Then followed a 45 minute interview with Howard Shore that expectedly started from his initial work as musical director on the SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE show. Shore commented that this gave him a lot of experience in the diversity of musical styles (e.g., comedy and drama) that allowed him to move from genre to genre during his film score career with relative ease. His touring with a band in the late '60s and early '70s meant that his music got played and led him into scoring movies. Shore stated that he was always more interested in the music than the movies and say movies as a way to experiment with numerous musical styles.

When asked if working with a "non-Hollywood" director such as David Cronenberg at the beginning of his career was a help to Shore he replied that it was since boh he and Cronenberg "grew" together; each one experimenting in their own medium together (in films such as CRASH, THE FLY , NAKED LUNCH, M BUTTERFLY, SPIDER, etc.)

Moving to the actual process that Shore goes through during the scoring process Shore went on to explain that he tries to get through to the deeper emotional aspects of a movie. He "dreams" about the movie ("films are a dream state in a way"); constantly thinking about the nature of the movie. he jots down ideas - specific scenes are not worked on but more the ideas and moods thrown up by the movie. In THE LORD OF THE RINGS: FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, for example, 4-5 months was spent on "dreaming" and reading (the "research" as Shore puts it). Shore divided the scoring process into 3 main areas. After watching the movie, the first step was to get an idea of how he felt about the movie. Then there is the "gathering"; bringing together what he wants to say; capturing feelings that are to be expressed (only fragments at this stage). It is only then that he may begin to score the movie (and he may view the movie again at this point).

Using Shore's scoring of the Tim Burton movie ED WOOD, Shore was asked how difficult it is to come into a project where the director has a regular composer that he uses (Danny Elfman). Shore commented that in this case the love for the period in which the movie dealt with made it quite easy. He commented as an an aside that Henry Mancini was due to compose the score to ED WOOD.

To end the interview he was asked about his reaction to being asked by Peter Jackson to score THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Shore did say that he was initially "interested" and as he was interested he decided to visit them in New Zealand. And after seeing the commitment of those making the movie he couldn't say no to the project! It was interesting that when he was asked if he had known that the music to THE LORD OF THE RINGS would be orchestral Shore replied that at that stage it was not not certain how it would sound. However, when his researching led to him realising that language played an important role in Middle Earth he knew that mixed choirs would be a feature of the score. This suggested an opera structure and the use of a symphony orchestra to support the operatic style naturally followed on. Of the sound of the music to the trilogy, Shore commented that he wanted the music to be "historic" sounding.

And the impact on Shore? He sees the work that he has done for this trilogy as being a joyous experience and that his 20 years of film scoring experience has led him to this monumental piece of work. He feels somewhat nostalgic to see his involvement in the project end.

Throughout the interview there was a selection of tracks from 8 of his movie scores:

VIDEODROME ("Welcome To Videodrome" & "Pins and Needles")
NAKED LUNCH ("William Tell")
THE FLY ("Main Title")
CRASH ("A Crushed Convertible")
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS ("Clarice")
ED WOOD ("Main Title")
LORD OF THE RINGS - FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING ("The Prophecy")
LORD OF THE RINGS - THE TWO TOWERS ("The White Rider")

Cheers!