Drive

Cliff Martinez joins Elvis Mitchell on KCRW’s ‘The Treatment’

Film composer Cliff Martinez joins Elvis Mitchell to talk intentions and meaning of auditory accompaniment in his newest work Neon Demon.

Cliff Martinez has strong roots in rock music, having begun his career as the drummer of Red Hot Chili Peppers. But, after reflecting on his love for the soundtrack of A Fistful of Dollars, Martinez broadened his musical scope as film composer behind scores for such films and television series as Spring Breakers, Sex, Lies and Videotape and The Knick. He joins Elvis Mitchell to discuss his personal music history and the thought process behind his latest musical work on Neon Demon.

The Treatment with Elvis Mitchell on KCRW

BAFTA Masterclass: Cliff Martinez on Composing

BAFTA-winning and Grammy-nominated composer Cliff Martinez discusses his creative process and career spanning 25 years across film, TV and games.
As drummer for Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and later for The Dickies, Martinez’ exploration of new technologies eventually led him to film scoring. After his experimental tape landed in the hands of Steven Soderbergh, he was hired to score Soderbergh’s directorial debut Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Since then, the pair have worked together on ten films including Traffic, Solaris and Contagion.
More recently, Martinez’ credits include Drive, The Lincoln Lawyer, television series The Knick and game Far Cry 4, for which he received a BAFTA.

VICE : NOISY : An Interview With Composer Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez - Drive - Elevator Scene

Cliff Martinez is probably most known through his collaboration with filmmakers Steven Soderbergh and Nicolas Refn. The composer of Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Drive, Solaris, and Only God Forgives, Martinez has had the chance to set the mood for some of the best movies of the last few decades. In fact, a cursory glance through Martinez’s filmography will reveal a nearly flawless tract record. It isn’t just through his composing, however, that Martinez has received recognition. Beginning his musical career in the late 70s/early 80s punk scene, Martinez has had a career as diverse as they come; including putting in time with bands like the Dickies, Captain Beefheart, and Red Hot Chili Peppers, which awarded him a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Following the release of his latest work, the score for the HBO film Normal Heart, we caught up with Cliff to ask him about his transition from an LA punk to Grammy-nominated film composer. – Joseph Yanick, Jul 15 2014

Read the full interview at NOISY, Music by Vice

The accompanist: Cliff Martinez on scoring for Soderbergh, Winding Refn

Cliff Martinez at the Neuchatel Fantastic Film Festival
Cliff Martinez at the Neuchatel Fantastic Film Festival

Meet the man who links Captain Beefheart, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pee-Wee Herman, Only God Forgives and the films of Steven Soderbergh.

Cliff Martinez is a movie composer with a difference. He is self-taught and comes from a rock background (he played drums for both the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart). Since his first feature film score, for Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies and videotape in 1989, he has written music around 30 features, including several collaborations with Soderbergh (most recently 2011’s Contagion).
Alongside his Hollywood credits – Traffic, The Lincoln Lawyer, Arbitrage, Spring Breakers – Martinez has also worked with European directors. He was one of the guests at the recent Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival where he spoke in detail about his work with Nicolas Winding Refn and reflected on a career which has taken him from the Los Angeles punk scene of the late 1970s to composing for films of every shape and size. He is currently working on Fred Cavayé’s new action-thriller Mea Culpa.  – Geoffrey Macnab

Read the full interview at BFI Film Forever

Cinematic Orchestrator:
Cliff Martinez recaps over two decades of film scoring

Cliff Martinez playing his Baschet Cristal
Cliff Martinez playing his Baschet Cristal

With Only God Forgives about to hit DVD, composer, former Chili Pepper and Captain Beefheart collaborator Cliff Martinez looks back on more than twenty years of soundtrack composition. It was his minimalist electronic score for Nicolas Winding-Refn’s Drive which brought Martinez to widespread recognition – his pulsing, understated compositions were absolutely vital to the film’s slick appeal, and with a deluxe vinyl edition released in the UK by Geoff Barrow’s Invada imprint, suddenly Martinez’s name was on the lips of every hipster and film fanatic …  – by Bram E. Gieben

Continue reading at THE SKINNY

Interviewly – Cliff Martinez on Reddit AMA – July 2013

4dc6473aa7cdecb810a602890c9841b96608cb32

REDDIT: Is it true that Beefheart pushed a guy down the stairs after he didn’t understand how to ”play a strawberry” on the drums?

CLIFF: The stairs story appears in Drumbo’s book but I don’t recall the line about “play a strawberry”. That’s very Beefheart though. I was asked to play “giant blue babies levitating over the mountain….you know, like Fred Asparagus dangling through the teacup”. I must have played it correctly because he didn’t throw me down the stairs.

Read the entire interview at Interviewly

‘Only God Forgives’ Composer Cliff Martinez
on Reuniting With Nicolas Winding Refn

jamesfranco-three

It might be hard to believe, but this year’s Cannes Film Festival marked the first one to host in demand composer Cliff Martinez, whose work with frequent collaborator Steven Soderbergh helped land the then first-time filmmaker the Palme d’Or for his debut “Sex, Lies and Videotape” back in 1989. The former drummer (he played for the Red Hot Chili Peppers among other acts) has since had another film featuring his music, Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive,” play on in Competition. This year he made his first Cannes appearance in support of his second project with Refn, the ultra violent revenge saga “Only God Forgives.”  – by Nigel M Smith

Read full interview at INDIEWIRE

Back to top