Part 1

Name: Taul Katz
Occupation: Composer, sound designer, multi-instrumentalist, producer
Nationality: American
Current release: Taul Katz's score for the movie Barbara Foreves is out via Waxwork.
Shoutout: Fauvettes City Club!
Hometown Recommendations: Cafe Himalaya in the East Village!!!

If you enjoyed this Taul Katz interview and would like to stay up to date with their music, visit their official homepage. They're also on Instagram. 



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

I definitely think everything had a part in where I’m at with music today. 

I remember hating violin lessons when I was really young because of how militant the teacher was. At that point I would have been surprised to know that I now write for violin and work with strings pretty often. Back then I really did everything I could to avoid it.

One of my first memories of being really affected by music and image together was actually through musicals. My parents showed me The Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was in kindergarten or first grade. They look back on it as a mistake, but I feel incredibly grateful that I saw it that young. It really informed my taste and opened up a lot for me. 

That eventually led me to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which was probably one of my biggest influences growing up. Neither of those are really about score in the traditional sense, but I think that was where my interest in the relationship between sound and image started.

Later in high school I was playing electric bass and had asked to be in jazz band, but there wasn’t room and I got put in orchestra instead. That really got me back into classical music and strings. I had two teachers around that time, Geraldine Lapierre, my orchestra teacher, and Tony Maceli, my bass teacher, who were both incredible. They gave me space to explore the instrument and music without killing the joy or forcing a certain way of doing things on me.

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

There are a few that I go back to a lot. 

The opening of Monos is a huge one for me. 

Phantom Thread. Atlantics. Chinatown. Kajillionaire. Drive. 



(The clarinet in) The Master. 

What were your very first active steps writing film music and how would you rate the gains made through experience? Can one train or learn to be an artist?

I’m not exactly sure what led me to it, but while I was at university I impulsively signed up for a three-week film scoring intensive in Bulgaria. I had never written for strings or orchestra at that point and could barely read music anymore, so I bought Samuel Adler’s orchestration book and tried to catch up as much as I could.

I don’t think I would be where I am without that program. Not because the program itself was especially magical, but because I left having actually written for different string ensembles and an orchestra. 

I think I needed to see that I could do it before I could really imagine myself pursuing film composition.

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?

Tony Maceli taught me how to listen. 

A lot of what we did was learn songs by ear and sing music before playing it. I think it’s really easy to get stuck in the physical habits of an instrument. Once certain grooves or patterns get carved into your hands, you start reaching for them without really thinking.

Learning to put the instrument down and hear what I wanted in my head before playing it was probably one of the most important things I was taught. It’s something I still have to be disciplined about because I can easily slip back into just playing and seeing what happens.

James William Blades, who I consider a mentor, taught me that there isn’t one way to score. Every film needs a different approach. That was really helpful for me.

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 think sound is one of the most important parts of a film. Music and sound design can completely define a movie, and they can also ruin one.

It’s a weird thing because when you don’t notice the music, that can be a sign that it’s working really well. A lot of films I love barely have any score, so I definitely don’t think every film needs music. At the same time, there are films I probably wouldn’t care about if it weren’t for the score.

There are dedicated scores, soundtracks, 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’m really not a purist about this kind of thing. If something is working in a film and it feels like the best possible option, I don’t really care if it was originally written for something else.

I’ve written pieces for projects where they didn’t work at all, and then somehow five years later that same piece fits perfectly into something completely different. When that happens it feels like some kind of gift from a past version of myself.

I know some composers probably feel very differently about that, but I like the idea that music can keep moving around and finding a life outside of what it was originally made for.

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

I started taking scoring seriously during the pandemic. 

I reached out to James William Blades, whose work I really loved, and asked if he ever needed an assistant or help with anything. He ended up giving me my first real scoring job and became a friend and mentor to me. We’ve worked on a lot of projects together since then.

One of the biggest challenges, although I don’t think it’s completely a bad thing, is that I never formally studied film scoring. A lot of it has been figuring things out as I go. That can be really intimidating, especially at the beginning of a project when I’m trying to understand the workflow and what the film needs.

At the same time, I think my scores would probably sound pretty different if I had come through a very traditional scoring education. I might have learned certain things faster, but I also think I could have lost some of the instincts that make the work feel like mine.

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 or first instrument?

I’ve always loved moving around and I’ve leaned into being a little more nomadic, which definitely affects my studio setup. At the base of everything it’s my laptop and Ableton. I used to work mostly in Logic and Pro Tools, and sometimes I’ll still switch back to Logic if I’m blocked. Even changing the environment can help.

I’ve also stopped feeling like I need to collect a ton of equipment. I really like working in different studios and booking places depending on where I am and what the project needs. I like being inspired by a room or a piece of equipment I’ve never used before.

There’s a freedom in not feeling like I need to own everything. I can save part of the budget for a studio or an instrument that actually makes sense for that score. Ultimately I want to feel like I can do most of what I do on my laptop with headphones, and then go somewhere else when I need to expand it. I don’t want to feel too dependent on one setup.

Can you take me through your process of composing a soundtrack on the basis of a movie that's particularly dear to you?

The most recent film that’s come out is Barbara Forever, and that score was so much fun to make. I don’t think I’ve ever had that much fun working on a score.

There’s always a part of scoring that gets stressful enough that I start wondering why I decided to do this. No matter how much I love the film or the people involved, there’s usually a stretch where it feels kind of punishing. Maybe a little like birth. I’m still learning how to deal with that part of the process.

With Barbara Forever I had a lot of time, which meant I got to stay in the fun and exploratory part for much longer than usual.

I was given access to Barbara Hammer’s archive and permission to sample from it, which was an incredible gift. I spent a good amount of time going through the archive and making a sound library out of what I found. Then I spent at least another month just making as much music as I could while thinking about different themes in the film.

Once I felt like I had enough material, I started putting it against picture, replacing temp cues and tailoring things to scenes. There were a few cues that I wrote directly to picture, but I’ve realized I usually work better when I obsessively watch the film first, really enter the world, and then put it away while I’m making music.

It lets me be freer with the music. Then I can do the more technical work of making it fit once I start placing things.

I also worked with my friend and collaborator Jon Nellen on some of the score. He co-composed a couple of cues and came to Paris toward the end of the process to assist with some of the scoring, which was nice because scoring can get really isolating.

Once I was mostly done placing things, Brydie O’Connor, the director, Matt Hixon, the editor, and I did a series of in-person sessions. I think altogether it was around a week of very long days. We all went a little crazy and then came out the other side with a finished score.

I love doing in-person sessions when it’s possible. It can be stressful if you start doing it too early, but once the score is far enough along it can really keep things moving.