KPop Demon Hunters & Andor Composers Reflect On Their Acclaimed Collaborations At The SCL Awards

Screen Rant attended the 7th annual SCL Awards in Hollywood and got the chance to speak to some of Hollywood's biggest composers and songwriters. Held in celebration of cinema and television's premiere musicians, the SCL Awards were hosted this year by Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael, with Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters, and Train Dreams among the big winners.

Screen Rant was at the event and got the chance to speak with some of the nominees, such as 17-time Oscar-nominated songwriter Diane Warren, Academy Award-nominated lyrical co-writer on KPop Demon Hunters Mark Sonnenblick, and the Emmy-nominated Andor composer Brandon Roberts, all about their music, their collaborators, and their inspirations.

Mark Sonnenblick Embraced The Spirit Of Collaboration On KPop Demon Hunters

SR: This year has seen a real wave of big musical movies. What has it felt like to be a part of that?

Mark Sonnenblick: Well, it's amazing. This was a year for musical movies; there was so much musical storytelling. Obviously, there are a lot of soundtracks that have broken through, but the ones that have broken through [this year] are so deeply ingrained in the storytelling. I come from musical theater, so seeing Wicked: For Good, a literal musical, was good. KPop Demon Hunters is kind of a musical/pop hybrid. Sinners is such a beautiful combination of music and storytelling. It's an exciting year to see all that.

SR: "Golden" has been nominated for so many awards this year. Was there ever any debate on which song to submit for consideration?

The whole soundtrack, "Golden" included, was really found by the fans initially. "Your Idol" was the one that kind of went to the top of the charts immediately, and "Golden" was right behind it. In a fun way, it's like the movie was playing out in real life, like, "Is Huntrix going to beat the Saja Boys?"

I think at a certain point, "Golden" is the one that stuck around and that people really resonated with. And of course, in the movie, it's written for such a key character moment for Rumi, and her journey is the heart of this movie that Maggie [Kang] and Chris [Appelhans] have put together and envisioned.

To get to write that key part of the story in a song that people are responding to? I think that's part of the reason everyone involved was sort of like, "This seems like a song that it's going to be what we're out here talking about."

SR: What was the biggest surprise you experienced during the production of KPop Demon Hunters?

There are so many meaningful things that have been a part of this movie, but kind of from the beginning, even before it came out, before anyone knew how it would resonate, what was exciting to me was the collaboration. It was the story that [KPop Demon Hunters directors Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans] knew they wanted to tell and immediately resonated with Rumi's story.

It was someone who had been taught to hate a part of themselves and to hide that part of themselves. Having the chance to tell that story with these incredible K-Pop writers like Black Lebel, EJAE, Steven Kirk, and Jenna Andrews -- I didn't know any of these people coming in, all I knew is the music I'd heard and loved.

Then there was Ian Eisendrath, who is the music producer across the entire album, and really the crux of a lot of the music. He was my friend who brought me in and was like, 'This is going to be a real collaboration.' To me, that initial thing was exciting to me. Month after month, year after year, the thing that I think was constantly surprising was that when you are collaborating with people who all come from different places, you're able to make something bigger than yourselves. I think this movie is a testament to that in a really deep way.

Andor's Brandon Roberts Really Wants To See A Star Wars Horror Movie

SR: How did you approach crafting a score that not only felt like a continuation of what Nicholas Britell brought to season 1, but as part of the larger legacy of Star Wars music?

Brandon Roberts: First, you devolve into incredible amounts of fear [Laughter]. Then you pick yourself up, because you gotta get the work done. You just take it bit by bit. I had really good guidance from Tony Gilroy. He was really clear about what he wanted. I got to board a very nice ship that was already moving. I was very lucky for that. The writing, all of the production, it was already all so good, and I felt like the music was the icing on the cake.

At that point, I got to explore a lot of musical territory that I didn't know I could do as well. You're entering into a world of music that is the [kind of music] that made many of my colleagues get into music in the first place. So I was hyper aware of the legacy aspect of it, and really tried to approach it so that, years from now, when I'm long gone, people still feel like it was a cohesive story between one and season two.

SR: There's a lot going on in Andor, in terms of raw scope and scale. How did you approach that tonal balance?

Those human moments I felt were easy to find because the acting and the writing is so good and the writing is so good. The hardest thing for me was pulling back. I tend to maybe overscore something or to overplay something. But Tony Gilroy is, I think, a minimalist at heart when it comes to emotional scenes. What he wants to say is on screen, and he wants the music to complement it.

A lot of the bigger moments were kind of reserved for those big Star Wars moments? Let's establish the planet, stuff like that. Then he was fine with it [Laughter​​​​​​]. But once you start getting a lot of dialogue and a lot of emotional moments, he was very adamant about letting the show do it. I learned a lot by approaching it like that... It was definitely a challenge in terms of the scope of emotions, everything from the most epic battle sequences all the way to the most intimate dialogue sequences.

SR: If you could play in any other corner of the Star Wars franchise, what would you want to do?

Okay, I'm telling you right now, this is my pitch. I've heard rumors pop up online that at one point about a Star Wars horror thing. That would be made for me! I have so much horror music in my background. I've done so many horror films, and now I've done Star Wars. If you meld the two together, I just want it made clear that I'm available [Laughter].

Dianne Warren's "Dear Me" Was All About Reaching Out To Her Younger Self

SR: When writing a song designed to reflect yourself and your life, how does that process compare to writing about other subjects?

Diane Warren: When I write a song for a movie, I'm trying to tie it up emotionally or get the heart of what that movie is. This movie was a documentary on me, and I'm like, 'Wow, what do I write for that?' So I looked back. I was a really lonely kid and bullied, and I just sat in my room with a guitar. I didn't feel seen or heard, and was a pretty miserable kid. I felt like the world was against me.

I wanted to write like a love letter to that little girl, something that was going to let her know it was going to be okay. In doing so, even though I was thinking about it as my most personal song, more people are relating to this song more than any other song I've done that I can even think of. I think we all have gone through that. We all have. None of us were unscathed growing up. This song is not just for me, but it's for them. It's for everybody.

SR: What surprised you the most about that process?

I always knew that if I could find the heart of a movie, it would be... It's interesting, I wrote a better song than I thought I was going to write [Laughter]. I thought it was going to be hard. But I got so inspired because I really wanted to speak to that young girl that I used to be. How easy it was, that really surprised me.