The Versatile Composer of Melodies -
An Interview with Alan Williams
Interview by Stephan Eicke (Cinema Musica)

Prior to your academic studies, what kind of musical experience did you gain? Did you play in a band and did you write any music?

Both. While in high school and college, I played keyboards in a band and percussion in school orchestras and I wrote a few classical pieces, chamber music for instance.

When did you know that you wanted to become a film composer? For example, Jerry Goldsmith saw “Spellbound” and was inflamed with love for film music. Did you have that kind of crucial experience as well?

No, not really. Since high school, at age fourteen, I knew that I wanted to be a film composer. Even when I started to play the piano at age eight, I loved to add a few bars to the pieces or change them a little bit. There was no specific soundtrack that inspired me, I simply loved the orchestra and the movies – it was wonderful for me to combine them both.

What happened then, after College?

First I obtained my Bachelor in Music and Composition, and then I moved to Los Angeles, where I composed commercials for a few friends, who I’ve met in college. In addition to that I wrote the music for a couple of student films.

How did you get your first assignment for a studio film?

A friend of mine recommended me to a director. So I sent him some of my demos and he liked the music enough to hire me. It was only a small feature, but a great experience for me. It is difficult in Hollywood to get anywhere without contacts.

Let’s talk about the IMAX-movies. You scored quite a few of them – movies about Mount Kilimanjaro or the Amazon River as well as television movies. What is more inspiring? Nature or human conflict?

That’s a really good question… and the answer is that it depends on the theme per se. A gripping story combined with beautiful pictures is very inspiring to me. To swim along the Amazon River can be as inspiring as human drama. For me it depends on what is more exciting: the story, the people or the images. In the IMAX-movies music plays a much bigger role than in other films because there are no actors, just images and music.
I would say, that both are equally inspiring.

In your film scores you often utilize a lot of different styles – folk music, synthesizer beats or ethnical sounds. Where did you learn to compose like this?

A film composer should always bring along a variety of musical styles, because every movie is different and almost every movie demands a different score or a different approach to film and music.
I had a good musical background to be able to meet these demands. When I was studying, I wrote 20th century concert music; alongside I composed for television commercials. I was already working with the director of “Soul Assassins”, when we were both in college and then he came up to me and said: “Alan, I want you to do a Techno-Action-Soundtrack. I know, it is not your favorite genre, but I trust you.”

It really wasn’t my preferred genre, but it was wonderful to have a director who trusted his composer, even though the composer never wrote that kind of music before. It’s so frustrating that today directors and producers immediately underscore their films with demo music to show their composers what the score should sound like. And if you don’t compose exactly what they want you to, they never talk to you again.

…the trouble with temp tracks…

Yes, exactly. It’s interesting because they didn’t have any temp tracks in the early years of cinema. It can be very frustrating to be forced to sound like someone else. Music is something that the producers and directors cannot make themselves. They can write the script, roll the camera, do the editing and so on, but when it comes to the music, they don’t have any experience with that. So what do they do? They take music that has already been written. The editor cuts the rough cut and underscores it with temp tracks to create a certain atmosphere, and according to all these pieces of music he finally edits the film. Then they spend a lot of time hearing the temp tracks over and over again, virtually falling in love with them. Finally the composer comes in and now he has to be creative according to their ideas.

Isn’t it terrible for a composer that, while he wants to compose something new, he is forced to reproduce other people's music?

Yes, it’s frustrating. When I work with a director, I want him to talk to me about his ideas, in the same way he would talk to an actor. Then it’s my job to process those ideas into music. But when a director tells me: “I want oboe here and trumpets there,” then he is trying to speak in a language, which he has never learned. When he talks to me, he should say something like: “Here I need something that scares the audience, here I need something dark.” He can play me his favorite music from the movies and explain to me, why he likes it. If he likes the percussion in it, then I’m going to use a lot of percussion, if it supports the film. I think that’s good. It’s bad, when a director tells you: “We want John Williams, but we can’t afford him. Here's the temp track, now go on and compose like him.”

Is this an indicator that directors don’t trust their composers anymore?

Yes, absolutely.

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