Jonny Greenwood is featured among the "pitch perfect" film composers showcased in the Los Angeles Times. In the paper, Dennis Lim writes that Greenwood's score for Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, There Will Be Blood, marks an even greater role for the already major part music plays in Anderson's films. "In Paul Thomas Anderson's films, music is not just significant," writes Lim, "it's often front and center, impossible to ignore ... and his use of music reaches new heights of inspiration in There Will Be Blood."
Jonny Greenwood is featured among the "pitch perfect" film composers showcased in the Los Angeles Times. In the paper, Dennis Lim writes that Greenwood's score for Paul Thomas Anderson's new film, There Will Be Blood, marks an even greater role for the already major part music plays in Anderson's films (namely Aimee Mann's in Magnolia and Jon Brion's in Punch-Drunk Love). "In Paul Thomas Anderson's films, music is not just significant," writes Lim, "it's often front and center, impossible to ignore ... and his use of music reaches new heights of inspiration in There Will Be Blood."
And the creative process proved a positive one for the guitarist/composer. As he says in the Times, "It was a far freer musical experience than I expected." He reports that he and the director looked for inspiration in "early American church music and what that would have sounded like in these isolated towns" such as the early 20th century oil towns depicted in the film.
Nearly every scene in There WIll Be Blood features Daniel Day-Lewis, who turns in a stunning performance as a ruthless, self-made oil baron. It's perhaps not surprising, then, that Greenwood says it was the actor's eyes that "were probably the biggest single influence" on him while writing the score. Still, he says in the Times, "there's also a kid in the middle of the story, so I tried to get some sweetness and hope in the music too."
To read the profile, visit theenvelope.latimes.com. For a Nonesuch Journal exclusive interview with Jonny Greenwood, click here. To listen to two tracks off the soundtrack, click on the Nonesuch Radio icon at left.