Disco dream and secret Beatles track - Ariana DeBose and composer Lorne Balfe talk 'Argylle' score

Record ID: 1764711

  • Title: Disco dream and secret Beatles track - Ariana DeBose and composer Lorne Balfe talk 'Argylle' score
  • Date: 2nd February 2024
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (FEBRUARY 2, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMPOSER, LORNE BALFE, SAYING: "Well, disco was a big thing for 'Argylle'. Matthew loves disco. So that that was kind of the main feeling, even though the score wasn't really in that realm. It was more just that we want music that makes you smile. We want music that kind of makes you tap you
  • Embargoed: 16th February 2024 12:27
  • Keywords: Argylle composer Argylle music Argylle score Argylle soundtrack Ariana DeBose Electric Energy Lorne Balfe
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: UK
  • Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA00I701601022024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Grammy-winning film composer Lorne Balfe says he was encouraged to step out of his comfort zone for the new spy movie "Argylle", and the result is a disco-inspired score that includes an initially top secret Beatles track.
    The soundtrack for the movie, directed by Matthew Vaughn, was released on Friday (February 2) and features two songs from Oscar-winning actor and singer Ariana DeBose. "Get Up And Start Again" is a power ballad while her collaboration with Boy George and Nile Rodgers "Electric Energy", released a week ago, is a vibrant tune co-written by Balfe, Vaughn, Gary Barlow and Stuart Price.
    "Matthew was in post and he called me up and was like, okay, we've made the movie, you just won an Oscar, let's do something else. And I said 'great, what you got in mind?' and he pitched the idea of the song," said DeBose, who won the best supporting actress Oscar for her role in Steven Spielberg's 2021 film "West Side Story".
    "I had so much fun bringing my own vibe and experimenting with the disco genre. And I love that you get to hear the melody throughout the film. It's sort of like this underlying energy for our story," she said.
    Similarly, it was Vaughn, who approached Balfe to write the score for the "Argylle". In a first for the musician, whose career spans over a hundred films as well as TV shows and video games, he wrote the music together with the filmmaker.
    "People hum things to you and they've got musical sensibilities, but no, it was a full, proper 50-50 collaboration over FaceTime writing melodies. So, that's a first," said Balfe, 47.
    Vaughn had another ace up his sleeve. Around a year before the film was finished, his friend, record producer and musician Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin, offered to help out to find a song for lead character Elly Conway, played by Bryce Dallas Howard.
    "Matthew had always been looking for a song for Elly and Giles said 'I think I've got something'," said Balfe.
    That something was "Now And Then", billed as the last Beatles song, which was developed using artificial intelligence and which features the voice of late member John Lennon.
    "I don't think I even knew who it was when I first listened to it," said Balfe. "It was a blank file, not labelled, and it was just, I think I recognise that voice. But I didn't know the song. So we were all kept, yeah, very secret," he said.
    "And then also you get to hear, you know, the Beatles music being performed by an orchestra that nobody's heard and none of the musicians knew either. We had to use fake names for it," he said of the song, which was eventually released in November 2023.
    Balfe, whose credits include two "Mission: Impossible" instalments, "Black Widow" and "The Crown" and who produced the "Top Gun: Maverick" score by Hans Zimmer, Lady Gaga and Harold Faltermeyer, has kept busy since wrapping on "Argylle". His scores will next be heard in the upcoming "Bad Boys 4" and "Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F" films, as well as the next "Mission: Impossible" movie.
    Balfe will also be trying his hand at conducting at the live concert experience of "Top Gun: Maverick" at London's Royal Albert Hall in the autumn.
    With "Argylle" out in cinemas on Friday, Balfe hopes its disco feel will rub off on audiences.
    "We want music that makes you smile. We want music that kind of makes you tap your foot and makes you go back to that time of those movies where we used to kind of have escapism, and it wasn't depression and, sadness on the screen."
    (Production: Ben Makori, Hanna Rantala)
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