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#video #'BEEF' composer FINNEAS on season 2
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00:01um well phineas thank you so much i'm michaela from 98.5 kluc and channel q
00:06first of all the composing is insane like i feel like i can't even find a song for my ig
00:12stories
00:12i'm like how does this touch the people my followers so that's like wild um but with a
00:20show like the beef season two i feel it's so emotionally complex and you're dealing with so
00:27many different elements korean culture gen z you have to sort of be able to speak to so many
00:32types of people how do you sort of prep for something like that so really good question
00:39i think the first thing you you have to do is try not to think about it right you have
00:44to not think
00:45about how it's all going to be received and just focus on like what you're reacting to and making
00:51that feels fun and interesting to you i mean like i when i was meeting sunny who's the creator of
00:57the
00:57show he let me read the scripts for the first few episodes and i really responded to them and thought
01:03they were you know funny and interesting and emotional and so i wanted to be a part of that
01:08because i reacted to it and then we started sending each other music and then you know i started writing
01:15stuff for them to try to use and um you know you just eventually learn by a sort of a
01:22process of
01:23elimination what things are really working for these scenes and what things you know feel like cool but not
01:29right for the show and it was a really fun um long challenging process that i learned a lot from
01:35and i feel like that's like really what i look for in my life is like what am i gonna
01:39what am i gonna learn from
01:40you know um because at the end of the day i'm like that's the that's the thing i get to
01:45take away
01:46um it's like oh i learned a lot from this yeah yeah hi i'm carla i'm with b96 in chicago
01:51and
01:52picking back off picking off back jumping off that i know that um you said that you read the script
02:02and
02:02then you were able to write some things for it were there any scenes where after you watched them
02:07actually be acted out that you said you know what that's not right let's go in and let's change this
02:12into something more intense or something softer totally i mean i would actually say that that most
02:17of what i wrote i read the scripts and they started to film the show and i was on tour
02:21while they were
02:22filming so i'd go whenever i was in town i probably went to set like four times or something so
02:27not that
02:28many times um but i would write pieces of music after having read the script and send them
02:33and then when i started to see the scenes i'd you know maybe one little thread of something i had
02:40written would work but generally the stuff i really wrote that worked for everybody was once i was seeing
02:45the scenes because of exactly what you're talking about the performances from the actors and the way
02:50that the sets look and that was actually one of the coolest parts for me about visiting was like
02:56can i see the set of like the hospital scene and can i see this like i wanted to go
03:00i wanted to go
03:01really feel like what do these colors feel like and you know it was a fun experience for me um
03:07the
03:07the there's a piece that ends the show and that piece was like one of the few pieces that before
03:14uh the scenes had been edited um like when i just read the scripts i made this one piece
03:20it came to many pieces that didn't work but i made one piece that they really liked
03:23we were sobbing
03:25sobbing
03:26sobbing
03:26sobbing like i know i wish you were lying i have been i was watching it on the plane here
03:31and everyone must have thought that i was afraid of heights because i was crying the entire time
03:35but you said you visited set only four times
03:38was one of those times when you decided you wanted to have a cameo
03:42i did yeah i did i did get to be in that scene with with um oscar which was really
03:47you know
03:47very fun i mean that was so funny because like the conceit is that it's a country club
03:52and it's in california and so you got a bunch of like snobby you know people in the music industry
03:59or the sports industry i like that sunny gave everybody an opportunity to play like the worst
04:03version of themselves um which reminded me of that movie from years ago this is the end
04:09the um seth rogan movie but like they're all playing like the worst most selfish versions of
04:17themselves and so that like when he asked me to do it there had already been like the there's a
04:21scene where like michael phelps is really
04:25and then he's like venmo me
04:31so they were like do you want to play a douchebag version i was like of course that's my dream
04:37um uh so that was really fun but yeah that you know everybody i really was very um sort of
04:43welcome to to ask everybody questions and um oscar and i actually thank you for doing this oscar
04:50when we were shooting our scene he was like he's like sometimes i like to like listen to music while
04:55i'm shooting because i feel like if it's just like that scene you know there's some humor in that scene
05:01he was like i feel like the energy can change because sometimes you're on a set and it's like
05:04this it's very quiet and that's because if we played a song then the mics would pick it up whatever
05:09so me and oscar wore these little tiny invisible earbuds like we're on a date
05:17we decided together what would be fun to listen to and so i think that day we listened to like
05:21dance yourself clean by lcd sound system and again it's like it's just the quiet it's like when you're
05:27at a cafe and there's a song in the background and it you're just kind of nodding your head to
05:30it
05:31we're not like gonna start singing but it makes us feel like we're on the same page and um maybe
05:37made
05:37us you know feel like uh a little more momentum or something so that was really cool if i if
05:43i act
05:43some more i would i'll definitely be stealing i'll be stealing that because that was awesome
05:47hey phineas good to see you i'm bennett from the new 96.5 philadelphia uh your music made me cry
05:53a
05:53couple times through the season it was ridiculous uh the finale especially there was two moments in
05:59particular that stood out and it was very memorable very palpable uh the scene uh where they're talking
06:06about their 960 months yeah the music is so gorgeous and dreamy thanks and it just adds so
06:12much texture to the scene and then after that the kiss outside the beautiful piano and then the hardcore
06:18synth that ramps up he listened i mean i'm a pisces so i'm already in my feels like my as
06:27my you know
06:28ground state but it just sent it over the edge what do you think makes a score memorable instead of
06:35just being there in the background because i took away so much from from the score i mean the number
06:40one thing that makes a score memorable is a great film or television show right like if i'd if i'd
06:46written some piece of music if i'd put those exact same pieces of music in a show that you really
06:50didn't
06:50like you'd be like not thinking you'd be you'd be wanting your hours back right so that's the big
06:56privilege for me and and to some degree that is also the pressure right um if you've got oscar and
07:03carrie or um uh charles melton and kaylee spaney um they're they're they've done all their homework
07:12they've learned their lines they've thought about that character they've you know austin's playing like
07:18a trainer he's gotten all buff he probably was already buff he stayed buff um he's grown that
07:25little mustache um and so it's like you know again the prayer you're like i don't want to let all
07:30these people who've worked so hard and the writers and the cinematographers so i think that that's the
07:35real kind of um bar that you're trying to sort of you know that you're trying to raise yourself
07:42it's like i want to really compete with all these people who are great um and uh you know i
07:47think
07:47like my references are always like when i watch a movie and i'm swept away in some piece of music
07:54from it it's melody and it's just supporting a great performance by a you know actor or great
08:00writing or something and i you know i'm just like you if i watch a movie i remember watching this
08:05movie
08:05called uh my old ass the audrey aubry plaza movie yeah and she plays the future she plays the future
08:12version of a character that we're following and there's a scene at the end of that movie not to
08:16spoil it but like you're like i'm watching it with my fiancee and we're sitting there and i'm like
08:21i wonder if she's about to burst into tears because i'm about to burst into tears and then you do
08:25and
08:26then you like look at each other and you're both and that scene that i'm talking about is like i
08:30don't
08:30think there's dialogue in that scene i think it's just you know music and they're having this moment
08:35together and so i love moments like that so i i'm very honored and it means a lot that you
08:40responded to those scenes in that episode thanks so much for saying that absolutely i'm megan holiday
08:44from k-rock in los angeles and you did just such an incredible job with the music and thank you
08:50for
08:50the laughs with your cameo as well you did such a fantastic job um how do you approach you know
08:57when
08:57you're writing your own music or writing with billy versus when you're scoring you know film and tv and
09:03this is not your first project you've worked on a lot of stuff in the past so and then also
09:07what
09:07happens when you have those days where you feel like blocked you know where you're just like i
09:12gotta get out of here and i gotta those days are hard right and they're really hard on tv film
09:17stuff
09:17because there's deadlines and there's so many that you know if you think about like each i i said this
09:24to sunny who's who's create the show creator like episode eight of eight this is the final episode
09:30just like 40 minutes of music in episode eight billy's last album is 44 minutes so it's like almost
09:39an entire album's worth of music only in the final episode of this whole series so it's a lot of
09:45music
09:45to create just by volume and that can be daunting because yeah sometimes you sit down and you're like
09:54well i better start because i have to make so many things before the end of the day but it's
09:59also
09:59kind of a gift because i think that sometimes you get precious with what you're working on if you think
10:04about you know any any area in your life where you are sort of like worried about how you're representing
10:10yourself or whatever i get this way with writing like a speech or a something as simple as like a
10:16caption or something sometimes i'm like no no that's not right but it's like the the gift with scoring
10:20this is like you're just making stuff and you there's not time to overthink it there's not time
10:27to you know get too precious about it so i really like it and then also and i like this
10:32too like if
10:33i make something whether i love it or or i don't we're still gonna i'm still gonna play it for
10:37the
10:37director we're gonna see how he feels even if he loves it he might have one idea that changes some
10:42of
10:42it it's like so you you really have to let go of that kind of like you know i make
10:47i have to wait
10:48till it's perfect you know it takes away that kind of perfectionist um thing and then you know
10:53it's it's um i would say comparing it to like working with billy like i treat the the writer
11:00director as the artist right so if i'm in with billy even if i think i've got my best idea
11:06if billy's
11:06like it's fine but i'm not responding to that i'm like cool this is your it's your album we'll try
11:11something else same deal with the you know writer director it's like this is your vision here and
11:17i'm participating in it but i'm not gonna let my kind of ego get and i'm not gonna tell you
11:22you know what i mean if i interpret a scene if i go like i think this scene is really
11:26there's a lot of anger in this scene and the director's like i don't i think the characters
11:29the actors are are angry enough i think i want to score like how sad it is that they're fighting
11:34right
11:34now i'm like oh great i didn't you know i'm not gonna go like wrong like i'm like it's your
11:39it's
11:40your show you know well if anything it makes you see things from like a different perspective
11:43oh i didn't even think about you know changing the mood in that way and so then you're having
11:48like a moment of learning as well so absolutely that's really cool i'm still gagged on the earbud
11:54because as i'm thinking about it yeah of course like we're loving it because you've composed
11:59such amazing music around these scenes so why wouldn't you have something to listen or reference
12:04to when in the scene oscar actually was like we could listen to some of the your score and i
12:10was
12:10like oh i would be so distracted if i were listening to my own thing that i've made for this
12:15scene i'd be
12:15so kind of like is this good enough i'm so embarrassed like you know what can we check it for
12:19was that g minor but if i were acting in somebody else's movie and they had a different composer and
12:25i love the music i'd probably want to listen to it it's cool yeah um but yeah i mean you
12:29think about
12:29anything in your life you think about your drive anywhere you think about like how much those uh
12:35you know if you're in a good mood you put on a song to to really soundtrack that so it
12:40was very cool
12:40and um and and also i think oscar seems like he would never need this but like that the the
12:47inside
12:48baseball is that actors do that and then have somebody tell them their lines get out yeah oh my
12:53god see i have an earbud right now and someone's telling me what questions to ask
12:55there you go but you could but you could right you know and it's you're still you're still the
13:01performer you're still going like i just thought of this just now you know but but i think that
13:06that's you know that's probably also really helpful imagine if you're like doing a uh you know a tv
13:12show and you're in your 10th year and you just got the script and they rewrote it right before the
13:16scene i mean like you go on snl and they they're holding a cue card with your lines so i
13:21think that
13:22anything that's like you still have to be a good actor and perform it well but it's like if you're
13:25like i
13:25didn't they changed all the lines before i got on set and i don't want to fuck them up then
13:28got
13:29it in your ear pretty cool did you have to memorize your lines or was it very okay but i
13:33mean i had
13:33like 10 lines it's not a lot of memory and and memorizing stuff i think because of music is
13:40something that i i have to do a lot i have to memorize chords and lyrics to songs and play
13:46them
13:46and you know even though i'm writing a lot of the songs i'm playing it's like you still forget stuff
13:50you have to go relearn it and and remember it so you know it's not not a thing that i'm
13:55uh afraid
13:56of although sometimes you really you can really make mistakes and i mean you're juggling so many
14:01things because you do help write for billy and then you're writing for this and then you also are in
14:04your own band that's right and you said that uh like the episode eight has 40 minutes of music
14:08were you able to like hit up your band members like did ashley help you out at any point or
14:13was this
14:13very much a solo project for you it became i went into it sort of thinking i would maybe be
14:19more
14:19collaborative than i ended up getting to be okay and i think that's because selfishly i love to
14:26collaborate like that's more fun for me like a lot of days on this project even though i had fun
14:32making
14:32the music it's like i'm it's very isolated i'm like in my dark studio watching the screen playing stuff
14:38and it's like i always have the most fun when i'm in a room with somebody like billy and we're
14:42collaborating but ultimately this show became really collaborated uh collaborative because i'd go and
14:49sit with sunny the uh creator and jake who directed a couple of the episodes and we'd discuss stuff
14:55so that became collaborative enough you know um but i sure would i sure would love to do you know
15:01i always am telling billy she'd be really good at scoring stuff like you've great ideas for melodies
15:08isn't you know you're such a good big brother because you're like i just know i'm gonna call my
15:12big brother i'm out of here right now as a fan of the show what do you hope that people
15:19walk away
15:19with what what sort of sense or feeling such a good question let's see um
15:29i think that like in essence like all of their disagreements with each other and it's all sort of
15:38like forms of denial that the characters are in and a lack of willingness to communicate what's
15:44really going on which is like their own insecurities about themselves or their life or something you know
15:51i think like as the show progresses and you really hear from the characters how they're feeling
15:56inside you're like oh yeah but if you'd if you were just saying those things in episode one or two
16:03you're you know brave enough or vulnerable enough to say that you know you could have fixed everything
16:09right then yeah none of us would have you wouldn't have had a show but i think that that would
16:13be
16:13that's how i hope that i i often say that as a joke about like living my life in a
16:19way that isn't
16:19inspiring to write about where i'm like yeah i just want to be a good listener and a you know
16:25good communicator and like that doesn't always lead you to write a song about how angry you are but you
16:32can you can make it up you can you know you can pretend or you can channel something else but
16:36that
16:37would probably be like the thing i hope people take away from it is like just just talk about how
16:40you're not how you're reacting to something but like why talk about like why you're feeling a certain way
16:47i love getting lost in the sauce about how you know your songs and music gets created like i know
16:52that you recorded a sprinkler yeah at the country club and then put beats to it that's right and it
16:59sounds sounds really good water bill well water bill was like the demo track and then we we we uh
17:06used it all over the place but yeah that was like one of the first things that i was trying
17:10to explore
17:11was like you know if i'm making a television score and it's not an album for somebody it's not this
17:16like how am i gonna what what's my excuse to do something i wouldn't do somewhere else right if i
17:21said to billy hey i've recorded all these sprinklers i went i went on this is like really this is
17:27really
17:27what happened i'm like i went on a hike i recorded all the sprinklers by the golf course let's make
17:32a
17:32song how's your day going billy would she would have every right to be like why like this sounds
17:38cool but why are we doing this right you know and that's maybe we could still make something good but
17:42the why in this case is like the show takes place on this country club you think about how green
17:47the
17:47grass always is when you're at a golf course on a country club and how expensive it is to water
17:52it
17:52enough to have it always be green and they're rhythmic and i think that it's a kind of a stressful
17:57type of rhythm and i think of the beef world as this kind of anxious like oh my god they
18:02very unsettling they're about to find out this thing so it's a lot of ticking time yeah it's
18:06like a time it's like a clock were there other nuggets like that yeah there's there's a lot of
18:10uh sounds of insects there's a lot of like oh wow stuff that sounds like bees because it's another
18:16you know there's a bunch of flowers i have this vivid memory of going to a hotel for my anniversary
18:22with claudia and like sitting outside to eat our breakfast or something and it was like
18:28high season and there's like so many bees like in the orange juice and shit and i was like
18:33yeah i know i don't blame them but i was like real sugar i was very i was very distracted
18:38by the
18:38presence of all the bees on all of my fruit and um coffee so uh yeah just sort of anything
18:44that felt
18:45like it was like oh this is this big excuse to you know be imaginative and use these sounds that
18:51you wouldn't otherwise use so that was a real gift i love that yeah yeah um i was just thinking
18:56we had
18:56june bugs when we were little at night and that sound still reminds me so much of my childhood
19:02what is it i don't know what a june bug is how much is what does it sound like they
19:05just sound
19:05like a little yeah not me doing this in front of me but it really the sound takes you i
19:14think it's
19:15the most nostalgic totally of anything else totally agree is there anything that you created that you
19:21ended up not using that you would have that came as a close second or something that you think back
19:28now like oh seeing it in a full maybe it would have been cool to to have that here there
19:33were so i mean
19:33there was like so many pieces that didn't make the show because they're just attempts they're like me
19:41trying stuff out and then even the show uh you know again it's so much music and we're putting out
19:47like a soundtrack album as you often do and so when i was listening through like everything i'd made
19:52to kind of cut down like what's gonna be what's gonna make sense to listen to because really even
19:57though there are so many pieces like because there's eight episodes like there's four or five
20:01pieces that are pretty similar to each other and so it's like i'll just put one of those on the
20:05soundtrack you don't need all five um but yeah there are some pieces where i was like oh this i
20:11totally
20:11get why this didn't make sense in this scene in this show but like maybe i should
20:15you know go investigate this and take out the you know take this out of the scene that it was
20:20for and you know write a song over it maybe but you know i guess i guess that'll time will
20:26tell
20:26um and i i try to i again i like the i like the idea of like i'm gonna make
20:32music
20:33and and it's like it's like anything where you're just like yeah we're just trying stuff out and it'll
20:38it'll work or it won't i'm not sort of always like but i they killed my precious thing yeah i'm
20:44like
20:44yeah it didn't work honestly though that's a compliment since you've sat down to you and i
20:48think for like younger viewers you make it very okay to do the inevitable which is try and fail
20:55i'm so cool with failing i love to fail i just don't really like not trying yeah when i feel
21:04like
21:04i didn't when i was too scared to try the thing i'm like oh that sucks that's the regret then
21:10i didn't
21:10even learn and if i'm like oh i failed so many times there's a quote in a movie i love
21:15called
21:15eye origins about these two scientists and they're one of the scenes they're like they're failing and
21:21the one of the characters goes turning over rocks and finding nothing is progress and i think that
21:26that is like i try to remind myself of that all the time of like yeah you're just you're just
21:32on
21:32your way there and sometimes it makes you feel bad because you because you trick yourself into
21:36thinking you didn't make any progress but you're like no no i tried i tried that yeah now i know
21:41it's not that yeah you know on the topic of learning i know it's not your first experience scoring
21:45yeah i love your work in uh vengeance a few years ago so good what have you learned from your
21:51previous
21:51work that you applied to beef season two honestly from a psychological level like that you just like
21:58you just get convinced it'll never end because that's just how it feels there's so many things to
22:04work on and you've got all these scenes in all these episodes and you know notes and revisions
22:11and whatever and so you're you know you have to kind of trick yourself into being like i've done
22:14this before and it'll it'll be over i mean like i remember feeling that way before i'd made an album
22:20with billy i remember being like maybe i'm never gonna finish this album because you feel that way
22:25every time but then you do and then when you feel that way the next time you think like yes
22:29but
22:29you will because you know everything eventually does get finished so that uh was part of it and
22:36then i always tried to just sort of like the other thing was um oscar isaac's character josh
22:43plays this guy who's like to put it mildly like not great with his money and he has this man
22:48cave
22:49and he has a uh old vintage synth in the man cave it's like very expensive and he clearly bought
22:55it
22:56because he was a fan of like hot chip or else he sounds like i'm gonna buy this cool synth
23:00and so
23:01i was like oh it'd be really funny if like a lot of the score is like played on that
23:05synth because i
23:06had like one like it so i started playing it on this synth that uh oscar isaac's character has in
23:12his garage um which i just thought was like that's really fun and i get this excuse to do this
23:18and
23:18there wasn't that plot line in disclaimer or vengeance so it's going to automatically sound
23:23different to those things what was it like when you finally finished i know you mentioned saying
23:28that this kind of felt like a really long project what was it like when you hit that final note
23:32and
23:33you were like ta-da i think you think that you're done like four times so like i think my
23:38friends
23:39were like i thought you were done i was like well i'm almost done this one more thing um but
23:46very
23:46satisfying i mean satisfying to see it all exist as a as one piece and also to to you know
23:53i'm a big
23:54uh uh you know it's hard for me to sleep at night if i have something i'm procrastinating and avoiding
24:00doing and so i think that's like such a relief to be like oh my god i did my i
24:05did my work i accomplished
24:06the thing you know something to check off the list i love check i love checking boxes yeah i love
24:12checking stuff off so that's a big and and when you score stuff you really they the the you know
24:18the music editor sends you a sheet of like all these things to check off and it feels good every
24:22time you every time you change the color of something from like in progress to like approved
24:27approved you can check this interview off your list as well now is that is that the end that was
24:33a
24:33good that was a good final note i was like damn she had them in the ear you can wrap
24:39it up
24:39you thought we were done there's one more i'm kidding the bonus question is
24:45thank you so much thank you guys appreciate it for your time slick ending it was very good
24:49thanks guys
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