The Film Scorer

Awards season is nearing its end, with the BAFTAs later today, February 22, and the Oscars coming on March 15. I'll always say that, although I'm by no means a massive fan (or detractor) of film awards, I'm always happy that it's the one time of year where film music gets to be widely celebrated. The nominee slates also provide great peaks into the state of modern, mainstream film music, and this year's selections are a great cross-section of style and approach. And of course, it gives me an excuse to talk about them a little bit, so read below then listen on.

Of the nominees, I interviewed Max Richter for Hamnet and also interviewed Jerskin Fendrix near the end of 2023 for Poor Things (which I would have swore was not that long ago...).

This year, the nominees for both sets of awards are the same:

Bugonia – Jerskin Fendrix (Interview)

Frankenstein – Alexandre Desplat

Hamnet – Max Richter (Interview)

One Battle After Another – Jonny Greenwood

Sinners – Ludwig Göransson

You poor fools - imagine thinking that The Film Scorer was actually on hiatus? Far, far from the truth. Ending the fifteen second break I took after interviewing Daniel Lopatin is Simon Franglen! For those that don't know, Simon is fresh off of scoring Avatar: Fire and Ash, having already scored Avatar: The Way of Water and working with longtime collaborator James Horner on the first film. This is a much less tangential interview than normal, with essentially our whole focus revolving around Avatar: creating and expanding the palette, the scope and breadth of themes, his prior work with James Horner and carrying a core team through all three films, and, above all, making sure the boss (Jim Cameron) is happy.



Simon's score for Avatar: Fire and Ash and the rest of his music is available on all major platforms. Avatar: Fire and Ash is currently in theaters, and if we're lucky there might be a few more Avatar films on the way some day. You can find out more about Simon on his website.

Here we are, in the dead zone between seasons, where all should be silent. But a voice calls out from the darkness. Who could it be...?

Well my friends, that voice belongs to one Daniel Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never (alongside your humble host, of course). Daniel has just scored Marty Supreme, and I can vouch that both film and score are great, certainly landing upon my top tens of the year. Unsurprisingly, then, Daniel and I spend most of the conversation talking about Marty Supreme, including musical anachronism, inspiration from sports films, and long nights spent with Josh Safdie.

Daniel's score for Marty Supreme is forthcoming (though having heard an advance version, I can vouch that it's great) and the rest of his music is available on all major platforms.

The end is here! Well, the end of season 5 at least. That's right, after over twelve months the season is finally over (making it, I think, the longest season of The Film Scorer yet), and what better wait to celebrate than to chat with Max Richter?

Max's (Ad Astra, The Leftovers) latest (Oscar nominated) score is for the incredible historical drama Hamnet, a fictionalized account of the death of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes's son Hamnet and how it inspired the creation of Hamlet. Unsurprisingly, we spend most of our conversation on Hamnet, but despite the quick interview we manage to cover a lot of other ground too, such as the use of "On the Nature of Daylight" over the years, the troubled production of Ad Astra, and how a musician's intent goes only so far once their music reaches an audience.

Max's score for Hamnet is forthcoming (though having heard an advance version, I can vouch that it's great) and the rest of his music is available on all major platforms. You can find out more about Max on his website. In addition to Hamnet's pending release, Max just announced some 2026 tour dates.

There are a few perks to running every aspect of this site and podcast, the biggest being picking who I want to interview (and avoiding whomever I don't). Part of that, sometimes, is using film music as an excuse to interview bands that I just broadly like. Enter: Chat Pile. The Oklahoma noise rock band has one score under their belt, the 2022 indie crime flick Tenkiller, which they released as a score album after their debut God's Country, and have provided some songs for other films, most recently a track for the end credits to V/H/S/Halloween. Not to mention, they routinely talk about movies, including during their gigs. All perfect hooks to have them on, and so today I'm talking with vocalist Raygun Busch and guitarist Luther Manhole.



As such, we jump around quite a bit: from their experience scoring Tenkiller, how movies brought them together and provide a mutual love, and some recent (and not to recent) scores that they've enjoyed (I'll note that at one point Ray is talking about the Bossa Nova score for Black Orpheus before getting interrupted by his dog...). We wrap up on a bit of a detour, actually talking about the economics of albums and touring, and how much a role cost of living plays into that.



Chat Pile's music is available on all major platforms, chief among them being Bandcamp, or you can seek out their music physically. You can find out more about Chat Pile on their website and they have a new album on the horizon, In The Earth Again which they've co-written with Hayden Pedigo, coming out October 31st.