David Torn
"The Order" (Sept. 5,
Fox)
"The score is split between being electronic in a way that
is not electronica and live orchestral. It's not standard drum-and-bass
electronica by any means. It's very exotic sounding: me doing
things that I do with things that used to be guitars, as well
as a lot of electronic tabla and production. The things that used
to be guitars are easier to hear than to describe. They wind up
being very rich, harmonic textures that are in motion -- very
animated. It's like electronics without synthesizers, so there
remains at the root of the sound a very organic, real audio quality
-- as opposed to something that's derived purely electronically.
Because I've been involved in a secondary creative role in so
many films (among them, 1998's 'Velvet Goldmine' and 2000's 'Traffic'),
I've always been party to the process.
"Historically, if it's been a Carter Burwell (whom Torn has often worked with) film, I get to be party to his process with the director. Here, I was the primary, and everything I've learned about film for the past 17 years kind of came to the forefront. I attempted to figure out what Brian (Helgeland, the film's director) was trying to bring out of the picture as well as what the moral to the story was. I got to spend enough time with Brian to really glean what that was. It had less to do with the horror/thriller aspect of the picture than it did with a general theme, which is: In the end, we lose everything. It was never meant to be a fully depressing movie. It's more about how bittersweet this is. It was kind of a tough balance to bring some sweetness to this generalized theme.
"The first thing that I came up with was the theme for the protagonist's quest. It couldn't be a decisive theme; it had to be the representation of a guy who's on a pathway.
"The second and most critical, for me, was actually that bittersweet thing, which represents his growing attachment to the woman that he loves. And he's a priest remember, so there's quite a lot of emotional and cultural stuff loaded into this. It took me a long while to figure out where exactly I wanted to that to be. I also wanted to get orchestral music in the film without it feeling like an 'overblown Hollywood score.' Brian didn't want something typical. It took some time to discover that by avoiding violins and using the very dark, low instruments (including cello, viola base, low brass, woodwinds, contrabass flute and Indian flute), it worked. We made a fairly dark score with a lot of animation and some size to it. It took a while to realize that by not using the high-register instruments, we could still make the score kind of epic without resorting to typical orchestral conventions.
"I've been in a very strange spot
with film scores for many years. I've always wanted to be a principal,
and the chance to do this with someone as smart and talented as
Brian was unfucking believable for me. Toward the end of the project,
I started truly feeling like I want to do this for the next 25
years. It's a little more than addictive."
-- Dylan Callaghan