|
Murray
Gold is one of the most talented young english TV and film composers.
Today his name has been most recognized worldwide thanks for the music he
writes for the new incarnation of the award winning sci fi series Doctor
Who. In July, 2007 Gold granted our editor Jorge Saldanha with this exclusive
interview, where he talks about his past, present and future projects.
|
 |
|
Murray Gold |
Jorge Saldanha
- Mr. Gold, greetings from ScoreTrack.net. We're a brazilian website
dedicated to films and soundtracks and it's an honor to conduct this
interview. So, let's start with the basics: where did you born?
Murray Gold -
Hi Jorge. I was born in Portsmouth on the south coast of England which was
a tough working class naval town.
JS
- What is your musical background? Do you have some classical training?
MG - I learnt the
piano from the age of 6. My teacher charged me next to nothing. It was 25
pence for a half hour lesson. She taught my Grandmother and refused to
change the price. My parents probably spent no more than £100 on my entire
career of piano lessons. I also had clarinet lessons later on. Even at
school, I was more interested in improvising and song writing than in
playing. I was never a really excellent musician. I know in your country,
there are great musicians everywhere. (By the way, I love the music of
Brazil, and I did once do some piano work with Flora Purim)
JS
– Flora Purim? Fantastic, she and her husband Airto Moreira are great
musicians. So, as far I know you did start to compose music for theatre.
Is this correct?
MG - Yes and no. I was
writing pieces for school prizes before that, and I wrote songs to gain
popularity with girls. I played them at the piano. It does work you know!
But when I went to university, I started writing scores for theatre, just
experimenting with my 4-track really. I became musical director for a
famous comedy group called The Footlights. After university, I did lots of
work for the theatre, especially 'The Gate'
which put on foreign plays.
JS
- You are also an award-winning playwriter. Tell us something about this
aspect of your career.
MG - Well, I wrote a
couple of plays at university that were then produced. After that, I wrote
something for Battersea Arts Centre called 'Resolution' which was a crazy
story about love (aren't they all !) I wrote a play for Oxford Stage
Company called '50 Revolutions'
which was produced in London at the Whitehall Theatre with a cast of 15.
After that, I wrote a couple of radio plays; my first won an award for the
year's best radio play and it went on to be produced in Leeds at the West
Yorkshire Playhouse with Christopher Eccleston starring. He was performing
in my play when he was cast as The Doctor in Doctor Who. At that
stage, I didn't know anything about a revival of the show.
JS
- Dou you prefer to write music for small ensembles or for full orchestra?
MG - I think it's
easier to be distinctive with a smaller group. Sometimes, you only hear
the orchestra and not the piece. Having said that, the sheer power and
scale of the orchestra is fantastic. I suppose in the end, I like to hear
the fingers. You know when you record a guitarist very close, you can hear
lots of detail. You can hear the guitarist's fingers scraping down the
neck. You can hear him/her breathing. I like that.
JS
- On becoming a composer for television and films, it was planned or
just... something that happened?
MG - I suppose it just
happened. I never had a clue about organizing anything. I wasn't the sort
of person to pass my work around people. I hate being pushy. Nowadays, I
see young composers everywhere and they're very assertive and well
organized. Which is great- so long as they don't lose their charm too.
 JS
- On composing for films and television, do you have any major influence?
MG - I admire Bernard
Hermann more with every passing year. I always loved the score to Taxi
Driver (although I prefer the Charlie Mingus album 'The
Black Saint and the Sinner Lady' which seems to
have been an inspiration) but that was his last score and I sort of
ignored the earlier stuff. I just like the way he uses unusual
combinations of instruments and he writes little mathematical cells or
ostinatos. I like that. I like music made up of cells, which at the same
time isn't too 'minimal.' But the composers that made me sit up and pay
attention were Ennio Morricone, of course- I don't know any film composer
that doesn't admire Ennio.
John Williams, of
course. I love his work with Spielberg. ET is my favourite. The
Danny Elfman score to Batman (1) was fabulous and sounded
completely new at the time, even if it was a revival of an old sound.
Thomas Newman is a genius. The score to American Beauty probably
had more impact than any recent film score, especially on composers. It's
essentially the blues but done with immaculate good taste. I admire good
taste even though I tend not to be an exponent of it. I often let
exuberance and joyfulness get in the way.
JS
– Murray
I see we both share some musical preferences. For me Herrman is the
greatest, and I consider Williams and Morricone two living legends of film
music. I had the wonderful experiente to see the Morricone concert here in
Brazil last may, it was a wondrous experience. About your work on films,
which had been your most rewarding experiences?
MG - My most recent
film, Death at a Funeral, was directed by Frank Oz. It's a very
well crafted movie. It was great working with someone who is pretty much
Hollywood aristocracy. I scored a film called Kiss of Life a few
years ago and the music won a prize in France. It's a harrowing, beautiful
film, and it was done with an absolutely open heart. You can hear it in
the music. The film won a BAFTA in the UK but it is very uncommercial and
mostly quite bleak so it was not very well supported.
 JS
– Let’s keep talking about Death at a Funeral, tell us about the
music for this film and the working experience with Frank Oz. You know,
for being the Miss Piggy's and Yoda's voices and a talented director,
Frank Oz is a legend for many of us.
MG - He's a legend for
me too! His career has been magnificent. He was on The Muppets aged
17 I think. That was a great show. That was exactly what entertainment
should be, regardless of the time it was broadcast. Frank basically asked
for something that sounded very un-Hollywood. Well he got it. Actually,
the opening titles are a 2 1/2 minute little music moment over an
animation, so that was nice. And that was a little bit Hollywood-y. But
mostly, it's kind of folk music. Accordion, guitars, tuba. It has a nice
sound I think. I've worked with a few people who I loved as a kid. It's
always a real pleasure because you can be generous and sincere, and it's a
luxury to be with people who inspire generosity and sincerity. Some people
just get on your nerves.
JS
– Yes, this is a fact. What is your current project?
MG - I am writing a
musical for the stage in New York. I have just been asked to score a film
in Spain and I have a couple of projects going on in the UK. I don't know
if I'll be able to do them all.
JS
- Maybe today your name has been most recognized thanks for the music you
write for the new incarnation of the hugely popular and award winning sci
fi series Doctor Who. How did you become involved with the series?
MG - I had worked with
the chief writer Russell Davies on many shows: Queer as Folk,
Cassanova, The Second Coming, Mine all Mine. Some of
these may be familiar to your readers. He is a very brilliant writer whose
spirit is very buoyant and celebratory. He asked me if I would get
involved.
JS
– Well, if the current Doctor Who is a huge success it is mostly
thanks to Mr. Davies commitment and talent. About the show’s music, Ron
Grainer's “Doctor Who Theme” is a classic. It was a challenge to create an
up to date version of his theme?
MG - It was actually
quite simple to do, once I decided to do it. At the same time, it's not
something I ever really finished. I just took it to a certain stage and
then it was broadcast and that became the 2005 theme. The idea was quite
simple. I had been humming the string cross rhythms for a long time
beforehand. There's not much else I've done. Yes, there's timpani- I
always put timpani in Russell's shows- and the horn which gives a very
strong sense of a major key in a bar which was previously quite equivocal
tonally. In some ways, the hardest thing is the near religious fervor that
accompanies any alteration of Doctor Who material. Fans of the show
can be quite possessive about things they regard as belonging to them or
their past. They were even quite possessive about my own song which I put
in the Christmas Special in 2005. It appeared on the album in a different
form and they wanted 'their song' back. It's quite funny.
JS
- The original 1963 theme is purely electronic, and now it has elements of
orchestra on it. This change was a natural, creative decision?
MG - It was just
designed to be a similar style to the incidental music. Both came from the
onscreen material. The scripts are full of warmth, heart and lightness.
The reason I wanted to do the show is because of the scripts. It was
apparent from the beginning that the new version knew exactly what it was
doing.
JS
–
Indeed,
Doctor Who is one of the best written contemporary TV shows. Now
comes a tricky question: among all the music and scores you did write for
the (until now) three seasons of Doctor Who, which ones do you like
most? Particularly
I think
'The
Girl in the Fireplace'
has some of the best music I've already heard on television. And as
everybody I love the Daleks and Cybermen music...
MG - Oh, well thank
you Jorge. That's very kind. I don't know if I have a favorite. Obviously
'Rose', the first episode, had so many themes in it that were expanded
through the first season that it must be a candidate for me. I watched it
on television recently. It's a brilliant episode. I think the score for
'The Doctor Dances'
was one of my favorites. Sometimes the onscreen events just write the
music. It becomes a very subconscious type of experience. I like it when
it works like that. The score to 'Doomsday'
at the end was very premeditated, and the tune to 'The
Girl in the Fireplace' took a
while for me to get right, whereas other episodes, like 'The
Doctor Dances' and
'The End of the World', it
just sort of flows from the screen. I have to say that I put a lot of
heart into every episode, so there's usually something I am at least a
little bit proud of.
 JS
- In the recently released Doctor Who CD there are great selections of the
show's music but I still miss some tunes. A "Volume
2" is in the plans?
MG - Again, thank you.
Volume 2 will be out at the end of the year. We're trying to make it
better. If you have any requests, let me know and I'll see what I can do.
JS
– Now it’s my time to thank you! So you’ve met Christopher Eccleston even
before Doctor Who… anyway
here goes a trickier question:
which Doctor do you think is the best: Eccleston or David Tennant?
MG - Ha ha ha.
You can't honestly expect me to answer that! Seriously, if anyone on the
show ever gives you a direct answer about that, I will be most surprised.
I know I sound like a politician evading the question, but with this, I
just can't tell you. Maybe one day.
JS
– Ok, until this day comes answer this one: the change of the lead actors
did affect in some way the music for the series?
MG - Well yes,
because, although by now it's a cliche, Chris was a bit more broody and
David was a little lighter. In story terms, the 9th Doctor was full of
guilt but emerged as the 10th full of beans. The music's been on a long
evolving journey that's not finished. I can refer back to such a large
body of music now, it's fantastic. And I know children who really can
place every scene by its music. It's pretty crazy. It becomes like a map
through the series and I can shine a light on a distant part of the city
and everyone can suddenly see it again. The music also started to be
recorded with live musicians more and more. I always had a reputation for
writing music with great energy and exuberance, but also with soulfulness
and some tenderness. Some of that is going and I want to make sure it
stays, both for the show and for me.
JS
– Besides Doctor Who, you also composed the music for the spin off
Torchwood. There are differences on composing for each show? Please
highlight the main similarities and differences between the shows,
musically speaking.
MG - Yes. There is a
big difference in style. Torchwood should not sound like Doctor Who.
Torchwood is more electronic. I don't really care what the history
of the show is, Doctor Who needs a lovely big, warm affectionate
sound. Torchwood needs to be more urban and contemporary sounding.
Actually more like an American sci-fi show. It's moodier and darker: I'm
talking about the music. There's places you just don't go scoring
Torchwood, in terms of exuberance and buoyancy, that is all over the
parent series. Doctor Who is actually a more grown up show.
JS
- Last year a great concert of Doctor Who music took place on England. It
sounds to me like a huge event, were you deeply involved with it?
MG - Yes, I was
consulted over most of the planning of it. I basically planned the
artistic side of the evening, or at least the bare bones of it. Of course,
I had absolutely nothing to do with it coming off and being a success.
That was a team of amazing producers and directors. The concert apparently
sold out in 2 1/2 hours. It was a fun night.
JS
- In your scores it's transparent you are a composer that is confortable
with a wide range of styles: pop/rock, jazz and of course the most
classical and orchestral underscore. What kind of musical genre do you
particularly prefer?
MG - I love Brazilian
music! Jorge Ben, Airto Moreira... well, you know musicians around the
world do regard Brazil as some kind of magical place for music and I have
never been there! But really, yes, I love music from around the world. I
love to hear the sound of people. I love folk music- and Romany music, and
Klezmer music. This really is full of life. Nothing can communicate the
joy of life quicker than some of this music. Of course, I am not happy all
the time, but this music has a kind of ecstasy about it, and I do love
that.
 JS
– Well I’m delighted about your love
for
Brazilian music and sincerely hope you come here to visit us very
soon. What's next?
MG - Next I
write a musical. I was made to write musicals. I think I will be good at
it. And many many people seem to have decided that I will too, because I
get lots of calls about it. To be honest, the things I really love in life
are the traditional things: sunshine, good company, wine and music. That
is what is next, I hope.
JS
–
Same here!
Murray,
thanks for your time and for this nice interview. We all at ScoreTrack.net
wish you a brilliant and lasting career.
Special thanks to Murray Gold and Tom Kidd for making this interview possible.
|