John Powell’s introduction to Hollywood was assisting Hans Zimmer on an un-released drama documentary directed by one Terrence Malick. “He didn’t know who the hell I was but he treated me like an artist straight off,” remembers Powell. “He is profound. He will say something that you will have to go and think about for 48 hours.” Since his big feature break with Face/Off, the British-born Powell has risen to become one of most sought after composers, building relationships with directors like Paul Greengrass and Doug Liman and straddling the worlds of live action and animation — next up is How To Train Your Dragon 2. Here he talks through his key scores...
%20FACE/OFF%20(1997?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
%20%22I%20would%20have%20never%20got%20to%20have%20worked%20on%20a%20Nick%20Park%20movie%20if%20I%20hadn%E2%80%99t%20had%20that%20luck%20with%20Harry%20and%20Antz.%20They%20used%20to%20say%20'If%20it%20flies,%20get%20Ron%20Goodwin.'%20(*Goodwin%20composed%20The%20Battle%20Of%20Britain,%20633%20Squadron%20and%20Those%20Magnificent%20Men%20In%20Their%20Flying%20Machine**s*?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
%20%22I%20replaced%20Carter%20Burwell%20on%20this.%20It%20was%20difficult%20as%20I%20respect%20Carter%20highly.%20I%20do%20like%20his%20scores%20very,%20very%20much.%20But%20the%20great%20thing%20about%20replacing%20a%20composer%20is%20that%20it%20helps%20you%20learn%20from%20their%20misfortune.%20I%20knew%20they%E2%80%99d%20spent%20a%20lot%20of%20money%20recording%20an%20orchestral%20score%20and%20that%20he%20and%20(director)%20Doug%20(Liman?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
%20%22As%20a%20composer,%20you%20are%20sometimes%20looking%20for%20shorthand.%20Doug%20(Liman?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
%20%22At%20the%20last%20minute%20we%20pulled%20a%20lot%20of%20the%20score%20and%20went%20back%20to%20the%20temp%20music%20which%20was%20from%20the%20first%20two%20movies.%20I%20think%20my%20main%20mistake%20was%20that%20I%20got%20obsessed%20that%20it%20was%20the%20third%20movie%20so%20I%20put%20more%20triplets%20in.%20Here,%20you%20have%20a%20lilt%20because%20three%20(the%20time%20signature?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
%20%22Sometimes%20on%20the%20Ice%20Age%20movies%20they%20want%20everything%20hit;%20they%20want%20comedy,%20comedy,%20comedy%20using%20a%20lot%20of%20trombone%20slides%20and%20comedy%20noises.%20I%20call%20it%20The%20Stalling%20Factor%20(*after%20Looney%20**Toons**%20composer%20Carl%20Stalling*?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
%20%22Once%20we%20knew%20Rio%202's%20story%20was%20moving%20into%20the%20Amazon,%20it%20opened%20up%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20country%20musically.%20The%20rest%20of%20Brazilian%20music%20is%20very%20diverse%20so%20we%20had%20a%20smorgasbord%20to%20choose%20from.%20Every%20number%20in%20the%20film%20is%20a%20hybrid%20of%20something%20but%20trying%20to%20bring%20in%20the%20feeling%20of%20Brazil%20as%20many%20times%20as%20we%20could.%20%22'Poisonous%20Love'%20was%20down%20to%20(*t**he%20voice%20of%20cockatoo-obsessed%20poisonous%20frog%20Gabi*?auto=format&w=1440&q=80)
"I wasn’t sure about using 'I Will Survive' at first. It was too ubiquitous. But once we got Jemaine Clement in the studio and he said, 'How about we have a rap section?' It was so distressingly funny I thought we should try it. So I got a beat going and he started coming up with this hysterical stuff. We got yards and yards of it and it took ages to whittle down but I thought it just worked. It just seemed right for Nigel. He’s such an arsehole. He really is. He is so demanding. If he was going to sing a song at an audition, this would bring out the true nature of his character: over the top, cheesy and misunderstanding the whole point of what he was supposed to be doing. He makes a line about not using auto-tune. The funny thing is we auto-tune the hell out of it."
"It uses some of the same tunes but there are also lots of new tunes. It’s going to have bagpipes in it. There is a fantastic group called The Red Hot Chilli Pipers who are coming down from Scotland for us. We have a big choir, a big orchestra. Everything is the same but it has a new set of characters and a whole new story. The characters have grown up since the last film so things are slightly different. It’s a maturation story."