Please Mister Örvarsson, can you tell us about yourself?

 Well I was born and raised in Iceland.  I started studying music when I was five years old.  My family is full of musicians, my father is an accordion player, my mom sings in the church choir, my first piano lessons were with my uncle who was an organist and choir conductor in my home town.  So, music was everywhere when I was growing up.  My main instrument as a kid was the trumpet, which I studied seriously for 6-7 years.  Then teenage came and I wanted to play in bands so I started playing synthesizers and keyboards.  Eventually I played with some very popular bands in Iceland but I grew out of it and ended up going to college for music in Boston at Berklee College of Music.  It was there that I tried scoring film and immediately fell in love with the marriage of music and picture.  After that I went to North Carolina and took a Masters degree in film music composition.

 

What kind of music do you enjoy listening to the most?

 I listen to a wide variety of music.  I love some contemporary concert composers such as Arvo Part and John Adams and I’m always discovering new things in the classical repertoire.  Some of my favorite composers from the past are Ravel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Mozart... the list goes on and on.  But for the last few years I’ve been listening a lot to electronic music such as Kruder & Dorfmeister, Daft Punk, Dzihan & Kamien and Groove Armada and I think you can hear the that influence in my music.

 

Do you have anyone in particular you'd consider your most precious advisor or mentor?

I have been blessed with a few incredible mentors.  My teacher in graduate school, David McHugh was an enormous influence and he encouraged me to move to Los Angeles and seriously pursue a career in film music.  After I moved out there, two people who have been extremely important as mentors for me are Mike Post and Hans Zimmer.  I’ve had the privilege to work next to both of them and obviously learned a lot in every way, musically and otherwise.

 

How would you describe or characterize your own musical style?Do you have any straight-to-the-point method for having a piece of music sound your way?  How do you go from point A to Z?  What technology and pieces of software do you require for that? 

I’d rather leave it to others characterize my own musical style.  I write whatever comes to me in  a style I think is appropriate to whatever project I’m working on.  It’s very much a process of discovery for me, just trying things and see what I like, both sonically and in terms of melody or chord progressions.  I don’t really have a fixed method, other than I try to come up with a melody first but it’s quite random how it happens.  I compose in Logic and I also use Live a lot for audio manipulation.

 

 How did you meet with Hans Zimmer? What did you learn from him - technically, humanly and professionally speaking? 

I was introduced to Hans by our mutual agent, Sam Schwartz.  Sam had the vision that I would be fit right into the multi-national melting pot that is Remote Control and he was right.  I have learned so much from Hans that we could have a whole seperate interview dedicated to that alone!  First of all he’s one of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met and seeing him break down situations, analyze and find a solution is a joy.  At the same time he’s incredibly intuitive so he’s really working on all levels.  But perhaps the most important thing I’ve learned is to always put the music number one and to put in the effort and dedication it takes to try and come up with the best stuff I can produce at any given time.  It’s a work ethic and a deep respect for the music itself.

 

How did you fit in at Remote Control?  Is it true what they say, that Hans will actually make you go through all sorts of painful tests, including walking on burning charcoals, before you can actually come up with anything that has notes and rhythm? (laughs) 

Like  said before, I feel that I fit in great at Remote Control.  It’s a very creative sort of a think-tank/artist colony filled with great people.  I know I make it sound like the Shangri-La and there’s all kinds of rumours out there about it being a concentration camp.  The truth is probably somewhere in between.  Like everything else you get out of it is directly related to what you put into it.  I happened to already have a career when I got there so I was writing from the very beginning but there are many stories of people who started making coffee who are know very successful.  I can’t comment on the charcoal walking, the punishment would be too serious...;) 

 

Can you tell us more about your recent contribution to POTC 3? 

I wrote and/or arranged a few cues for POTC 3.  Probably my most significant contribution was the scene where Jack is in Davy Jones’ locker and has apparently lost his mind, in fact there are multiple Jacks there and that’s what the cues was called.  The editor had temped a very contemporary electronic piece there and it was my job to find something within the parameters and the language of the POTC music that would work there.  The director, Gore Verbinsky, basically told me that I couldn’t get too avant garde so that gave me a lot of freedom to create something totally different from the rest of the score that would still fit into the overall sound of the film.  I still used Jack’s theme but in a new, more atonal way and then the piece segues into a more electronic pulse/rhythm based piece once the crabs wake up and start pulling the ship.  It’s one of my favorite scenes I’ve ever scored. 

 

How does the actual writing process get carried out under the supervision of Hans Zimmer?  How does one actually manage to organize and break down all the  different tasks into tiny bits so every co-composer has something to offer? 

There isn’t really a formula to how it happens, just depends on the project and the people involved.  Generally though I’d say that Hans typically writes a “suite” of all the themes in the film and then those get applied to in the appropriate places.  I think Hans then tries to delegate the work according to each persons strengths.

  

What is your degree of inventiveness, personal creation when writing music with and for Hans Zimmer?  Is he the kind to let you freely experiment with things?

 One of the great things about Hans is how he encourages and revels in inventiveness and creativity.  So experimentation is highly encouraged and everybody gets a chance to chime in with their ideas.  I think that’s one of the strengths of Remote Control.  You’re bound to get a lot of interesting ideas when you throw a lot of creative people into a room and let them brainstorm, jam or somehow let ideas flow. 

 

Were you given more freedom, room for manoeuvre as far as Vantage Point is concerned?  Any advice or instructions from Hans Zimmer?  Did you try and do anything special that would allow your own musical style to become more apparent? 

I had full artistic freedom on the Vantage Point score.  There were certain parameters set in the beginning, like it should be very modern, very fast paced and sonically interesting and represent the geography of the film.  Other than that it was up to me come up with the music.  Hans was there all along giving his thoughts and input but as he puts it himself, he’s like the fire brigade.  He only comes when there’s a fire.  So, in other words if things are going well he’s pretty hands off.  At the same time, it’s great to be able to run things by him.  His intuition and experience are invaluable.

 

About Babylon A.D.

 

How did you hop aboard this project in the first place? Did you read the book prior to the writing process, to inspire you?  Why? 

I basically got a call from my agent saying that I was doing this film.  Hans had met Mathieu Kassovitz in Paris earlier and recommended me to him.  I never had a chance to read the book.  In fact I had just come back from vacation in Greece when this film came along and I just had jump straight in and start writing.

 What kind of material did you have at the beginning of the project?

Who was in charge of providing you with instructions, were you told to head towards that one and only musical orientation? 

What we did have was Mathieu’s vision for the music.  Which was basically that he wanted to mix hip hop and opera or religious choral music.  So they had temped a few pieces in that served as a guide to what eventually became the score. 

 

How was working with the crew?

 I really loved working on this film.  Mathieu brought in RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan and Shavo from System of a Down, who collectively form the band Achozen and we started to try to create this elusive mixture of different musical directions.  It was really an adventure since we come from very different backgrounds and have very different careers but I like to think that it was quite successful. 

Can you talk about your teaming up with Mathieu Kassovitz? What is it like to work next to a French team?

 I had never met with Mathieu before but really enjoyed working with him.  I think the fact the he is European was an important asset to me while I was creating the music.  He comes from the school of auteaurs rather than the Hollywood style of layers of management and too many cooks in the kitchen.  He basically said to me “I chose you to write the score, now write the score.”  So he wasn’t interesting in micro-managing each cue or melody and let me do my thing which was a breath of fresh air.

 

What things did you want to express or to convey through your music for this film? 

Well, it’s a futuristic thriller with strong undertones of religion or rather, criticism of organized religion.  So I wanted it to be very modern or even futuristic sounding (whatever that is).  In the end I ended up writing parts of a requiem.  The main female character, Aurora, is basically a genetically manufactured girl who was designed to be a vessel for a virgin birth for this cult or religion.  So I used Agnus Dei (the lamb of God) as a text for her theme which was perfomed by my sister Thorhildur, a choir and orchestra, with electronic elements mixed in.

 

This movie takes place in several countries and in the future.  Did you implement those elements in your score?  Meaning, it's not like the future has to sound this way or another, but did you appeal to any specific or typical instruments and sounds? 

There’s certainly an element of the geography of the film in the music.  E.g., for parts of it that take place close to the North Pole, I attempted to use “cold” sounds and simple, stark melodies.  The idea of a future sound is an interesting and a difficult one.  Obviously, the score is a child of it’s time and most likely when people listen to it in the future they’ll think it’s quite old fashioned!  Nevertheless, we tried to make different interested sonorities that give today’s audience the feel of something different and alien.  At the same time I felt it was important to maintain a symphonic, cinematic score to give the film an “epic” feel.  That’s very hard to do with electronics alone. 

 

What size and what orchestra would you settle with for the recording session? How did you combine live music with the more traditional palette of electronic sounds?  With what result or effects in mind? 

I used a combination of strings, brass and a choir, along with solo voice and quite a bit of electric cello.  All this was then mixed with synthesized and sample sounds we created to the result is quite interesting.  I don’t really think about a separation between acoustic and electronic elements any more to me the palette is infinite and whatever I can think of or get my hands on.

 Can your music be described as theme-based? Why? 

Yes, I would think of my music as theme-based.  All film music is in one way or another.  Whether the theme is a melody, chords, sounds, etc.  What you’re doing is creating something that represents a character, the story or a place and you keep weaving that into the film to create unity and help telling the story.  I love melodies and that’s usually the first thing I look for but it’s not always appropriate in which case I’ll use more of a sound design approach, or something textural.

 

 Have you met with Vin Diesel?  Anything about him you would like to share with us? 

I have not met Vin Diesel.

 

Although he [Vin Diesel] hasn't been around lately, careful as he is not to do any more sequels going for the extra buck, some viewers may still envision this feature film as Vin's newest action-packed vehicle.  Do you give in to that trend or is there more to it that we sci-fi lovers can expect? 

I've always seen this film as more of a drama with action elements rather than the opposite.  So I think it´ll surprise a lot of people.

 

Are you working on another project at the current present? If so, can you tell us about that? 

I just finished a movie called "The Code" with Morgan Freeman and Antonio Banderas.  A very different project from this.  It's actually a heist movie that combines humor and action and was an opportunity to write something different, for me at least.

 Speaking of pet projects, what types of movies would you be interested in working on in the future, and with whom?

 I would love to get a chance to do some good dramas, especially period pieces like, say "The Illusionist" or "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" as an example.  These kinds of films give an opportunity to write really great themes and to explore further the possibilities and confinements of orchestral writing.  Also, I love fantasy and future stuff.  There's artistic freedom there because nobody can tell you how that should sound, since these are realities we haven't experienced.  I would love to work with Mathieu again, I really enjoyed the freedom and trust he had during our collaboration.  I think I generally work better with fellow Europeans, there's a level of understanding there that’s kind of unspoken but important.

 

Thanks in advance for your input and all my congratulations. 

Thank you!

 

*Questions from Kaya Savas, reader of inter-activities.

*Has working with Hans Zimmer changed the way you approach scoring? Does it influence your style?

 Yes, it has.  Hans has been a great inspiration for me to “dig deeper” and try to come up with more original stuff, rather than a more traditional approach to film scoring. 

 

*What is the most valuable thing you have learned while working at Remote Control Productions?

 That collaboration is a great thing when it comes to scoring films.  Five composers together in a room will come up with more ideas than one!

 

*Babylon A.D is a sci-fi film. How does your music create a sci-fi atmosphere? Did you use any specific instruments or sounds to get that effect? 

I used a lot of atmospheric sounds that were specifically made for the film to try to create an ambience that felt futuristic.

 

*Did you have any influences or sources of inspiration before delving into this project to get the ideas flowing? 

I think one is always influenced by everything you’ve listened to and experienced, whether you’re aware of it or not.  I’m not sure what was my biggest inspiration on this one... 

 

*What is the working Director/Composer relationship like? How did you use Mathieu Kassovitz as a tool and when do you decide to go do something on your own versus talking it out with him first?

 Every director/composer relationship is different and unique.  Mathieu was great to work with.  He gave his vision in the beginning and after that he was pretty hands off and gave me the trust to carry out his vision.

 

* Who is your favorite composer? What is your favorite score?

 There are too many to list but a few names would be Arvo Part, Ravel, Stravinsky, Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Thomas Newman.  My favorites score is probably The Mission by Morricone.

 

*Which of your scores so far are you the most proudest of? 

Babylon AD.