Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

Our guest on this week's Soundtracking is not necessarily a name you'll be familiar with. But as a movie fan, you'll certainly know the music he has had a key hand in. For in his 20 years at Air Studios, Jake Jackson has produced and engineered an extraordinary number of magnificent scores. As well as being Nick Cave and Warren Ellis's go-to guy, he has also worked on Gladiator, Pete's Dragon and Under the Skin among many other well-known films. Indeed, his work has featured on at least 20 episodes of this podcast, which is why we were so keen to get him on.

It's three for the price of one in our latest episode of Soundtracking, as director Tom Harper, writer Nicole Taylor and actress Jessie Buckley join me to discuss their new film, Wild Rose. Set in Glasgow, Wild Rose tells the story of Rose-Lyne Harlan, a troubled working class mother of two who dreams of becoming a country star in Nashville. With strong support from Julie Walters and Sophie Okonedo, it's a moving, bittersweet affair, that never goes in quite the direction you're expecting. It also features plenty of music - some of which you'll recognise and some of which is totally original. Indeed, with the help of their music guru Jack Arnold, Nicole and Jessie wrote several of the songs that appear in the movie. 

Our latest episode of Soundtracking is another live event, recorded at the British Film Institute in London with writer, director & actor Andy Serkis and musician Nitin Sawhney. The pair have collaborated on several occasions, most recently on Mowgli: Legend Of The Jungle, Andy's performance capture reimagining of The Jungle Book. It's available to watch now via Netflix, and if you haven't seen it already we highly recommend it. Nitin also provided the score for Breathe - Andy's directorial debut. As alway's, you'll hear plenty of music from both films during the conversation and plenty more besides.

You wait months for a guest to talk with authority about scary movies, then two come along at once. Following Jordan Peele's fine turn in our previous episode, we're delighted to welcome Eli Roth to the show this time round. Eli is a writer, director, actor and producer who came to prominence with films such as Cabin Fever and Hostel. While much of his work is not for the faint hearted, his latest project, The House With A Clock In Its Walls, follows the great Spielberg tradition of frightening family fun.  Eli is also an encyclopaedia when it comes to score - to the point at which we couldn't source half of the music he refers to. But no matter: as you'll hear, he delivers quite the lesson nonetheless ...

We haven't featured as much horror as we'd like on Soundtracking, so it really is a great thrill for us to welcome the man of the moment in that particular field, Jordan Peele. Having forged a hugely successful career as a comedian and actor, Jordan won an Oscar and numerous other accolades for his debut feature, Get Out, which blended traditional genre tropes with social observation to create something altogether fresh. Now he follows it up with the equally brilliant Us, in which a family is confronted by a group of doppelgängers. Both films were scored by Michael Abels, who had never previously worked on a movie until Jordan came along. We'll hear plenty of Michael's work, as well as some of the truly brilliant needle drops that are used across the Get Out and Us.