Three times is the striking charm for composer Steffen Thum, even when it’s men running amuck in past and future worlds, with the present Scottish woods conjured by Thum’s oft-composing partner Max Aruj. Yet all three scores are impressive in just how vastly different they sound. While it’s dangerous enough to use Jupiter’s gravity as a “Slingshot” to propel three astronauts to Io, Thum creates a majestic, soothingly melodic sound for orchestra and electronics that steadily disintegrates along with the sanity of a crewmate as his comrades gradually become enemies. Then there’s the headbanging, horrifically decapitating sound of “Stockholm Bloodbath” as Thum’s mix of authentic instruments and a hip, rock and roll attitude play both feminine revenge and twisted religious violence that a cruel king visits upon conquered Swedes. And with a “Betrayal” that teams him with Max Aruj following their hair-raising rampaging crocodile score for “Crawl,” the composers unleash darkly suspenseful percussion as three abused brothers’ treasure-gaining murder of their abusive father of course goes awry, the ominously powerful and even poignant music violently tearing what’s left of their family bonds asunder. All point the way to Thum’s stylistically diverse talent, no more so than when it comes his ability to create suspense and emotion from diverse settings united in their sense of powder keg volatility.
Tell us about your musical start going from Germany to work with Hans Zimmer and his acolytes, which you’ve now continued in arrangements for Benjamin Wallfisch’s scores for “Twisters” and “Alien Romulus.” How do you think their sound affected your own scoring, especially in Remote Control’s mix of orchestra, electronics and percussion?
I was always interested in film and music, but growing up in a small town in Southern Germany, the idea of a career in either of them seemed far away. My teenage years were all about rock music. I played guitar and bass, partially self-taught, and started working on song ideas, which always remained instrumental because I wasn’t very good at coming up with lyrics. After school, I pursued filmmaking, worked in post-production for a while, but eventually found my way back into studying film music, which also brought me to LA, originally for two semesters. It’s funny how things somehow fall into place, but through all that I landed a job at Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Productions, getting to assist and later compose for Lorne Balfe on dozens of big film and TV titles. I worked there for six years, and it was an incredible learning experience, which allowed me to challenge myself in a wide range of styles and genres. While I’m always curious about new ways to approach film scoring in my own work nowadays, the experience working with Lorne always remains an influence.
Mikael Håfström directs “Stockholm Bloodbath”
How did you first meet Mikael Håfström?
I was introduced to Mikael through Lorne. They had done a film called “Outside the Wire” together, and as “Slingshot” took form, Lorne brought me in to handle the score. I was intrigued to work with Mikael as he’s a veteran director with a passion for genre films – which I very much share. We had a Zoom call together with Lorne and Mikael’s editor Rickard Krantz, and took things from there.
How did you settle on the musical direction of “Slingshot?” How “science fiction”-y did you want to make it?
I wasn’t overly concerned with the fact that it was science fiction. It was more about the psychological aspect of it, and how to portray Casey Affleck’s character John slowly losing his sense of reality onboard this station. I only knew that I didn’t want it to heavily lean towards futuristic synth music, nor purely orchestral grandeur that tells us we’re on a space adventure. The film is essentially a chamber piece for most of the running time, so it was all about bringing in a sense of unease and oppression. That initial Zoom call was about understanding Mikael’s vision, his musical taste, and coming up with a concept that will serve the story. I think the first idea that came out of that was the Main Theme.
On that end, did you want it to fit into the genre of astronaut scores from “Apollo 13” to “First Man” and “Interstellar” to give a sense of these characters’ bravery in taking on an unimaginable mission like this?
The Main Theme definitely is an attempt to emphasize the emotional weight, the larger-than-life commitment it takes to take on this mission and to see it through. And in the case of John, also a sense of longing and regret. He keeps thinking about Zoe, a woman he left behind on Earth. There’s definitely room for orchestral grandeur in this film, although it’s not about reaching the scale of “Interstellar” and others. It’s a tight psychological thriller at heart, occasionally even drifting into moments of horror, so I like to counter that expectation of genre-typical music with a darker, more twisted hybrid soundscape wherever it’s useful.
There’s a fun “promo” video scene for the Odyssey voyage. Talk about scoring that segment that’s full of bold optimism?
That’s one of the flashback scenes taking us back to John’s time on Earth. Alongside many other possible candidates for the Titan mission, he’s watching this promo video, which introduces them and us to the objectives of this mission called Odyssey 1. The piece I wrote for that scene, essentially source music, is purposefully different to the rest of the score – like you said, full of bold optimism. In showcasing Titan’s water and methane resources as a chance to heal Earth’s climate, the promo video sells this mission as a future for humanity, our golden ticket, that everyone should strive for. It’s uplifting music, grand chords, full orchestra, which was really fun to record. It’s hopeful and inspirational, and of course we know, none of that will be true for John.
How did you want to musically get across the idea of a slingshot gravity effect?
The music for the actual slingshot sequence was mainly an exercise in tension scoring. John is in charge of this risky maneuver, which needs to be performed at the precisely right moment, or the whole mission could be ruined. Think of the docking scene in “Interstellar” with the spinning ship. You want to create a sense of tempo and urgency – pulsing strings and synths, brass swells, screaming textures, all ramping up. Time is running out. Will they make it?
Given that “Slingshot” is tellingly claustrophobic with precious little glimpses into space, how important was it for the score to “open” up the film?
We were talking about the use of grand orchestral statements before, moments that certainly open up the film emotionally, despite being visually oppressive at times. John keeps wandering the same hallways on that ship, again and again, and one of the conversations I had with Mikael was, how do these walls sound? At times, we hear nothing but the faintest drone. So much of it is happening on a psychological level, and a lot of the score is textural, experimental and dark. There’s a lot of twists and turns in the script, and moments when John starts to question everything has to make a big decision or comes to a conclusion. Those are the key moments where the score can open up and orchestral colors can come out like rays of light.
How did you want to put yourself in John’s headspace that things aren’t what they seem?
I started working with simple patterns, like synth and piano arpeggios, that became little motifs. As John becomes more confused, these patterns could shift and overlap, creating polyrhythms for a sense of disorientation. Sometimes those moments are very subtle, sometimes quite noticeable. I relied mainly on organic sounds like pianos/keys or strings that I could run through warped reverbs and other effects to let them audibly fall apart and deteriorate. There’s a lot of musical sound design involved, like loopy, warped textures and sounds that keep ringing or rubbing against each other. There’s a constant struggle between control and escalation in his mind. A lot of that material can be found in “John’s Suite” on the soundtrack album.
What’s interesting is that all three of the Odyssey’s crew members are “right” in their responses to whatever is going on. How did you want to play that moral conflict in a way that also makes this part of the “Crimson Tide” mutiny-on-a-ship genre?
The warped, experimental sound palette that I developed for John finds its way into those scenes as well, as the growing mistrust between him and his colleagues obviously plays into his own doubts and confusions. There’s a couple of songs placed in the film, most prominently The Animal’s “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. The use of that song and its lyrics brings a certain meaning to the film, Laurence Fishburne even sings it, so I wanted to pick up on that in the score as well. I’m using the descending four note bass line during the song’s verses (the lament bass) as a motif for the crew members, mostly heard on celli and basses.
“Slingshot” has an interesting flashback structure in an overall hallucinatory framework. How did you want the score to reflect that?
The flashbacks are all about John’s memories of Zoe (Emily Beecham). They start getting romantically involved, well knowing that John will soon have to leave, and with things unresolved, John is stuck in feelings of longing and regret. It was important to me to not just score their scenes as the audience sees them, but through the sentimental lens of John’s memories, coming from millions of miles away. One of the key motifs for that became these tender flourishes of solo violins, beautifully played by violinist Natalia Tsupryk (i.e. the album track “Memories of Zoe”). There’s a kaleidoscopic feeling about it that I like. The lament bass motif finds its way into these scenes as well, but in a higher register and harmonized, sometimes on violins, sometimes on piano.
How important was it for you to get across the emotional idea of the humanity and love that John is trying to hold onto even as reality breaks apart for him?
That’s certainly one of the aspects I hope will come through for audiences – it certainly resonated with me. Most of us will remember a moment in our past that didn’t go our way, a missed opportunity that still haunts us, especially when it was within our control to do something about it, but we didn’t. What if we could go back and make it right? John has his own little theme that I think is a reflection of that, often used in relation to Zoe (Stephanie Beecham). It’s the first thing we hear at the beginning of the film (album track “Wake Up”), and it reappears throughout the film. A tragic variation and the biggest statement of that theme is the track “I’m Leaving”, played by the entire string ensemble.
“Slingshot”’s score is exceptionally well performed. Tell us about the orchestral sessions, and how you wanted to integrate the music’s electronic elements into it. In that respect, how did you want to reflect a surreal and then finally unnerving sense as to what’s real and what isn’t?
The orchestral sessions took place at Pannonia Studio in Budapest, where the score was also mixed. It was important to me that the orchestra and organic sounds would blend seamlessly with the electronic and experimental sound design, which factored into my compositional decisions from the very start. I often gravitate towards writing hybrid scores, simply because there’s endless possibilities to approach something. That space where organic and electronic sounds blend into one and you can’t tell what’s what is always fascinating to me.
Before “Slingshot,” you’d scored “Stockholm Bloodbath” for Mikael – a film with way bigger visual scope.
“Stockholm Bloodbath” was actually our second collaboration but happened to be released first – at least in Scandinavia. Mikael first told me about it while we recorded “Slingshot”, which was before filming “Stockholm Bloodbath” had even begun. I eventually started working on the first ideas while they were editing, which was a great way to try out different things. Overall, I had well over six months to score the film, which is a luxury. It gave me time to get a better understanding of the history, culture and music of that time period, and how to work that into the score. (Loosely based on actual events that took place around 1520, it’s the story of two young Swedish women that are drawn into a political power struggle between Sweden and Denmark, culminating in a mass execution, known as the Stockholm Bloodbath.)
Right from the opening title cards that give us shorthand to the key players, as well as a hit list the heroines carry with them with such descriptions as “German brothers” and “evil guy,” there’s a hip, gallows humor to this that one might say is Tarantino-esque. How did you want to play that without descending into outright absurdity?
The very modern tone of this film was what fascinated me right away. It quickly became clear to me that this wasn’t going to be your usual medieval period piece, but a modern, bold and edgy tale of revenge. It’s quite grim and violent, yet shaken up with this twisted humor. As a viewer, you often don’t quite know how to feel. It’s a fine line artistically, and Mikael and I talked about how to approach that a lot. He originally wanted to use several modern rock and folk songs – there’s only one song left in the film now, but the idea of those songs would inform the DNA of the music I wanted to write: Combining orchestra and traditional Nordic instruments with gritty guitars, drums and mangled vocals. I’ve also read the comparisons to Tarantino a few times since the Scandinavian release, and I know many people had issues with the narrative liberties our film takes, just as it was the case when “Inglourious Basterds” came out. I think film is allowed to do that, and my main intent for the music was to just have fun with it while still taking the story and characters seriously.
Was it psychologically difficult to score the beheading-filled “bloodbath” sequence? And how did you want to get across the gleeful frenzy of it?
The beheading montage (album track “Didrik’s Dance”) was one of several that originally had a rock song placement before they decided to go with score. And it was certainly the most sensitive of them all. Of course we never wanted to feel celebratory in showing the violence of this scene, but through the eyes of Didrik (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard), the main henchman at work here, the music had to encapsulate a sort of demented ecstasy. The concept I came up with was this single-minded pulse and a delirious wash of psychedelic rock guitars and distorted violins. In a sense, it’s the doomed, perverted version of the bad guys’ theme, “Didrik and the Boys”.
How did you want to incorporate ancient instruments into more contemporary ones to keep the score hip?
That whole concept took different shapes throughout – in peaceful scenes, the traditional Nordic instruments might find their place in a cue quite raw and exposed, be it textural or as soloistic passages. When things get dark and tense, I’ll have those instruments join the rock band, let them run through guitar amp and have the players play more aggressive than they usually would. I wanted it to be an adventure score with the attitude of a rock song.
Tell us about playing King Kristian, particularly given his eerie wind motif?
I took a lot of inspiration from all the actor’s performances, but especially in the case of Claes Bang, who plays King Kristian. I think it’s one of my favorite villain performances in recent years, and I was lucky enough to meet him and tell him that at the premiere. King Kristian is a charming, yet ruthless, uninhibited character, often bringing a twisted humor into situations that might be dead serious for another character. I wanted a special signature sound for him and came up with the idea of a bass viola da gamba playing in its highest register. It’s a strangely winding four note motif, and the leaps and slides are quite odd to play on the viola da gamba. It’s the idea of pushing that instrument to an extreme that seemed fitting to me.
Do you think bringing a guitar into this gives the score a spaghetti western feeling, especially given its revenge plot?
As I watched the film for the first time, it often felt like a western to me, and once we had established the concept of rock music DNA in the score, it just seemed to make sense. I wasn’t exactly thinking of spaghetti westerns, but in my head, I think I wanted the overall sound to live somewhere between Velvet Underground and Nine Inch Nails.
How did Freya being mute affect your scoring of her? And did it inspire the use of female vocals?
I think with the use of vocals, I mostly responded to her perceived innocence and her strong sense of faith. Religious conviction and the misuse of it are a big topic in this film. Between our two heroines, Freya (Alba August) is a strong believer, while Anne (Sophie Cookson) questions the whole concept. King Kristian and his allies use religion to justify their killings and executions, declaring it God’s will. Unfortunately, in some parts of the world today that’s still as relevant as ever. Thematically though, I always felt like connecting Freya to “Blodsystrar” (“blood sisters”) and that distorted vocal melody at the end of it, which I often worked into her scenes. Above all, she’s strong and courageous, a loyal friend, skilled hunter and knows how to kick ass, and I like the idea of connecting that confident, upbeat music to her actions rather than her lack of words.
Was it tricky to balance the villain payback energy of “Bloodbath” with the decidedly unfulfilling and tragic historical story?
Things like that are always tricky, but at the end of the day, my job is to serve the story of the film. I think the main theme and the mournful vocal performances by Merethe Soltvedt are able to evoke a sense of tragedy and grief, as well as finding the strength to overcome it. It goes back to our earlier conversation about Mikael’s vision, which I simply needed to trust and follow. I think cinema has the right to reshuffle the cards, and it’s not like we’re reversing history here – as crazy as the events in this film sometimes are, a shocking amount of it is quite close to the facts we have.
“Stockholm” is certainly the largest-scale film you’ve scored, complete with battle scenes that could fit into “Gladiator.” What was that challenge, and opportunity like?
Oh, I had an absolute blast working on these scenes. After writing additional music on many big action movies for Lorne, Hans and others of the years, I knew exactly how to approach it, and it was all the more fulfilling to put my own stamp on it by soaking it in the folk-rock color palette I had established for this film.
Max Aruj and Steffen Thum
Tell us about your and Max Aruj’s breakthrough co-score for the alligator thriller “Crawl.” What do you think has made you a good team?
It’s simply the fact that we’ve closely worked together for so many years now, both as team members on film scores for Lorne and Hans, as well as our own collaborations since then. Our first co-scoring gig was the Netflix Original film “iBoy”, which was followed by indie thriller “Warning Shot” and eventually “Crawl” for Paramount, which was so much fun for us. We’ve developed a shorthand of working, sharing ideas and composing quite efficiently. We share similar tastes, but sometimes have different instincts for a scene, which I find only widens the room for ideas. Even now, as I’m based in Berlin and he’s still in LA, we’ve been able to work that same way on different projects.
Rodger Griffiths
What was your and Max’s approach to “Betrayal”? And how was your collaboration with director and co-writer Rodger Griffiths?
We were originally introduced to Rodger and the team to work on his short film “Take the Shot” in 2017. The contact came through producer Claire Mundell, who had worked with Lorne before. Rodger wanted to turn that short into a feature film, which, several years later, eventually became “Betrayal”. We worked on that in 2022. It’s a great example of a fully remote working process for us, as I was in Berlin by that time, Max in LA, and the filmmakers were based in the UK. It all happened via Zoom, and since we had our work on “Take the Shot” as a starting point, it wasn’t difficult to agree on the overall creative direction.
Why did you choose to use a female chorus over “Betrayal’s” opening forest shot, as well as whispered voices in the score?
The film tells this story of three brothers who decide to kill their abusive father after they tragically lost their mother, for which the father is to blame. We knew the score would generally be quite harsh and bleak, so I was interested in bringing in a very human element that would represent the mother. We only see her in a few flashbacks, but the memory of her haunts her sons throughout the film. They want to avenge her death, so she’s essentially the catalyst of this story, the beginning of it all. We came up with the idea of a mother’s lullaby, something that she might have sung to her sons in the past. We give a first impression of that lullaby in the film’s opening and weave it in subtle ways throughout the score. The final statement is a full-fledged arrangement of the song for the film’s ending.
Given how bleak and atonal “Betrayal’s” music often is, how did you want to bring in the more melodic material?
Sons killing their father after losing their mother – that’s an incredibly dark story to begin with. We knew we had to go dark musically, while never losing sight of the emotional aspects of it. It’s grief turned into vengeful hate, later joined by distrust, fear and paranoia as the plot unravels. In between all that bleakness, we wanted to make sure there’d be room for melodic material, if only for a fleeting heartfelt moment here and there.
How did you want to convey the woods, especially when bringing more horrific aspects to it to convey the mystery of just who is out there hunting the brothers?
We quickly agreed on the tonal palette of this score to be almost exclusively made of acoustic and organic sounds. We recorded a lot of custom violin and cello textures, but also used lots of percussion and vocal elements. There’s a mystic quality to these remote woodlands they live in, at nightfall almost a bit surreal, and in many cases, like when the brothers are carefully sneaking and exploring, we decided to go really sparse and quiet with the score to really hear the woods, the brother’s footsteps, their breaths.
Tell us about the various percussion instruments you used here, especially when it comes to the idea of being tracked and chased?
We wanted a really raw, primal soundscape and experimented with a lot of different percussive sources, from rather conventional drums to found objects. Wood, metal and beyond, anything that could be hit with a stick was fair game. Of course, percussion is perfect to evoke movement, and in the case of the chase scenes in this film, we wanted to get really frenetic and messy with it, also often adding chopped up voices that sound like they’re running out of breath.
Which of the brothers did you have the most empathy here with, and why?
As the story unfolds, we realize they’re all tragic figures in their own way, but I’d have to go with Vince )Calum Ross), the youngest of the three, simply because of his heartbreaking story arc – but I don’t want to give anything away at this point!
If you and Max ever have a creative difference, how do you sort it out to less catastrophic extremes than the brothers do there?
The only healthy way is to make room for more than one idea and then have a conversation: “I like this – how about we remove this bit, or add something here? It works but maybe it needs to be faster, slower, darker, brighter?” We just keep experimenting in those cases and it always worked out for the best. Luckily I never had to pull a hunting rifle on him so far.
An organ interestingly and subtly appears towards the end of “Betrayal”. How did you end up choosing this instrument?
It was just one of those moments where we needed to break out of the bleakness and highlight an emotional moment. It’s a reed organ combined with hummed vocals, which gives that scene a calm, solemn character while also evoking a sense of homely comfort – in the case of this scene, it’s very purposefully used as a counterpoint to what’s going on, a quite devastating moment.
Tell us about “The Red and Weary Paths”, the end song of “Betrayal.”
It’s a bookend to the film’s opening – the mother’s lullaby in its full form. We wanted it to sound mystical, spherical, like a song that has been around forever, and since the film is set in the Scottish woods, the lyrics were going to be Scottish Gaelic. Not an easy task, but we were very lucky to find a great vocalist in Stephanie Healy, who not only brought the right emotion to this song but helped us translate our English lyrics the right way. I’m so happy with how it turned out.
The “Stockholm Bloodbath” orchestra
When you look at the past of “Stockholm Bloodbath,” “Betrayal’s” present and “Slingshot’s” future, would you say a common theme is toxic masculinity and control run amuck? And is that something you enjoy scoring?
I definitely see the aspect of control and the struggle to maintain it across all three films. Both “Betrayal” and “Stockholm Bloodbath” derive their conflict from the actions of power hungry, ruthless men – may it be a father abusing his wife and kids or a king abusing his power to execute hundreds of people in the name of God. In “Slingshot”, it’s the struggle with control on a psychological level. At the end of the day, all it needs to be is a story I and the audience can respond to emotionally. I generally find thrillers and darker stories interesting, but what I love most about this job is that every film will call for something completely different.
What’s up ahead for you?
I’m currently scoring a conspiracy thriller called “The Awakening”, the second feature I’m doing with director Matt Routledge. There’s a few other things on the horizon that I can’t talk about just yet, but I can’t wait to share more soon!
“Slingshot” is now in theaters and on VOD. “Betrayal” will be released on September 6th, with “Stockholm Bloodbath’s” release upcoming. Get their soundtracks on MovieScore Media HERE, HERE and HERE. Visit Steffen Thum’s website HERE
Thanks to Mikael Carlsson and MovieScore Media and Susan Engel at Susan Engel PR