Composers
Interview – WAMG Talks To KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE Composer Matthew Margeson
If there’s one film you need to see this weekend, it’s KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE. It’s funny, it’s fast-paced and it’s one insane, entertaining experience. Catch this one in the theater and with a crowd!
Based upon the acclaimed comic book and directed by Matthew Vaughn (Kick Ass, X-Men First Class), KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE tells the story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency’s ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.
Composers Henry Jackman (CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER) and Matthew Margeson score the spy action adventure comedy. This is the second collaboration between Jackman and Margeson, who had worked previously on KICK ASS 2. The duo supplied the soundtrack for the star-studded KINGSMAN with Oscar winners Colin Firth and Michael Caine, Oscar nominee Samuel L. Jackson, and newcomer Taron Egerton. The film also features Sophie Cookson, Mark Strong, and Mark Hamill.
Matthew Margeson is part of Hans Zimmer’s exclusive Remote Control team, and is known for his powerful arrangements and his ability to make audiences fall in love with the music instead of the movie. Margeson composed Position Music Orchestral Series Volume 5, and has provided additional music to the scores of KICK ASS, THE EXPENDABLES, and X-MEN: FIRST CLASS.
Matthew Margeson’s additional music is also featured in video games such as Monsters vs. Aliens, Lego Universe, Socom U.S. Navy Seals: Combined Assault.
Jackman and Margeson’s score for KINGSMAN delivers nail biting action sequences while emphasizing the heart of the film which lie in the relationship between Firth and Egerton.
Listen to a few tracks HERE.
During my recent phone conversation with Mr. Margeson, we discussed the importance of music in all of Matthew Vaughn’s films, how to “Vaughnesize” a movie, the use of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird” during one memorable scene, as well as his work on the upcoming SCOUTS vs. ZOMBIES.
WAMG: The film is quite a ride. Your score is a nod and wink to spy movies.
Matthew Margeson: We wanted to make it our own thing, but we definitely needed to remind ourselves it is a spy genre film.
WAMG: You’ve collaborated on KICK-ASS 2 with Henry Jackman and now on the KINGSMAN. How did the two of you get involved in Matthew Vaughn’s film?
MM: It goes back quite a few years. There were four composers on the first KICK-ASS – Marius De Vries, John Murphy, Ilan Eshkeri and Henry Jackman. There are a couple of cues where Henry was brought in, for whatever reason, and there were four of them on the project.
I think one of Matthew Vaughn’s producers went to school with Henry, so that was the initial introduction. On KICK-ASS, one of the cues on the score at the end, in the fight between Hit-Girl and Frank, Matthew was still a little unhappy with this cue. All the other composers were recording with the orchestra – they were past writing and were all on the stage recording for a week straight. There was a big question mark – how are we going to get this cue right? Henry was trusting enough to say to Matthew Vaughn, “I’ve got this friend I’ve worked with back in Los Angeles, we should give him some direction over the phone and see if we can whip something up in the next 24 hours.”
I got this phone call at eight, nine p.m. and Henry says, “listen, we’ve got a bit of an emergency and we need to rework this fight cue and send a pass back to Matthew in a day.” I did this piece and Matthew reacted really well to it. Henry worked with him throughout the film and that was my first introduction to working with Matthew Vaughn, even though it was in an indirect way.
When it came time to do a sequel to that movie, he really enjoyed what Henry did and his contribution to the pie, so he called Henry to do the score. Henry was on a couple of different projects at the same time and really wanted to do it. He said he couldn’t prepare to write an hour and twenty minutes worth of music for this score by himself, but suggested co-composers on the film with the young lad who wrote the “Frank fight” on the first KICK-ASS and Matthew took a little bit of a leap of faith. It let me take a big part of the responsibility off of Henry’s plate and we put our heads together and got it done together, while splitting the workload.
WAMG: From what you’re describing, it sounds like Matthew Vaughn really takes a vested interest in the scores for his films.
MM: He’s more involved than any other filmmaker I’ve worked with. The other extreme being someone who shoots the film and edits it, and hands it over to you and says, “here, do your thing.” What I love about working with Matthew is he’s invested in the whole entire process in post. He’ll be sitting there with the editor for days and days. We’re in Los Angeles and he’s in London, where we’ll skype or face chat, and we’ll have these daily meetings with him and he’s very clear in steering us on what he wants.
He really likes to be involved with the music. When we go to the final mix for his films, a lot of the times if you’re doing action or chase cues, with massive explosions and bullets flying across the screen, I know music is not going to win that fight. We take that into consideration. But on a Matthew Vaughn movie, when I say there’s a huge explosion there and I’m not going to win, he’ll be the first to say, “I’m in charge of what’s going to win and make the music louder.” We never have a problem with not being able to hear any of the music in a Vaughn film. An awesome position for us to be in.
WAMG: It’s a dark film. It’s a funny film. The soundtrack is very over-the-top, while being a fairly traditional score.
MM: Yes! I hate to use this cliché, but that’s part of the wink in the score and something Matthew wanted us to keep in mind the whole time we were writing. No matter what’s up on the screen, you should always be having fun. Part of the way we accomplished in this one are those moments that are so over-the-top, that you’re laughing with them. You are feeling for those characters, but at the same time it is a comic-book film. You’re always enjoying yourself and you can’t put the popcorn in your mouth fast enough, because you’re trying to keep up with the pace of the film.
WAMG: There are some great percussion cues throughout, especially in the “explosive heads” scenes.
MM: We experimented with a lot of different cues over that scene and we found what really worked was re-recording “Pomp and Circumstance.” We needed to “Vaughnesize” it and basically took Elgar’s orchestration and added some extra percussion, some extra guitars and gave it a slightly contemporary, bit more edgy theme for this world. It was an opportunity to work with the visual because everything is synced up with the explosions, so we were able to get involved with the visual effects department. We were able to tweak little things here and there to make it become a set piece. It was definitely a lot of fun.
WAMG: Who chose the songs that show up throughout, such as “Free Bird” and “Money for Nothing”?
MM: The music supervisor usually goes through a whole catalogue of songs to see what fits. I usually get involved to see if there’s an underscore cue that goes into the song or for technical consideration to make sure what key it’s in and tempo – that kind of thing. Because MARV films, the production company, in one of the five majors, Matthew will sit there and throw different things up there.
With “Free Bird,” that was one of those things that was placed in there very early on and it stuck. We tried different arrangements of “Free Bird” and since it’s set in a Baptist church in the middle of the U.S., we tried a blue-grass version. Ultimately it was just getting the multi-track from the original and doing our own deconstruction of it, because that scene is quite long.
Even though I wasn’t involved with picking “Free Bird,” I was eventually given the film because if you remember, at the very end, it breaks down to almost a piano/choir version of it when Harry is coming out of his trance and that was one instance where I did have to get involved to write with the song, so I guess I can now say that I’ve worked with Lynyrd Skynyrd. (laughs)
WAMG: The use of vocals and choir really add to the score.
MM: We had to pick and choose our moments for that because once you use a choir, there’s immediately an epicness about it. And there are moments for that in this film.
WAMG: Samuel L. Jackson’s bad guy, Valentine, has a unique sound and theme. How did that come about?
MM: As far as thematic material, his vibe was one of the most difficult times we had to really nail down. We had a tune for him that we wrote very early on, but we had to rewrite it a few times to crack the encasement of it and how it’s presented. Valentine is basically a little boy, a cartoon character – his hat is sideways and he’s funky dressed. Henry and I felt we had to play against that and make his music extremely serious – almost Wagnerian.
Although Matthew liked the tune, he felt we weren’t having enough fun. He said, “he’s a tech mogul with plans of taking over the world.” Playing out his evil scheme is with his cell phones, so Henry and I started thinking about telephones. What are some of the components we think of? Back in the 80’s and before, when you would call someone, and you couldn’t get on touch with them, you’d get a busy signal. We tried to recreate that – recorded some dial tones and busy signals and putting them through the effects chamber. Slowing them down and playing them backwards. Just doing all sorts of experiments with them in the lab here and eventually we came up with this weird, twisted reverse tone.
WAMG: It’s very effective – it really works.
MM: Thank you very much. I can proudly say it hasn’t been done before and we managed to come up with one kind of sound that you’ve never heard before in a film. It was a way to remind the viewer that Valentine is from that kind of world of cell phones and tech and how we can sprinkle that throughout the score, especially in his areas.
WAMG: After you hear it a few times, you realize it’s done on purpose.
MM: You kind of latch onto it after a while.
WAMG: How did you originally get into music? Were you the typical “band kid” at school?
MM: Yes. I started playing the piano really young. I did the whole band thing in school and at a certain point did a lot of musical theater. I was in the pit band and directing small orchestras for regional theater, and then ironically, I was working at a small video rental store in my hometown, so I was able to sit there all day and watch films. I noticed there was music throughout these movies and somebody has to be doing it. The John Williams and Alan Silvestri scores really stick with you when you’re that age while you’re watching Indiana Jones and Back to the Future. I think all those random thought processes, and being involved in directing musical theater, led me to drive out to LA and to see how I could get involved in film music.
WAMG: This must have helped with your work on INTO THE WOODS.
MM: It was such a fulfilling job to be part of INTO THE WOODS. I’m such a huge Sondheim fan and being from that world many years ago, it was really nice to get the opportunity to dive into some of those scores and to work with Rob Marshall who’s on the top of that game as far as musical theater and those movies go. It was a real treat to work on that film.
WAMG: Is there a KINGSMAN 2 in the works?
MM: I would love to tell you that I have some inside information – I know we’ve always joked about it, but a lot of it depends on how the film does. If Matthew is up for it and wants to do another one, I think we would. It’s a lot of fun and we’ve gotten a lot of good buzz from the screenings.
WAMG: How’s your upcoming project, SCOUTS vs. ZOMBIES, which I can’t wait for, coming along? (Stars Tye Sheridan and Logan Miller – slated to open October 30, 2015)
MM: When I first got involved with it, I was a little skeptical and when I sat down to watch the film I said, what do I need to do to work on this project! It is absolutely hysterical and absolutely scary at the same time.
I can promise you, it’s got some really great laughs and some awesome creepy moments too and you have Boy Scouts and Zombies, so it’s a good recipe.
WAMG: I was glad to see the movie is being released at the end of October now.
MM: After many meetings, they decided they had great success in releasing this kind of movie at Halloween. It’s a good time of year for that film and after everyone Trick-or-Treats, they’re going to want something to do.
I’m pretty sure there will be an R rating, so it does have some good action and some good chases, while at the same time, again like KINGSMAN, you’re laughing with the film. It’s a hoot.
WAMG: Is the score done, have you started recording it?
MM: Today I’m starting the last cue of the film that I need to write and get approved. We’re on the very tail end of it and we’re recording with the orchestra at the beginning of March. Some of it has been shipped off to orchestration, getting it on paper and we’ll be recording in two or three weeks.
WAMG: Thanks to Matthew Margeson for taking the time to talk to us.
The KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE soundtrack will be released on La La Land Records, February 17, 2015.
Order it here: http://www.lalalandrecords.com/Site/Kingsman.html
Order it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Kingsman-Service-Original-Picture-Soundtrack/dp/B00T76W2ZY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1423772330&sr=8-2&keywords=kingsman+soundtrack
The movie opens in cinemas Friday, February 13, 2015.
Read Jim Batts’ review here.
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