Part 1

Name: Jackson Greenberg
Occupation: Composer
Nationality: American
Current Release: The Things We Pass On Through Our Genes on CMNTX
https://jacksongreenberg.bandcamp.com/album/the-things-we-pass-on-through-our-genes
Recommendations: Do You Remember Being Born by Sean Michaels. I won’t say much but it blew my mind. It explores the relationship between human artists and AI artists, which sounds like it could be cheesy or overwrought, but it’s not. / Schoenberg’s Verklarte Nacht. I’m loving it because I feel like it’s him pushing romantic harmony as far as he was comfortable doing before switching to twelve-tone. It’s just full of passion and pain and joy. I’m dying to hear it performed live.

If you enjoyed this interview with Jackson Greenberg you can keep up to date with his work on www.jacksongreenberg.com

 
Do you think that some of your earliest musical experiences planted a seed for your interest in film music as well?

Yes, definitely. Some of the earliest musical experiences I can remember are watching musicals (Yankee Doodle Dandy, Singing In The Rain) on VHS tapes that my grandfather would ship to Philly from Manhattan. He used to check what was playing on Turner Classic Movies in his TV guide and create individual tapes of two, three movies that he thought paired well together. I can still see his handwriting on the white labels on the side of the tapes. So, I think the first movies I was exposed to were from this classic era of movie musicals, so it was maybe surprising to me when movies didn’t have songs. And right from the beginning, I wanted to make movies. I had a shirt at six years old that said “what I really want to do is direct” and perhaps that’s still true (just kidding, maybe). Either way, as a film composer the main job is to try to be a conduit for the director’s vision, so I suppose in some ways I am fulfilling that specific dream.

Which composers, or soundtracks captured your imagination in the beginning? What scenes or movies drew you in through their use of music?

Both my grandpa and dad’s favorite movie is Casablanca, so that made its way onto multiple VHS tapes. And, in my mind, I feel like I was shown that before any Disney movie, any cartoon. I’ve probably seen that opening overture 20, 30 times now. It’s just names on a screen on top of a map but you immediately know where you are in the world. And another scene from that movie really stuck with me. I remember hearing As Time Goes By playing in the bar and then it goes into a flashback and all of a sudden that same melody is being used as dramatic score. I don’t remember analysing it as a kid, but now I think about it a lot, about how a single melody can be deployed to do different things. And I remember learning that song on the piano and every time I played it for my dad he would sing along.

What were your very first active steps writing film music and how would you rate the gains made through experience - can one train/learn being an artist?

I started composing in 11th grade in high school, but it was just a song for my high school’s jazz band. I was lucky to go to a school with a music teacher that pushed you as far as you could go, as far as you wanted to go (shout out to Carl Bradley). I guess the band didn’t often perform student works because after the concert the drama teacher approached me and asked if I wanted to write background music for the next year’s fall play, Dracula. I told her I didn’t know how to do that and she said don’t worry, I know someone in Philly that scores plays and movies and you can meet him a few times over the summer and he’ll help you. I met him and my world exploded. Like, I had had knowledge of film composers growing up but it didn’t seem like a real job. It was like a baseball player or something out of reach. But when I met him I felt like, I can do this, mostly because he told me I could. I wrote a score for solo piano for Dracula and performed it live onstage, off to the side like one of those old silent movie accompanists. I triggered the soundtracks off an electronic box too. Then I was asked to write for the next play, The Tempest, and the drama teacher (shout out Terry Guerin) suggested I try to write for a few more instruments. I was just so lucky to have all these teachers that believed in me and pushed me, kindly. And, these experiences of writing music for drama were so much more rewarding to me than performing jazz (what I was focused on at the time), so by the time I got to university I was just so eager to learn everything about composition and just started looking all around for student films to score.

For your own creativity and approach to writing for film, what were some of the most important things you learned from teachers/tutorials, other composers, or personal experience?

I think the most important things were from a lecture I heard given by Thomas Newman, one of my favorite film composers. He said while and after he’s writing a cue, he sits back with the lights off and imagines he’s in a movie theater watching the film for the first time. I think he does this to remove his ego from the equation. Or at least to try and remove his ego. I feel like at the beginning of my career I had thoughts like “how will this sound on a soundtrack” or “will this help me get another job if this cue is rejected”, but sometimes the right thing for the scene is a single sustained note, or no music at all. So now I just try to do what’s best for the movie, as a film fan, as someone who loves film, and have faith that along the way some things will turn out to be interesting, or use commissions and composition outside of film to express myself more as an artist.

How would you rate the importance of soundtracks and film music for the movie as a whole? How do you see the relationship between image and sound in a movie?

I don’t know if I can rate the importance… I’ve certainly heard many directors I’ve work with say it’s the most important thing but maybe that’s just because it’s usually the last piece of the puzzle. Certainly, it’s very important. I mean sometimes if I’m really stuck I’ll try to put the wrong piece of music on a scene just to make myself laugh and remind myself that all of this should be fun. But, one of the ways I’ve been thinking about film music lately that’s helped me is relating it to cooking. I think, in documentary especially, the music serves as a light simmer. Like, such a light simmer that you have to double check that the stove is actually on. Because, if the documentary is good, the music shouldn’t really be doing much. Just enough, to warm up the emotion a bit. And then, there can we times where heat is really needed and the music can shine, but for the most part, you barely notice it. It’s just there, doing the work. Not calling attention to itself.

There are dedicated scores, sound tracks, temp tracks that ended up staying in the finished movie, and even scores that were written without the composer seeing the movie first. How do these different premises affect the finished movie, do you feel?

I recently was asked to write music from a script which was a fun exercise. The director and I were both really excited about the music but then when we watched it to picture, nothing felt right. But I went back in and muted a lot of different things and discovered a single pad layer that I’d made using a bunch of guitar pedals that worked really well for an emotional scene by itself. So, I think any type of composition that gets you a bit out of your comfort zone (in this case scoring directly to picture), can lead somewhere interesting and to something interesting that you might not have found had you been on a tight deadline where you really had to rely on your usual tools.

How did you get started scoring for films and what were some of the specific challenges?

I got extremely lucky in that my first feature-length film was nominated for an Oscar: the documentary Cartel Land. I knew the filmmaker personally and begged and begged him to let me score it, and he finally said yes only after I’d found a more established composer that he’d heard of to collaborate with. That was also lucky: finding someone more experienced willing to collaborate. And it really was a true collaboration. I improvised a lot on different instruments and watched the other composer edit and put things together and deal with the politics of dealing with the director, dealing with deadlines and rejections. And then we did another film together for the director and our roles kind of reversed. He was improvising a lot and I was editing. Not on purpose, but that’s just how it worked out based off of the different instruments we played. So, I feel very fortunate for that opportunity to learn on the job.

As creative goals and technical abilities change, so does the need for different tools of expression, be it instruments, software tools or recording equipment. Can you describe this path for you, starting from your first studio/first instrument? What motivated some of the choices you made in terms of instruments/tools/equipment over the years?

My first instrument was the Musser vibraphone that I still have in my studio now and use on almost every project. In middle school I was a drummer and went to audition for the all-city youth Philadelphia jazz band. I got completely smoked by these other drummers (one of whom is now touring the world with Branford Marsalis!), but they asked if anyone played the vibes and I raised my hand as my drum teacher had for a few years been insisting I learn an instrument that required a knowledge of harmony. And from then on, through college, that was my main instrument. I think that, in combo with not ever really feeling inspired by using orchestral samples, has led to some sort of aesthetic that carries through my scores. You can hear the vibes on the opening track (here) of this documentary AKA Jane Roe. It sits right next to my desk and it’s the instrument I feel most comfortable at so I always just gravitate towards it. And because it’s not always right for the movie, that has led to figuring out different ways to use it, whether it’s running it through a pedal chain (like on this track from the documentary City of Ghosts), or recording it and slowing the audio down.