-HANS ZIMMER: Hello, everyone.
-Hi-ya.
ZIMMER: May I introduce you
to the person
that actually got
me into trouble?
-This is Johnny Marr.
-MARR: Hi-ya!
And I wouldn't have...
I would've stayed at home.
I would've been a good
boy writing film scores,
I would not have left my room.
I hadn't left my
room in 40 years,
and he and Pharrell Williams
basically bullied me,
badgered me!
Yeah.
Look at all these synths!
ZIMMER: You're just jealous.
You just want that one.
The reason I've gathered
all these people together
is really quite simply this.
These are all people who
are telling the story
of who we are
as human beings,
directors, actors,
musicians,
people who have a history
beyond one movie,
or beyond one
project together.
I'm fascinated at not having
their opinion about my work,
but just having
their opinion
about who are
we as human beings,
why are we making culture,
why are we trying to make
music, or act, or make a movie?
At the end of the day,
why are we all interested
in being story tellers?
["A Time of Quiet Between
the Storms" from "Dune 2"]
[soloist sings]
[percussions plays]
[cheering]
[percussion plays]
[orchestra enters]
[cheering]
["Inception" suite]
[drums solo]
[bass enters]
[orchestra enters]
[drums stop]
[drums re-enter]
[drum and percussion solo]
[man shouts]
[electric guitars play]
[full orchestra enters]
[cheering]
Good evening.
[cheering]
Good evening, Dubai!
What an honor it is
for us to be here!
What a joy it is
to play for you!
-It's so...
-We love you, Hans!
[cheering]
Good, I'm glad.
The riot starts
before I even started it.
[cheering]
No, seriously, we wanted to come
here to this wonderful city,
and I realized what a
true jewel you have here,
what an amazing city,
what an amazing...
[cheering]
And I realized that...
I mean we've been travelling
all over the world recently,
and I suddenly realized
the future is here.
[cheering]
-It's so good to see you.
-It's good to see you.
It's so good to see you.
I'm really happy
to see you looking well.
So, I remember the fateful day.
I don't know if you
guys had planned it,
but you and Pharrell
sat me down on the couch,
sat a little too close
on either side of me,
and started to give me
a lecture about
how I needed to go
and play live.
I mean, the whole reason
I had a career in film
was because I didn't want
to go and stand on a stage,
so I had to find
a different way of...
-Yeah.
-...making a living.
I remember afterwards saying
how amusing it was for me
to see the guy who wrote "Heaven
Knows I'm Miserable Now,"
with the guy who wrote "Happy."
-I know!
-Literally, that was hilarious!
And you two getting on
like a house on fire.
If it hadn't been
for the two of you,
I would never have gone
out on the road.
It was obvious to us that
not only could you do it,
but you should do it,
but now, what we're talking now,
like almost ten years later,
look how many
shows you've done.
I didn't know that you were
going to be a complete road dog!
I know, I know,
I didn't know either.
You're more of
a road dog than I am!
I know, I mean
I'm loving it.
I don't know whether
you remember this,
I asked you to remember that
you were an electronic musician.
You know, that's a really big...
that's a huge point!
It was important that people
hear you play a synthesizer.
Well, exactly.
Being a composer,
a film composer,
brings a certain kind of
association and an idea of,
you know, sophistication
and orchestration,
but what I know of
you is programming
and Jupiters and Moogs,
and I'm really glad that that's
a big part of your show now,
that the electronic side
of it is showing people
who you are and what
you started off.
You know, the other thing I love
is how international we are.
The whole thing,
you know, like the orchestra.
The orchestra is from
Odessa in Ukraine.
Yeah.
So they came over two weeks
after the w*r started,
and we had to
smuggle them out.
Not smuggle them out,
but it was very hard for
them to cross the border.
I heard that, yeah.
So, there are some real
world problems going on,
dramatic problems going
on with the orchestra
and for three hours,
they don't let the
audience know this,
and they play with a smile on
their face with great passion,
and they can't
get to their phone,
while their country
is being destroyed.
Yeah.
So it's not just
about the playing.
I think that's why the idea
that it's a family
isn't so wrong.
I read a lot of stuff by
young composers on the internet
and that they're
"work for hire,"
and I never behaved
like this even in films.
And I don't treat anybody
else as a "work for hire"
-or a hired musician.
-No.
No, I mean, sometimes
it's not even how well you play,
it's more are
you a good hang?
-You know?
-That's right.
There you have it, because
there's all this other stuff,
but essentially, at heart,
you've got the soul
of a rock musician.
Yeah, exactly!
Yeah.
[cheering]
["Wonder Woman" suite]
[orchestra builds]
[choir enters]
[choir solos]
[orchestra re-enters]
[heavy percussion drops]
[violin solo]
[guitar solo]
[percussion and chant]
[woodwind solo]
[percussion and chant]
[orchestra re-enters]
[cheering]
[choir sings]
[percussion]
[distorted cello solo]
[percussion stops]
[orchestra and electric
guitar re-enters]
[vocalist enters]
[choir enters]
[cheering]
-Hans!
-Dude...
-Hello!
-It's been so long!
Hello, my friend!
-How are you?
-I'm good!
We haven't seen
you in like four years.
-It's been such a long time.
-It's a treat to see you!
I think that's
complete bullshit!
I don't think
it's been four years.
I think it's been...
Four years ago, we hadn't
even written the song.
-Four years ago we had.
-Wait, we had.
Four years ago,
we had recorded...
-Okay, so it's been four years.
-It's been four years.
But luckily we're
all still youthful.
You look the same!
This might be the same outfit
I've seen you in it before.
You look great!
Look, the reason I wanted
to have you
be part of this
is because,
the more I started
working on
this little documentary
or concert film,
the more I realized
I actually wanted to make it
about what it's like to be
an artist, or what we do.
I loved "Barbie," by the way.
-Oh, thanks.
-I truly loved it.
That was a real treat.
That was, you know, an
experience that I felt like
we were better equipped
for having worked with you.
I think that that was
like, you know,
being guided through
the Bond experience with you
and learning so much from you,
meant that that
experience was like,
"We can implement all of
this stuff that we learned."
-Yeah, 100%.
-It was directly applicable.
We would never have
been able to make that.
To me it was such an example
of how to collaborate
in the most effective way.
That was one of the
biggest things
I feel like
I got from you,
because I was also 17
and new and was very...
just things were
exploding around me.
And I was just trying
to figure it out.
I think it was hard to know
how I was supposed to act
most of the time,
and I think that your
being so welcoming to us
and also just being
such a good collaborator
was really something that
I think all of us learned from,
but I was really at an age
where I'm really glad
to have had that
experience with you
because I feel like
I then took that
and was very inspired
by it in my career.
And you didn't make us
feel like you felt
like you knew everything
about everything
and you're the only
one that's right.
-But I know nothing.
-That's amazing!
There's a kind of
an epidemic of people
that think that
they know everything,
especially in, I think music.
You said something really
interesting, because it's true.
There are so many people
who think
they know everything
about music,
and if you really
think about that,
all they know is about
yesterday's music.
-Yeah.
-Right.
You know, they are
actually putting up a wall
to not have the imagination of
doing something new, you know?
Yeah. It's just really hard
to know that something
that you made has such
an impact on someone.
Even if someone tells you,
it's really hard to process.
And also for you, you love it,
but you're doing your job,
and so, you know...
"Pirates of the Caribbean,"
you're just like making...
-Pirate music!
-Pirate music, man!
You just do it, but for us,
it's like our whole childhood!
I wrote those tunes...
I just dashed them out!
How do you decide what you
want to play on each song live,
because you play most
of everything
often when you're
recording it, right?
So you cherry-pick, you go,
"This was the most fun part to
play, I'm going to play guitar."
How did you
choose what instrument
-you were going to play?
-Pretty much that!
You know how it is,
being a keyboard player is,
sort of, slightly boring,
but getting the guitar out,
plugging it in, turning it up,
it's a weapon of
mass destruction
in the best
possible way.
-Do you know what I mean?
-Oh, yeah.
It's like, ooh, if you're
going to do this,
you might as well
go all the way.
I on purpose have this,
not a grand piano on stage.
On purpose have
this little upright,
out of tune, humble,
because I hate
the pretentiousness
of the conductor
or the film composer,
all that stuff
that goes into it.
True.
To be honest, one of the
things I was
the most worried about
ever writing
was "Man of Steel,"
because Superman.
I mean who isn't worried
about writing "Superman."
And then I suddenly realized
actually that the foundation,
the basis of the story was,
it was this man who
could never become human,
and all he wanted to do
was be Clark Kent,
be on his farm, et cetera.
So, the humbleness of that piano
seemed to be like
the right thing to go
and write something
about a Superman
who really just wants
to fight his own humanity.
["What Are You Going to Do
When You Are
Not Saving the World?"
from "Man of Steel]
[orchestra enters]
[orchestra builds]
[orchestra softens]
[electric guitar solo]
[cheering]
[percussion plays]
["Man of Steel Suite"]
[orchestra enters]
[electric guitar enters]
[electric guitar solo]
[cheering]
[man shouting]
That one!
[cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen,
I can say this...
I think I can say this,
and I wonder if the band
agrees with me.
He won't agree with me,
but then he's wrong.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Guthrie Govan,
the greatest guitarist
in the world.
[cheering]
And on top of that,
one of the truly most
gentle and beautiful
human beings that I know.
I love him.
[cheering]
The next thing we're going
to do is an antique piece.
What do you say, Nick, would
you agree with me on that?
Yeah.
It's from Roman times.
[cheering]
It's not "Gladiator!"
[laughing]
I'm lying, it is "Gladiator!"
[cheering]
["Gladiator Suite"]
[woodwind plays]
[orchestra enters]
[acoustic guitars enter]
[tempo slows]
[tempo increases]
[tempo builds]
[chanting]
[orchestra builds intensity]
[distorted bass enters]
[soloist sings]
[orchestra builds]
[choir enters]
[percussion plays]
[vocalist sings]
[chorus sings]
[vocalist sings]
[cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen...
Lisa, don't run off!
Lisa!
[cheering]
Come up, get up there.
Step... Get into the light.
All right.
[cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen,
the incredible Lisa Gerrard!
[cheering]
What are we doing next?
Oh, I tell you what, I tell
you what, I have an idea here.
I might be completely wrong,
but we were all told
we're not supposed
to take any photos, right?
So, let's just take a moment,
whip out our phones!
[cheering]
Come on! Go for it!
Don't be shy!
I'm having you,
you're having me!
[cheering]
I don't know what my career
would be like without you.
I think I wouldn't be in it.
I don't know what
my career would be...
I wouldn't be in
this game anymore,
I'd be selling
real estate somewhere.
Well, here's the
interesting thing,
and it goes
both ways, of course.
So you gave me my first
big break in America,
so it's been a while that
we're still speaking
to each other,
you know, which
just goes to show.
Been a lot of movies.
A lot of movies,
and one huge role
you had in my life is...
when the going got tough
and everybody was bailing
and everybody was going,
"I'm going home now,
I can't handle it anymore,"
you'd stay, you'd stay
by my side, you know,
at four o'clock in the morning
and help get through
these sort of, you know,
the unanswerable questions.
I think that shows
a degree of friendship
that goes so way
beyond professionalism.
And a degree of
caring about somebody.
-And you didn't fire me.
-Never.
I have an enormous amount of
patience for talented people,
and when you're making a movie,
it's like watching paint dry.
You do two minutes a day
and it goes on for months,
and then you come to the point
where you start
to edit the movie
and you put these layers
on it, the sound effects,
all these different things
that make it come alive.
But the most important
thing is the music,
and look, you're the greatest
living composer in my mind.
But I didn't know
I would get there, you know.
Together we make this
music and this movie.
It's not just me.
It's like we're absolutely
working together on things.
I think my experience
with you is that
you have to be in a lot of pain
to write something great.
Yes, it's that!
And unless there's
a total deadline
and you've been up for 48 hours
and you've been drinking,
I don't know how many pots
of coffee, then it hits.
The more pressure,
the better the score, always.
I just remember winning an Oscar
and coming in after
not sleeping all night
and coming in
for a meeting with you,
Don and Tony at ten o'clock,
looking a little bleary-eyed
and playing you this thing,
and you don't mention
the Oscar at all,
and I just go, "I'll play
you the piece of music,"
and you guys go "It's sh*t!"
And back to reality, because
it was always about the work,
it wasn't about anything else.
Always, it's always the work.
Don always used to say we're
in the transportation business,
we transport you
from one place to another.
Absolutely!
The score of the movie
is really the heartbeat
of the film,
it really is.
It's the emotion that
we want the audience
to feel from every
single scene,
and if you get it right,
you have something
really successful.
And sometimes
you'll hear a melody
like "Pirates," and you say,
"We've got a hit movie."
We take this piece of score and
we've got to get everything
else right, of course,
but when you take that, it
makes the character come alive.
It shows the levity
of this character.
And if you take that music,
yeah, it could be goofy,
Johnny's playing this
kind of goofy character,
but when you hear the music,
it makes him heroic,
it makes him fun,
it makes him mischievous,
which is everything that that
character it supposed to be,
and how it carries
through the movie.
"Pirates" was fun,
"Pirates" I loved.
Well, you came in and
saved our life on that one.
We had a previous composer,
and it just didn't work at all.
And I was really frustrated.
Yes, some movies are really
difficult to find the tone,
and "Pirates" was that movie.
Yeah.
But you came in
and you wrote that melody...
-In one night.
-In one night.
-All the themes in one night.
-And it blew everybody away.
I just played you things,
and you went, "Great, let's go!"
It was one of the
most terrific experiences.
You know, they are
all written with blood,
it's as simple as that!
There you go,
that's the true story.
Yeah.
[accordion plays]
["Pirate of the Caribbean"
suite]
[cello enters]
[orchestra enters]
[violin and cello duet]
[orchestra enters]
[choir enters]
[glockenspiel solo]
[woodwinds enter]
[orchestra enters]
[orchestra crescendos]
[electric guitar enters]
[tempo increases]
["Main Theme" from
"Pirates of the Caribbean"]
[cheering]
[choir enters]
[cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen...
she is amazing!
And so are all of them!
[cheering]
Good crowd!
[cheering]
["The Dark Knight Suite"]
[electronic music plays]
[drums enter]
[intensity increases]
[violins solo]
[bass plays]
[orchestra re-enters]
[cheering]
[cheering]
[bass solo]
[violin solo]
[cheering]
[percussion solo]
[cheering]
[orchestra re-enters]
[percussion and piano solo]
[orchestra re-enters]
[cheering]
I just wanted to tell
you a quick story.
I just wanted to tell you
a quick story about Batman.
You know, we did
three Batman movies
and to you it was
like three movies,
to us it was 12 years
of our lives,
and a lot of things
happened in that time.
Joy and tragedy,
all mixed together,
you know,
the extremes of life,
and I think
that's why I do music,
because sometimes I can
say things in music
that I just
can't say in words.
[cheering]
-You and I, we truly go back.
-Yeah, oh, yeah.
When I landed "Interstellar,"
that was truly
my favorite director.
"The Dark Knight"
was a film
that made me want
to act, period.
It's a score I refer to
constantly in "Dune: Part Two,"
particularly the
"Why So Serious?" theme,
and sort of the opening.
I don't know what that
noise is of that shrill...
I know. It's a cello
and I always thought
when I made him do it,
his parents paid a
lot of money for him
to learn how
to play beautifully.
Yeah.
-You know, and I'm making him...
-It's that arduous noise, yeah!
I know. It actually
took a while, because...
He was...
I could always hear him act.
Do you know what I mean?
-The cellist?
-The cellist.
I could always hear him, like,
"I have to be the bad guy,"
and then I actually
wrote something
which was so complicated,
to really like just
completely exhaust him.
Then, sort of, very late at
night, when he was a broken man,
I said, "Okay, just have
one more go at this thing,"
and that was it!
Wow! Wow! That's what
made it into the film?
Yeah, because that
noise is so piercing,
but it's something,
you know,
on "Dune: Part Two"
helped me tremendously.
I also feel that your music
carries across generations
and it doesn't have that pop
music classification, you know?
Yes, it's a weird thing.
It's a weird thing.
That's why I love
revisiting your scores,
or Maurice Jarre,
John Williams,
because it interacts with your
body in a way that you don't...
I love The Beatles, and I love
Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones,
but it brings you
to a time and place.
When I listen to
"Lawrence of Arabia,"
or "Gladiator," it's timeless,
and I revisited it in
the "Gladiator" film.
I love the "To Zucchabar,"
if I'm pronouncing it correctly,
theme in that.
That's something I refer to
a lot on "Dune: Two" as well,
because it helped me
feeling like a foreigner
as Paul Atreides,
entering this land of the
Fremen, I would play that theme.
I saw Paul Mescal who is
playing the new "Gladiator,"
and I told him "To Zucchabar,"
track 6
on "Gladiator"
on the album,
you've got to reference that.
For some reason,
that song moves me.
"Dune" is very different.
"Part Two" is much different
because we do that love theme.
Even the way the movie ends, I
said to Denis, I was surprised,
I said, "You didn't end
on the Atreides theme,
"and you ended on the love
theme," you know.
Yes.
But, okay, hang on.
So the secret of
the love theme...
is actually in the first
movie, the bagpipes.
Remember the bagpipes?
The bagpipes,
the man with the...
Yes, it's that theme,
much slower.
Wow!
The first one,
I struggled with...
Well, not struggled with,
but the rhythm of the movie
was challenging for me to find.
It's really difficult.
I understand.
-I so understand.
-Yeah.
I sort of had the same problem.
I had the same problem.
It's actually interesting
to hear you say
-you struggled with it, too.
-Oh, constantly.
And Joe Walker,
our editor, Joe and I...
The first time Joe and I
worked together was in 1988.
What project was that?
It was a BBC thing,
I got fired off.
Okay, right.
Joe and I worked
on "12 Years a sl*ve"...
Wow!
Which is again, it
is a film that has
a really
individualistic rhythm,
where shots are
held really long, you know,
and to have the courage...
"Dune," did you find
that as well,
that partly these people have
the courage to hold a shot?
Yeah, absolutely.
And so you have
to have the courage
to play the scene
to the very end.
Exactly, and it's something
I'm very proud of
in "Dune: Part Two,"
the shots that do hold.
where I'm not filled
in the editing,
okay, there's a wide here,
and they edit it
out of it quickly,
and there's another wide,
and they edit it quickly.
One of the things
I loved about Denis,
and I think you probably
felt the same thing,
and the same with Chris,
you can start a
sentence off by going,
"This is probably the most
stupid idea you ever heard,
but I'd love to try,"
duh, duh, duh, duh, duh.
And they go for it
and they support you,
even if it's a
bit clumsy at first.
I feel the exact
same way as an actor.
I feel they are huge filmmakers
with an
Indie-minded sensibility.
Absolutely! That's
the thing, you know.
Yeah.
I never thought about it
that way,
but that is exactly it.
And I think, you and
I, we're really lucky
because we got to be part of
two tremendous movies, you know,
and we got to work
with the two best directors
around at the moment.
And the two people
who get to work
with both of them,
you and I!
-Hey, it could be worse.
-It could be worse.
It could be a lot worse.
Yeah.
[cheering]
["X-MDP" from "Dark Phoenix"]
[soloist sings]
[orchestra enters]
[singer vocalizing]
[singer chanting]
[choir chanting]
[choir singing]
[cheering]
["Supermarine" from "Dunkirk"]
[plane engines roaring]
[orchestra playing]
[cheering]
Let's talk about failure.
It's my favorite thing!
What is your relationship
with failure?
Failure is my favorite teacher,
it's the best teacher.
You have no idea how many
pieces of music you didn't hear.
[laughing]
Let me give you my
favorite example.
The opening of Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony, "da da da-da".
Every kid walks pass the piano
and goes "da da da-da,"
but nobody other
than Beethoven knew
that this really simple,
idiotically simple phrase,
could create such magic,
but then, you know, when you go
to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony,
he spent 25 years failing
trying to write it, you know.
So, there was a lot of
failure going on to get there.
For me, the power
of music is that
I can hear two bars of
the theme from "Dune Two"
and I will feel
that same emotion
that I feel after having watched
the two and a half hour movie.
I feel the same way
about "Inception"
and the music on the spinner.
I don't need to watch
the whole movie,
that I'm brought in
with just a few notes
and it goes right into your
heart and it's visceral.
You see, I didn't
want to say that,
I didn't want to mention this
because it's sort of unfair
to my friend Denis,
but you see, you have
to go out into the desert,
you have to spend
forever sh**ting things,
and you have to
forever edit it, and...
And what I can do with,
let's use Beethoven's
Fifth again, you know,
all you have to do
is "da da da-da!"
-That b*stard!
-You know, right?
So, that's the power of music!
I was against music
for a long period of time
because it's so powerful.
The first thing that
is most important
is relationship
with the composer,
how you will find someone
that will be there as a partner
that will listen seriously
deeply to your inner intentions,
because it needs
to be like a dance, too,
because it's a very
dangerous animal!
By us both being honest,
we can create something
which creates an
experience for people.
Experience,
but also specifically with you,
can bring a perspective
or a counterpoint
that brings another meaning
on what's happening,
like for instance, in
"Blade Runner,"
when the composer that composed
the action music
over a sequence,
and we were like, "It's good,
"but it's just
the music is obvious,
"the music is just
telling us something
"that is already in the image
and it brings nothing more."
You came with the idea
to bring back the suite,
that was something you said...
"It's very simple if you put
that very passionate music
"on top of what's
happening right now,
"what it will create is that
we will understand that
"all these characters know that
they are going towards death.
"It's inevitable,
but still they are going forward
and it becomes a tragedy,
they will all die!"
[laughing]
That's a very German idea!
But when you put the music on
the scene, we all start to cry
because it was suddenly
true emotion.
It was not some sentimentalism,
it was about courage.
Inevitability.
I was absolutely floored
by your instinct.
What I learned with you is that
it's not only about the notes
but it's also about
the instruments.
-Oh, totally.
-And I think that
with "Dune," when you're saying
I'm inventing new instruments
and I'm using nothing
from our world,
because the story-telling
occurs in the instruments
that are also
playing the music.
Absolutely.
And I felt it was
it was my duty that,
if you go and build sets
and you build costumes
and you world-build,
that we needed to
world-build as well,
and we needed to go
and invent instruments
and find a language
that hadn't been used before.
You know, I mean, you know,
it is this band that
you see on this stage
that is the soundtrack to Dune,
and I think there
is something great that
you have virtuoso actors,
then the last actors that play
in this film are these musicians
and they are virtuoso
actors too, you know.
What fascinated me in "Dune One"
is how you used voice.
Nobody ever found a person
as courageous as Loire
and we needed to find somebody
who was reckless enough,
because she's right at the edge
of where she could
lose her voice forever.
Oh, yeah.
But, technically, when
you say that's a figure...
It's not a figure of speech,
it's the truth.
But isn't that what it's about,
that we have the honor
to be the storytellers,
but at the same time it comes
with the responsibility
that we just have to put
everything on the line?
["Paul's Dream" from "Dune"]
[electronic sounds,
distorted voices]
[vocalist sings]
[percussions plays]
[orchestra enters]
[orchestra exits]
[orchestra re-enters]
[cheering]
The reason that the shades
are down is because
the cutting room
is right there.
Oh, really?
And I was working on
things with a director
who was in those
cutting rooms
and would give me
sh*t for either...
-Are you at the keyboard.
-Am I really at the keyboard?
That's my fantasy, to be able
to look into where you are...
Yeah, well!
Every movie we've done was
a life and death
experience for me.
I don't mean that...
First of all, I don't mean it
in an ironic or cynical way,
but it was just like, "Okay,
if we're going to do this,
I am prepared to die for it."
This is, this is...
I'm going to throw myself
that much into it.
I do tell people that,
and I don't think
they believe me actually,
I tell people
that the recording sessions
for "The Dark Knight" ended
because I just said,
"We're done, it's enough,
you have to stop."
-I remember that!
-You know?
I remember, you went over to
the console and I was going,
"What the f*ck's he doing?
He's going over to the console."
And you hit the talk back button
and you spoke to the whole
orchestra and you just said,
"Thank you very much,
we're done."
And we were!
And I was appalled because
I still had 1,000 ideas!
Yeah, it was...
I needed a grown up.
You needed a grown up to say,
"We're done, enough is enough."
"Interstellar" is my favorite
work that we did together.
Yeah.
How many years ago was it?
I don't even know.
-It's ten years this year.
-Ten years this year, okay.
I mean, with that film
emotion was everything,
and I think it's
wonderful to see
it's been more embraced
over the years,
and it's a deceptively
simple film, that one,
but I think that "Interstellar"
could have never worked
with anything other
than a new score,
and that was the whole
process with "Interstellar."
That was what I wanted
to get out of you,
I wanted it to be
the most personal score.
I didn't want you to use a lot
of other people in the score.
-I didn't.
-No, you didn't.
I always fully embraced the way
you would put a band together,
the way you would
bring people in.
I never fault that,
I always enjoyed that
process and meeting people.
-But you do the same thing.
-Exactly.
But I wanted to do at
least one film
where you didn't
have any of that.
It's partly to do with
that machine of the film
and getting rid of that
and saying, okay,
what's the heart of it,
sort of you at your keyboard.
It's a remarkable thing to
look at the finished film
and realize how exactly that
is the music for the film.
Yeah.
That first thing
you did in one day.
I mean, obviously,
then it's so expanded on
and changed and other
things added, whatever,
years of work on top of it.
You know, we did 48 sessions.
I'm very aware!
You're very aware, I know!
Proper Zimmer madness!
Would you want it any other
way other than
I embraced, I just went mad.
If you remember, my whole
approach was to get
you to write before
you even knew the genre,
just get you to write based
on the fable that I gave you.
-The letter.
-Yeah.
Can I ask you something
and they can cut it out.
Was that written on
your dad's typewriter?
It was, yeah,
yeah, it was.
I thought so,
and that meant so much.
But the point of doing that,
the point of writing
what I call the fable,
just try to get to the absolute
essence of the thing, one page.
And the way I would describe
it is on the previous films,
we had started with
what I call the "machine,"
the machine of the score,
all the actions, all the sounds,
like, what's the mechanism,
but with "Interstellar,"
I knew it had
to be the other way round.
And I wanted to look down
the other end telescope
and just go, "Okay, let's
start tiny and boom out."
How did you know
I could do that?
I know. I can tell you exactly
because you always talk about...
You're very articulate
about creative process.
You spend a lot of
time thinking about it
and talking to people about it.
One of the things you'd
said to me for years is,
because you had advised me
in my own writing,
we talked about the way in which
you have to approach writing,
the way you have to
approach writing music,
and you always talk about
you have to sneak up on it,
sometimes you have
to sneak up on it,
you can't address
it head on.
So, I think over
the years I've realized
that that's very much
the case with you.
Process and methodology is
freeing for you, it's important,
so the idea was to have
your most spontaneous,
your most loose emotional
response to begin with,
and then build out from there,
Sort of the opposite of what
we've done with the other scores
because I felt that
"Interstellar"
would always require that heart,
your soul at the center of it.
["Interstellar Suite"]
[vocalist sings]
[orchestra builds]
[electric guitar enters]
[organ music enters]
[piano music enters]
[electric guitar enters]
[bass enters]
[vocalist enters]
[choir enters]
Being here is so cool for me.
In many ways, your work is
the soundtrack to my life.
You know?
It's like all these moments.
I remember being
a kindergartener
on my Dad's lap
watching "Lion King."
I remember being 17 and going
to movies to see "Interstellar"
and being obsessed
and then going back
to see it like five times.
-So "Interstellar" moved you.
-Oh, my gosh, yeah!
Oh my God, I...
It's hard.
To this day though, anyone
who comes into my house,
there are certain movies
that I make them watch,
and that is one of them.
I have a list of different
things, and like,
-if you come in my house...
-I've got that, too.
Like, you have to
watch "Interstellar."
And if you haven't watched it,
you're not quite my friend
until you've watched it.
Because you don't
understand me fully!
Exactly, you're not
part of our tribe!
Yeah, you don't know me yet,
but something that
really resonated with me
when I was 17 was the music.
And it's so funny because
now I think it's like
had a resurgence,
"Cornfield Chase" has
had the whole resurgence
online with young people,
people my age or people younger,
using them in TikToks and...
I know. I keep seeing
it on, like,
cut to the craziest footage!
Yeah! It's everywhere.
That was something
that resonated to me
when it first came out,
there was something about it.
I remember I would play it...
I'm from Oakland
and sometimes
I would drive back
home with my parents...
Over the bridge.
And I would play
that driving back.
"Don't let me leave, Murph!"
Right, right.
Dun, dun!
It was playing, you feel like
you're in the movie, you know!
So, it's just deeply
emotional to me.
It was intensely personal.
Do you ever feel
like you put yourself,
obviously you put yourself
inside of the films,
but do you feel like
you resonate sometimes
specifically with
different characters
and put yourself
inside of them?
Totally. Going back
to "The Lion King,"
which I didn't want to do...
dah, dah, dah.
All the stupid things.
My story is, my dad died when
I was six, and here I am.
I tell you why I did "Lion King"
because my oldest daughter
was six at the time.
Ah...
And I've never been able
to take her to a premier
because you can't really
take a six-year-old
to a Ridley Scott movie,
-if you know what I mean.
-Yeah, understood.
So I thought, "I'll do
this happy cartoon," right?
-For my kid.
-For my kid.
Then I'm sitting in
the front of it, and it's like,
"It's about a father dying,"
and I had like hidden
all that away from me.
Hadn't dealt with it.
-I hadn't dealt with it at all!
-Just put that in the...
Now, I'm sitting in front
of a cartoon
and I have to deal with it.
So I wrote this...
I mean the whole score
of "Lion King"
is a requiem for my
father, you know.
Wow! That's so cool.
By the end of it,
it's always personal.
["The Lion King Suite"]
[Lebo M. sings]
["He Lives in You" plays]
Night
And the spirit of life
Callin'
Mamela
And a voice
With the fear of a child
Answers
Whoa, mamela
Wait
There's no mountain
too great
Hear these words
and have faith
Oh
Have faith
[chorus enters]
He lives in you
He lives in me
He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In your reflection
He lives in you
He lives in me
[electric guitar enters]
He lives in you
He lives in me
He watches over
Everything we see
Into the water
Into the truth
In our reflection
He lives in you
[singing in foreign language]
He lives in you
He lives in me
He lives in me
[percussion plays]
[vocalizing]
[orchestra and chorus enters]
[electric guitar enters]
[vocalist enters]
[violinist solo]
[orchestra enters]
[chorus and Lebo M. enters]
[chanting and singing in
foreign language enters]
'Til we find our place
On the great unwinding
In the circle
The circle of life
Whoa
Circle of Life
[cheering]
Ladies and gentlemen,
the legend,
the true Lion King,
my brother, Lebo Morake!
[cheering]
Cup of tea, cup
of coffee? Water?
-What do you want?
-I'm good.
I'm good, too.
Just want to say this,
thank you for changing my life.
-Oh, brother!
-No, it's the truth.
It's the truth.
You gave me the courage
to go and do the thing
that I didn't know
I so wanted to do, you know.
You said, "You can't hide
behind a screen
for the rest of your life."
Which is true.
You've ruined a perfectly
good film composer.
[chuckles]
No, I think I just
held up a mirror.
That was it.
None of this would have happened
had it not been for friendship.
There's a sentence
somebody said to me once,
"We're all alone
in this together."
People are always going
how well we play
or any of that stuff,
you know,
that's what makes
a great musician.
I don't think so.
I think it's how well we listen.
It's the constant listening with
which we support each other,
and if we don't
support each other,
-the whole thing falls apart.
-Yes.
Music just falls apart.
That's where it becomes magical.
-Exactly!
-When it's between people.
It's magical because each
person
is tuning into the muses
which is why they
call them musicians,
and the substance
that they are transmitting
is music,
that's the substance, music.
It's the substance of
the transmissions
of the musicians
from the muses.
The fact that three or four
people could be in the room,
and then that syncs up together.
-That is magical.
-Right, no, absolutely.
And you can't do it
without being in tuned,
and how can you be in tuned
if you're not listening?
When I left school, I was
touring with a terrible band
and we had no money, et cetera,
and we were going everywhere
and things were really grim,
people were so poor.
And so, I have
this fictitious person,
she's called Doris,
she wears a grey raincoat
and she works,
she works really hard,
you know, her hands are
like red from working hard.
And come the weekend,
she's got a choice.
She can go to the movies
with her hard-earned money,
or she can go to the pub.
When she goes to the movies,
I'd better go and
have created some magic,
I'd better go and give her
two hours of an amazing time.
So whenever I write,
and every piece that comes
from nowhere, I go,
"What would Doris
think of this?"
-Wow!
-"Is it good enough for her?"
I don't write for directors,
I don't write for producers,
and I certainly don't
write for movie studios.
Whoa.
You know what's crazy is that
you write these big epic moments
for so many people's films,
their ideas, their concepts.
People see those
films and they feel
what the director wanted
because you bring
such audio color,
and you can do it from
the brightest of the bright,
you know, a "Gladiator" moment,
all the way to the darkest
of The Darkest Knight.
Thank you.
And I'm honored,
I'm just honored.
No, come on!
But it's true.
No, because it's like...
you've seen my vulnerabilities
and you've seen me f*ck up.
You've seen me
struggle, you know.
-We've seen each other struggle.
-Yeah.
You know, "How can we
make this tune work?
How can we make
this lyric work?"
-You know?
-Yeah.
I get to just
mostly aim straight
for either the heart
or the feet, you know.
It's like...
You've got to dance
or you've got to feel it.
Crazy!
I never knew that.
That's what you
were thinking of...
You didn't know about Doris?
No. No, that's
a first for me.
I just thought you went
sitting there and going,
"This what they need.
Okay, cool."
No, no, no.
It's like I feel
it even more...
No, it's beyond there,
it's beyond there.
-Weirdly, she is my hero.
-Yes.
Because she works hard
and she's been left
in this desolate place.
Yeah, and to be able to deliver
for her means the world.
And you know that thing,
when you go to the cinema
and the lights go down,
and then that magic happens.
Yeah.
And for two hours,
two and a half hours...
Everyone's the same.
Absolutely.
Everyone's equal.
Yeah, and we're all
dreaming together.
It's fabulous.
["Time" from "Inception"]
[cello enters]
[orchestra enters]
[electric guitar enters]
[brass enters]
[piano and violin solo]
[piano solo]
["Diamond in the Desert"
by Hans Zimmer]
[electric bass plays]
[orchestra enters]
[percussion enters]
[vocalist enters]
[chorus enters]
[vocalist solos]
[woodwind solo]
[vocalist re-enters]
[orchestra crescendos
and exits]
[woodwind solo]
[chorus re-enters]
[synthesizer enters]
[percussions and
orchestra enter]
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Hans Zimmer & Friends: Diamond in the Desert (2025)
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