Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Talk Patriots Day Soundtrack Creation

Recording artists Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are two of a kind. But when they come together their work is unparalleled. Helping to create the soundtracks for such titles as The Social Network for which they won a Golden Globe and Academy Award for Best Score in 2010, the pair would go onto the remake of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, 2014's Gone Girl and Leonardo DiCaprio's documentary Before the Flood.

Taking a break from their time spent on Nine Inch Nails in studio and on the road, Reznor and Ross made the transition from David Fincher to Peter Berg for Patriots Day, a film that looks at the events of the Boston Marathon bombing starring Mark Wahlberg. Here, Reznor and Ross would be crucial to Berg's work, elevating the tension and drama with their haunting sounds that take the feature to the next level.

Artists Don't Want To Be Involved In One-Dimensional Pictures

Gone Girl Trent Reznor

While the title lends itself to the idea of American heroism at it's greatest, Reznor did not want to be part of a production that was blind to context and nuance.

"We’re not interested in something that could go in one of those directions, like super pro-American drum banging," outlined the Nine Inch Nails frontman to Collider. "It’s an exciting medium to work in, but we find it filled with mediocrity and a lot of very turn-key, scoring by numbers type of stuff, that can work. It’s like a good pop song that’s designed to do that thing. We’re not interested in knowing how to do that, or to replicate that. We wanted to make sure Pete (Berg, Director) was okay with the idea of us coloring outside of the lines, a little bit. In our minds, we could take this film and elevate it into feeling something even less specific about Boston and more about today, or what might be the result of today."

Ross: Essentially Had To Create A Movie-Length Soundtrack

Patriots Day

Ross explained that the movie-making process from Fincher to Berg had one major difference, leading itself to more pressure as music had to be made on the run.

"With Fincher, we’d sit and watch the film several months before, or at least a couple of months before," admitted the artist. "With this, when it premiered at AFI, it was on Thursday, and there were picture changes on Wednesday. It was just the nature of the beast. There’s also 114 minutes of music in the score. It was like being on our toes, the whole time, because it was a moving target. The picture, as the weeks would go (by), would change and the film would get better."

Source: Collider

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