(Cinema Musica interview continued)

Which music do you choose for publishing? There are still some unpublished scores. I think “The Loch” could be interesting.

Yes, at the moment there is a discussion going on to publish this music on one CD together with some animated short movies. The music is very entertaining and I hope to be able to publish it very soon.

That sounds very good! How would you describe your own style?

That is difficult… melodies are very, very important to me. I would say, I’m more a writer of melodies. I don’t like sound designer music. Not because I can’t do it, but because I feel more attracted to melodies.

Not the Graeme Revell type of composer then.

Absolutely not. That’s not my cup of tea at all. I admire Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams.

You’re not the only one…

Because they are both great composers. Both have worked for over 40 years in the movie business and had a great career.

Young film music fans are more interested in Hans Zimmer and only a few know Jerry Goldsmith or Elmer Bernstein. That’s regrettable and aggravating.

That’s right, but there are many reasons for that. One of them is that obviously both Bernstein and Goldsmith aren’t writing music for current movies anymore. But it also due to the different types of movies and their directors. Movies aren’t made the same way they were made back then, and expectations nowadays are different. If Hans Zimmer would write the music for a movie on which Jerry Goldsmith had worked before him, then we would have two very different score and the question of quality would be very subjective. I wish the young listeners would be more interested in Jerry Goldsmith.

I also think that the movies themselves are a problem. Many of the movies that Jerry Goldsmith has scored are generally unknown, and he has written music for many bad ones as well.

Oh yes, he has!

The more famous the film is, the better known is the music. Hardly anybody knows “High Velocity” but “Pirates of the Caribbean” is immensely popular. Do you think it's a problem that the popularity of a score is always connected to the popularity of the film?

That’s a problem, but not for Hans Zimmer. For him, that’s great! (laughs) It’s hard to say, because lots of very good scores were written for really bad movies. A relatively successful movie usually has a relatively successful score, because millions of people watch the movie and therefore are listening to the music. Besides, a big Hollywood blockbuster always has a huge budget for music. It’s hard to make an orchestra of a hundred musicians sound bad.

How do you compose? Sitting at your desk, with pencil and paper or at the computer?

That’s an interesting story. When I got married and bought my first computer, a small mac, I told my wife that this would be all that I would ever need for composing. Before that I was always composing with pencil and paper at my piano, and over time I bought a lot of  equipment for my studio. I am still using the piano a lot, but I’m using the computer as well because I have to produce a lot of demos. Nowadays there is not that much composing with pencil and paper anymore, because composers not only need to compose, they also have to produce demos of their works.

Sadly, so far you didn't have the chance to work for a big Hollywood picture. Would you like to do that?

I would love to work on such a project, but the final step towards a big studio production is very hard. Firstly, those are very expensive films and they have the money for an orchestra, but they don’t want to take a risk with the composer and secondly, they already know exactly what they want. That’s the reason why the always go back to the same composers. That’s not always a good decision though.

I am not as expensive as the big name composers, but I probably could accomplish as much as them. It’s just difficult to get the first chance to prove it. I’m still waiting for that.

At the moment you are working on four new films, which will be directed by Mark Roemmich: “Snow Princess”, “Lost Gold Of Khan”, “Children of the Runes” and “Black Widow”. Can you tell us something about these projects?

Mark’s first movie was “Taylor”, for which I wrote the music as well, that’s how we met. Then he closed the deal with a small production company, for which he will be directing these four films. They are just features, but I can nevertheless work with an orchestra. The movies are in production right now.

How much time do you have to score those four films?

About eight weeks, a little bit more time than I usually have, so that won’t be a problem.

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