Terry Interviews Film Community
Terry speaks with filmmakers, producers and composers

 

 

 

Terry speaks to up-and-coming composer Nathaniel Levisay who scored DAWNING, a creepy intense film score that was crafted to frighten you big time.

Terry Wickham: What made you want to be a film composer?
 
Nathaniel Levisay:  Once I got the fever, it was something that I grew into very quickly.  I've been a music lover all my life -- in fact, my mother tells me the story that at a very early age she would play records for me -- Beethoven, et al., and I that would pick out the sonorities, brass, strings, etc. (well, you know how mothers are).  I studied violin and piano as a child and when I hit maybe 10 years old, I remember finding my burning passion for orchestral music and spent many an hour listening.  Then, there was a day, as I was doing the dishes after supper, I came across a barbeque skewer and I had a recording of some symphony playing and I could see my reflection in the cabinetry glass.  I began conducting the music (though I had no technical idea of what I was doing); I stood there waving my arms and cueing imaginary instruments and I pretend-conducted the entire piece.  I knew around that time that I really wanted to see what I could really do with music, or better said, what music could do with me.
 
TW:  Fill us in on your background.  Where did you learn to compose and what work have you done so far?


NL:  I have a mixed bag of music education.  As I said, I did the lessons when I was a kid, pre-high school and high school I started studying theory and piano and a little conducting and I was performing all the time in the school ensembles, etc.  Then I went to college and studied music there, undergraduate stuff, but I was always racing ahead and teaching myself so much just by digging in and doing it.  I had a wonderful conducting teacher in college who was very supportive -- and honest.  Tim would say, "You have truck-loads of talent, but you gotta learn this other stuff over here, too!"  I didn't want to then, because I was young and stupid, but you can't escape it if you want to really do it.  Through and through I was always chasing this dream of writing for film and it was through shear persistence that I met my biggest influence and now dear friend, Robert Elhai.  He showed so much faith in me and was so giving with his time and knowledge.  I learned a lot from him by looking at scores together.  He'd give me a big pile of scores by wonderful composers, such as Elliot Goldenthal for example, to take home and I'd soak them up.  He answered my questions and sometimes we'd just hang out.  Then when I moved to LA he would take me to sessions with Michael Kamen and things like that -- I remember the X-Men sessions so vividly and Frequency with Michael...  Robert really opened my eyes in so many ways and also opened some doors and I am forever grateful for that.

 

 
TW:  How did the DAWNING opportunity come about?

NL:  Dawning came about very circuitously.  The film itself went through many changes over a long period of years.  The director, Gregg Holtgrewe is an Artist, with a capital "A" and it's interesting because so many of the greats you read about have the same story Gregg does: guy has a vision, he fights for it to the bitter end, takes him years to finish it because of one hardship after another, but then magic happens and KA-BAM, there's a masterpiece.  He reminds me of an early George Lucas, or a Carroll Ballard, a Coppola-type.  He's out there to make great cinema, and he did.  When he finally got toward the end of the trial by fire, he had been using music by Arvo Part and Krzysztof Penderecki which was quite effective in the film.  But when it came down to it, he couldn't get the licensing for the music for whatever reason and they had been debating having an original score anyway.  I had been recommended to Gregg a couple years prior and it just passed by me at that time.  I had heard so many wonderful things about the film and I was salivating to work on it -- it was one of those real pieces of cinema I dreamed of working on -- but it just wasn't the right time, I guess.  Then a couple years later I was working on a film for another director and when they were doing the final sound mix, one of the producers who had coincidentally jumped on board Dawning by that time as well, heard my music and asked who had written the score.  He really liked the score I did and so he put Gregg and I together -- and here we are.
 
TW:  I love your approach to the score.  It's quietly creepy and tremendously atmospheric.  I find most horror scores to aim for jack-in-the-box scares or action scoring.  Was this your idea or the director's?

NL:  Well, Dawning is not a typical, contemporary horror film.  I suppose you could say it's more a psychological mind-f@#k.  Gregg and I talked a little bit about the score and I heard the temp track with Part and Penderecki and that told me a lot.  It told me a lot about Gregg, it told me a lot about what kind of film Dawning was, and at that point in time, what kind of film he wanted it to be in the end.  The first thing I scored was the Main Title and then I sent it to Gregg.  I got a text message from him early one morning afterward saying something like, "Yes!  I LOVE IT!" and I knew then that we were both on the same page and we very quickly became quite comfortable in our working relationship.
 
TW:  Were there any scores or movies given as reference to influence your music for DAWNING?

NL:  No movies that I can remember, just the aforementioned art-music.
He did speak to me about certain directors and cinematographers and photographers that he especially appreciated, namely Hitchcock and Bergman as directors.
 
TW:  Which musicians and or orchestra were used to perform this composition?
 
NL:  Essentially it was a group of friends who are top-notch musicians.  They were recorded to sound like a bigger group than it actually was and then there were some samples used.  I created many of the strange sounds you hear in the score myself from acoustic instruments.  Ryan Robinson at Warner Brothers was kind enough to record the piano parts for me at the Eastwood Scoring stage on the WB lot.  Their beautiful stage and concert grand piano added a certain weight to the score.

 

 
TW:  How did the Screamworks Records soundtrack release happen?  Were you involved?

NL:  I had worked with Mikael Carlsson previously on another project and when DAWNING was complete, I gave him a shout and asked if he’d be interested in releasing it.  When he heard it, he responded so favorably and it is one of the  thrills of my career so far working with him on the release and hearing his enthusiasm for my score.
 
TW:  I really love the placement of off-sounding instrumentation and note placement.  I found it threw me off a bit and made me a little uncomfortable.  Was that your intention?  This is something good horror films do.
 
NL:  Thank you!  I intentionally created the more strange and esoteric sounds you hear, but how it all settled together along with the orchestral parts and how everything gelled with every other thing is really inexplicable to me.  It’s music and music continues to mesmerize me.
 
TW:  How has the response for the film been (I haven't seen it yet)?
 
NL:  The response from the critics has been phenomenal.  The response from the everyday movie-goer has been mixed because it is really a different film.  It’s labeled as horror, but it really is so much more than that and I think some people go into it thinking it’s going be some slasher flick and are therefore disappointed.  Even if I had not worked on it, I say that it is an amazing piece of filmmaking.  I am so very proud to have been involved.
 
TW:  What's next?
 
NL:  Isaac Meisenheimer has written a script that he is directing starring Ron Perlman, Matt Bush and Lea Thompson and others.  I will be scoring that for him which will be a lovely return to the 1980’s as far as the tone of the script and characterization.  Then Gregg Holtgrewe who directed Dawning has a couple things coming down the pipeline that we are discussing.  In the meantime, I am working on some concert writing.  I’m writing an arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith’s film music for a group called The Hollywood Soloists which is led by one of the best oboe players in the world named Tom Boyd.  He played all the oboe solos on Jurassic Park and just about any other big Hollywood film you can name.  His group now specializes in performing film music arrangements.
 
TW:  What's your website URL?
 
NL:  You can find me on Facebook and you can visit www.nathaniellevisay.com.  Thank you for asking for this interview and for your patience in waiting on my schedule.  It was a real pleasure.  I wish you all the best and please keep in touch!