# Excellent John Powell interview about working in the industry



## dcoscina (Jan 29, 2015)

As always, a rather candid and entertaining talk with Powell. He really is one of my favourite composers because he's so honest and frank about things. And his music kicks ass. HTTYD2 is by far my favorite score of 2014. THe nuances and new material he composed should have garnered some Oscar attention but oh well. It doesn't diminish the quality of his writing. Not one bit

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2015/01/27/interview-train-dragon-oscar-nominated-composer-john-powell-challenges-industry/ (http://www.awardscircuit.com/2015/01/27 ... -industry/)


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## mbagalacomposer (Jan 29, 2015)

Wow love the bit at the end about the dangers of only listening to film music. Its so easy to fall into a rut if the only thing banging around in your ears is other scores….good way to keep things fresh!


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## tokatila (Jan 29, 2015)

Thanks for posting these. Powell is one of my favorite (film) composers; but definitively my favorite composer to be interviewed. "I always tell people I get paid 10 dollars an hour to write music and a million dollars to stay calm." Priceless.


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## PeterKorcek (Jan 29, 2015)

he is great, love his scores as well, gonna read the interview now

NOTE> true, the dragon 2 score is fantastic, was listening to the first song - Dragon Racing - all the time


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## cmillar (Feb 9, 2015)

Thanks for posting this. Excellent, candid interview... very refreshing.

And relevant to more than just film music. A lot of composers (like myself) who visit this forum are not exclusively writing for film music in order to pay the bills. 

But I, like many, totally keep track of what's happening in the world of film music, because it seems that a lot of the best composers these days happen to be immersed in film music and have been pushing the art of film scoring forward in wonderful new ways through the mix of new technology and tradition.

I really believe that many of todays' great innovations and new ways of thinking about music and sound have come from people like Zimmer, Powell, T. Newman, the 'Remote' crew of composers and sound designers, Don Davis's 'Matrix' work, Jerry Goldsmith's work, and many other examples. (.... let's not forget John Corigliano, a concert composer who blew people away at the time when he scored 'Altered States')

But Powell's thoughts that film composers shouldn't just listen to film music is right on. 

All the above named composers could surely tell you who Penderecki was, who Beethoven was, Mozart, Zappa, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, Arnold Schoenberg, Richard Strauss, Richard Wagner, Stravinsky, Philip Glass, etc. etc. 

Point being... many composers have come up with new musical directions. And, film composers (as any composers) are very indebted to the great composers of the past.

Like Powell alludes to, it's kind of sad that film directors, music supervisors, and many so-called film composers just want to copy someone else's film score; which itself was really created for one purpose... to serve the film that it was written for. 

This interview should be required reading for anyone interested in composing music, especially students.


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## ryanstrong (Feb 9, 2015)

tokatila @ Thu Jan 29 said:


> "I always tell people I get paid 10 dollars an hour to write music and a million dollars to stay calm." Priceless.



My favorite take away.


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## Astronaut FX (Feb 9, 2015)

> I don’t think anyone should be proud of contributing to pop culture. The danger of pride and creation is very hard; it’s not necessarily about quality but about zeitgeist.




This quote struck me most of all...quite refreshing for someone in his position to admit.


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