The Big Score

In this tasty episode of The Big Score, composer Marcelo Zarvos talks about creating the music for Searchlight's Flamin' Hot and working with director Eva Longoria to honor Mexican American tradition by making the score culturally specific.

In this episode, explore the music from National Geographic’s Secrets of the Elephants with composer Tom Howe.

In this episode, we talk with Kris Bowers and Michael Abels about why they consider Joseph Bologne, Chevalier De Saint-George an 18th-century rock star, “The Prince of his day” and how calling Chevalier the Black Mozart misses the point of how influential the composer, violin virtuoso and conductor was before he was erased from history.

Host Jon Burlingame sits down with Grammy-winning composer Simon Franglen to discuss his epic score for Avatar: The Way of Water. Simon recalls the singular experience of working with director James Cameron and the tight-knit Avatar family, how sounds of Earth inspired him in the creation of music for another planet, and what the return to Pandora means to him. Follow the For Scores podcast wherever you stream your podcasts.

In this episode of The Big Score, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awarding-winning songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez (“Frozen,” “Coco,” “WandaVision,” “Book of Mormon”) discuss the music behind their new Hulu series, “UP HERE,” the backstory to their own love story and how, as co-creators and first time Executive Producers of the show alongside the writer of “tick, tick…BOOM!” and the director of “Hamilton,” they were able to incorporate music and storytelling. With the show set in the 90’s, the duo also reveal their musical inspirations including 90’s female powerhouses Aimee Mann and Fiona Apple, Billy Joel and even a little hip-hop influence bringing the character’s inner voices to life.

In this episode of The Big Score, composer/producer, Paul Leonard-Morgan, reveals that his mother told him, “don’t go into music, you’ll never make a career of it.” But, in fact, he has made a successful and award-winning career out of it. In creating the score for 20th Century Studios’ “Boston Strangler” airing on Hulu, Paul found great depth in the lead character “Loretta,” the female journalist who helped connect the murders, creating a quieter quartet feel with a massive orchestral sound for ‘the Strangler’ character. As the suspense in the film builds, Paul masterfully meshes the smaller quartet sound with the big orchestral sound and then runs it through 8000 volts of electricity. What happens next? You’ll have to tune in.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner, creator of the acclaimed FX series, Fleishman Is In Trouble, said composer Caroline Shaw’s score “isn’t just the sound of the show; it’s the soul of it.” In this episode of The Big Score, the Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning Shaw discusses her writing process, the deeply affecting power of the voice and the challenge of finding a chord progression that says “I hate you, I love you, I need you.”

"To create a great song, you have to open the door to chaos” reveals musician and composer, Nicolas Godin, in this episode of The Big Score. Composing the score for National Geographic’s Oscar-nominated documentary “Fire of Love” about husband and wife French volcanologists, Katia and Maurice Krafft, Godin reveals how he skipped the “obvious” when creating the ambient soundtrack. Instead of bombastic sounds, he imagined himself in the Krafft’s laboratory and created a soundtrack that embraced both their ground-breaking scientific work as well as their together-to-the end love story. https://hollywoodrecs.lnk.to/TheBigScore Follow us here: https://www.instagram.com/bigscoreofficial/ https://www.facebook.com/TheBigScoreOfficial https://www.tiktok.com/@bigscoreofficial https://twitter.com/thebigscore

In this episode of The Big Score Grammy Award winner and composer, Simon Franglen, takes listeners behind the music of Avatar: The Way of Water, with water being one of the main inspirations for how Simon deftly created an ambient piece of music matching the stunning visuals of the film. But, creating unique water sounds was just one part of the process, tune in to hear how Simon created a new instrument, printed from his sketch on a 3D printer, and perfect for a character 10 feet tall with three fingers. A longtime collaborator with director, James Cameron, Simon also reveals in the episode how he came to work with Cameron initially on Titanic, winning a Grammy for “My Heart Will Go On” and which lead to them collaborating again on the original Avatar, alongside James Horner, and Avatar: The Way of Water. Follow us here: https://www.instagram.com/bigscoreoff... https://www.facebook.com/TheBigScoreO... https://www.tiktok.com/@bigscoreofficial https://twitter.com/thebigscore

Tune in to this week’s episode of The Big Score to hear how GRAMMY-nominated composer, Austin Wintry, pulled together the music for the ALIENS: Fireteam Elite videogame. Talking about the differences between scoring for movies and videogames, Austin reveals that scoring for games can be more dynamic as players become emotionally attached. Speaking to the sound of the score, Austin recalls how he used a Renaissance-era instrument, called “the serpent,” which few people know how to play and was used in the original ALIEN score by Jerry Goldsmith -- an early influence of Austin’s.

In this episode of The Big Score Grammy Award-winner and composer, Simon Franglen, takes listeners behind the music of Avatar: The Way of Water, with water being one of the main inspirations for how Simon deftly created an ambient piece of music matching the stunning visuals of the film. A longtime collaborator with director, James Cameron, Simon reveals how he came to work with Cameron on Titanic, winning a Grammy for “My Heart Will Go On” and which lead to them collaborating again on the original Avatar, alongside James Horner, and Avatar: The Way of Water.

Academy Award®-nominated composer Carter Burwell’s score for Searchlight Pictures’ The Banshees of Inisherin stands out as a separate character in this much buzzed about film, already an awards contender. Tune in to hear Carter personally detail the behind-the-scenes creation of the music, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. Burwell worked closely with the film’s writer and director, Martin McDonagh, to bring his writing to life, incorporating Balinese gamelan instruments to create the light and dark sounds mirroring the story. The Banshees of Inisherin soundtrack marks Carter’s fourth pairing with McDonagh, previous collaborations include In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, as well as his Oscar-nominated score for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

For composer, rapper, and singer Mato Wayuhi, the challenge to “redefine the definition of indigenous art” for the Hulu series Reservation Dogs was one he was more than ideally suited to take on. In this episode of The Big Score, the form USC film student from South Dakota talks about how his Oglala Lakota culture heavily influences the gritty sounds he creates to capture the thematic qualities of the show, how technology helped him construct zombie-esque sounds, how 90's hip hop inspired his rapping, and how he honors his father and the indigenous sounds of his culture with a deer hoof rattle.

“This score blows!” according to its creator, EMMY® Award-winning and Academy® Award-nominated composer Daniel Pemberton who, in this episode of "The Big Score", is giving fans a look behind the inspiration for the score to 20th Century Studios’ film Amsterdam. Taking the cue from the film’s main characters, three unsung heroes who changed the course of history, Pemberton recalls how he turned to the “unsung heroes of the orchestra,” the woodwinds including flutes, clarinets, oboes, saxophones and bassoons to mirror the film’s optimism, lightness, emotion and humor. He also added crotales, drums and plucked piano strings to try and create a more unique and unusual sound palette for the score and reveals that there are some very personal moments within this score, alongside a good dose of mystery, adventure and intrigue and hopes that “people find it as intriguing a musical journey as the movie itself.”

For Emmy-nominated composer, Amanda Jones, the challenge to create a sonic universe to match NatGeo’s Super/Natural series filled with the world’s most extraordinary animals, was a welcome one. For this score which she describes as “percussive heavy, very organic, guttural and raw, and a little bit weird,” Amanda details how she utilized a vast array of instruments including Afro Venezuelan and Afro Columbian percussion, wooden flutes, acoustic guitar, violin, congas and a ukulele, to bring a spectacular universe of animals to life. The Vassar and Berklee College of Music grad’s innovative and experimental approach to creating music, manipulating and stretching the tone and sounds of each instrument, was key to creating a musical narration for everything -- from flying squirrels to elephants. She even made spiders sexy, tune in now to find out how.

In this episode of "The Big Score", we go behind the scenes of Onyx Collective’s first scripted series Reasonable Doubt with composers Adrian Younge of Jazz is Dead and Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest. In this exclusive behind the scenes look at how the music, Adrian & Ali detail their creative process, enduring friendship and what it was like working with series creator Raamla Mohamed. The composer duo touch on how their unique musical journey’s prepared them for this experience and why it was important to explore an eclectic mix of genres, from hip-hop, jazz and soul for their score.

In this episode, husband and wife composing team, Drum & Lace (aka Sofia Hultquist) and Ian Hultquist pull back the curtain on how they created a score for Rosaline, a fresh and comedic twist on Shakespeare’s classic love story Romeo & Juliet, that compositionally feels modern but uses a mix of instrumentation from the film's period including harpsichord, lute, wooden flutes, renaissance drums and more. Notes the pair,“One of the most interesting, challenging, and fun parts of working on the film was integrating traditional instruments of the time, into a score with a pop-sensibility. Learning how to write and arrange for these instruments and making them work alongside harps and synths, was exhilarating and was furthered when we had a chance to cover a few iconic pop songs with our Renaissance ensemble.”

Academy Award®-nominated composer Carter Burwell’s score for Searchlight Pictures’ The Banshees of Inisherin stands out as a separate character in this much buzzed about film, already an awards contender. Tune in to hear Carter personally detail the behind-the-scenes creation of the music, recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. Burwell worked closely with the film’s writer and director, Martin McDonagh, to bring his writing to life, incorporating Balinese gamelan instruments to create the light and dark sounds mirroring the story. The Banshees of Inisherin soundtrack marks Carter’s fourth pairing with McDonagh, previous collaborations include In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths, as well as his Oscar-nominated score for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Peel back the many layers of creativity from EMMY Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated composer, Daniel Pemberton, as he describes how he reimagined the sounds of the 50’s but in very unconventional ways to create the score for murder-mystery film, See How They Run, based in 1950’s London. Pemberton pulled out all the stops in creating the sounds of the era without being too literal. Incorporated into the 70-piece orchestra are vintage banjoes, interesting drum and rhythmic textures, and even his glass water bottle and a metal stick. Also featured in the score is the iconic Mrs. Mills piano housed at Abbey Road Studios and famously known as the piano in the Beatles’ Lady Madonna, Penny Lane and With A Little Help From My Friends to bring in a vaudeville, honky tonk sound.

Go behind the scenes with composer Pierre-Philippe Cote (a.k.a. Pilou) as he discusses his inspiration for the soundtrack to Hulu’s NOT OKAY, a social media satire that exposes opposite ends of the moral spectrum of internet fame. Starring Zoey Deutch as an aimless aspiring writer with no friends, no romantic prospects, and — worst of all — no followers, who fakes an Instagram-friendly trip to Paris in the hopes of boosting her social media clout. But it’s only a matter of time before the facade cracks, and she learns the hard way that the Internet loves a takedown