About the Project
Q. So why did you decide to write a "mock score" for The Hunger Games?
A. Both of us were extremely intrigued by the books and, as composers, sort of naturally jumped to wondering what the musical universe of such a story might sound like. The setting of The Hunger Games is a dystopic North American future, which leaves the door wide open on genre, sound palette, textures... pretty much everything! Since we're both in the business of music, we don't have a whole lot of time, but something like this was just too good to pass up. It gave us a chance to find a new medium through which to tell the story and have some fun doing so!
Q. So how did you decide what "sound" was appropriate for The Hunger Games?
A. To be perfectly frank, that was a daunting (but exciting!) task. Actually, we didn't have a whole lot of discussion beforehand about it, either. But the books have a very human, earthy, and folky quality to them that seemed to point us toward American folk and simple folk-like melodies, as well as instruments that had a vaguely folky disposition. At the same time, we wanted to avoid being too obvious - we didn't actually want to incorporate bluegrass fiddle or banjo doing banjo-y things. After all, The Hunger Games is set in the future, too. So we started writing with a few basic ideas in mind - the districts sounded folky and "natural," the Capitol had something twisted, off-kilter, and vaguely electric to it - and went from there. The ensemble of live musicians helped solidify the sound, too - violins and cellos can be folky or classical or creepy, the bass recorder has a wonderfully breathy sound to it that gives it a folky flare, but also sounds like something slightly new, and, of course, just about every culture has voice music! In this case, one singer has a very "untrained," folky, innocent voice, and the other has a clear, bell-like (but still folky) tone to provide a more final, mature sound at the end of the suite.
Q. Is this music on iTunes?
A. Yes it is! You can find the soundtrack on iTunes, Amazon, & Bandcamp, and it will soon be on Spotify as well! All of these services offer legal ways to purchase and download the soundtrack - either as individual tracks or as an entire album! We appreciate your support!
Q. Are you guys really film composers?
Yes! We're both definitely real, live composers who have written scores for films as well as music for Off Broadway theater, live concerts, rock musicals, circus acts and even (yes) the occasional accordion polka. The wonderful thing about life as a musician is that no two projects are ever the same, and as long as you're making music and doing what you love, the rest is an adventure! But yes, we are both trained composers (who were also trained as film composers at NYU's film scoring program), and yes, we have scored films.
Q. What is the singer singing in "Loss & Survival" anyway? Do those words mean anything?
Nope! Well, not technically. (Ed speaking here.) While using wordless voice can sound beautiful, sometimes it's just necessary for the voice to have lyrics. The problem then becomes: what should those lyrics be? In the case of "Loss & Survival," I really didn't want to write "real" lyrics, because I didn't want people to listen to them or try to glean meaning from them. While I can't really explain what it is, I feel there's something to be said for hearing words, knowing they're words, but not knowing their meaning. Somehow it allows you to let go and just experience the bigger picture. Maybe it communicates something more fundamentally human, but I don't know if I dare go that far.
A. Both of us were extremely intrigued by the books and, as composers, sort of naturally jumped to wondering what the musical universe of such a story might sound like. The setting of The Hunger Games is a dystopic North American future, which leaves the door wide open on genre, sound palette, textures... pretty much everything! Since we're both in the business of music, we don't have a whole lot of time, but something like this was just too good to pass up. It gave us a chance to find a new medium through which to tell the story and have some fun doing so!
Q. So how did you decide what "sound" was appropriate for The Hunger Games?
A. To be perfectly frank, that was a daunting (but exciting!) task. Actually, we didn't have a whole lot of discussion beforehand about it, either. But the books have a very human, earthy, and folky quality to them that seemed to point us toward American folk and simple folk-like melodies, as well as instruments that had a vaguely folky disposition. At the same time, we wanted to avoid being too obvious - we didn't actually want to incorporate bluegrass fiddle or banjo doing banjo-y things. After all, The Hunger Games is set in the future, too. So we started writing with a few basic ideas in mind - the districts sounded folky and "natural," the Capitol had something twisted, off-kilter, and vaguely electric to it - and went from there. The ensemble of live musicians helped solidify the sound, too - violins and cellos can be folky or classical or creepy, the bass recorder has a wonderfully breathy sound to it that gives it a folky flare, but also sounds like something slightly new, and, of course, just about every culture has voice music! In this case, one singer has a very "untrained," folky, innocent voice, and the other has a clear, bell-like (but still folky) tone to provide a more final, mature sound at the end of the suite.
Q. Is this music on iTunes?
A. Yes it is! You can find the soundtrack on iTunes, Amazon, & Bandcamp, and it will soon be on Spotify as well! All of these services offer legal ways to purchase and download the soundtrack - either as individual tracks or as an entire album! We appreciate your support!
Q. Are you guys really film composers?
Yes! We're both definitely real, live composers who have written scores for films as well as music for Off Broadway theater, live concerts, rock musicals, circus acts and even (yes) the occasional accordion polka. The wonderful thing about life as a musician is that no two projects are ever the same, and as long as you're making music and doing what you love, the rest is an adventure! But yes, we are both trained composers (who were also trained as film composers at NYU's film scoring program), and yes, we have scored films.
Q. What is the singer singing in "Loss & Survival" anyway? Do those words mean anything?
Nope! Well, not technically. (Ed speaking here.) While using wordless voice can sound beautiful, sometimes it's just necessary for the voice to have lyrics. The problem then becomes: what should those lyrics be? In the case of "Loss & Survival," I really didn't want to write "real" lyrics, because I didn't want people to listen to them or try to glean meaning from them. While I can't really explain what it is, I feel there's something to be said for hearing words, knowing they're words, but not knowing their meaning. Somehow it allows you to let go and just experience the bigger picture. Maybe it communicates something more fundamentally human, but I don't know if I dare go that far.
