How did you meet director Neil Jordan?
Gary LeMel, who’s the head of music at Warner Bros., was very impressed with the way I composed “Demolition Man” at the time. He suggested to David Geffen to consider me. Neil Jordan was sent tapes of “Cobb”, “Alien 3”, “Demolition Man”, and “Drugstore Cowboy”, and he really liked it. He reacted to the boy soprano stuff in “Alien 3” in the beginning, the use of the mysticism and all that. Also, “Alien 3” had aspects that were similar to “Interview” because they were both horrific subjects.
Did you realize how far you were going to go with this director?
We immediately got along very well. The good news and the bad news was that this was a tremendous job; this was a big franchise film as well, but I only had three weeks to physically composer it. It wasn’t a reflective process as much as it was a reflexive process. It was using different types of muscles, sort of like marathon-running muscles.
The thing about this film was that George Fenton had already scored it. I think Neil and George went down the wrong path and then George didn’t have the time because he was onto another project, so he was replaced. I heard his score and the title music was simply beautiful, really gorgeous. What stuck out was the direction that Neil and George were going down; a lot of the scenes were very slowly paced with slow tempos. Even Brad Pitt’s performance was on the slow side. I think they did that because the temp score to this was the Gorecki 3rd Symphony, which was also very slow. After seeing the first screening I realized that I’d love to inject some fast tempos into this. That was an intellectual type thing. Like, first scene, what to do? That’s the reason for a lot of those quick tarantella-type things.
When writing the music were you contrasting the evil of the picture with the feeling of innocence inside your scores?
It is. I think it’s in the drama itself, and there is a contrast of evil and innocence. Lestat showed evil, but I think when you spend two or three hundred years with somebody and you develop a close relationship, to then split up is a deeply sad and disturbing thing. Neil’s take on it was, everything is about seduction, partnership, and loss. Playing to loss and the seduction was very important.
Whose theme was ‘Born to Darkness’ in the film?
This was the most melodic theme for Louis, or Brad Pitt. That signified a deep sense of nostalgia, a deep sense of loss. The little girl has this beautiful piano theme. I would say that ‘Born to Darkness’ definitely is the most melodic theme in the film. The main theme in the movie is on the first cut where you hear vocals with the children singing. This is the major theme of the movie that comes up in many, many places. So ‘Born to Darkness’ is like a secondary theme.
For the scholars, no one got the joke, but in Latin the Libera Me is usually followed by the Mortis Aeternum, or “Save me from everlasting death.” I switched the words to Vita Aeternum, or “Save me from everlasting life.” Also, the other Latin words I use are Lux Aeternum, which is “Everlasting light.” Both of those themes to vampires are significant.
In this film you had to score to feelings of loneliness, horror, passion, power, domination, and more that interfaced with these characters who were condemned to eternity. Was this one of your most complex scores from the point of view of the characters?
Yes, because the characters in the film were very delineated. Every character was really different than each one. Lestat was almost a Moliere-type figure. I scored this scene where this poor prostitute was being almost molested and torn apart by Lestat in the boudoir and being made a vampire. I used the harpsichord to accompany the scene in almost a recitative way, the way you would accompany an opera singer. It’s a style when composing to voice. I did this with the harpsichord to accompany his action that way. It brought across the horrific humor in it.
Was this one of your best scores?
Oh yes! What was great about the drama is that it gave me an opportunity for melody, humor, experimental orchestration and large bold themes, but also you had long stretches of area where you could just compose with no dialogue.
What were your thoughts when you found out it was nominated for an Academy Award?
I was delighted, actually, and very proud of the result and that my peers paid attention. I wasn’t that surprised because it was nominated for a Golden Globe; that sort of prepared me or set up the way.