(Composer Andrew Lockington – Photo by Farrah Aviva)
Canadian-born composer Andrew Lockington has taken more than a few fantastical journeys among over fifty soundtracks. He’s visited post-fallout underground cities, the hiply updated worlds of Jules Verne and time tripped among his often-epic genre scoring, all while getting down to earth in the dramatically gritty universe of Taylor Sheridan. But when it comes to his filmmaking muse of all creatures, mechas and A.I. androids great and small, there’s no one who quite inspires his imagination like fellow Canuck Brad Peyton. Together they’ve rocked Los Angeles and duked it out with Kong-sized critters, but there’s perhaps no more musically formidable character they’ve created than Jenny on the Bot. The pop icon is the star of their latest collaboration as “Atlas.” For while Jennifer Lopez might be in total command on the arena stage, her traumatized science whiz here is anything but Ripley in a power loader. Instead, she’s what’s left of a once-crack squad of mecha marines who’ve been laid waste on the planet where her arch A.I nemesis Harlan (“Shang-Chi’s” Simu Liu) has made her a pawn in his game to wipe the earth of the humans that neo-terminators (if a Zen one here) find so pesky. Atlas’ only chance is to bond with both psychically, and psychologically with her silken-voiced ARC suit code named “Smith” as she gets her sea legs to outrun, and then attempt to outgun a robot army with a charmingly walking and talking Swiss knife of sorts.
Given what’s essentially a sci-fi buddy cop movie (and one that’s way, way better than the reviews it’s been getting), Lockington’s mission is to create a muscular future tapestry of mecha-suit kick-assery and emo, both dimensions of which he delivers in spades with his impressive score. Constructed out of organic symphonic melody that takes the lead over the synths that could have driven this score, Lockington creates both excitement, an interplanetary sense of adventure and most importantly of all the feeling of a growing, very unlikely relationship whose end just might have you reaching for a tissue. Draped with haunted voices that are revealed in Atlas’ guilt-wracked past, Lockington’s real triumph here is delivering an unexpected depth of poignant power to the steely, thematic excitement that’s part and parcel of his ongoing fusion with Peyton, here once more with unexpected feeling given the cosmic firefights and an outrageous Hong Kong style battle at the end for this thoroughly entertaining example of musically suiting up with JLO flair.
Photo by Neil Parfitt
Did you always like special effects blockbusters before going into scoring? And what were the sci-fi scores that made a particular impression on you?
Ironically, I don’t remember the music to “Terminator 2,” but I know that film definitely made an impression on me. I didn’t think of it as a sci-fi film though, I would have described it as a film about “protecting a loved one at any cost”. In that way it isn’t dissimilar to “Atlas.” I also remember being amazed by “2001: A Space Odyssey,” though the music didn’t impact me until last year when I was invited by “Atlas” producer Jeff Fierson to a live score-to-picture performance at the Hollywood Bowl. The incredible use of atonal woodwinds in the Ligeti pieces in particular made me think of using woodwinds in a more unique way for “Atlas” – to sing it as a textural element rather than a melodic one.
Two of your first large-scale genre scores were on “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and “City of Ember.” What were those experiences like, and did they give you a particular appreciation for the genre?
The first “Journey” movie was an homage to all of my childhood musical heroes – Williams, Horner, Goldsmith, Silvestri, etc. It was such a pleasure to be given permission to write in the style of the family adventure genre I’d grown up listening to. They also called for very large orchestras in places, which has always been a love of mine, both to listen to and to write for. While I truly enjoy diversity in the projects I work on, returning to this genre every so often is always incredibly fulfilling.
Conversely, one of my favorite scores and films of yours was for the son-father journey of “I’ll Follow You Down.” What was it like approaching sci-fi on a more intimate musical level?
The most fascinating parts of sci-fi, and all films really, is the human interaction and emotion. In all of the scores you mention that was always my starting point. Music is always tied to a character and more specifically their internal emotional narrative. Even in the case of big technology, the music needs to represent a human reaction to it, not giant set pieces themselves. “I’ll Follow You Down” was similar in that way. The time-travel aspect of it was a circumstance in what truly is a love story.
(Brad Payton, far left and Andrew Lockington)
How did you first come into Brad Peyton’s orbit? And what do you think made you two “sync” as well as you have?
Shortly after Brad was hired to helm the second “Journey” film, he called me in to sit down with him. He had been a fan of the score to the first “Journey” film and wanted to talk music. Very few crew and cast were returning to work on the sequel so I was pleasantly surprised to hear he’d been a fan of that score. I quickly learned we were both film music fans and had both grown up as massive fans of Spielberg, Cameron, and Ridley Scott films. He immediately asked me when I would evolve the themes for the second film. I told him my ideas and he said he’d love to hear some examples. That was it. We were off and running at that point. I wasn’t officially hired until I was months into working with Brad. I remember getting the call saying I had the job. I was shocked as I’d been working full time on it for months at that point. A lot of people think our connection is that we are both Canadian, but to be honest I don’t think either of us knew we were both Canadian until well into the process.
How would you say that your creative relationship has built with Brad to the point of “Atlas?” And what were the challenges here?
“Atlas” is our eighth project together, and the biggest challenge of each one is the challenge we give ourselves. How can we rise above what we did before and grow outside the box? We have a treasure trove of ideas we’ve stumbled upon over the years that we pick through each project to see if they might be a good fit. We are constantly talking themes and approach, long before the script is written, and production starts. Brad challenges me to be better, but along with that comes a safe place to strike out sometimes. Sometimes things are outside the box for a reason and they simply don’t work. But to Brad’s credit he’s never balked at any unique ideas I’ve brought to him. He loves trying off-the-wall ideas as much as I do, and there’s no stopping us when we get excited about a cool musical idea.
When “Atlas” was still an idea and the script was still in development, I told Brad about an idea I had to record both spiritual and tech elements all over Japan and manipulate them into textures and rhythms using analogue synths and effects pedals. He loved the idea and said, “Let’s go!” A few weeks later we were on a plane to Japan with a JR rail pass and a portable recording system. Music isn’t an afterthought for Brad. He is always hearing score in his head through every part of the production process. He brings me to set to experience the vibe and the gate of the performances, talk to the actors about their characters, and gets a head start on sketching cues. Music is one of the primary colors in the palette of his filmmaking.
J-Lo is in a whole other pop universe beyond “Atlas.” What do you think her persona brought to the role, and how did it affect your approach, especially when it came to evolving from a traumatized to take-charge character?
I think she is an incredible human being. I’ve known her music and her acting for years, but this film gave me a whole new appreciation for her immense talent and her work ethic. Everyone feels like they know her, but there is so much more behind what you see. She’s an incredibly authentic person. During the filming of “Atlas” she was willing to go to the most vulnerable places with her performances and that opened up so many doors for me with the music to accompany her character there. There’s definitely an intimidation factor when it comes to writing music for such a music icon, but I tried not to think of that too much.
Given that Atlas is in the ARC for most of the film, how important was it for the score to open up the scope of the planet that she’s on?
In a film where there’s so much technology and so much scale, I really wanted to focus on the human element and the intimate parts of the story. Having themes that could be very small sometimes and very epic in others was really important. The music needed to echo what was going on inside their intimate interaction bubble. Quite often it needed to do the opposite. Jennifer’s character has built up this tough exterior, but we all know it’s a defense mechanism. The music needed to see through that and show her vulnerabilities beneath the surface, not be misled by her outer shell. When she was interacting with the world outside the suit, the music needed to support her power, her heroism. It needed to be authentic in that way as well, and as such, these two contrasting elements give us the scope of epic and intimate in the overall score.
I noticed that you mostly avoided pronounced synth elements. Was that a deliberate decision to ground the music in the idea of humanity, and not to give into a “robotic” sound?
There’s more synth than you might realize, but it’s warm analog pulsing and textures instead of digital elements. I have an incredible friend, and collaborator, Michael White, who I’ve worked with for many years. He is a musical genius and has this incredible ability to create unique sounds that are both electronic and organic at the same time. The initial idea for Smith’s theme was more electronic, but given the film is trying to show how hard he is trying to be human. It was more interesting to represent his character with a more grounded organic music approach and represent his personality and naivete instead of using the music to simply say he’s a computer. In researching the history of scoring technology in film, the approach of the early “Batman” TV-series that starred Adam West is really common still to this day in how music represents computers. Beep Bop stuff was not appropriate for “Atlas.” Siri and Alexa don’t sound like “Max Headroom,” they sound like humans. They’re identifiable by their innocence and benign quality and eagerness to learn, not the electronic sounds they make. Our score needed to take the same approach with the music.
Tell me about scoring the character of Harlan. Do you hear him as being evil so much as being misguided?
One of the first themes I wrote I called “Birth of A Species”, and it was based on the idea of an entity or living being that has yet to be programmed. Everything is new and fascinating to it. There is no baggage and there are no preconceived ideas about anything. It’s a blank slate waiting for instruction. When I saw the film I was immediately drawn to the moment that young Atlas and young Harlan converge. They both have this same quality, this same innocence. Then upon enlightening each other, one chooses evil and the other chooses good. This inspired me to write two versions of the same theme, one that is evil and one that is profoundly good. Harlan and Atlas feel like they have custom themes, but in fact the melodies are exactly the same, they only sound different because of the chord progressions that accompany each of them.
Talk about the role of voice in the score, from monk-like male chanting to female chorus?
I was looking for human vocal elements that represented spirituality but didn’t preach religion. The chanting element is symbolic of the “Rangers” in the film. We needed something to set them apart from being soldiers, as instead they were more cerebral warriors. Almost in an homage to the Samurai order. The solo child’s voice was performed by Malakai Buyoh, a 14 year old boy soprano from the UK. He actually came third on Britain’s Got Talent and went viral on Instagram with his audition last year. Tori Fillat who was one of our incredible music execs at Netflix recommended him and I knew the minute I heard his voice we had to get him. His musical interpretation skills blew my mind and brought so much purity and haunting beauty to the melodies.
Recording Malakai influenced the score afterwards as well. After hearing how pure his voice was, we came up with the idea that Atlas’ childhood is essentially interrupted when Harlan kills her mother. Her spiritual growth stops there. Thus, when she succeeds in thwarting Harlan at the end of the film, her life arc can continue and her character finds her voice again, prompting us to use Malakai’s voice on the last cue in the film – symbolizing that the little girl’s journey can continue again.
The sequence where Atlas retrieves the fallen soldiers’ dog tags is your first truly emotional scoring in the film. What was the importance of that scene?
While it’s the first emotional score cue, it’s actually the second emotional music moment. The first is the “Ted Talk” type video archive Atlas watches where her mother is giving a lecture on the amazing potential future of AI. I chose to use Smith’s theme for that because it was a way to introduce this emotional theme early in the film without needing to earn it yet. Because when we first hear it in that moment, it’s not score, it’s the music on the video, which allows us to hear it even though our character hasn’t earned it yet. As such, when she pauses the video, I made sure the music instantly stops, with no reverb, so the audience is reminded this wasn’t score.
The dog tag retrieval scene is an echo of the chanting we hear at the introduction of the Rangers. This was immensely important to the musical development of Atlas and her vulnerable side. It’s important that the music is something that doesn’t describe how she feels but shows the audience what she is reacting to. That’s why the theme there is really a softer version of the “End of Humanity” theme with the Ranger Motif. It’s scoring what they were when they were alive, so we can feel their loss, instead of scoring Atlas’ reaction to what she’s seeing.
Tell us about scoring the big reveal of Atlas’ childhood guilt.
This is the moment where we hear both sides of that “Birth of a Species” theme, the good and the evil, back-to-back. I loved that by the time we get to this part, the audience is subconsciously familiar with only the dark version of this theme. We get to show them its peaceful origin in this scene before reminding them again of its darkness. This was one of my favorite moments to score.
The end boss battle between Harlan and Atlas goes right into Hong Kong martial arts fight mode. Were you conscious of that kind of rhythm and fun light-sword wielding outrageousness in scoring it?
I was, and there are moments where the orchestra and percussion are matching the footsteps as Harlan is accelerating towards Atlas. But to be totally honest, I was mostly aware of the fact the music would be playing a supporting role to the immense sound effects in this scene. I was constantly cranking the FX audio file as I was writing to mimic the levels and find the spaces where the music could help but not compete with the inevitable sound effects. Had there not been explosions, fires, ships crashing and a damaged arc suit maneuvering, the score would have had more responsibility in those scenes. Such are the realities of film-scoring.
Given the enormous amount of effects in this, were you essentially scoring to pre-viz? And after the likes of “Rampage” and “San Andreas” with Brad, is that fairly easy to let your musical imagination run wild in that “rough” form?
No, it’s always hard. There were moments in scoring “Atlas” where I’d write something and Brad would say, “You know, in this scene where time slows down and she has a vision of possible future moves and then time ramps up and…..” he’s stop talking because my jaw would have dropped, signifying I’d had no idea that was what was going to be there. The pre-viz was not that at that point. It reminds me that so much of these films is in the director’s head. I’m constantly asking questions of what it will be like, then scoring things you are told will be there that aren’t there at all. But the pacing, how long the shots will be, when the sword will land, etc, you never know until you see it. In this film a lot of that stuff didn’t land until we’d already recorded the score. It was thanks to the genius music editing of Joe Bonn and the fact that we recorded the different orchestral sections separately that we were able to re-match the music to hit the moments as intended.
How did you want to build the relationship between Atlas and Smith to the point where you might just get a tear in your eye? And in the end, did you want your music to wipe away the idea that Smith is even a machine, as opposed to a big metal buddy cop of sorts?
Smith to me was Pinocchio. He’s trying to be a real boy. Trying to be seen as a living, sentient being. He wants to show he is as “human” as Atlas. So, when she says goodbye at the end of the film, I didn’t want the music to be a sad cue. I wanted the moment to be Atlas using the language of Smith to say thank you. It was about her telling him about her feelings for him before it was too late, and respecting him as a person, not a machine. I think we can all relate to that – the desire to tell someone how much they changed your life for the better before they die.
The Smith theme couldn’t be overused, but it needed to be a hook the audience subconsciously internalized before this moment, or else this first instance of the theme would be benign and ineffective. As such I snuck that theme in in the few places I could – The Ted Talk being the first, a few snarky remarks by Smith here and there, etc. Then I talked to Per Halberg, the sound supervisor about me writing the chime for Smith. Per is amazing and such an incredible collaborator. We came up with the idea that when Smith turns on, or starts his tutorial, and even when he’s hacked, we hear this “start up” chime. The chime I wrote is actually the first three notes of the Smith theme. Definitely something that’s subconscious for the audience, but as a film composer, anything one can do to help get the hook in people’s heads however possible before the big payoff cue is a huge advantage.
I was pleasantly surprised that I found “Atlas” moving by the end. Was it tricky to bring legitimate feeling to a film like this?
I think the only way it works is that Jen committed to it. She let herself be vulnerable so the music isn’t doing heavy lifting, but instead reacting to the emotional place she’s already taken us to. Music can bend the stick 20%, but more than that and music will break a scene if it tries too hard. I didn’t need to bend the stick in this film, just react to what was already in the performances.
“Atlas” gets a particularly nicely recorded and mixed score. What have you learned about scoring sound effects heavy films like this, and how did the sessions go for this?
I’m incredibly fortunate to work with filmmakers and studios that understand the returns are incredibly high when you invest in the score of a film. The sessions for this film were a dream come true. Thanks to the producers and Netflix, we had all the resources to get everything we needed. I also had my usual dream team on the music musician and crew side. We have so much fun scoring these big films. Everyone on the team comes in with a great attitude and excitement. It’s definitely my favorite part of the process.
Talk about becoming part of the Taylor Sheridan-verse with “Lioness” and “Mayor of Kingstown.” What are the tonal similarities and differences with scoring them, and how do you think they reflect Sheridan’s dramatic brand?
I love working with Taylor. His projects are very much films in almost every way, other than the fact they’re much longer story arcs being long form series instead of films with a two-hour run time. The scores to both of those shows are unique from each other. Both employ strings as part of the fabric of the score, but apart from that they have different instruments, time signatures and structure. I’m sure they both sound like “me” in some way which cannot be helped, but I’m able to work on both at the same time and keep their musical identities separate.
As a composer, are you worried about A.I., or are you ready to make friends with it? How do you think composers can keep in sync with it in the future?
I’m not sure what the future will hold, but I know that every technological advance that we thought might destroy the industry has only evolved it. And some which we thought would be bad have actually been great. When computers evolved so that people could make albums in their own homes, record deals and label signing got more difficult, but on the flip side, a lot of really talented people started to be able to make great music on their laptops and that creative barrier went away. Music has this intangible part that can’t be put into words and can’t be broken down scientifically. Mathematics can get us close to good music, but it can’t replicate the emotional magic dust that resides in something that moves you. Maybe that’s coming, maybe not, but in the meantime, hopefully AI will just provide the tools to allow artists to do that better.
What kind of effects epic would you like to work with Brad on next? And could you see more adventures of Atlas in the future?
I’d love to follow Atlas and Smith on new adventures. I think there’s a lot of places the story could go and the music could go. Brad has many irons in the fire and several projects he could move on to. We already have potential musical ideas for each of them, so I’m ready to jump on a plane and “go” whatever he decides is his next project.
Watch “Atlas” on Netflix HERE, and get Andrew Lockington’s score HERE On Netflix Records
Special thanks to Lauren Mennuti at Shelter PR