Bloom Notes: The Brothers Bloom was written and directed by Rian Johnson, the mastermind behind the indie sensation Brick. His cousin Nathan Johnson of the band Cinematic Underground did the score. We began talking early on in his process about my involvement in the score, and using New Haven as a base of operations, along with the usual hubs of NY and LA. With the upscale studio Firehouse 12 in town, and Nathan’s new studio/live-space downtown, New Haven proved to be a good spot for working. Within a month, Nathan had generated the lions share of the thematic material for the soundtrack. He added me to a core team of musicians who are among some of the best I know, China and Seth Kent, Chris Mears from the UK band New Volunteer, and the composer Ryan Lott (Son Lux). Nathan is an unconventional composer, in that he has a strong vision for what he wants, but invites a high level of collaboration in how he fleshes it out. He is fond of “dirty” work, where imperfections in music are as sought after as exactitude. Instead of putting every note on paper, he will compose a basic theme and glean the best it has to offer through improvisation, layering performances over each other and coaxing his team to interpret and reinvent; only in the final stages will he bring in orchestrators, quartets, and the like. Here is a video of a typical morning’s work on Bloom: The soundtrack was pulled stylistically between the poles of Nino Rota and The Band (circa Bob Dylan). The challenge was to meld these two disparate styles in a cohesive way, as well as satisfy the producers, who were ever calling for “more electric guitars”. The guitars on bloom were played by Nathan, Chris Mears and myself. To generate the steely, gypsy sound that much of the soundtrack needed, I borrowed an old Gibson Archtop from the guitarist and Gibson historian John Thomas. For the more electric sounds we ran my ‘60s Guild T50 through my earthy Vox AC15. Musicians were pulled in from a wide circle of friends and professionals, including Max Heath, Ben Dean, Junius Johnson and Tim Sway, all of whom I work with often. Nick Lloyd, who co-produced The Aviary did much of the recording for Bloom, as well as some fine organ playing. Some of the best NY musicians that I know joined the fray (Eric Stephenson, Aaron Esposito and Marla Hanson from My Brightest Diamond...). The Section Quartet, from LA, proved to be an excellent late addition. All in all, the working process was very organic; with a wide variety of cocktails enjoyed throughout the process, as Nathan, to unwind, is a studied mixer of drinks. In fact, we celebrated the New Haven release of Bloom with cocktails created around each Bloom character. I especially appreciated Bang Bang’s Flaming Cocktail... Hot stuff fo sho. So along with every character having their own cocktail, each had, more or less, their own theme. Guitars were loosely Bloom (Adrian Brody), Harp and Piano for Penelope (Rachel Weisz), Spooky Cello for Diamond Dog, etc... Though themes ended up tossed around to different instruments, this proved a good starting place, and we were able to personify the themes well as different scenes demanded. It helps to have visual stylistic ideas when approaching the playing of any given scene, and instruments, especially when solo and expressive, sometimes need character motivation in much the same way that actors do. Reproductions of vintage circus sideshow posters in the studio added to our ability to connect to the general feel of the film, such as one advertising the “Singing Pig” or “Living Skeleton”. Some sections of the score were easier to unlock than others. We had a particularly difficult afternoon trying to get something to work for the Russia sequence, and ultimately, Nathan sent me to the showers for the day after an unfruitful hour of work. Conversely, a particularly satisfying sequence, Mexico, came together in just twenty minutes, as a last stab after a long ten hour work-day. With me experimenting - melding one of the main themes with a standard Mexican guitar motif, and Nathan coaxing me (against my overly-cautious judgment) to freely mix majors and minors which I was begging to “go back and fix” we managed to get a very satisfying sequence in a very short time. Thankfully, Nathan quelled the urges of “evil Jonny” my occasional studio dark-side-alter-ego who likes to overly perfect things, and we put down the sequence that remains in the final. Due to Nathan’s strong vision and open working style, many interesting hours of work went into the Bloom score. It is a great listen on its own, outside of the context of the film. You can download it: HERE.

The Brothers Bloom was written and directed by Rian Johnson, the mastermind behind the indie sensation Brick. His cousin Nathan Johnson of the band Cinematic Underground did the score. We began talking early on in his process about my involvement in the score, and using New Haven as a base of operations, along with the usual hubs of NY and LA.

With the upscale studio Firehouse 12 in town, and Nathan’s new studio/live-space downtown, New Haven proved to be a good spot for working. Within a month, Nathan had generated the lions share of the thematic material for the soundtrack. He added me to a core team of musicians who are among some of the best I know, China and Seth Kent, Chris Mears from the UK band New Volunteer, and the composer Ryan Lott (Son Lux).

Nathan is an unconventional composer, in that he has a strong vision for what he wants, but invites a high level of collaboration in how he fleshes it out. He is fond of “dirty” work, where imperfections in music are as sought after as exactitude. Instead of putting every note on paper, he will compose a basic theme and glean the best it has to offer through improvisation, layering performances over each other and coaxing his team to interpret and reinvent; only in the final stages will he bring in orchestrators, quartets, and the like. Here is a video of a typical morning’s work on Bloom:

The soundtrack was pulled stylistically between the poles of Nino Rota and The Band (circa Bob Dylan). The challenge was to meld these two disparate styles in a cohesive way, as well as satisfy the producers, who were ever calling for “more electric guitars”.

The guitars on bloom were played by Nathan, Chris Mears and myself. To generate the steely, gypsy sound that much of the soundtrack needed, I borrowed an old Gibson Archtop from the guitarist and Gibson historian John Thomas. For the more electric sounds we ran my ‘60s Guild T50 through my earthy Vox AC15.

Musicians were pulled in from a wide circle of friends and professionals, including Max Heath, Ben Dean, Junius Johnson and Tim Sway, all of whom I work with often. Nick Lloyd, who co-produced The Aviary did much of the recording for Bloom, as well as some fine organ playing. Some of the best NY musicians that I know joined the fray (Eric Stephenson, Aaron Esposito and Marla Hanson from My Brightest Diamond...). The Section Quartet, from LA, proved to be an excellent late addition.

All in all, the working process was very organic; with a wide variety of cocktails enjoyed throughout the process, as Nathan, to unwind, is a studied mixer of drinks. In fact, we celebrated the New Haven release of Bloom with cocktails created around each Bloom character. I especially appreciated Bang Bang’s Flaming Cocktail... Hot stuff fo sho.

So along with every character having their own cocktail, each had, more or less, their own theme. Guitars were loosely Bloom (Adrian Brody), Harp and Piano for Penelope (Rachel Weisz), Spooky Cello for Diamond Dog, etc... Though themes ended up tossed around to different instruments, this proved a good starting place, and we were able to personify the themes well as different scenes demanded. It helps to have visual stylistic ideas when approaching the playing of any given scene, and instruments, especially when solo and expressive, sometimes need character motivation in much the same way that actors do. Reproductions of vintage circus sideshow posters in the studio added to our ability to connect to the general feel of the film, such as one advertising the “Singing Pig” or “Living Skeleton”.

Some sections of the score were easier to unlock than others. We had a particularly difficult afternoon trying to get something to work for the Russia sequence, and ultimately, Nathan sent me to the showers for the day after an unfruitful hour of work. Conversely, a particularly satisfying sequence, Mexico, came together in just twenty minutes, as a last stab after a long ten hour work-day. With me experimenting - melding one of the main themes with a standard Mexican guitar motif, and Nathan coaxing me (against my overly-cautious judgment) to freely mix majors and minors which I was begging to “go back and fix” we managed to get a very satisfying sequence in a very short time. Thankfully, Nathan quelled the urges of “evil Jonny” my occasional studio dark-side-alter-ego who likes to overly perfect things, and we put down the sequence that remains in the final.

Due to Nathan’s strong vision and open working style, many interesting hours of work went into the Bloom score. It is a great listen on its own, outside of the context of the film. You can download it: HERE.