI London Film Festival. You said you like your scores to be unique, so will it have a melodic motif with a technological sound like a computer or from the world of Steve Jobs?

DP: I’m not telling. (Laughs) We record that this week at Abbey Road and we’re doing some very different chords and cues than on any previous film. The only thing I’m allowed to say is that the Apple slogan from 1998, “Think Different,” has a big part.

Follow Daniel Pemberton on Twitter: twitter.com/DANIELPEMBERTON

From WaterTower Music, THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. soundtrack is available to order at iTunes and Amazon. The track list is below.

1. “Compared To What” – Roberta Flack
2. Out Of The Garage
3. His Name Is Napoleon Solo
4. Escape From East Berlin
5. “Jimmy, Renda se” – Tom Zé and Valdez
6. Mission: Rome
7. The Vinciguerra Affair
8. Bugs, Beats and Bowties
9. “Cry To Me” – Solomon Burke
10. “Five Months, Two Weeks, Two Days” – Louis Prima
11. Signori Toileto Italiano
12. Breaking In (Searching The Factory)
13. Breaking Out (The Cowboy Escapes)
14. “Che Vuole Questa Musica Stasera” – Peppino Gagliardi
15. Into The Lair (Betrayal Part I)
16. Laced Drinks (Betrayal Part II)
17. “Il Mio Regno” – Luigi Tenco
18. Circular Story
19. The Drums Of War
20. Take You Down
21. We Have Location
22. A Last Drink
23. “Take Care Of Business” – Nina Simone
24. The Unfinished Kiss

Henry Cavill stars as Napoleon Solo opposite Armie Hammer as Illya Kuryakin in director Guy Ritchie’s action adventure THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., a fresh take on the hugely popular 1960s television series. Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, it centers on CIA agent Solo and KGB agent Kuryakin who are forced to put aside longstanding hostilities and team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology.

The duo’s only lead is the daughter of a vanished German scientist, who is the key to infiltrating the criminal organization, and they must race against time to find him and prevent a worldwide catastrophe.

The film also stars Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Debicki, with Jared Harris and Hugh Grant.

Visit the film’s website: manfromuncle.com

60’s Cool Is Back In THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. High-Resolution Photos

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. is filled with everything that made the 1960s cool – from its art, fashion and music, to its attitudes and perspectives – into a spot-on but understated vibe that is both retro and undeniably 21st century.

It is espionage chic and Guy Ritchie’s movie proves what was sexy then, is sexy now.

In some ways, the 1960s depicted in THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. is a rare and enticing moment in time that only really existed on screen. The TV show enthralled mid-1960s viewers and spy-game aficionados on both sides of the Atlantic.

Warner Bros. Pictures has released new high-res photos from their stylish international adventure and origin story about the superspies – Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin – from the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

Ritchie captures the tone and authenticity of the 60’s through the various locations, the sophisticated palettes by production designer Oliver Scholl and the work of award-winning costume designer Joanna Johnston. All the costumes represent the highly polished fashion of the time.

Many will appreciate the exciting score from composer Daniel Pemberton. In keeping with the film’s tonal integrity, Pemberton brings a sound that combines the crispness and sophistication of today with a distinctly ’60s flavor.

Ritchie brings a classic concept and period to life in a contemporary and entertaining way, because saving the world, never goes out of style.

Henry Cavill (“Man of Steel”) stars as Napoleon Solo opposite Armie Hammer (THE Social NETWORK) as Illya Kuryakin in director Guy Ritchie’s action adventure THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E., a fresh take on the hugely popular 1960s television series.

Set against the backdrop of the early 1960s, at the height of the Cold War, the film centers on CIA agent Solo and KGB agent Kuryakin. Forced to put aside longstanding hostilities, the two team up on a joint mission to stop a mysterious international criminal organization, which is bent on destabilizing the fragile balance of power through the proliferation of nuclear weapons and technology.

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. opens in IMAX and in theaters on August 14, 2015.

Visit the film’s website: manfromuncle.com

https://twitter.com/ManFromUNCLE

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