Supe Troop’s Laura Katz interviews composer Dan Romer about film scoring, My Dead Friend Zoe (which they both worked on), and soup!
Supe Troop (ST): How did you get into scoring?
Dan Romer (DR): I was born and grew up in Brooklyn, NY and lived there for quite some time. After college at SUNY Purchase, I began work as a record producer and songwriter, but I was also scoring short films for Benh Zeitlin and Ray Tintori. Eventually, Zeitlin asked me to score his first feature, Beasts of the Southern Wild. I loved working on that film so much that I decided to move to LA and try to make film scoring my main work.
ST: How do you start on the score for a new project?
DR: The things I try to decide first, before working to picture, are instruments in the ensemble and main themes. Though once I start working on the actual cut, those things sometimes hold true and sometimes go out the window. I often discover new themes and sounds during the scoring process. If I find a theme that I think works better, I’ll often go back and change earlier scenes I’ve already written to reflect that melody or texture.
ST: What was your favorite scene in this movie to score?
DR: I think the big montage at the end was most gratifying. There was a lot of time and emotion to work with there. I also really loved scoring Merit’s jog; I always enjoy getting to bring more modern record production techniques into scores.
ST: What is an example of where you think another composer nailed a project or particular scene?
DR: I think Ice Dance in Edward Scissorhands kinda remains this holy moment for me, since it was the first time as a child I could recognize the power music can have in film.
ST: What non-score music are you listening to right now?
DR: These days, as far as artists, I find myself mostly going back to Harry Belafonte, Kate Bush, Tom Waits, Velvet Underground, Miriam Makeba, and The Pixies. But I really love listening to traditional music from around the world; there’s something about old songs that have stuck around forever.
ST: What’s your favorite instrument?
DR: Oh my god. I mean, y’know, it’s really tough to pick a favorite. I have a baritone acoustic guitar I really love playing, and, I think kinda clearly from my work, I love strings. But I guess the instrument that I have a forever love and sometimes hate relationship with is the accordion. I think it’s such a beautiful sound, but sometimes it records so strangely!!
ST: What would be your dream project to score?
DR: I think for me it’s more about the collaborators than the specific project, but I really love working on sci-fi or magical realism that carries a lot of emotion. I would take a lot of emotion over a specific genre any day.
ST: What is your favorite kind of soup?
I make grass fed beef bone broth on a pretty regular basis. Shouting out Mariposa Ranch in California; they’re incredible.
Thanks, Dan! You can watch My Dead Friend Zoe in theaters starting today!
Click on the tags below for more! Hungry for more interviews with composers? You can find them all here.