SnowGhost Music

I would watch Grease fifty times straight and listen to every Steely Dan song back to back just to have any one of my songs on any movie soundtrack. It could be a kid’s movie, an adult movie, a terrible movie, or even a completely lame documentary. As long as some portion of one of my songs was played at any point of the movie, I would be totally pumped, for many obvious reasons. There is perhaps no better way to be taken out of context. Unless you wrote a song specifically for that movie, or even more specifically, for that movie moment, chances are your song had a message or a feeling that somebody wanted to put in their movie. The intention could simply be to maximize the moment with a feast for the senses, or it could just be that the director is a really big fan of the song and wants everyone else to be a fan too. Can you imagine watching Natalie Portman take off her headphones and tell the guy she just met to check out your song because it will change his life and then actually hearing your song in the foreground? Clearly just such a nice little moment in movie history did not hurt the popularity of The Shins. Clearly I would do all kinds of favors for similar song placement, not to mention watching Grease an additional 50 times if it so pleased the gods.

Yet aside from the Singles soundtrack I purchased in a fit of grunge fandom back in the early nineties, I can’t remember ever buying a movie soundtrack. In fact, I usually associate movie soundtracks with certain versions of hell, the most terrifying of which would be if Steely Dan ever scored a Grey’s Anatomy movie and I had to watch it (This is not to say, possible producers of said TV show and possible movie, that I wouldn’t be overly thrilled and bending over backwards to have one of my songs on your obviously wonderful show/possibly movie soundtrack). Overall, I would say that I rate the soundtrack section of a music store just below the specially-priced clearance rack. This is because soundtracks are most commonly collections of completely unrelated songs from established bands cashing in on an unreleased B-side or unknown bands that have maybe 15 seconds of song that work well in a certain scene. It’s like trying to read different chapters from different books, or getting a mix tape from your schizophrenic forty-something friend.

Unless…a flim director commissions you to score a film. Or even better yet, you could get commissioned to write more songs that go along with already written songs to be in a movie that is strongly influenced by the sound of your songs. This happened to Elliott Smith with Goodwill Hunting. This also happened to Aimee Mann with Magnolia. It’s safe to say that neither artist is a household name, but people remember these movies, and not coincidentally, they remember the music. When some poor soul who has never heard Smith asks me who he is, I usually just mention the Matt Damon movie, and they scratch their head until a tiny dim light bulb flickers above. People may not be motivated enough to actually go out and buy music from the artist, but at least they were paying attention, and hopefully they were moved. That’s a pretty good deal for the artist, I think.

The Magnolia soundtrack was a pretty good deal for Aimee Mann, who has always struggled to match commercial success with critical success. The film’s director, Paul Thomas Anderson, actually created characters with Mann’s lyrical descriptions and situations in mind. This is the same Anderson who recently released There Will Be Blood. If you’ve seen this movie, then you’ve certainly heard it. If you’re a music fan, you probably know that it was scored by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Regardless of what you know, the soundtrack is almost as powerful and involving as the characters in the film. Almost every review of the movie I’ve seen or heard made mention of the incredibly potent score. Through some technicality, it was ruled ineligible for Oscar rewards, though it probably should have won one. Though very different from the singer/songwriter showcases by Smith and Mann, Greenwood’s score is certainly another example of a musician and a film director putting their heads and ears together and coming up with something rich.

Admittedly, my desire to be soundtracked, showcased, or scored comes strongly from a desire to get rich doing it. But I get more inspiration from the idea of someone making visual life out of my songs on a palette as rich as the big screen. The idea has embedded itself into my psyche enough to affect my songwriting. I’ve recently begun writing concept album-type songs that tell an ongoing story that represent a vague but intriguing movie going on in my head. If that blurry little mind film/album ever met Paul Thomas Anderson and saw the light of the projector, then I would certainly be very lucky and/or owe several unmentionable favors. For now, I will graciously allow the spirit of musical and cinematic interaction to guide my songwriting ever so slightly. I will also graciously offer my services to any filmmaker in search of less noble movie filler. You want Iron and Wine-style covers of Steely Dan songs? Consider me your man, Hollywood.