Traffic

Composer Cliff Martinez Talks Score For ‘Contagion’ & Working With Steven Soderbergh

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Working at a relentless pace, Steven Soderbergh’s work ethic has benefitted not only from his drive and focus, but from surrounding himself with a regular group of collaborators who understand his process and approach to filmmaking. And one of those regulars is composer Cliff Martinez (a former drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers too). He has worked with Soderbergh ever since his debut “sex, lies & videotape,” contributing to films big and small including “Kafka,” “Traffic,” “The Limey,” “King Of The Hill” and more. The forthcoming virus thriller, “Contagion,” will mark their tenth film together and it will definitely find the duo in new territory. Described by Soderbergh as a type of “horror movie” the star-studded tale — the cast includes Kate Winslet, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Jude Law and many, many more — chronicles the outbreak of a deadly virus as it spreads quickly worldwide. It’s a new genre for composer and director alike and the results should be fascinating.  – Drew Taylor | The Playlist

Read the full article here.

Behind The Track with Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez entered the limelight as the drummer for The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Captain Beefheart, The Dickies and Lydia Lunch. In 1989, he decided to leave life on the road to pursue the dream of film scoring in Hollywood. From his humble beginnings with a sampling drum machine and keyboard, he has assembled a state-of-the-art studio in his home, and a credit list including “Traffic”, “Sex Lies and Videotape”, “Solaris”, and “Narc.”   – by Jeff Laity

Read the full interview at TASCAM

MIX Magazine – Cliff Martinez – Traffic

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For Traffic, Soderbergh showed Martinez a rough cut of the film with a temp score. “Steven wanted a score similar in style to sex, lies, and videotape, which was slow, ambient and had a conspicuous absence of melody, harmony and rhythm. It was an unusual approach to take back in 1989, and I was a little surprised that Steven wanted to go down that road again with a $50 million dollar picture.”

Martinez estimates that about 60% of the music for Traffic was “recorded” via samplers in his studio. Pianist Herbie Hancock and guitarists David Torn and Michael Brook were recorded in their respective home studios, while Flea and percussionists Alex Acuna and Paulinho Da Costa were recorded at Media Ventures in Santa Monica. Because it was primarily an ambient score, Martinez and scoring mixer Alan Meyerson decided to add space and size to the sound by pumping the elements into a live space and recording the ambience. This enabled them to create a full, warm surround mix without using much in the way of electronic processing. They chose the famous Capitol Studios for the task with excellent results. The score was mixed by Meyerson at Media Ventures. – by Robyn Flans

Full article at MIX

Film Score Monthly – Cliff Martinez’s Traffic

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When it came time to score Traffic, Soderbergh called on someone he’d already collaborated with six times, former Red Hot Chili Pepper Cliff Martinez. And according to Martinez, Soderbergh had a very specific idea of what he wanted. “He seems to prefer music that is somewhat emotionally detached from the film and perhaps is more atmospheric,” says Martinez. “For Traffic, Steven wanted to go even further in that direction. When we first discussed the concept for the score, it almost seemed like he wanted a score that might be just as well suited to a sound designer as it would a composer.” Martinez adds that he wasn’t very gung-ho about the idea. “My initial response was to rebel,” he says. “It was like he wasn’t allowing the score to play a very active role in the film. But I didn’t disagree because at that point Steven had given it much more thought than I had. Secondly, he’s smarter than I am. And three, he writes the checks.” – by Jason Foster

Full article at Film Score Monthly.

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