Interview With SIN CITY Composer Graeme Revell

Certainly there's no cobwebs gathering on the hard boiled sax in Revell's score for "The Hard Goodbye" segment of SIN CITY. Revell's eclectic compositions have charged many of the films we've thrilled to including THE CHRONICLES OF RIDDICK, TOMB RAIDER, THE INSIDER, and THE CROW. Revell has over 80 film and television credits to his name and all within the last 16 years. If that isn't an achievement, what is?With four more feature film scores on the horizon, including Robert Rodriguez's THE ADVENTURES OF SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL, let's look back on some of Revell's work, from the recent SIN CITY to his first film, DEAD CALM.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------M&C: Were you aware of the SIN CITY comics before working on the movie?GR: Yes, I was. I'm not a person that spends all of my time looking at comics, but I really keep an eye on what's out there. Frank's stuff is wonderful.M&C: Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez had the books to follow for the visual look of the film. For the music, since there wasn't a ready made blueprint, where did you draw your inspiration?GR: A rather odd place, actually. Robert really wanted me to do the Marv story and he said he wanted something that was like a warped, 21st century Conan The Barbarian. (laughs) We had worked together on FROM DUSK TILL DAWN where I think my pitch (for that film) was a Mariachi, surf opera. (laughs) We kind of see eye to eye on musical things.The visual style (of SIN CITY) reminded me of some great B-movies of the late '50s like CAT PEOPLE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE (both directed by Jacques Tourneur and produced by Val Lewton). They're just beautifully lit. I remember thinking that they were some of the best lit films in movie history actually. My vague recollection of (those films) and Robert's visual style being so faithful to Frank's... that's where the inspiration came from.M&C: There was also a lot of saxophone in Marv's story which seems to come from that film noir environment.GR: Definitely, yes. The two standards (of film noir) are really the saxophone and trumpet. I knew John Debney (the composer of SIN CITY's middle section, "The Big Fat Kill") was thinking of using trumpet on his section. We discussed that and I said, "Let me go with the sax."I had to have something for Marv's particular kind of psychosis and I made sure it was different from the Kenny G type of psychosis. (laughs) The soprano sax (versus) the baritone at the other end.M&C: Did you have any interaction with John Debney?

Robert really wanted .... something that was like a warped, 21st century Conan The Barbarian.

M&C: Your score sounds as if it came from a smaller ensemble. Was there a reasoning behind that based on Marv's character?GR: Yes, there was. When you have narration like you do in "The Hard Goodbye" and the orchestra is blasting away the whole time, I worry that it can end up sounding like wall paper. So I definitely tried to stay away from that and just punctuate with Marv's theme and Wendy's & Goldie's theme.M&C: When Marv gets to the point where he is acting like the monster everyone feared he would become, your score enters the realm of horror film. I guess it was kind of hard not to with all the dismembering and beheading going on.GR: It's definitely about what Marv's up to at the time which he's not really sure he's up to either. (laughs) I love the scene in the car where he's taking all the pills at the same time. I was laughing my ass off all the way through. I said to Mickey Rourke at the premiere, "It was really hard to compose this because I thought you were so funny."M&C: Since the last time you worked with Robert Rodriguez on FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, he has gone on to score his own films. How was it working with him now that he's also a soundtrack composer?GR: Really fun. Robert has his own style. He's always kind enough to credit me for inspiring him with the way I worked on FROM DUSK TILL DAWN. (On that film) we didn't have very much money and it needed to be a very big, operatic kind of score. So there was a lot of sampling. A lot of cut ups. A lot of turning stuff around backwards. (Robert) loves doing that himself. He's very talented. If you can add something to what he's done it's a privilege.M&C: On the SIN CITY score you did some playing with elements as well. It's not all straight forward music.GR: Oh, no. I'd say that 70% of it are strange concoctions of things. We even recorded saxophone as dirty as possible and pitched some of the notes. Somebody the other day even asked me what the instrument was. They said it sounded like a dying elephant. (laughs) The temptation is to say, "Actually, it was."

In retrospect, I think THE CROW was pretty seminal.

GR: It's my luck in life to be chosen to do all sorts of different genres. Some of them have been more successful than others. I'm still looking for that quirky comedy hit. Some of my favorite films have been ones like HUMAN NATURE. Apart from that, my
favorite goes back to DEAD CALM and THE CROW. In retrospect, I think THE CROW was pretty seminal. Based on the number of trailers it's been (used in) since. M&C: Speaking of DEAD CALM, that soundtrack came from your band SPK. You came to form SPK based on your work in an Australian psychiatric hospital?GR: That's true. I had just started this job at the asylum. There was nothing going on there. Everybody was basically drugged to the hilt, trying to keep everyone quiet. I was working in the schizophrenic ward and started a music therapy class to give patients something else to do during the day. All the older patients drifted away from that. A couple of the younger ones really liked it so, with three of them, I formed a band. We accidentally became somewhat popular in Australia.Originally SPK stood for The Socialist Patient Collective. They were a German group in Heidelberg in the mid 70s that took over their hospital at one point. I think helicopters flew in and killed 11 of them. They had a manifesto that (said) mental health was related to social support. This is true as we found out when Mr. Reagan closed all the hospitals. Everybody's homeless now. Some people die. A friend of mine's brother died the other day because he didn't have the support he needed.The band was unsuccessful because each of the 5 records was completely unrecognizable as a band from the one before. (Everything) from punk music to some sort of ambient music that eventually ended up on DEAD CALM.It was really just me (in the band) with various people that came and went. By the time it ended in '86 or '87, it was myself and my wife. What that did, though, was quickly make me realize that my true talent was probably my eclecticism (which) would find a home in film music more than as a rock musician.

Robert Rodriguez's new movie ‘SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL’

GR: There's a number of things. I'm actively developing a live action show in Las Vegas which is going to be some time off because it requires the building of $80 million theater. So, we'll see about that.(There is) my script about my experience in the hospital. Everyone likes it. I'm really confident that it's going to be made. The kind of thing I'm working toward is generating my own projects. I have different styles in me that haven't found an outlet so I'll generate them for myself. That's why last year was quite quiet for me. I took a sabbatical to work on those projects. Now I'm back to my old habit of four movies and two video games at the same time.The first movie is a comedy called THE DARWIN AWARD with Joseph Fiennes and Winona Ryder. Robert's new movie is called SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL, a 3-D kid's movie like SPY KIDS. I pretty much finished David Ayres' first movie. He was the writer of TRAINING DAY. It's called HARSH TIMES with Christian Bale and is really gritty. A great movie. I think David's going to be a big director. The fourth (film) is my friend Danny Cannon's (JUDGE DREDD, YOUNG AMERICANS) soccer movie which is called GOAL.This is my time of working on some nice relationship (projects) which I really enjoy doing.-------------------------------------------------------------You can read our review of the Sin City Soundtrack here.