Christopher Young on scoring horror films

By: Randall Larson
Date: Thursday, August 31, 2006

New & Comprehensive Interview posted at Scoremagacine.com

Composer Christopher Young (THE GRUDGE, HELLRAISER, SPECIES, JENNIFER 8, URBAN LEGEND), film music's self-described Larry Talbot, continues to be one of the most potent purveyors of music for horror films, despite frequent forays into drama and action films over the years. Score Magazine, Spain's premiere online film music journal, has published the first part of an extensive interview with Young conducted last month at the recent Soncinemad film music festival in Madrid. The interview covers Young's score in length and Young describes his intentions and experiences in scoring many of his most popular genre scores.

Contrasting his score for the American-made remake of THE GRUDGE with the music for the original Japanese version, for example, Young notes that, "in Japan, in their horror movies it's all very soft, weird music. Originally when I met the director he wanted me to go in that direction and the studio said: no, no, "try to make some kind of melody." It's not much melody in that movie, very little, but more than the director originally wanted... But ultimately it's a string orchestra score. I took a Japanese based movie and Americanized it... [They said] Make it more accessible to American audiences, make it sound like an American film score."

Speaking of his very unusual score for THE VAGRANT, Young explained that "the reason I was able to explore the world of the avant-garde in that score was because the director encouraged me to do so. The film had temp music in it, as all films do, but the director hated the temp music. He was worried, he thought the music was not working and had to be scary but tongue-in-cheek, kind of funny, quirky, scary. And the temp music they put in it was or too scary or too funny, but he couldn't find the right combination. So he gave me the film and said me: "Chris, we are in trouble. Make this work." So he said: "do anything you want." And so I got permission to explore this crazy world of sound and he was very happy with it. He said: "Did you know that wasn't until your music was put on the movie that the studio really understood what the movie was? They heard your music with it and said: 'Oh! now I see what this movie is.'" ...The tiny movies I have worked on since have not allowed me to do that ever again."


The interview, posted in English, is well worth the reading in its entirety for a valuable glimpse into the mind of one of the most provocatively creative maestros in modern film music.


http://scoremagacine.com/Entrevistas_eng_det.php?Codigo=30


Cinescape's Music News provides weekdaily news and views on film music, game music, progressive rock, and other notable musical genres, culled from a variety of sources.