Interviews
INTERVIEW: Composer John Frizzell
By Jonathan Stryker

Apr 29, 2007, 09:42

Scoring a film is not an easy task.  It requires attention, concentration, and long hours of hard work that the composer must be willing to put in.  Scoring a horror film in particular always presents challenges, one of which is the need to break new ground.  Then there is the inevitable comparison between a contemporary and a master.  The latter can either be flattering or discouraging, particularly when a young composer is setting out to find their own voice. 

John Frizzell is by no means new to the business.  He’s been scoring both films and television shows/movies for almost 15 years.  He was fortunate enough to know what he wanted to do with his life at an early age and has produced an impressive body of work which includes UNDERTOW which starred Lou Diamond Philips, THE RICH MAN’S WIFE with Halle Berry, DANTE’S PEAK with Pierce Brosnan, ALIEN: RESURRECTION with Sigourney Weaver, the office hell comedy OFFICE SPACE with Ajai Naidu, and THIR13EN GHOSTS with Matthew Lillard. 

I recently spoke with John regarding his score to PRIMEVAL, which is due for DVD release in June 2007, and his most recent Varese Sarabande soundtrack album release, THE REAPING, which is a terrific score that belongs in any serious genre lover’s collection. 

Jonathan Stryker: Are you by any chance related to the late character actor Lou Frizzell?

John Frizzell: Not that I'm aware of.  But, it's a pretty rare name.

JS: I was just curious because he was a prolific character actor who passed away in 1979, and I’ve seen him in many movies that were made during the 1970s, particularly Steven Spielberg's DUEL, Robert Mulligan’s SUMMER OF ‘42 and THE OTHER, DEVIL DOG: THE HOUND OF HELL, the 1978 TV-movie with Richard Crenna, to name just a few…

JF: No, actually people ask me all the time if I’m related to ‘Lefty’ Frizzell, one of the most famous country musicians of all-time. 

JS: So, tell me a little bit about your background.

JF: I was around music a lot when I was a kid.  My father played the piano, and I actually got a lot of gigs singing in the choruses of opera companies when I was young.  So, I was exposed to a lot of different types of music very early on.  And then I really fell in love with jazz when I was a teenager and studied music first at USC and then the Manhattan School of Music.  Then, after music school I found my way working a lot with electronics and working with Ryuichi Sakamoto and that's when I decided that this was what I wanted to do.  I really ended up being groomed for this career by working with James Newton Howard and went off on my own scoring after that.

JS: I am by no means an expert in music.  I just know that when I listen to music I either like it or I don't like it.  I've been aware of music, particularly in how it is used in motion pictures, since I was quite young.  I saw RAGGEDY ANN AND ANDY: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE, a cartoon in 1977, and although the story itself wasn't anything to write home about the movie boasted a wonderful musical score.  It was the first soundtrack album that I ever owned, and when STAR WARS was released a few months later, well, that was it.  I never heard anything like STAR WARS before, and I suppose no one else did either.  But, the impact of STAR WARS on me was quite remarkable and this began a lifelong love of soundtrack music and collecting soundtrack albums, and more importantly being aware of how music is used in a motion picture.  You, I would imagine, have had a similar experience in being moved by certain scores, which probably compelled you to write music.  Out of all the scores you’ve heard, which ones made you want to score movies?

JF: Oh, probably the clincher was when I heard THE MISSION.

JS: Yes, Ennio Morricone’s music is wonderful.  He has scored well over 400 movies, he's very prolific.  As you well know, he was recently honored at the Academy Awards.  He's incredibly talented and unfortunately most people don't even know who he is.  I love the work he has done for Dario Argento, particularly his early fauna-titled films.  His score for John Carpenter's THE THING is quite unique, not to mention all the Clint Eastwood westerns that he scored, and the list goes on.  What was it about THE MISSION that inspired you?

JF: Well, I think that what really impressed me about Morricone’s score was his ability to take music and make it so much more than just a motion picture score.  The score really had a life of its own, and actually became a separate creation that worked very well on its own. 

JS: What other scores stood out for you?

JF: Of course, there are so many Jerry Goldsmith scores that made a big impression on me.  PLANET OF THE APES is a huge influence.  I just love how experimental it was in the different types of sounds that he was playing with.  This and THE MISSION were the scores that really influenced me. 

JS: Yes, Goldsmith is one of my personal favorites as well.  He left us far too early in my opinion.  He put out so many great scores, music like THE MEPHISTO WALTZ, THE OTHER, LOGAN’S RUN, THE OMEN, COMA, INCHON, OUTLAND, RAGGEDY MAN, POLTERGEIST, FIRST BLOOD, PSYCHO II, etc.  Like Morricone, the scores stand out so well on their own.  You can easily listen to them without watching the respective films.  His music is so effective, in fact, that I recall reading the novelization of POLTERGEIST while listening to his music for the film, in particular the track entitled “Rebirth”, and this really set the hairs on the back of my neck on end!

JF: That's a great score.

JS: Is scoring something you always wanted to do?

JF: I would say that I had thought about several things that I wanted to do with my life.  When I was a teenager I thought that I wanted to be a jazz musician and was able to study with one of my real heroes, Joe Pass.  But then I realized that I was not going to be the player that he was, so I moved on.  Then I explored the idea of being a writer, then I found myself coming back to music.  And when I started working with electronics and music that is when I really started getting interested in it, in my early twenties.  I worked with Sakamoto when I was 24. 

JS: I think it's really quite admirable to pursue something like this at that age.  In some ways I’m envious of you!  I'm 38 years-old now and I work for a telecommunications company, but I’m always pulled to film.  I never pursued a career in film because I had it drilled into my head that I really couldn't make a living at it.  But, I think it's wonderful that that's what you chose to do and also chose to pursue it.  In looking over your filmography, you have amassed an incredible body of work over a 13-year period.

JF: Yes, I've been really lucky to get different types of projects that cover a broad range and it’s been really creatively exciting and it continues to grow, the different things I get to do.  I am pretty fortunate in that.  I'm very grateful for that.

JS: Where does your inspiration come from?

JF: Deadlines!

JS: (laughs) That reminds me of reading about Cary Grant asking Alfred Hitchcock where he should get his character’s motivation from, and Hitchcock replied, “Your paycheck.” 

JF: (laughing) Yeah, I always say, “fear and grief”!  No, but I really do enjoy the process of writing, and also coming up with the process of coming up with a concept for the score.  PRIMEVAL was really good for that, I wanted to treat African music and have it work in film and a way that I had never heard of before.  Plus, to come up with the process and plan to make that happen, that was exciting, too.  I enjoy the planning of something that looks like it's very difficult to do and seems near impossible, and I enjoy writing and the long hours and what it takes to figure it out, those are my two favorite parts.  That’s my favorite thing to do. 

JS: PRIMEVAL is a film about a huge crocodile in Africa that goes on a rampage.  I thought of Lewis Teague’s ALLIGATOR when I saw it.  (As a side note, PRIMEVAL was also the working title for the 1987 John McTiernan film, PREDATOR).  How did you come to score PRIMEVAL?

JF: Michael Katleman, the director, and I go way back.  He was the creator of the television series called VR.5 thirteen years ago, and that was one of the first things I ever scored.  So, I've known him for quite a long time.  Michael asked me to score the film, and I said, “Absolutely!”

JS: What challenges did you face in scoring PRIMEVAL? 

JF:  Well, to get truly African music into a score was a real challenge.  Finding real players and not imitative players is difficult, and I had to go to Africa to do it.  Traditional African music is not played to a click, so there’s no way to synchronize it to the picture.  It is not played in Western tunings, and so it’s difficult to coordinate it with an orchestral tuning.  It’s not even played in Western scales.  And so I had to start with the African music and record it all and then organize it in to a computer program so I could tweak it and change it as I was composing to picture.  It was logistically challenging, it was a long way to go.  It was very difficult recording in Africa, and it was technically challenging but it came out great.  Getting all of the right people in Africa wasn't exactly easy either.  I was very fortunate to have a gentleman named Craig McGahey, from a company called Mama Dance, and he helped me pull in all the right people.  And we ended up with fabulous players.  And that was really the soul of the score.

JS:  I love the opening title sequence.  That's my favorite – it's very ominous.

JF:  That's the tone that really needed to be set for this film, this sort of brooding tension that gets more explosive as the film progresses.  There is a great deal of music in the film, just over 80 minutes of music in a 90 minute film.  And when you score a film that is that long, it presents a new set of challenges.  It has to be crafted right across the whole picture.

JS:  Is PRIMEVAL ostensibly based upon true events? 

JF:  Yes, there’s this crocodile called Gustave who has killed over 300 people.  If you Google “Gustave croc” you can see pictures of him!

JS:  How did you feel about going to Africa?  What was that like?

JF:  I was very excited!  I went and spent my whole time in South Africa.  I visited the set which was in an area called Quazulu-Natal which is in the East.  We were on a game reserve and got to see giraffes, zebras, and I went to Cape Town and worked for 10 days recording there.  Cape Town is a wonderful place, it’s a really growing country.  They have enormous challenges, of course, but it's also making giant strides.  I had one day off in my time in South Africa and I want to do something really exciting.  I actually went cage diving with great white sharks. 

JS:  Oh, my God!

JF:  Hey, I'm a film composer, and for this film I really had to know about fear. 

JS:  Matt Hooper, eat your heart out…

JF:  So, I went into the cage for an hour and I saw six great white sharks.

JS:  Were you scared?

JF:  Terrified!  I get terrified just thinking…I mean, it’s just unbelievable…

JS:  (laughing) Just watching JAWS wasn’t an option? 

JF:  No!  (laughing)

JS:  What other film genres do you like?

JF:  I have a wide range of films I like.  I loved PAN’S LABYRINTH and NOTES ON A SCANDAL.  The more films I score, the more I have a feeling of making the film, not just scoring it, but actually being a part of the making of the film. 

JS:  What are some of your favorite horror films?

JF:  THE SHINING is my favorite. 

JS:  That’s my favorite, too. 

JF:  For me, nothing else compares to that film. 

JS:  There are certain directors in the industry who like to work with the same casts, same crew, time and time again.  Woody Allen and Atom Egoyan are both known for this.  Is that something that you enjoy doing, working with people and collaborating with people you know, or do you gravitate towards people you haven't work with before in an effort to find originality or something different?

JF:  Well, to be honest, both are really fun.  One of the obvious advantages to working with the group of people you already know is that you don't have do the “get to know you” part.  I have no problem doing that, but it really allows you to dive headfirst into the creative process.  I recently finished doing THE REAPING, my fourth film for Joel Silver, and I’ve known Joel for a long time, too. 

JS:  I enjoyed your music to THE REAPING.  It’s a very subdued score, yet becomes bombastic at a moment’s notice.  These moments recall Goldsmith's score to THE OMEN.  What preparations did you make to write this score?

JF:  Thank you.  I came onto the project pretty late, so I had no preparation – I just started writing!

JS:  I've read about some directors who actually ask a composer to score a movie prior to its even being filmed.  Dario Argento had the Goblins record the music to SUSPIRIA so he could have it playing on the soundstage to give the actors a disoriented feeling.  Was THE REAPING completely (or partially) finished when you scored it?

JF:  There was a very complete cut of the film when I started scoring.

JS:  THE REAPING is directed by Stephen Hopkins, who also directed numerous episodes of television’s 24.  Have you seen 24?

JF:  I'm actually very good friends with Sean Callery who has scored every single episode of 24, but because of my busy schedule I don’t get to watch television.  But, I know he does a great job for the show.   

JS:  Why do some soundtrack albums perfectly reflect a motion picture score, and yet others are all over the map?  THE REAPING does a wonderful task of conveying a story to the audience with what I like to call all of its “aural chiaroscuros” and nuances.  For example, there are some soundtrack albums that contain every bit of music used in a film, and yet others mix up the music and leave off some of the best tracks. 

JF:  Yes, well I’ve seen it done in both ways.  “Best” is a relative term, and whoever thinks the “best” is thinking in their own terms.  Sometimes the album is pressed according to what the composer likes, and other times the composer has no control over how his music appears on the soundtrack album.  Often there are union issues in regards to how many minutes can appear on a soundtrack album.  I remember awhile back when we had to do pretty much 30 minute soundtrack albums, they were very short.  It's gotten better now, a lot of soundtrack albums are about 60 minutes.  Sometimes when you write a film score, you end up with music that works well in a scene, but it doesn’t hold up on its own in the environment of being on an album, so the composer might get into shuffling things around a little bit.  I really like to make up the experience on the CD of taking you through the shape of the film.   Sometimes it’s just a very brutal time period in which to put the score together.  Other times, you’re finishing a score and getting ready for the film, at the same time putting together the soundtrack, and just don’t have enough time to do an album the way that you’d really like to.  

JS:  In terms of film composers, who else in addition to Morricone and Goldsmith to admire?

JF:  Elmer Bernstein, James Newton Howard, Mark Isham, Ed Shearmur.  Now in terms of composers outside of film music, I'm a huge fan of Bela Bartok, Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, the list goes on and on.  I think that listening to a lot of different music is what it’s all about.  It's about exploring new territories and staying on the cutting edge of music.

JS:  Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about your career.

JF:  Thank you!

THE REAPING is now available on Varese Sarabande compact disc.