SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ — KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley uncovered compelling stories behind the music for some of the year's most highly acclaimed films in conversations with top composers on Morning Becomes Eclectic. He hosted famed composers A.R. Rahman, Alexandre Desplat, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, and James Newton Howard. Transcripts are available at KCRW.com/oscars and highlights are below:
Slumdog Millionaire composer A.R. Rahman discusses his approach to creating scores that are both perfect for film and listenable on their own.
  –  Rahman on his collaboration with M.I.A and Director Danny Boyle:
      "Danny wanted me to collaborate with her…She is like a tank of
      ideas."
  –  On Boyle:  "What I liked was he captured the spirit of Mumbai, which
      is undying. It was great."
Composer Alexandre Desplat went backwards and forwards to capture the magical story of life and love in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
  –  On Director David Fincher: "David Fincher is a director who has a very
      precise point of view on every aspect of his art history and the music
      is one of them…he didn't want the score to be overdramatic,
      overwhelming to the audience."
  –  On Benjamin Button's Theme: "This whole idea of time reversing was
      ticking in my head and I just suggested to David that I could maybe
      try and find a tune, a little pattern, a little hook that could be
      played forwards and backwards."
Milk Composer Danny Elfman tells Jason he considers the title character an American hero and jumped at the chance to work with Director Gus Van Sant again.
  –  On Van Sant: "Getting into any project with Gus means I'm going to go
      in a lot of different directions and mess around with a lot of
      different ideas. With another director, that can be very frustrating.
      Trying to hone in on 'What do you want for this movie?' With Gus it's
      more of a process of fun experimentation."
  –  On his creative process: "I don't do research going into a movie. I
      think the least I know the better. I like to forget that I've even
      read the script, even though I do read the script because the more
      prepared I am in the beginning, the more it sends me down a specific
      direction which may not be the right direction…So I started with a
      real blank slate other than — don't mess this up. Except I didn't use
      the word mess, but we're live on the air."
Find full transcripts and other conversations with OSCAR(R) nominees appearing on other KCRW programs like The Treatment, Guest DJ Project and more here: http://www.kcrw.com/
The 81st Academy Awards(R) ceremony airs on February 22.
Santa Monica-based KCRW is National Public Radio's flagship station for Southern California.
Source: KCRW
CONTACT: Rachel Reynolds of KCRW, +1-310-314-4625,
rachel.reynolds@kcrw.org
Web Site: http://www.kcrw.com/
