02:10And our music executive producer, Serena Gorenson,
02:14came along as well.
02:16And it was just an incredible journey.
02:19And what we did was meeting some incredible musicians
02:21in Clarksdale and Memphis, like Kingfish, Eric Gales,
02:26find the right people to work on this music with.
02:31And I mean, just to be able to work with Raphael Sadiq,
02:36I saw him 2001 in Sweden, in Stockholm.
02:39When I grew up, I was like 20 or something,
02:41and I saw him play, come up with a bass, and like, just kill it.
02:44And being able to work with him on this movie was incredible.
02:48So on this trip, you're going to what,
02:50juke joints and bars, searching for the sort of soul
02:52of Robert Johnson, right?
02:54Yeah, I mean, we went to Clarksdale,
02:56because that's where the movie takes place, essentially.
02:59And so, and going to some juke joints,
03:02and then we ended up at Royal Studios in Memphis,
03:04which is an incredible studio owned by Lawrence Bull Mitchell.
03:07And that's where we started having some incredible recording sessions
03:10with musicians, local musicians from Memphis.
03:14You mentioned your relationship with Ryan.
03:16You went to USC with him back in the day,
03:18and obviously scored his short film, and worked on Fruitvale Station,
03:23Creed, and Black Panther.
03:25How do you guys work together these days?
03:28I mean, it's very much like a family.
03:30I mean, we've known each other for so long.
03:32And for this one, Serena and I, we moved to set.
03:37So we moved to New Orleans.
03:38They were shooting in New Orleans for about three months.
03:41And we moved there with our family.
03:43Ryan moved there, and Zinzi moved there with their family.
03:46And I never been on set for more than like a day or two days at a time,
03:50because it's, I love it, but it's also very intense to be on set.
03:53You know, they're shooting for 12 hours, and I feel like most of the time it's like I'm in the way.
03:58But at this, in this movie, since I was an executive producer,
04:03you know, there's so much music in the film.
04:07So we just had to be part of the whole shoot,
04:11because the actors were coming to the studio, learning how to play the songs.
04:15We were like figuring out what to do in every second.
04:18And then we would be on set for, you know, they did one month of night shoots.
04:23Night shoots, which is like 12 hours in a swamp in New Orleans with like alligators and snakes.
04:29And it's so hot.
04:30So there's locusts and swarms of mosquitoes.
04:33And, and I'm, I'm there like waiting for to shoot the Rocky Road to Dublin scene waiting.
04:38And I find out that we're shooting that last at 4am in the morning.
04:41So I was like, so I'm just sitting there.
04:43Okay.
04:45Talking of Miles, who plays Sammy in this movie,
04:47he has a 1932 Dobro Cyclops resonator guitar.
04:52Is it right that quite a lot of the music for the score was written on a guitar like that?
04:57It's, it's that guitar.
04:58It's that guitar.
04:59Yeah. I wrote the score, most of the score on, on this guitar.
05:02I bought it at Norman's rare guitars in, in, in LA, right before we shot the film,
05:07because the movie takes place in 1932 and this amazing Dobro is from 1932.
05:11And, uh, it's just a beautiful, I mean, it's a beautiful guitar.
05:16And, and also Sammy's playing this in the movie, this actual guitar.
05:21So why wouldn't I just write the score on this as well?
05:24Right.
05:25Yeah.
05:28I thought you were going to give us another tune there.
05:30Yeah, I'll do it.
05:32Yeah, I'll do it.
05:33You want to hold the guitar, Mike?
05:34Yeah.
05:36Yeah.
05:37Yeah.
05:38Yeah.
05:39Yeah.
05:40Yeah.
05:41Yeah.
05:42Yeah.
05:43Yeah.
05:44Yeah.
05:45Yeah.
05:46Yeah.
05:47Yeah.
05:48Yeah.
05:49Yeah.
05:50Yeah.
05:51Yeah.
05:52Yeah.
05:53Yeah.
05:54Yeah.
05:55Yeah.
05:56Yeah.
05:57Yeah.
05:58Yeah.
05:59Yeah.
06:00Yeah.
06:01Yeah.
06:02Yeah.
06:03Yeah.
06:04Yeah.
06:35Wow, wow.
06:40So that thing that I just played is also the theme that we're using for the last song that we played,
06:46where the amazing Alice Smith came out and sang.
06:48So that theme is kind of, that melody is used under that song.
06:54Yeah, we'll talk about that collaboration.
06:56But talking of beautiful guitars, I saw you there with an electric V.
07:00You strike me as a heavy metal kid.
07:01There's Lars Ulrich, I gather you collaborated, Metallica's drummer, and Alice in Chains, Jerry Cantrell,
07:09two people I didn't expect to necessarily be involved in that.
07:11How did that come about?
07:13Well, yeah, I mean, I, my dad is a guitar teacher.
07:17He was my guitar, he was my first guitar teacher.
07:19And he bought his first blues album in 1964.
07:23It was John Lee Hooker.
07:24And that album changed his life.
07:26And he became a blues guitar player.
07:29So when it was time for me to find my type of music, it was heavy metal.
07:34Because blues was my dad's thing.
07:36And I want to, you know, I want to do my own thing, which is metal.
07:38At that time, I didn't think about that without blues, there wouldn't be any heavy metal, right?
07:42But, and that's kind of also a little bit what the score is about.
07:46It's kind of like my, my personal journey in, in, in, in, in, in, with my relationship with my dad.
07:52And, and so working, being able to, like working with Lars Ulrich has always been on the list.
07:59So I know this is a perfect moment for that.
08:01And, and Jerry Cantrell, like I'm a huge fan and, and, but also Ryan Cooler is a huge fan of Alice in Chains.
08:07He was listening to a lot of them when he was writing the script.
08:11Yeah.
08:11It's a great story.
08:13And then finally, talking of collaborators, you just had them on the stage.
08:17Talk about how you worked with Miles, Alice, and Raphael in this.
08:21Yeah.
08:21I mean, first, first of all, Miles, you know, when, when he got cast in this movie, he could barely, I mean, he barely played guitar.
08:29You know, he, he learned how to play.
08:31He certainly can now.
08:32Yeah.
08:32I mean, he learned how to play slide guitar.
08:34And that's not easy.
08:35The way, what you see him play with a slide.
08:37Like he learned to play that in solos in about three months.
08:41Yeah.
08:41He had three months to prepare for that role.
08:44And, you know, his voice, I knew he could do it because I, when I heard his audition tape and what incredible musician is, like I knew I, I, like he's a very incredible, like an amazing musician.
08:56And he's been touring since he was 15 with the artist, her.
09:01So, you know, working very closely with him was, was just amazing.
09:04He's just such an incredible person, also a very, very hard worker and such a great human being to be around.
09:10And, you know, I, Raphel Sadiq, one of my, one of my idols and, and also, you know, incredible songwriter.
09:20And when we did A Lie to You together, that was like the day before Serena and I moved to New Orleans, like Raphel Sadiq came to my studio.
09:27You know, we sat down, talked about this movie, got on a FaceTime call with Ryan Coogler and this song just came out of that session.
09:35And, and, you know, it was kind of scary because when we started recording the song on set and, and, you know, I was thinking more about like the lyrics, like, you know, I lied to you.
09:45And some, someone, please take me in your arms tonight, you know, which is Sammy singing that basically Remick is hearing that.
09:53And, you know, so it's like, and, and, and, but it was just amazing how, how those lyrics just matched the picture so much.
10:01And then Alice Smith, it was, she was, I've been a fan of hers for a long time too.
10:06I was playing cover when I first moved to LA, I played in a cover band and we played one of her songs.
10:12And I was like, I remember every time I played it in a cover band and we played at some fun in LA place, like the Mints and stuff, you know, and we played that song.
10:20It was, I think it was called Desert Song.
10:22And I was always like so surprised.
10:23It was always so difficult.
10:25It was a very difficult song.
10:26But then also Ryan Coogler played a lot of Alice Smith's music on set while they do, while they were shooting a lot of the intimate scenes.
10:33Ryan Coogler would put on Alice Smith's song.
10:35So that, and that was before we had collaborated with her on, on, on this song in a film.
10:40So, so, so, and also, so when it became time to do the end credits, you know, we were, I mean, Ryan was like talking about the idea of having Miles and Alice Smith's voice together, how incredible that was sounding.
10:56And you just heard it and saw it live, I think, for the first time.
10:59And that's, I still have goosebumps thinking about it.
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