Hans Zimmer

Hans Zimmer

HANS SOLO
Academy Award-Winning Composer Hans Zimmer Discusses His Scene-Stealing Career
In 1996, Hans Zimmer was honored with BMI's prestigious Richard Kirk Award for lifetime achievement -- no small feat for a young man of 41 years. But the German-born, British-educated composer has packed a lot of punch into his short career. Rising from ad jingles to collaborations with British pop bands like the Buggles and Ultravox, Zimmer now ranks among Hollywood's most potent and prolific composers. Along with fellow film composer Danny Elfman, he represents the new guard that relies on up-to-date sounds and electronic tools as well as the traditional orchestration to weave cinematic soundscapes. His scores have translated into Hollywood gold for films such as Gladiator, As Good as It Gets, and the hugely successful The Lion King, for which he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Original Score. With The Wings of a Film, Zimmer steps out from behind the screen, so to speak, conducting excerpts from his impressive catalogue. Barnes & Noble.com's Andrew Velez spoke to Zimmer about the joys of having a job you love.

Barnes & Noble.com: What's the first movie you can remember where the music was significant to you?

Hans Zimmer: Once Upon a Time in the West, by Sergio Leone with music by Ennio Morricone. I saw it and went, "Okay, that's what I want to do." Maybe I was nine or ten years old.

B&N.com: Does he know how much he influenced you?

HZ: Oh, absolutely. I have a letter he sent to me. It was really an amazing letter. Only an Italian could write such poetry.

B&N.com: For the concert recording The Wings of a Film, one can feel the audience responding emotionally, particularly to Gladiator and Thelma and Louise. Did that surprise you?

HZ: I was really nervous about the whole thing. First of all, I'm shy. And I don't want them to tell me I've failed! Nobody wants that. What you are saying about the people is absolutely correct. That is exactly what I am trying to achieve...the great thing about what I do, the great beauty, is I work in a language that is so much more articulate than these words we are using.

B&N.com: There are also many surprises in your work. In Hannibal you use a waltz theme, and then in Driving Miss Daisy a real down-home, plunking banjo.

HZ: Well that's the job. They hire me to write the "subscore." You come to the film with a point of view and you do something the director can't imagine...to come at it with ideas that will express whatever they cannot express elegantly in words or pictures.

B&N.com: How did that apply to Pearl Harbor, for instance, which, unlike Gladiator, is a historical event many people still remember?

HZ: I tell you exactly -- and I am German. So let's put that in. The position I come from is that artists are supposed to sometimes be offensive, stir it up, and be provocative. But there are certain things where you have to show respect because you're dealing with people's feelings. I could never, ever know the truth of what it was like to be in Pearl Harbor...to me, everyone is a victim in bloodshed and war. So all I tried to do was one central piece, the aftermath of the battle. It's the core of the whole score and the one piece that actually has some meaning. I was just trying to be respectful.

B&N.com: What was it like co-writing the score for Gladiator with Lisa Gerrard?

HZ: By the time Lisa came aboard, I had written 15 of the 19 themes we used. She was supposed to just come over and sing, and she stayed for three months. What started to happen was we'd be spending time in my studio and just improvising. It wasn't composing in the classical sense, but we were doing things together. So I said, "Hey let's have joint credit." Do I need another credit by myself? No, I can't do what Lisa does. I felt that my job on that movie was to give Ridley [Scott] license to be poetic. And the only thing that could do that was music. You hear Lisa's voice -- that was what we desperately needed, a female counterpoint to all this macho-ness!

B&N.com: Do you have a dream project you have yet to do?

HZ: I love what I'm doing. I really love it. So what am I complaining about -- that they don't let me get enough sleep? They have me working on things I love!

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