Soundcheck

George Ezra, like many young adults exiting their teens, had big dreams. Unlike many young adults, his dreams very much came true. Discovered on Youtube when he was only 18, George Ezra’s career has skyrocketed. His irresistible hit “Budapest” made it into the World Singles Top 40 chart for 19 consecutive weeks. In that time, George Ezra toured Europe and North America, bringing his earnest sound to stages from Le Bataclan in Paris to our very own Beacon Theatre. His deep, soulful voice and his easygoing lyricism belie the fact that he's still only 21.  Today, he leaves "Budapest" behind, but takes us to "Barcelona," and beyond. Setlist "Blame It On Me" "Barcelona"  

Constructing a play and songwriting have a lot in common, and for Ethan Lipton it's the basis of his creative being - that, and his gut-busting humor. A background in musical theatre helps Lipton weave weird and unique stories backed by his pop/jazz quartet. The group has been together since 2005 and has been named New York's "Best Lounge Act" by New York Magazine. Lipton has also won an Obie Award for No Place to Go, a theatrical song cycle about a man outsourced to Mars, which occasioned their memorable last visit to Soundcheck. Today they join us to mark the release of their fourth studio album, Raw Milk.  Listen and watch Ethan Lipton and His Orchestra when they came by the studio in 2012. 

Sam Lee is much more than a musician - he's a storyteller. In "Blackbird," from his latest album The Fade In Time, his deep croons and intricate vocals breathe life into forgotten stories, drawing you into a colorful and heart-wrenching world. The album title is appropriate, since he collects traditional English songs and repurposes them for a new place and time.  Not many traditional English folk singers came from North London, studied at Chelsea School of Art and worked as a forager and wilderness expert during the day and burlesque dancer by night. Lee however is not in the majority - his charisma and talents spurred an apprenticeship with the great Scottish Traveller singer Stanley Robertson along with a Mercury Prize nomination. Lee has blazed a trail for burgeoning song collectors and inspired a new generation to tap into the storytelling of present and past minstrels. Setlist "Over Yonder's Hill" "Blackbird" "Lovely Molly"

In forty years, the man known to British rock fans worldwide as The Modfather has had two hit-making bands, a brilliant solo career, and has recorded (by his estimate) three 'perfect songs.'

When it comes to celebrity, there is always a person behind the tabloid headlines and late night TV jokes. And, in retrospect at least, the personality (both light and dark) of British singing phenom Amy Winehouse was written right into the lyrics of songs that everyone was dancing along to. The new documentary film Amy explores the story of a young woman caught up in a swirl of outside forces and inner demons, whose life and death exemplifies the dark side of celebrity culture. Soundcheck host John Schaefer talks to Asif Kapadia, the film's director, and Nick Shymansky, Amy’s close friend and first manager, about the singer's private life and public legacy. Interview Highlights Nick Shymansky on meeting Amy Winehouse: I met her when she was 16 years old and I was 19. I had heard her through an artist I was managing. He told me about her and I chased her and eventually got her on the phone which led after quite a few conversations to her posting me a demo tape. Amy Winehouse on fame: My music is not on that scale. Sometimes I wish it was but I don’t think I’m going to be at all famous. I don’t think I could handle it. I probably would go mad. You know what I mean, I would go mad Shymansky on Amy’s ambition: She had ambitions to make great music and be around musicians and play shows. She wasn’t ambitious to make lots of money and be famous, that was never her drive. Maybe in hindsight it’s more obvious now that that was the case. At the time there were never questions about, “How do I get famous, how do I make money?" Winehouse on depression: I don’t think I knew what depression was. I know I felt funny sometimes and different. I think it’s a musical thing, that's why I like music. I’m not like a totally messed up person. There’s a lot of people who suffer from depression who don’t have an outlet like me, where you can pick up a guitar for an hour and feel better.” Asif Kapadia on her songwriting: Once you understand her life and the story, you realize every song, every lyric is based on a real person, a real incident and it’s her documenting her life. Every now and then there’s a twist, a line of humor but it’s all based on truth. That’s why it was so heavy to sing these songs later on. It was all her, it was a diary. These albums are her diary and this film is trying to visualize her diary. Kapadia on Amy’s Bulimia: It seems so obvious now to see how her body changes. I don’t think it was well known. Toward the ending I remember reading an article where her brother mentioned it. But lots of people had witnessed it separately, but they weren’t talking. People were all in separate little compartments. I think in the end her doctor was telling me, it was the longtime bulimia and alcohol that stopped her heart, and that’s why she died. Kapadia on talking to Blake Fielder, Amy’s husband: All of these guys are actually much older than their years because of what they put their bodies through. You hear someone who’s done quite a lot of damage to his voice because of drugs and other things but there’s also a lot of guilt, a lot of pain in the voice as well. He’s not the same person now as he was then. They’re grown up now. They were kids then, they were 22, 23. You think the world revolves around you, you’re an idiot, you’re a kid. And you grow up and you think, "What was I doing?" But somehow everyone got through it and the only person who didn’t was Amy.

Kevin Griffin got his start writing tightly melodic and distortion-tinged tunes with 90's alt-rock stalwarts Better Than Ezra. The band continues to release reliably good new material—their 2014 album is called All Together Now—but Griffin has quietly expanded his CV by moving to Nashville and writing hit songs for a panoply of artists in various genres. Perhaps you've heard this one? Kevin Griffin wrote that with Howie Day. Or maybe this: That's Griffin too, working in an entirely different idiom with his friends in the pop-country duo Sugarland. Kevin's worked with a who's who of current pop stars, and even legends like Blondie and Meat Loaf. He's also been covered—twice!—by Taylor Swift. So Soundcheck sat down with the protean songwriter to get his thoughts on Nashville, the rock band long-game, and hear him play a new Better Than Ezra tune, as well as a classic from the band's back-catalog.  PLUS: Listen to Kevin Griffin cover one of his (and our!) favorite songs, Nick Drake's "Pink Moon": Kevin Griffin, "Pink Moon, Live on Soundcheck"  

Miranda July has been a live performer, a short story writer, a film actor and director, a recording artist, and even a mobile app developer. What could possibly be left? Somewhat surprisingly, she's just published her first novel. From her hit indie film Me You And Everyone We Know, to her short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You, if there's one unifying theme in July's sprawling C.V. it's the search to reconcile alienation and community. July says the joy of writing, in particular, is "to take these things that you lament and are embarrassed by, and own them and become righteous about them and even suggest there's something powerful about them." Her new novel, The First Bad Man, documents the internal life of one "righteously alone person," one Cheryl Glickman, whose life is turned inside-out when she is forced to live with a young woman whose casual relationships subvert and challenge Glickman's own perfectly manicured existence. Cheryl is forced to transform quickly from distant oddball misfit to self-assured and deeply involved, and in the process discovers truths about friendship, motherhood, and love.  In a long conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, July talks about her role as perennial outsider, the challenges and rewards of working in multiple media, and elaborates on the heartbreaking message coded in David Bowie's classic song "Kooks."   

If only there were marching bands as wild and hilarious as Mucca Pazza when we were in high school. A sprawling ensemble numbering somewhere between 25 and 30 members, Mucca Pazza leans into the weirder, and funkier side of that band geek archetype: Dressing up in ill-fitting, colorfully clashing uniforms, tall hats with speakers strapped on, and retro cheerleader costumes, the Chicago-based group -- which takes its name from the Italian phrase for "crazy cow" -- has perfected a live show full of visual mayhem and dance-ready music. That's even more the case as the group parades around the stage and amid the crowd, like a big celebratory circus. Pulling from soul and funk, psychedelic rock and punk, New Orleans brass bands and "Gypsy-reggaeton," Mucca Pazza's songs are chaotic fun that's easy to get swept away in. Hear the band somehow cram itself into the humble confines of the Soundcheck studio to perform songs from it's 2014 album, L.Y.A. Hear more songs from the session on New Sounds. Set List: "Subtle Frenzy" "All Out Of Bubblegum" "Rabbits And Trees" "Lunchtrays And Goldfish" Personnel: Greg Hirte, ViolinRonnie Kuller, AccordionGary Kalar, MandolinCharlie Malave, GuitarMaria Hernandez, SaxDave Smith, SaxAiran Wright, Bari Sax/ClarinetJustin Almolsch, TrumpetSam Johnson, TrumpetNick Siegel, TrumpetElanor Leskiw, TromboneNick Broste, TromboneTom Howe, TromboneMelissa McNeal, TromboneTom Curry, TubaAndy Deitrich, PercussionLarry Beers, PercussionBrent Roman, PercussionRick Kubes, PercussionDaniel Villarreal, PercussionSharon Lanza, CheerleaderMeghan Strell, Cheerleader

Nick Kroll is the creator and star of Kroll Show on Comedy Central.  "What is Kroll Show," you ask? Well...uhm...it's like...It's a "sketch-uational comedy" series now in its third and final season that features foot-fetishizing Latino rappers trapped in TV's, pubescent lust-driven hoodlums, psychotically-paced infomercials from ambiguous East Asian countries, mountains of tuna salad, and one very tall publicity agent with an Adam's apple.   Kroll Show's frenetic pacing and absurdist humor takes aim at hyperactive TV culture in all its forms. But Kroll isn't just making fun to make fun. "Our show is both parody and it's celebration," he says. "The best satire is when you love it, because when you love it, the more you study it and bring out the best that's inside it." Kroll and his team have clearly studied and loved a wide panoply of musical artists, whom they've lovingly-ish incorporated into the upside-down world of Kroll Show. Featured prominently in his gallery of idiot man-boys and self-absorbed would-be superstars are musicians like Bryan LaCroix, a Bieber-esque teen soap actor who longs to be taken seriously as a sexy singing idol; Nash Rickey, a washed up and stoned out holdover from the Poison-era rock world of leopard prints and leather vests; and Señor Feeture, a Pitbull-modeled rapper who is trapped inside a green screen and is able to guest on any music video of his choice.  In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Kroll talks about the real life inspirations behind his bizarre characters, talks about his love of all things pop culture, and explains that the guy who loves cheesy reality television actually thinks of jazz as his guilty pleasure.  Click here for the full collection of music featured on Kroll Show.  Watch Kroll Show at 10:30 ET on Tuesdays on Comedy Central.

The new film Song One has a fairly simple premise: Boy likes music. Boy ends up in coma. Boy's sister (played by Anne Hathaway) rushes to town and ends up getting in touch with boy's favorite musician (played by English singer Johnny Flynn). Sister and musician talk about boy, and about music. Sister and musician may or may not fall in love. On its surface, it's a straightforward story about two people whose lives intersect at a strange and tragic angle. But the objects of director Kate Barker-Froyland's own affections are less the characters and more the music—and the city of Brooklyn—that whirls around them. The film features cameos and performances from a bevy of NYC's finest musicians, like swaggering crooner Sharon Van Etten, the ecstatic string band The Felice Brothers, electro-wizard Dan Deacon, and many others.   "The movie is about experiencing music, listening to music, and what that feels like," says Barker-Froyland, and "while there is a lot of music in the film, there's so much more sound in New York."  In addition to the Brooklyn luminaries named above, original songs for the film were written by indie pop maven Jenny Lewis and her boyfriend, Johnathan Rice. On screen, those tunes are performed by Flynn with his customary grace and folky lilt. The role of James Forester is a natural fit for Flynn, not least because the character incidentally shares all manner of similarities to the actor—including the same initials. Barker-Froyland even wrote a disturbing encounter with a moose into Forester's back story; Flynn too has a moose story.    "There were a lot of nice similarities, that just meant I could trust what happened to him," says Flynn.  Johnny Flynn and Kate Barker-Froyland join host John Schaefer in the Soundcheck studio to talk about their ode to Brooklyn, working with Anne Hathaway, and the subtle ways Song One subverts the conventions of movies about music. Song One opens on Friday January 23 in New York at the Angelika Film Center on Houston St., and will be available on Video On Demand.  Click here to check out the film's amazing soundtrack.

Team Soundcheck talks to hundreds of musicians each year about music. But it turns out—gasp!—that non-musicians like music, too! So we also make time to talk to our favorite authors, to crawl inside the musical worlds that inspire their variously strange, uplifting, funny, foul, and perceptive fictions. It's a feature we call "Pick Three," wherein writers bring us a short playlist of music that somehow figures in their lives, either real or imagined.  To mark the start of the new year, we decided to go back through our favorite author interviews from 2014, highlighting music selected by four literary-types who made a big impact over the last 12 months: David Mitchell, Marlon James, Emma Straub, and B.J. Novak. Listen to the audio above to hear their musical musings, click on the links below to hear their full interviews, read reviews of their 2014 books, and see their playlist picks. And there's lots more where this comes from. Visit the Pick Three series page for a complete list of our musical conversations with non-musicians, including Jonathan Lethem, Billy Collins, Francine Prose, Amy Tan, and many, many more.  David Mitchell [click on name to listen to full author interview]Author, The Bone Clocks (read a review here) Playlist: Talking Heads, "Heaven"  Until I met this record, I didn’t realize that music could do what books also invite you to do: To think, and to take you on a kind of story, or a journey. And do more than that — if literature could do exactly what music does, then you wouldn’t need music.   Duke Pearson, "After the Rain" It makes me smell a garden after the rain. It’s a rare piece of music. It actually triggers that part of my brain that’s sensitive to smell and to fragrance. Especially when the flute starts, I’m in a garden all wet with rain. Patrick Watson, "The Great Escape"  His voice is just one of those immediately arresting, distinctive voices. It’s truffles, it’s dark coffee, it’s velvety. It’s just a beautiful, divine gift of a voice. Marlon JamesAuthor, A Brief History of Seven Killings (read a review here) Playlist: Bob Marley & The Wailers, "Ambush In The Night"  It was an unwritten rule: Nobody touches [Bob Marley]. The great thing about his house was that, people who only a day before had been trying to kill each other, would be hanging out, breaking bread, discussing music and so on. The Prime Minister used to drive down and chill. The idea that the one neutral ground in Kingston could be shot up was unheard of, it was such a turning point, and this song speaks to it pretty directly. Bunny Wailer, "Crucial" He's sometimes considered the most Jamaican-y of the Wailers -- which is funny, because he has the best pop instincts. (Them's fighting words.) Wailer was the one who was most successful at listening to the street. Tenor Saw, "Ring The Alarm"  He was one of the first major post-Marley figures to emerge, but not from the roots-reggae camp -- he was from the street, dancehall. It was a major turning point in the early '80s, especially since this song is about soundsystems, a dancehall song about dancehall culture. Both dancehall and hip-hop have the same genesis in a way; reggae, for all its merits, was still the music of people who could afford their instruments. Dancehall's instrument was flipping over the reggae B-side, which was usually instrumental, and rapping on top of that. Damian Marley, "Welcome To Jamrock"  This was a song that sort of summed up how far we've come...and it wasn't very far. It's such a vital and explosive and brilliant song, but it's also a pretty depressing song. Some of the stuff you hear in [Bob Marley's] "Ambush In The Night," especially about suffering and the desperation that suffering leads to, Damian Marley's saying, "It's still there." Some of the troubles are new, some of the old problems we just give new names. So it's kind of a summing up of how far we've come since his dad. B.J. NovakAuthor, One More Thing: Stories, And Other Stories (read a review here) Playlist: Elvis Presley, "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" Elvis Presley covers Bob Dylan, late in life -- there was a time when that actually happened. And he has a cover of one of my favorite songs of all time, 'Don't think twice, it's all right," and again, he seems to fundamentally misunderstand it. He does it in a very rollicking, upbeat way, messes up some of the lyrics and keeps going. He has no understanding, it seems, of the subtle pessimism and sadness of this song. It's just like a popular song that he was just going to do a version of, and yet his spirit is still in there. The positive spirit of Elvis is shining through.  Courtney Barnett, "Avant Gardener" I love her. I play her all the time. This is my favorite song, but I love this whole album, I love everything she's put out. It's so spare and cool -- it reminds me of Nirvana, or Hole -- it reminds me of that early era. But the lyrics are a very modern way of writing lyrics.... The lack of boundaries between the way you would text, the way you would talk to a friend, the way you would write a novel -- it feels like it's all one voice to her. And I feel like that's very modern.    Niagara, "Pendant que les champs brûlent" I don't understand a word, but I love it. I love not being able to understand it, because to me that is the mystery that we need in our lives. There needs to be something that you don't understand at all, but you wish you could be in that world. And for me that is everything classically French. The fashion, the literary glamour, all these things, and I -- oh god -- I went to Paris and didn't talk to a soul, didn't understand anything, just kind of looked at everybody and felt like, "Oh this is cool, this is cool." You need something like that in your life.  Emma StraubAuthor, The Vacationers (read a review here) Playlist:  The Magnetic Fields, "Desert Island"  I chose a few lines from this song as an epigraph for my book [The Vacationers]. "I'll be the desert island where you can be free, I'll be the vulture you can catch and eat." It's beautiful, slightly sinister, typical Stephin and I think it sets the tone nicely.  Beyonce, "Flawless" I had a baby recently, and I've been thinking a lot about working women and how they make it all happen. When I hear this song, I think about a woman who works really really hard and who is aware that she is supposed to wake up feeling a certain way and looking a certain way and maybe she doesn't and maybe she does, maybe she can be this tough and support her family and just do her thing.  Nashville Cast, "Don't Put Dirt On My Grave" I love this song so much! I am a huge fan of the TV show Nashville starring Connie Britton, personal goddess. What I love most about Nashville the city and Nashville the show, is that the songwriters really are the stars. If you drive down music row in Nashville, which is this street where there are all these little bungalows filled with songwriters and producers and publishing houses, they have enormous posters up celebrating this songwriter who's just written this hit for somebody -- but they don't even say, "Emma Straub wrote this song for Taylor Swift," they just say "Emma Straub wrote this song! Hooray! It's a hit!"

There isn't a more gorgeously unsettling score this year than Mica Levi’s hair-raising soundtrack to Jonathan Glazer’s 2014 film, Under The Skin. Based on the Michel Faber novel of the same name, the film follows an alien in the guise of Scarlett Johansson -- a cipher and seductive predator who travels Scotland enticing men into a darkened building-turned-inky black void. It’s a perplexing and meditative film about feeling, well, alien within your own body -- enhanced and punctuated by Levi’s creepily atonal strings, and quavering electronic flourishes that flitter around the speakers. Best known for her work under the moniker of her band, Micachu and the Shapes, Levi has always had a fascination with jagged and discordant music. With her previous two Micachu records -- 2009’s Jewellery and 2012’s Never -- Levi crafted dense everything-and-the-kitchen-sink songs built around slack-stringed guitars, clangorous percussion and serrated beats, and Levi's vaguely androgynous voices. Mica Levi's soundtrack to Under The Skin is out now. (Steven Legere/Courtesy of the artist) But Levi is also a classically trained musician: she started writing music at age 4, studied composition and violin at the prestigious Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and wrote a piece for the London Philharmonic in 2008. Now in her mid-20s and living in Camden, England, Levi recently won Best Composer for her Under The Skin score at the 2014 European Film Awards, and tied with Johnny Greenwood (for Inherent Vice) for Best Music/Score at the Los Angeles Film Critics Awards. And while Under The Skin's strangely skewed score recalls avant-garde composers Krzysztof Penderecki and Gyorgi Lygeti -- heard frequently in Stanley Kubrick’s films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining -- Levi’s startling, yet tender music is all her own, perfectly match to the otherworldly images on the screen. In a conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Mica Levi reflects on her process of working with Under The Skin’s director, Jonathan Glazer, and the challenges of scoring music to such an ambiguous and abstract film. Interview Highlights Mica Levi, on how her score helps carry the film with sparse dialogue: I didn’t know any differently, but everyone knew that was going on. I was coming to everything new, so I didn’t know. I wrote a hell of a lot of music during the process and loads of it didn’t get used. So I was just getting on with doing that really. I mean Jon [Glazer]… mainly made decisions about where music would be necessary and they were quite long cues. It’s very observant, you know, the way that he shot it -- and it's just happening as it's happening because it's the sensory way into your gut, that is abstract. On how she constructed the music's creepy sounds in the film: It’s viola, it’s false harmonics, and slowed down percussion. It’s just a kick made with a tom and hitting some wood in my room years ago and it ended up being used throughout. It’s sort of distorted through time as opposed to distorted through like [foot pedals]… It’s distorted, it’s too slow, it’s like uncomfortable you know. And it’s flute as well. Just the percussion is [slowed down] the rest of it is just playing harmonics… It’s very high strings and flute backing up. On matching the ambiguity of the film with ambiguous sounds in the music: I think it was just partly the way it was getting made. I was in really nice facilities… I had a nice studio and I had nice mics and everything I was doing in my usual way was getting picked up by better quality stuff. Well I was basically quickly recording bits here and there and then we rerecorded other instruments playing. The role of synthesized strings in the film is her kind of experience of love and that aesthetic of it being not real is very important. It’s the falseness of it; the mix of fake and real instruments and computer generated music is in line with the narrative. On working with director Jonathan Glazer, and finding moments of silence in the film: The way that Jon works, he's just always trying the boldest move he can. I really feel like he directed me. You know, he'd say he's not got a musical bone in his body, but he absolutely guided and made some of the best decisions about the music in this film. And the silence, all led by the narrative that he was so clear about, and him sort of following his gut. The fact that there's that gap in the middle -- from the music, or from much sound or whatever it is -- you're lifted with (Johansson's character). It focuses you in a different way.

Herb Alpert has worn many hats throughout his long career in the music business: songwriter, trumpeter, bandleader, record label founder and producer. He won his first Grammy Award in 1965 -- and he won his seventh last Sunday, for his latest album, called Steppin' Out.  Yet in recent years, Alpert has also become known as a visual artist -- his work as a sculptor has been featured in art shows throughout the country, and is currently on display in New York -- and, as a philanthropist. The Herb Alpert Foundation virtually saved the Harlem School of the Arts from shutting down in 2012, and every year the Herb Alpert Awards give five mid-career artists $75,000. Alpert and Soundcheck host John Schaefer settle in for a conversation at the New York City restaurant P.J. Clarke's, across from Dante Park where three of Alpert's large black-bronze spirit totem sculptures were recently installed.  This segment originally aired on Jan. 29, 2014. Interview Highlights Alpert, on how his visual art is similar to jazz improvisation:   That's the beauty of abstract art. I was always curious about what is that thing that makes something engaging to look at? What makes that thing that's engaging to listen to? If you think too hard about it, if you try to analyze a piece of art, I think you kind of miss the point. Art should resonate in the soul, and music should resonate not in the ears but in the soul as well.  On the inspiration behind "The Lonely Bull":  "Lonely Bull" was the result of me going to bullfights.... We used to go in the springtime to Tijuana and hear this brass band in the stands. It wasn't a mariachi band, it was just a little brass band, and they'd play these fanfares for each individual event. And I went home and tried to capture the feeling of the afternoons that I spent there.  On what A&M Records was looking for in an artist:  We were always looking for somebody who was a little left of center. An artist that had something that was a little bit different than what was on the radio. We weren't looking for the beat of the week. We were looking for the Cat Stevens of the world, and the Joe Cockers, and the Supertramps, and those people. And we always gave them their opportunity to flag themselves down to the runway, which they eventually did. And so we had a roster of really amazing artists. 

Even from the very beginning, more than 25 years ago, Trent Reznor has proven to be a thoughtful composer and meticulous sonic manipulator. As the leader of Nine Inch Nails, Reznor has constructed ominous, seething and often abrasive songs and dense albums built upon infinite layers of sounds. And while Reznor's dark years of substance abuse are behind him -- at 49, he's married with two children -- his music still invokes feelings of pain, rage and doom. With last year's superb album, Hesitation Marks, and its subsequent arena tour, Nine Inch Nails ended its extended hiatus, which began back in 2009. But it's not like he truly went away. In fact, he was as prolific as ever, only with a new outlet: film scoring. The world of film scoring is a competitive one -- but you'd never know from the way Reznor and British composer, audio engineer, and longtime collaborator Atticus Ross burst onto the scene. Starting in 2010 with David Fincher's The Social Network, Reznor and Ross began what's turned out to be one of the most artistically fruitful collaborations in film. The team followed up its Oscar-winning Social Network score with 2011's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo -- which won a Grammy. This year's Gone Girl marks the third soundtrack between Reznor and Ross with Fincher. This time, the plot -- based on a screenplay by author Gillian Flynn -- focuses on a married couple Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) and their seemingly normal, placid suburban life. And once again, the icy ambient music perfectly fits the story's unsettling mood, adding dissonance, and noise amid the gorgeous electronic synths and lush orchestrations. As one might expect, Reznor and Ross' score works just as well, if not better, as a standalone piece of music divorced from Fincher's unfurling plot twists. In an in-depth conversation with Soundcheck host John Schaefer, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross reflect on how their musical chemistry translates onto the screen. Plus, they talk about the processes behind their ongoing collaborations with director David Fincher, and how their work with bands Nine Inch Nails and How To Destroy Angels informs and is informed by their film compositions.  Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' soundtrack to the film Gone Girl is out now. (Rob Sheridan/Courtesy of the artist) John Schaefer: In the world of film scoring, it seems that at one end of the spectrum you have the composer that gets the film and is told "I need the score in two weeks." Then at the other end, you have someone like Philip Glass -- who works with Godfried Reggio on those silent documentaries, and they are actually cut to his music. Where on that spectrum are you? Trent Reznor: I would say we are a little more on the Glass side of things. When we were brought into the fold with David [Fincher] -- it being the first film that I ever scored, The Social Network, a few years ago, and not knowing necessarily the right process or not understanding the process yet -- we tried something that wound up really working for us. And that was Atticus and I have worked together for years. With Atticus, I’ve found a partner that's a true collaborator; we’ve worked on Nine Inch Nails together, our other band How to Destroy Angels, a variety of projects. We have a great way of working now where we almost don’t have to speak. We just complement each other’s abilities. So when faced with scoring this film, my first reaction was one of panic, of "How do we quickly learn the correct way to actually score film, the procedure, the process?" Then we paused, and said "Let’s adapt our method of composing to this and see if it works." With no picture, just a script and a number of conversations with David -- [we] decided to spend a few weeks composing purely from an impressionistic, kind of subconscious viewpoint. Not scene-specific, [but] music we felt defined what could be the world of the film – the landscape, the sound, the architecture, the arrangement, the kind of tone -- to run past David and see, "Are we honing in on something that works?" That strategy proved liberating for us, and comfortable for us, and familiar to us. From that point it became much more traditional, I imagine, in the sense that now we’re working to picture and folding these ideas into the actual fabric of the film. Some of it was then cut to the music, a lot of it was music fitting scenes that had been filmed. JS: So on the Gone Girl soundtrack we get expanded versions of shorter cues as they are used in the film? Atticus Ross: Actually, on the soundtrack we go back to that early writing session. Because we’ll start with these impressionistic, broad-stroked ideas, but they’ll often be five minutes long -- some longer you know on [The Girl With The] Dragon Tattoo. Once we’ve actually finished the film we can go back to these longer compositions, flesh them out a little bit. The album is meant to stand up as its own piece of listening. JS: You are used to working in a medium where the music is the focus of attention. In a film, that's not necessarily the case: the music affects us as viewers almost subliminally, which seems like it would allow you, as composers, the opportunity to do some pretty interesting things to listeners expectations and mindset. TR: It’s an interesting shift in style of composition. If I’m writing a song for Nine Inch Nails, I’m hoping that that's eating up close to 100 percent of your attention and what’s coming in your ears. I’ve got center stage: I’m the actor on the front of the stage and I’m on the set I designed. Working with film, we quickly realized that our role here is in service to the picture, and it’s in service to David’s vision of what that picture is. And that’s actually refreshing. It’s refreshing not to be in the driver’s seat and to work with someone who we have an immense amount of respect for, and there is mutual respect, and can help execute that vision and bend his vision and hopefully exceed what he’d been dreaming of. So a lot of times it’s us checking our ego at the door and [asking] "How can we make this scene this feeling the best it can be and the most manipulative if that’s what he’s looking for?" And often that’s not the big Star Wars theme that you hum when you leave the movie. It’s more about the underpinnings of how we’re tweaking your emotional reaction to things. JS: And that seems to be a theme that runs through the entire Gone Girl soundtrack. There is an upfront, almost narrative keyboard-based line -- and then there is this subverted stuff that happens underneath. The piece called “Sugar Storm,” for example, starts like a piece of New Age music. But as you’re listening, there's this darkness around the edges. What's the intent there? AR: In our initial conversation with David, he had mentioned that he'd been in a chiropractor in New York and there had been this music playing -- sort of spa music -- and he found and gave us the album. Because the film is about façades and pretense and how that changes, he thought maybe a jumping off place would be this spa album. And then we’re traversing that storyline of the façade that turns in itself and becomes much more curdled. So you’ll see some pieces of the music, you’ll hear them in one form earlier in the film, and then you’ll hear what they turn into later in the film.  JS: So what are those noises that are increasingly occupying the sonic space as that work goes on? TR: That particular [sound] was an improvised modular synth solo that I was messing around with. It glitches through different waveforms and it sounded oddly organic to me. Sounded flutey or something that seemed like a real instrument -- but isn’t actually at all. In that piece, the theme was starting with the idea of something that might make you feel comfortable, but in an insincere fashion. Something that is meant to feel a little Muzak-ish, a little cheap and plastic, a little Casio rather than philharmonic. Because often when you first hear these themes, it’s Amy’s [Rosamund Pike's character] diary entries which you learn later are not entirely accurate. It’s sort of rose-colored glasses recollection or what she is setting you up to believe is the truth. When they play later in the film and you realize things are very different than that. We wanted it to feel familiar but suddenly have an element in there -- or several elements -- that you may not have noticed creep in. And suddenly you’re uncomfortable sitting in your seat and your stomach is tight and we’ve introduced some dissonance in various forms of stuff that you’ve probably or hopefully didn’t notice in her, but suddenly "Why do I feel uneasy?" And that was one of the methods we did there. Ben Affleck plays Nick in David Fincher's film adaptation of 'Gone Girl.' (Merrick Morton/ Courtesy of 20th Century Fox) JS: Some of these motifs come back later and there is, in fact, an actual reprise of the piece “Sugar Storm.” But it seems like that very placid lovely New Age chord progression that we hear at the beginning of “Sugar Storm” comes back in a much faster form in one of the later parts of the piece. AR: I’m not sure and I get a little confused sometimes because our names are working titles and then change for the album. I think you are referring to the reprise when [Amy] comes out to the car covered in blood, falls into his arms. That particular piece is a little winking because there is an aspect of Gone Girl that is comedy depending on how sick you are. You know, it’s how funny you’ll find it. I find it quite funny at points. And that is one of the funny moments when she falls into his arms in that pose and he whispers in her ear. TR: That piece “Sugar Storm” -- you first hear it when [Pike and Ben Affleck's characters Amy and Nick] are meeting for the first time at a party. There was some experimenting done even in the mix where the wall of everyone talking at this party is quite loud at first, and as they start to find a connection with this piece playing in the background, the wall starts to disappear to where as they find each other you also realize the background of what you’re hearing is disappearing and they’re becoming more intimate. And to hear that piece reappear, when they are reunited when she walks out bloody in the car, it’s very clear what is happening. It felt like an interesting juxtaposition. JS: It seems like it is clear, but then again, nothing is ever what it seems. What’s interesting is this kind of threshold that you have between music and noise. It turns out to be a very movable threshold throughout. When you get to the piece “The Way That He Looks At Me,” the noise is really upfront in an in-your-face kind of way and doesn’t seem to be subliminal at all. It's the main focus. TR: In terms of use of noise and instrumentation, I was thinking about this quite a bit. I’ve never been a purist about really anything. When I started Nine Inch Nails I wanted it to be a band; I wanted to have three other people that had a defined sound and I could bring a song and it starts to sound like The Smiths or sound like U2 -- bands that had a sound. When I couldn’t find anybody, I started to treat the studio as an instrument. And [in] the early ‘90s, to use electronics was frowned upon in a rock band to some degree. If you used a backing track live, which we did because I liked the sound of a sequencer -- it wasn’t because I couldn’t get people to play it. I like the sound of a machine at times. So I chose that machine. And carrying it into how we work now, we’re simply trying to take the sound in our head and get it into your ears. And if that’s a room full of people and an orchestra that helps us achieve that, great. If it’s an old piece of electronic gear, great. If it’s a sample, great. It’s rarely ever anything chosen because it’s a quicker way to get to something. It’s just using them at tools; a computer has always been a tool for us. And to get to your point about noise -- it’s just sound. When I started to find a musicality in noise -- I always have -- when I could have access to samplers early, that was part of an arrangement tool just like a guitar or drums or anything else. To be able to treat that into the arrangement and be part of it, we intimately get involved with Ren Klyce -- who mixes all of David’s movies and does all of the sound effects. He’s part of our compositional process, because when we’re placing music in the scenes, we’re also aware that it’s not just that piece of music; there’s dialogue, there’s sound effects, there’s a room tone, there’s an air conditioner running, there’s a truck going by. We’ll consult, "Hey what key is the tone of that room tone? Can we transpose our track or could you transpose that?" so that it becomes an in-concert symphony of sound that spills over from traditional music into sound design. To me they’re interlocked. We’ve gone through the frustration of making a piece that we think is perfect, and then, in a film, it’s not just that piece. "Ah, it’s not loud enough cause they're talking. Why do they have to be talking?" So why not consider where it’s going to live in the end. JS: Is it unusual to work that closely with the sound design in the scoring of a film? AR: Well with this particular team -- Trent and David, Kirk [Baxter] the editor, and Ren -- it is very close. We’ve been able to achieve things that I think not so much in other cases. But in Dragon Tattoo, one of my favorite bits is -- there’s a floor cleaner and we tuned that into... one doesn’t necessarily think of a floor cleaner as threatening, because it was leading into the blowjob scene. That whirring we turned into the key of what came in. And suddenly it turned into this dark [moment]. It’s one of my favorite bits.   TR: What’s great about the team is that, in the David Fincher camp, there’s a familiarity, and respect and collaborative spirit and nobody’s set in their ways for how things have to be. We found there’s always a willingness, and we’re receiving a lot of that too. You know what if we try something like this, and we’re allowed to do that. It’s very opening. JS: To come back to this piece with “The Way He Looks At Me,” when the noise part of it up front, what does this do to the sound design team? Like, "We’ve got this un-pitched, allegedly, unfocused sound very much a part of the score. Now you have to work with that." TR: Certainly we’re eating up space that would have possibly been in the world of that. And that‘s a consideration. When it’s being placed, that’s not an add on; we don’t add the noise at the end, it’s a part of the initial thing. "Would this be a possibility to live in this space?" When if we all agree on it, then the accommodation is made. Just like I was complaining about dialogue in the way of my great piece of music, there’s an exchange there. JS: The schedule for doing Gone Girl coincided with a new Nine Inch Nails album, Hesitation Marks, and a tour. How did you juggle that? TR: When we finished Dragon Tattoo, the experiences that Atticus and I had with David were so tremendous, inspiring, and it motivates us to think in a different way in our world outside the film world -- naturally we wanted to continue. The plan was a different film. He was going to do 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and that was going to start right about now, because it was a much longer pre-production time. We had been working on a Nine Inch Nails record and were talking about a tour. [So we said] “Hey let's fit a tour in, before the work would start on the next film. I’ve got the next four years of my life planned out.” And as soon as I put that tour on sale, then I got the call, saying “Hey, we’re not going to do that film next, we're going to do Gone Girl and it's going to start right exactly during your tour.” And I was faced with a situation where I was going to have to pass on the film, which I really didn’t want to do -- or try to figure out how I can wedge that into a schedule where I’m physically not going to be in the same place for that long. It wound up, in hindsight, working to our benefit, but it made for a somewhat stressful -- on my part -- scenario where I’d be on tour for a six week chunk, say in Australia, be back in two weeks, and during those two weeks, day one we would start an intense composition session, leave for another six weeks, back for another three weeks. The benefit of that is we had an objectivity that we normally wouldn’t have. Because we don’t fill our schedule with multiple projects. We like to -- probably due to our own insecurity -- leave enough time that we can put 110 percent of what we have capable into a project as important as a David Fincher film, and know that we have the luxury that if we screw up or go down a blind alley, or it’s not as great as it can be, we’re going to redo it and get it right. This took away some of that safety net. But the process, once we got out of the anxiety phase, was very inspiring. When we were working it felt like ideas were flowing. I look back at it fondly. But during the time, I always felt guilty like, "What if it’s not good enough?" It felt weird at the time. We got it done and I think it turned out great and we’re very proud of it. But I wouldn't consciously do that again. JS: Do you find, having been up to your necks in Nine Inch Nails songs, that some of that carries over into your composition work? There’s a song called “Secrets.” When I hear this track, I think "If Trent was singing, it could be a Nine Inch Nails song." Do you try to avoid that? Is it unavoidable? TR: Something we consciously put a lot of effort into, before a project starts -- whether that be an album or a film -- we spend a fair amount of time trying to define it cerebrally. That could be the types of instrumentation, types of recording techniques, limitations we have self-imposed. And we find that helps us achieve the ultimate goal, which is each thing feels like it’s own construction. It doesn’t feel like a continuation of the last three things, that bled into the next thing. And that means making us feel uncomfortable in some fashion. If the instrument I know can achieve a certain thing that is within arms reach, I’m going to reach for it, and I'm gonna play something that then I'll eventually say "It sounds similar to the thing that I just played, because I already know how to do that thing." If we move those things out of the room or we tape our fingers together or we somehow prevent ourselves from doing that the established choice. The goal is you’d hear each film or you’d hear each album and say "That is a complete piece of work that stands on it’s own away from these things." It takes time and it slows the process down, but that matters to us. JS: So if I’m hearing Nine Inch Nails in this piece “Secrets,” is that something that inadvertently bled into the score? TR: Certainly who we are creeps into it. And I wouldn’t discount your opinion on that and I would agree with it. But the intention is that it’s not that. The intention is that they’re not interchangeable pieces. That’s what we’re aiming for, best we can try to achieve. AR: A unique identity to each thing. But I think there's an inherent aesthetic that is embodied in oneself that will cross the boundaries. TR: I mean Atticus and I sat in the same room for a period of three years and did Social Network, Dragon Tattoo, How to Destroy Angels album and a Nine Inch Nails album. And they feel pretty different to me. If you look at pictures from all those eras, it’s the same purple curtains and it’s us probably in the same clothes. JS: The sonic climax of the film is the track “Consummation,” which has a really loud, blatting almost overblown brass sound. Did you know at the time of writing that this was going to have to be something really special and this was kind of a narrative high point? TR: That piece in particular was written for that scene specifically. A lot of what we do, the initial process is coloring outside the lines. We purposely don’t name the tracks anything tangible so we don't want to taint what David thinks when he hears, “This is called ‘Consummation.’” We begin our process by experimenting and writing quite a bit of music that could just kind of fit anywhere but feels like it belongs in the film. That particular piece you mentioned was fairly well into the process where we realized, "Alright, what’s the guttural sound?" Given what’s come before and what’s about to happen afterwards -- clearly this is the moment that’s going to be the most visceral. JS: This is your shower scene. TR: Yeah exactly. So how can we do that in an interesting way? After we had written the piece we experimented with that filter opening and close to give it that undulating sound. That then inspired the cut of the scene itself. JS: Fincher’s editing of the scene? TR: Tweaked a bit to fit. Often we found through the films, sometimes the music then determines the actual cut.  The Regatta scene in Social Network was cut to the music. Clearly the opening credits of Dragon Tattoo cut to the beat of [Karen O, Reznor and Ross' version of Led Zeppelin's] “Immigrant Song.” That’s not normally how it is. There is an element of that that occurs. JS: I don’t want to give people who haven’t seen the movie or heard the score the feeling that it is completely dark and bleak and ominous. Because there are moments of respite. The “Sugar Storm (Reprise)” is a nice moment if you divorce it from the film and take it sonically. But then there’s this piece called, “Just Like You.” Who’s playing the piano on this? TR: As much as I’d like to say that that was me playing the piano, that's actually Mike Garson. We had composed the piece of music that’s based on that lives in the scene leading up to that. In one location it goes from score into what should sound like lounge piano happening in the actual environment where he’s proposing to her. There was something temp in there that was just generic lounge piano music. And we thought, "What if we had the greatest lounge pianist in the world interpreting the track that we had written that’s right before that?" The greatest pianist that I’ve ever encountered is  Mike Garson. He’s played with Bowie over the years. JS: He did that amazing solo in "Aladdin Sane."  TR: He’s a genius, unquestionably. So I called him up and he was available and he gave us several variations. So that goes from our piece and segways into his interpretation of our piece. And he just did such a beautiful job of it, and if you tune into that piece you're just like, “Wow, who is that guy playing that piece?” JS: Have you paid attention to film scores before getting into it yourselves? AR: I would say yes, but not in the same way that I paid attention to records and bands. But, I love movies. And, sometimes it will be a case where I don’t notice music. But of course, over the years, there have been incredible pieces of music stuck in my mind from being a little child: Anything from Jaws to Psycho to Star Wars to Paris, Texas. It could go on and on and on. It’s been part of the soundtrack of my life. You know I think film, as well as records, that’s how I‘ve ingested music TR: I love film, I see as many as I can. What I love about it is the escape -- I can get outside of being me for a couple hours. When asked this question, I realize I had never paid that much attention to the music because I haven't divorced myself from the whole experience -- unless it’s exceptional and it jumps out where I think I couldn’t imagine this film without that music. Birdman is an example of that this year. Under The Skin is another one, where it feels this film is defined by the music and the role it plays. Or conversely, if it’s something I feel fights, feels inauthentic, or inappropriate I take conscious notice of it. I’ve got friends, musicians who will say, “Listen to this track, listen to the amazing kick drum in this song.” [And I’ll say] “Yeah, but the song sucks.” I hate when you become a technician and you can’t enjoy it emotionally anymore as a human because you're so familiar with the craft that you’re deconstructing it in a way. As we've started making music for films, I’ve been amazed at the power when it’s you in the driver seat. I’ve been amazed at the emotional manipulation that one has at their disposal. It’s not that I didn’t consciously know that, but to see how a film can change with what you can add to it. It’s very empowering and interesting. At the same time I don’t want to give up that escape I need as a human to actually enjoy films where now I’m just studying the different crafts behind the different elements of it. JS: The first two scores the two of you did, was very much your own sound. There is an additional sound on this Gone Girl score we haven’t heard from you guys: orchestra. I assume this is not a decision you made lightly. TR: We kind of made it lightly actually. And I’ll tell you why. So far, David has kind of said, “I’m not looking for an orchestral, traditional sounding type score." On this particular case as we went down the path of things sounding a bit organic and the subset of instruments we chose and the direction that started to find itself as seemingly appropriate for this material, we started to get on a path with a couple pieces, we implied what would be a string section playing something. And it then naturally saying, "If the right way is to make it sound that way, let's get a string section, let's do a day with an orchestra." And we had maybe about an hour’s worth of what we needed to check the box. The rest of the day we were able to experiment with a room full of 65 people and seeing how that blended in some other things. It was an amazing day that I hope was the tip of the iceberg of what’s to come in the future. To see how that sound integrated, complimented, fought at times our sound, the hint of possibilities -- our appetite has been whet by that. JS: In your own writing, whether with Nine Inch Nails or How To Destroy Angels, two very different bands, has this experience -- composing films over a course of several years -- changed your songwriting process? AR: For me, making music is a continuous learning experience and I think that it feeds itself. There’s no doubt that the experience that one’s had over the course of these last few years and the more that one’s learned plays into the future. TR: I agree with that. When Social Network arrived at our doorstep, I was fairly burnt out in the column of working in the Nine Inch Nails. I kind of felt like I needed inspiration as a composer. I felt like I was hitting my head against the wall to some degree. To then be able to apply some skills I had in a different way in working, a different set of rules, with different brains behind it -- and also not being the boss, I found liberating without the pressure and working in service to David and to the picture. Those were starting points I wouldn't have in my day job. I left that experience really motivated to want to work inside Nine Inch Nails again and feeling regenerated. As Atticus says, what matters to us is feeling like we’re moving forward in reinvention and discovering and learning and failing. JS: That hasn't’ happened yet. You have one Oscar and one Grammy and two attempts. TR: The process of getting there is littered with failure: The ideas that didn’t work and things you thought would be a good idea. But hopefully most of them we’ve thrown out and they haven’t made it to your ears yet. But it’s not about being comfortable. Part of it is our own built-in insecurities. Sitting in a movie theatre after seeing Gone Girl countless times -- making it -- seeing it in a room full of people as the credits pop up at the end, and you see people uncomfortably getting up in their seats and that gut-churning music playing -- that’s not that slap on the back like, “Hey, put your popcorn in the garbage.” It’s more of a “What did I just go through? I’m afraid to talk to my spouse because maybe we’re on opposite sides of what we should feel about this.” And seeing that happen is incredibly inspirational and a great sense of pride of working in these pictures. I’m very grateful to have the opportunity to have that.

Alan Light's "Let's Go Crazy" (Courtesy of the publisher) Thirty years ago, Prince pulled off a first-time feat. He simultaneously had the number one single, number one album, and number one movie in the country. With an unprecedented mix of bravado, talent, and ambition, "The Purple One" unleashed a cultural force that is still being appreciated today. In a conversation with Soundcheck's host John Schaefer, marquee rock journalist and critic Alan Light provides some context of 1984 -- a watershed year in pop music -- and discusses how "Purple Rain" became a touchstone of a brave new MTV world.    Interview Highlights Alan Light, on regarding Purple Rain as a work of genius: We look at Purple Rain with a certain sense of inevitability. Like, "He was the great genius of his time, there was going to be something that was going to be the vehicle that would translate that out to the world and this was what it was." But if you go back to that moment: here is a guy that had two pop hits; had just been introduced to a mainstream audience; did no press; was not a conventional celebrity—who went to his managers and said, "Get me a deal for a feature film or you are fired." On the recording of the song "Purple Rain": It was not the original idea for the title. In the summer of 1983, Prince is starting to turn the wheels for this idea, starting to move towards a movie. He had started to put the band through acting classes and dance classes… and part of paying back the dance teachers and the dance studio that he was using for the film was he played a benefit at the First Avenue Club. This was the first show with [guitarist] Wendy Melvoin in the band… and for the encore they played this new song, "Purple Rain". It was the first time that they had played this song in public; it was Wendy’s first show with the band, and that recording is the version that we know every second of today.  On Prince’s post-Purple Rain legacy: Prince takes over the world with Purple Rain. Biggest star; biggest film; biggest everything. Goes out on tour; is the biggest ticket in the world and then very abruptly cuts off the Purple Rain tour after about 6 months. Doesn’t go to Europe; doesn’t take it overseas; tells the band about a month before, we’re about to be done. And you sort of compare that to the way that Springsteen went and toured Born in the USA for two and a half years and went arenas, to Europe, to stadiums, to Australia. And I kind of think there are two things that happened at that moment. On the one hand, he is at the mountain top and he looks around and sees what it takes to be a pop star and sees I’m gonna have to play the same show for the next year and I can’t do it; I’ve already made the next record; I’m already thinking about the one after that; I can’t be trapped by what it is to go and fully exploit a pop opportunity like this. The flip side of that is that he just made this film that everybody in the world said he was crazy to do and it would never work and it was a huge triumph. I think at that point it became very difficult to say no to him because he just proved that he knew better than anybody else. Why isn’t that going to continue to translate? And that is the tension that you see through the rest of this career.