Entertainment- Composer Justin Hurwitz reunited with Damien Chazelle for "Babylon."
- They previously worked together on "Whiplash," "La La Land," and "First Man."
Damien Chazelle's "Babylon" transports audiences back to the 1920s, to the era when Hollywood was transitioning from silent movies to using full sound. The director teamed up with composer Justin Hurwitz to capture the wild story with pulse-pounding melodies that recently won best score at the 2023 Golden Globes.
The result is foot-tapping anthems like "Voodoo Mama," which perfectly captures the chaos and all the unhinged parties that unfold throughout the film.
Speaking to Insider ahead of the movie's UK release on January 20, Hurwitz said that he made the iconic clapping sound with "wooden boards hitting the floor of my home."
The Oscar-winning composer went on to explain how he approached scoring the film, explaining that he wasn't inspired by music from the 1920s, and instead looked at modern dance music to try and pump the audience up.
He said: "I was listening to a lot of modern dance music as well. Modern House, EDM, [I was] getting inspired by the risers and drops that you get in modern dance music that just builds up anticipation, and then just gets you wanting to dance."
The 37-year-old Oscar winner clarified that he and Chazelle "didn't care" about staying faithful to the era's music because they wanted to create something totally unique to the world of the film.
Hurwitz said: "More importantly, it gives us the feel that we wanted. We didn't care about being true to the '20s at all. We cared about being true to this movie, which is a feel and a tone that is all its own. It's a world Damien came up with."
He added: "It's wild, it's unhinged, it's manic, it's fun. It makes you want to dance. It goes through these angry driven sequences. And to get that feel… I was drawing on a lot of things that were not '20s jazz."
Hurwitz also recalled that he worked with a trumpeter that he found online to bring trumpeter Sidney Palmer's (Jovan Adepo) music to life. The composer found Sean Jones after seeing him "on YouTube about three years earlier."
He explained: "I found Sean playing 'Cherokee' with the University of Texas band. He was the pro who had come in to play with the college band. And I heard his tone, which was fiery, but super technical. I was like, 'Yes! That's the sound of Sidney. That's the sound of this movie.'"
The film's editor, Tom Cross, briefly told Insider that he knew that movie's scenes were going to be "chaos," but Hurwitz's score kept things controlled.
He said: "You want to give the impression of chaos, but the storytelling can't be chaotic. The storytelling has to have a certain control to it. And so, I think what really helped me in terms of cutting it and putting it together was Justin Hurwitz, his score."
"Babylon" is out now in the US and released in the UK on Friday, January 20.