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20.09.13 MusicWeek 19
the film, to take control of a certain part of the film alongside the director and create an identity for it. He won’t do that, but he’s absolutely dependant on everyone else doing it so he can take those pieces of score and use them in his films. It’s a bit of a shame in a way. He’s obviously hugely talented as a filmmaker and I know there’s an element of control and he doesn’t want to hand over that power, but everyone else does.
How do you think the standard is now compared to say the golden age of people like Bernard Herrmann [Citizen Kane, Psycho, Vertigo, Taxi Driver] at the height of his powers? There are people who are hugely influential. Hans Zimmer is probably the most influential 21st century composer simply because everyone wants to sound like him or everyone demands the films they are being asked to score sound a bit like him. He’s defined the language in scoring contemporary films in the same way that John Williams did with his orchestral approach from Star Wars onwards. Hans’ mixture of very electronic stuff and samples alongside orchestral defined the next age of contemporary film scoring and he’s still taking very big chances. He always creates something idiocentric and always creates something identifiable because he’s unafraid of taking a chance and I think everybody else is a little afraid of taking that chance because it’s a tricky, risky business. It feels a little stagnant at the moment. It tends to be the bigger the budget the safer everything is going to be.
With Skyfall you’ve said the reason you didn’t score that film was about the relationship between the director Sam Mendes and composer Thomas Newman, but do you envisage a time when there might be an opportunity for you to do a Bond movie again? It’s really not for me to say. It’s down to whoever gets the job of directing the movie has a choice of everyone who they use and I was just really lucky that the five people I worked with were happy to carry on with me and they were not told they had
to use me. I met them and got on really well with them and it was a really lovely experience and they always have been. Sam absolutely wants his team and I think he’s absolutely right he should have them and that’s the great thing about the Bond producers. They will let their directors make the films they want to make pretty much so there’s no telling them who they are going to use. Tom Newman, who is lovely and brilliant, has worked with Sam from day one and there’s absolutely no reason why he shouldn’t carry on doing it. He’s the right person for Sam.
“I had the whole [Olympics closing ceremony] in a bag on a drive on the train. I thought, ‘If I get mugged I’m going to be in real trouble’” DAVID ARNOLD
One of the projects you are doing now is writing for the stage with Made In Dagenham, having also done the music for the film. How different is the experience of doing something for the theatre rather than the big screen? It’s been one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done. When I did the Olympics it was an incredibly enjoyable experience and it’s funny since I stopped doing films I’ve really loved everything I’ve done. There’s a different sort of pressure, but I’ve loved doing this musical. We’re not quite there yet. We’re supposed to be hopefully once everything is contractually sorted out be opening at some point reasonably soon, but we’ve still got some work to do but it’s effectively written. It’s been absolutely amazing working with basically three or four people. The director, development producer, the writer and lyricist: that’s it. You go for meetings in pubs with them. That’s the way it should be. Because there isn’t a horrible deadline of a release date turning up where you have to make this date it doesn’t feel like you’re being rushed. Again it’s being able to tell a story through song. Some of these
ABOVE LEFT A Life Less Ordinary: Arnold composed the soundtrack to Danny Boyle’s film and five Bond movies
ABOVE RIGHT
Nobody does it forever: Thomas Newman succeeded Arnold as Bond composer for Skyfall
songs are seven, eight, nine minutes long so it’s not that different in a way to a long sequence in a film or a montage and in a way it has to do the same job. You have to make your point fairly quickly and fairly succinctly. I hope it’s good. I’ve certainly enjoyed doing it. It’s a very different experience and one I’m keen to repeat.
Twelve months on from the Olympics, how do you look back on that venture? I remember being very present at the time when I was doing it because I figured when this is over probably nothing is going to happen as a result and I was right. I was very conscious of the fact when I was doing it this was a very special thing and that it was quite a rarefied position to be in and I wanted to enjoy it and I did enjoy it. I worked with some amazing people, amazing musicians in our finest studios all over the country and it just felt like you were on a roll with something that was going to be incredible. Regardless of how much pressure there was, it certainly felt a lot less pressure than doing a Bond movie for instance. It was pressure as much you knew on the day there’s going to be a billion people watching it live and if it goes down the toilet then you’ve had it and there’s nothing you can do about it. I was asked about whether I would be interested in doing anything in Rio, but for me to do the Olympics over here was significant, but I didn’t want it to be my job.
It must have been incredible to have been involved in something so special... To feel the change in the country and especially in London happen as the games went on, to feel you were a part of that was lovely. To travel down to the stadium on the train and the closer you got to Stratford the more people would be getting on with their Olympic tickets and passes and the games makers and the volunteers would be on the train and there was a real sense something special was happening. I had the whole show in a bag on a drive over my shoulder on the train. I thought if I get mugged I’m going to be in real trouble.
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