To celebrate the release of the violent new “class war” Welsh thriller
Concrete Plans
on 23rd November, we spoke to legendary UK dance music composer
Paul Hartnoll of Orbital, who scored the film. Orbital were
pioneers in the dance music scene from the late '80s with many now classic
albums and songs to their name and a huge amount of movie credits for
songs and scores too. Some notable films/games/TV to feature
Orbital/Paul’s music include:
The Saint, Event Horizon, Spawn, Test Drive 4, Mortal Kombat, Mean
Girls, Peaky Blinders, The Beach, Wipeout, Hackers, Teen Spirit,
American Ultra
and many more.
At the Glastonbury Festival 2010, to close their set, Matt Smith, who
played the Eleventh Doctor, performed with Orbital their cover of the
Doctor Who theme. The duo also performed "Where Is It Going?" live at the
opening ceremony for the London 2012 Paralympic Games with Stephen Hawking
speaking about the Large Hadron Collider.
In new film Concrete Plans, a manor house in disrepair and a landowner with a fierce temper and
cash flow problem meets his match when confronted with a bill he can’t
pay. Time is running out and the builders living on his land want their
pound of flesh. The film boasts a fantastic British cast including;
Amber Rose Revah (The Punisher), Goran Bogdan (Fargo,Otec/Father), Charlie Palmer Rothwell (Legend, Dunkirk), Chris Reilly (The Last Post), Steve Speirs (Upstart Crow), William Thomas (Mr Nice, Twin Towns), Kevin Guthrie (Sunshine on Leith, Fantastic Beasts) and James Lance (Ted Lasso). The tense thriller was written and directed by Will Jewell.
We spoke to Paul about his career, his love of culture, and his new score.
So you are known as fairly nerdy for your various science fiction
references and many big film scores and track appearances, including
playing the original Doctor Who theme live.
Absolutely, that is a cover version and we did that in the mid-90s when
Doctor Who was incredibly unpopular. It was beginning to be
forgotten about. That’s why we did it - let’s revive
Doctor Who! We eventually released it on an album, but it had cult status as it was
a thing you could only hear live - a rave version of
Doctor Who. And in the wilderness years between Doctors, what more could you want
Another huge UK dance band, The KLF, had a hit with it too right?
Oh, they had a number one with their Gary Glitter Doctor Who mash-up that
nobody talks about anymore!
Ah, and a Gary Glitter track was used in the new Joker film too.
It was. But not his vocal, just the music.
It did work well.
It did. And you have to understand the musicians involved in that record
weren’t Gary Glitter. I know we all think of Gary Glitter, but it was the
other guys that got the airing on the film. It would have been a bit mad
if they had let Gary Glitter sing on it.
So you’re obviously nerdy, you guys?
Yeah, me especially.
And your music is featured in so many films. The end of
Mortal Kombat springs to mind for some reason…
Yeah, ‘Halcyon’. It’s been at the end of three films;
Teen Spirit, Mortal Kombat and Mean Girls. And it started Hackers. So possibly a gateway track for a lot of people. A lot of young people
got into us by watching Mortal Kombat and hearing the track
at the end and going “What is that?” and then discovering us through that.
I think we were helped by the promotion of those four films.
And you’ve had various other tracks on big films too.
Yeah we had ‘Satan’ begin the film Spawn, which we did with Kirk Hammett of Metallica as well, which was
brilliant. Didn't get to meet him but we passed things backwards and
forwards. Back in the day it was pre-internet, so it was done with
couriers. Which was brilliant as we had this crazy courier arrive to give
us the tape with Kirk’s stuff on and he was this full on heavy metal guy.
I can’t remember the name of the courier company, but it had gothic
typeface and all that. I don’t know if that was deliberate, but it was
“Yeah, this is how stuff from Metallica should arrive!” It was brilliant.
‘Satan’ was more of a live track, right?
Yeah, ‘Satan’ is one of those tracks we have released a few times but
never on an album. Actually, we did on the Wonky album where we did a
particularly diverse version of it. It’s a track that the first time we
tried to record it we didn’t really know how to arrange it. We just did
something quickly. And then throughout life it’s always taken on a
different shape. It keeps shifting its shape and form. Currently it’s a
Belgian New Beat kind of version that we play and soon to get back to
Heavy Metal I reckon. Bring back Kirk!
And ‘Satan’ is so good live.
It started live. It was around the time of Ozzy Osbourne or Black Sabbath
that were getting it in the neck by religious extremists saying if you
play one of their albums or songs backwards it would say “Satan is King”
or something. And they were trying to take them to court about it, which
is ridiculous now to think that that could even happen. So we just thought
OK, we’re with those people, we don’t agree with this, you shouldn’t be
able to do that anyway, so why don’t we just do one where the record says
Satan going forwards? Just put it out and about! So we decided to mix
heavy rock and hip-hop and make it a tribute to Satan.
Where did the intro sample come from?
The Butthole Surfers, it’s a sample from them and we have their blessing.
Wow, and you kinda slowed it down I suppose.
Yeah, we just messed with it, the guitar sample is from the same track as
well. ‘Sweet Loaf’ from the “Locust Abortion Technician” (1987) album. We
ripped off the whole intro and everything, we were so cavalier about it at
the time, as people were. It was great, the gay abandon of youth.
So it was after the fact that you probably got their permission?
Yeah!
So let’s talk about your latest score for the excellent new Welsh
thriller Concrete Plans, and how you got on board that
project.
I got on it through, it was so long ago, it was a music journalist who
lives round the corner from me, he just said to me “Would you be
interested, I’m working on a film that’s got something to do with the
Welsh tourist board, are you interested in doing the score?” and I said
sure and over time, director Will Jewell got in touch and said he’s trying
to get the money together to do this film. We just spoke over the course
of a year until it finally happened, and that was it. I just kept on in
the background saying “Yeah, sure I’ll do it if it happens,” and lo and
behold it did happen, it was great.
It’s good to support British independent cinema and it’s been getting
really good reviews.
I know, it’s been great, hasn’t it? Reviews have been brilliant.
And generally, Orbital are still going and you’re doing other bits and
bobs, other composing going on too?
Yeah, I keep my hand in. I love scoring anyway, it’s always been a big
passion of mine and something that I’ve always wanted to get more into, so
I’m always keeping my hand in with that. I’ve been doing stuff with a poet
friend of mine, Murray Lachlan Young, who’s working on a fairy-tale kinda
story, that he eventually wants to turn into a stage play. He’s got form
doing that, so I reckon he’ll get there in the end. We’ve just done a
series of six podcasts; ‘The Chronicles of Atom & Luna’ and that will
be coming out soon. I’ve scored him telling stories, basically, in poetic
form. We work well together. During the lockdown we did an album together,
about a track a week, for Radio 6, which was a virus diary type of thing.
He did a poem every week based on what was going on in the lockdown and I
put it to music. We ended up getting really carried away. We’ve ended up
making an album that sounds like the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band or something
like that, it’s great fun.
Awesome. Would you fancy doing a full score for a massive comic book
movie or sci-fi remake? A huge Hollywood project?
Oh yeah, I try my hand at anything. I’ve worked with orchestras. I would
do something with an orchestra again if I could. It’s always great fun to
wield that kind of power. But as much as I’d like to do a science fiction
time twistery film - which lend themselves to my electronic palate - I’d
also like to do period dramas and things like that. I like to do anything.
I like big romantic music. I thoroughly enjoyed that kind of thing. I like
getting out of my comfort zone. I like working in something that you
wouldn’t expect me to work in. It’s like going to the gym and trying a
different exercise; it flexes your muscles in a different way, and you
build them up. I like the naivete as well, it’s a way of becoming naïve
again, by trying something different. I’ve been doing music professionally
for 30 years, and another 10 before that, so it’s nice to be stretched.
It’s nice to do something fresh and different. But honestly, I would score
anything as long as I like it. I’d possibly score stuff if I didn’t like
it as well, because that’s also a challenge, but I prefer to like
something. But I would score anything because life is full of all the
different emotions. So, I’d have a go at it all, really.
Signature Entertainment Presents Concrete Plans on
Digital HD
23rd November.