There’s an old-fashioned approach generally with the fact that it’s a 90-piece orchestra all playing in a room together. What was your technique for creating such a timeless sound? La La Land’s score is very reminiscent of old Hollywood musicals yet there are many contemporary elements present as well. We thought it was a fun idea to take all the song melodies and twist them into jazz, so if you notice in the scene where John Legend’s character, Keith, comes over to proposition Sebastian about joining the band, the jazz group in the background is playing a jazzed up version of “Another Day of Sun.” When I did write jazz music for the scenes in the jazz club, it was more traditional.
LA LA LAND SOUNDTRACK VS SCORE FULL
I was just trying to write music that I thought was emotional and full of color and texture that worked with the cinematography and the performances. I didn’t have any particular genre or piece of music in mind when writing the score. The score of La La Land isn’t really jazz-it’s a dramatic underscore, so my job was to score the picture in a way that emotionally reflected the scenes.
In the film, Sebastian wants to preserve classic jazz music, but he is approached by a friend of his who plays in a band that modifies the sound to appeal to future generations.ĭid this concept of old versus new influence your compositions in any way?