Whether you’re calling it Thunderbolts* or The New Avengers, there’s no denying that the latest entry in Marvel’s long-standing franchise is a blast. Betwixt its mature themes and awesome action, you might find yourself bopping your head to its stellar score. You can thank the talented musical trio known as Son Lux for that.
This marks the group’s first foray into music since their Academy Award-nominated work on A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once. And while it took nearly two years to complete – and required a slight change in sound – the band couldn’t be prouder of the product.
Recently, The DisInsider’s Editor-In-Chief, Dempsey Pillot, got the chance to chat with Ian Chang, one of the group’s members, about the film. Chang primarily serves as the group’s drummer, though he lends a heavy hand in its production too. In the interview, he spoke about when the group got recruited to the creative team, the other Marvel films that inspired their work and much more! You can check out the transcript below!
DEMPSEY PILLOT: This is the group’s first major foray into music since the Academy Award-nominated work on Everything Everywhere All At Once. When did you guys get the call to join the project?
IAN CHANG: We were fortunate to have gotten the call very early on, before anything was shot, and the strikes gave us an extra long pre-scoring development runway. This gave us and the director Jake the opportunity to find the sound of the film early, making the music an establishing force in the film, which is quite rare since music is typically part of the post production process. We recently looked up the date of the first email, and it was May 2 2023, exactly two years ahead of the movie’s release!
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DP: The group’s sound has been described as experimental (one of their songs in EEAAO is literally some of the actors saying “I Love You” over and over again). So how was the jump from making music that didn’t subscribe to any genre, to making music that needed to subscribe to one of the most popular film genres? In other words, did you guys feel restrained – or were you given any notes you needed to abide by when you first started working on the film?
IC: From the beginning, Jake was tasked by the studio to make a different kind of Marvel film, and that intention extended to the music. It was a fun challenge to bring our experimental nature and process to the project while still honoring the rich history of thematic orchestral music in the MCU. I think this balance is represented well by how we used Orchestra in the score. With Marvel’s support and trust, we worked with the incredible London Contemporary Orchestra in layers. Starting with adventurous sampling sessions, which we used and manipulated as we finished writing, and finishing with traditional scoring sessions, capturing the LCO making the music really shine. The result is a spectrum of orchestra, ranging from surreal unrecognizable orchestral textures, to the grounded orchestral sound we all know and love.
DP: One of the critics in my screening literally started dancing when “It’s Bucky” came on. That song alone is a perfect example of how familiar yet exciting all of the music of this film feels. What was the song you guys had the most fun working on?
IC: The big action moments are obviously fun ones, but some of the other really fun scenes of the score are the humorous ones, with “The Climb” being my favorite. Finding the right tone to support the dry humor in this movie was fun but also one of the most delicate and challenging things.
DP: Were there any other Marvel movies or non-Marvel movies you guys drew inspiration from?
IC: Weaving in the iconic rhythmic motif from Alan Silvestri’s ‘Avengers’ theme at the top of “Thunderbolts*” with our thematic material was such a fun way to musically convey the ah hah New Avengers reveal. Now that the score and the film have been out for a little bit, it’s been cool to see people picking up on that.
DP: One of the film’s biggest themes is mental health. Are there any particular pieces that were born with that in mind?
IC: Anyone that knows our music outside of film scoring, also knows that our music tends to have a melancholic feeling, so we really felt that we could fully bring ourselves to represent this important theme. This comes out in moments like “I Don’t See Your Mistakes” and “Not Alone”.
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DP: I know it’s definitely too early to ask, but it doesn’t hurt. Have you guys been asked to work on anything else in the MCU?
IC: We have not!
DP: What is next for you guys?
IC: We are staying busy! Excited to dive into a film by Bassam Tariq called “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother”, starring Mahershala Ali. We are also always working on non film related music, more on that soon.
Thunderbolts* or The New Avengers follows a group of antiheroes from several other previous Marvel stories as they are caught in a deadly trap and forced to work together on a new, dangerous mission.
Florence Pugh, Sebastian Stan, Hannah John-Kamen, Wyatt Russell, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, David Harbour, Olga Kurylenko, as Yelena Bolova, Bucky Barnes aka The Winter Soldier, Ghost, US Agent, Val Fontaine, Red Guardian and Taskmaster respectively.
Lewis Pullman also joins the cast as Sentry. Additionally, Geraldine Viswanathan has been cast as de Fontaine’s assistant.
Be sure to listen to the incredible score while the film is still in theaters now!
