Narnia Fans » Soundtrack

Hear Imogen Heap’s Prince Caspian Soundtrack Submission ‘2-1′

Paul Martin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:32:30 +0000

Karine twittered us about Imogen Heap’s new album, which is releasing August 24th or 25th depending on what part of the world you live in, called Ellipse. It includes a song called 2-1, which she wrote for Prince Caspian, but was decidedly too dark for the soundtrack, according to the music producers on the film. She decided, rather than letting good music go, to include it in her new album, which she finished a few months ago. If you would like to hear the song, or even the full album, we currently have the official music player here. The song is track #8, and it is 4 minutes and 42 seconds in length.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #42: Harry Gregson Williams’ Complete Narnia Scores, and Harry Potter 6

Paul Martin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:29:50 +0000

Welcome to the mailbag, where we answer fanmail that you send in, over the course of the week. For those that don’t know, we’ll take your questions, and if we don’t know the answers, we’ll try to get the answers from people that would know. We might even make something up! I have a very broad sense of humor, on top of a vast knowledge of film, music and comics with a wide range in taste and a great memory that serves to bring great comparisons or answers to your questions.

This afternoon, I saw the latest Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I have to say, having never read any of the books but the seventh, it connected the rest of the movies to the seventh book very well. However, I do have a question, which I posed on my facebook status today, getting a string of hilarious responses. If you’ve not seen the movie, avoid this paragraph:

“When Harry and Gandalf go to the Mines of Moria, why couldn’t Harry use the the Patronus on the Dead Marsh creatures, when Dumbledore was all Odysseus. Instead, he had to cast a Balrog to fight them, when the Balrog is made of light, just like the patronus.”

The point of this paragraph was two-fold. First, it was to point out just how much J.K. Rowling ‘borrowed’ from The Lord of the Rings and repackaged into her own work. However, she also borrowed from some Greek / Roman mythology having them cross over what I instantly thought was a representation of the river Styx, followed by a spell that replicated a scene in The Odyssey. It was set in the Mines of Moria from The Fellowship of the Ring, though, as well as in the Dead Marshes, where Frodo falls in among the dead and Gollum swims in after him in The Two Towers. And then, Dumbledore looks exactly like Gandalf when he’s fighting the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad Dûm. And with the fire behind him, it looks like he’s summoned a Balrog to fight.

This brings us to the second part of the question: could Harry have used his Patronus on the Dead Marsh things? Arguably it is a light based magic, like fire, and does work on creatures of darkness other than just Dementors. I think that Harry just needs to be in trouble now, so the patronas has been limited.

Anyone have some insight for me other than “read the book?” I don’t plan on reading those books. Too many great books to read.

Let’s get started with this week’s mailbag:

Q: When I bought the Prince Caspian Soundtrack I was looking forward to hearing Reepicheep’s theme. Instead I only got a few seconds of it in The Door in the Air. Are they planning to come out with a more complete soundtrack?

-Collin Layman

Paul: Unfortunately a complete recording of Harry Gregson-Williams’ score for either The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe or Prince Caspian is very unlikely. Perhaps someday there will be a limited print run of a thousand or two copies of the complete recordings. Perhaps this letter will help to generate some more interest in owning all of the score from either film.

Who’s up for complete recordings of the Chronicles of Narnia scores by Harry Gregson-Williams? I sure am!

And this was a light week, with only the one letter. Better one than none, I say.

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NarniaFans Mailbag #40: Douglas Gresham on Lewis’ inspiration for Lucy Pevensie; Film Scores

Paul Martin — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:44:24 +0000

The last two weeks have been some of the busiest weeks I’ve had since re-launching the mailbag. Last week, in fact, was so busy that I didn’t get a chance to do the mailbag. I usually do it on Wednesdays, but there was something important that came up last week. You see, there was a movie that came out that has made nearly a half of a billion dollars worldwide, so far. Being a child of the 80s, I had to see it. Twice. On opening day. Yes, I am a geek, and no, I don’t recommend this movie for children to see. But I won’t be reviewing it entirely unless I am asked to write further on it, the film is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and I loved it. Not every minute, but I thought it was great overall.

Now for an update that many of you asked me to give. For those that didn’t know, my sister was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and was to have surgery this week. The surgery lasted twice as long as the doctors had anticipated, and they wound up taking the entire thyroid out. Apparently she isn’t entirely in the clear, as of yet; but she’ll be having radioactive iodine treatments soon that should take care of the rest. Prayers are welcome. She also has a convent of 250 nuns praying for her. She plans on entering the convent this fall.

We’ve got some great letters this week, so let’s get to it.

Q: In the LWW Extended Edition, on disk 4 (Visualizing LWW, The Complete Production Experience) Douglas Gresham states that when Jack and Warnie were living at the Kilns during WWII, several children were sent to live with them, and that one of them was the basis for the character of Lucy Pevensie, and that she became a well-known actress in England, and was still alive today.

Anybody know who he’s talking about?

-Islandgeek

Paul: I went straight to the source on this one, and got word directly from Mr. Gresham himself!

Douglas Gresham: The girl who was the model for Lucy was June Flewett, later to be known as Lady June Freud when her husband Clement Freud (Grandson of Sigmund Freud) was knighted. He died just a couple of weeks ago. June was an evacuee at The Kilns, and later volunteered to stay on there to help out.

Q: I was wondering if Harry Gregson-Williams was doing the soundtrack for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader film? I feel like I heard somewhere that he isn’t, since it has been taken over by Fox. If then he isn’t doing the soundtrack does that mean that all new music (with no recurring themes) would have to be created? I’m not sure if there are copyright issues there..?

Thanks!

~Marie

P.S. I thought of this question because I know that when a new composer did the soundtrack for the new Pirates of the Caribbean the old music was copyrighted and he couldn’t even use the old themes anywhere on the soundtrack.

Paul: Great question Marie, though this one is going to take some time for me to answer. Bear with me as I expound upon my knowledge of the film soundtracks to which you are referring.

Long ago, David Arnold was announced to be the composer for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Harry Gregson-Williams won’t be back for this film, but that doesn’t mean that his themes won’t be reprised in some way. I don’t believe there are copyright issues, as the Narnia franchise isn’t Disney’s, it’s Walden Media’s; and Walden Media is still on the project.

When it came to the soundtrack for Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, which was attributed to Klaus Badelt, it turns out that is a slightly misleading. There was actually a team of composers behind the soundtrack of the first Pirates film, and all of them did so as part of Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures. Ramin Djawadi, James Dooley, Nick Glennie-Smith, Steve Jablonsky, Blake Neely, James McKee Smith, and Geoff Zanelli each composed snippets of music for the score. Klaus Badelt served as the music supervisor on the project, with Hans Zimmer acting as over-producer. Zimmer, himself, couldn’t take credit for having composed the score, because of an agreement with with another studio at the time.

Side note before I move on to the next film in that series: Alan Silvestri was the original composer on Curse of the Black Pearl, but his score didn’t match what producer Jerry Bruckheimer had in mind for the music. The movie’s score was written from the ground up by Media Ventures at a break-neck speed, with only two or three weeks to complete. They started with stock-music that Media Ventures already had, and built on that to complete the score.

Now, for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, Hans Zimmer had far more time to actually work on the score. He wrote themes for characters like Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones, as well as the Kraken. In much the same way that Prince Caspian had his own theme that didn’t appear in the first film, Davy Jones had his. There were rehashes of musical ques from the first film in both of the sequels, but Zimmer wanted to create defined themes.

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End did the same thing, expanding themes established in the first two films, while also establishing some new ones, such as the Will Turner / Elizabeth Swann love theme.

As you can see, it was never a case of copyright infringement. It could never be, as the same company and composer worked on all three films. What you witnessed was a progression. Think of it like a favorite band. A band such as Skillet or Relient K. Every album they release sounds like them, but it’s new music. If all they did was change the lyrics, but not much else, they’d be Nickelback. And that gets very boring, the more it is done.

There are many great examples of things like this throughout the film world. The Lord of the Rings is an obvious example, as it’s quite possibly the greatest music written for film in the history of the motion picture. But one film series in particular always starts the same, but different: Star Wars. John Williams will even tell you, the theme music that plays over the opening crawl is different for each film. He uses different instruments to emphasize different emotions for each film. It’s very subtle, yes, but it is intentional.

A good example to look at, though, is the Harry Potter series. John Williams was acting composer in the series for the first three films. The theme has been used, though, in all films since. The same will likely be true of Narnia, though each book is entirely different from the last, so it’ll probably sound pretty different each time.

And that’s all that I have time for, this week. I have a lot of projects to finish tomorrow, so I need some sleep! Contact us with your questions!

Prince Caspian Score, Narnia Songwriters Win Dove Awards

Paul Martin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:36:29 +0000

The Dove Awards are currently happening, and I’m going to be updating this as the awards are given to Narnia related music artists.

The score for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian wins the award for Instrumental Project of the Year! Congratulations, Harry Gregson-Williams, Lisbeth Scott & Company!

INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM
A Treasury of Hymns; LaDonna; Eric Wyse; Martingale Music
Always There; Harold Rayford; Antoine Chamber; Tyscot Records
Born to Play; Barry D.; Barry D.; Taqa Records
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian; Various; Harry Gregson-Williams; Walt Disney Records
Love Beyond All Measure; Stephen Petrunak; Stephen Petrunak; GIA Publications
The Breath of Life; Angella Christie; Angella Christie, Kevin Griffen; ACSM

However, none of the Disney people were on hand to accept the award.

The award for Long Form Music Video was given to Narnia artist tobyMac for Alive and Transported.

LONG FORM MUSIC VIDEO
Alive and Transported; tobyMac; Eric Welch; Tameron Hedge, Dan Pitts; Broken Poet Productions; Forefront Records
Comatose Comes Alive; Skillet; Carl Diebold; Carl Diebold, Paul Kerby, Zachary Kelm; Atlantic, Lava , Ardent, INO Records
Country Bluegrass Homecoming Volume One; Bill & Gloria Gaither; Doug Stuckey; Bill Gaither; Gaither Television Productions; Gaither Music Group
O Holy Night; David Phelps; David Phelps, Jimmy Abegg; David Phelps, Jim Chaffee, Jimmy Abegg, Ben Pearson; MG&A; Word Records
The Altar and the Door Live; Casting Crowns; Cary Goin; John Erwin, Andy Erwin; Erwin Brothers Motion Pictures; Beach Street

I was going for Skillet on this one, but I haven’t seen all of the videos. I’m just a huge Skillet fan and have the video.

Steven Curtis Chapman wins songwriter of the year! Congrats, Steven! He had some great competition this year, too.

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Steven Curtis Chapman
Natalie Grant
Brandon Heath
Jason Ingram
Tony Wood

Artist of the Year goes to Steven Curtis Chapman! Congrats again Steven! He got a standing ovation after performing his smash hit song Cinderella, a song that is destined to be on the radio forever.

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Casting Crowns
Steven Curtis Chapman
Fireflight
Marvin Sapp
Third Day
tobyMac
Chris Tomlin

Dove Award Nominations include “This is Home,” Soundtrack, Related Artists

Paul Martin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 05:25:08 +0000

Wow! As I was reading through the list of Dove Award Nominations, I couldn’t help but notice the number of artists that have been inspired by C.S. Lewis and/or The Chronicles of Narnia! Starting with Switchfoot’s Prince Caspian Soundtrack entry This is Home being nominated for Pop/Contemporary Song of the Year, as well as the Prince Caspian soundtrack being nominated for Instrumental Album.

I’m going to list all of the categories that a related artist has been nominated in below. Brace yourself!

2009 Dove Award Nominees

SONG OF THE YEAR
Dove Award given to the songwriter and publisher.
song title; writer; publisher
“Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)”; Chris Tomlin, Louie Giglio, Traditional; sixsteps music (ASCAP), worshiptogether.com Songs (ASCAP)
“Cinderella”; Steven Curtis Chapman; Sparrow Songs (BMI)
“Empty Me”; Chris Sligh, Clint Lagerberg, Tony Wood; Foolish Tool Music (ASCAP), Word Music LLC (ASCAP), Kindacrazy Music (BMI), Row J Seat 9 Songs (ASCAP), New Spring Publishing (ASCAP), Bridge Building Music (BMI)
“Give Me Your Eyes”; Brandon Heath, Jason Ingram; Sitka 6 Music (ASCAP), Peertunes Ltd. (SESAC), Grange Hill Music (SESAC), Windsor Way (SESAC)
“I Will Not Be Moved”; Natalie Grant; Nat in the Hat (ASCAP)
“I’m Letting Go”; Francesca Battistelli, Tony Wood, Ian Eskelin; Designer Music (SESAC), Word Music LLC (ASCAP), Honest & Popular Songs (SESAC), Row J Seat 9 Songs (ASCAP), New Spring Publishing Inc. (ASCAP)
“Mighty to Save”; Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan; Hillsong Publishing (ASCAP)
“Never Going Back to OK”; Matt Fuqua, Josh Havens, Brad Wigg, Dan Muckala; Smells Like Music (ASCAP), Screaming Mimes Music (ASCAP)
“Reason Enough”; Ernie Haase, Wayne Haun, Joel Lindsey; Bridge Building Music (BMI), Psalmsinger Music (BMI), Ernie Sig Sound Music (BMI), Hefton Hill Music (BMI)
“You Reign”; Bart Millard, Barry Graul, Steven Curtis Chapman; Simpleville Music (ASCAP), Wet As A Fish Music (ASCAP), Sparrow Songs (BMI)

SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR
Steven Curtis Chapman
Natalie Grant
Brandon Heath
Jason Ingram
Tony Wood

MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Jeremy Camp
Jon Foreman
Ernie Haase
Brandon Heath
David Phelps
Marvin Sapp
Chris Tomlin

FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR
Francesca Battistelli
Karen Peck Gooch
Natalie Grant
Brooke Fraser Ligertwood
Mandisa
Sandi Patty
Laura Story

GROUP OF THE YEAR
Casting Crowns
David Crowder*Band
Ernie Haase & Signature Sound
Mary Mary
MercyMe
Skillet
Third Day

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Casting Crowns
Steven Curtis Chapman
Fireflight
Marvin Sapp
Third Day
tobyMac
Chris Tomlin

POP/CONTEMPORARY RECORDED SONG
“Cinderella”; This Moment – Cinderella Edition; Steven Curtis Chapman; Sparrow Records
“Give Me Your Eyes”; What If We; Brandon Heath, Jason Ingram; Reunion Records
“I Will Not Be Moved”; Relentless; Natalie Grant; Curb Records
“I’m Letting Go”; My Paper Heart; Francesca Battistelli, Ian Eskelin, Tony Wood; Fervent Records
“This Is Home”; Chronicles Of Narnia:Prince Caspian; Switchfoot; Jonathan Foreman, Andy Dodd, Adam Watts; Walt Disney Records

WORSHIP SONG
Dove Award in the Worship Song category given to the songwriter and publisher.
song; writer; publisher
“A New Hallelujah”; Michael W. Smith, Debbie Smith, Paul Baloche; Word Music LLC, Smittyfly Music, This Is Your Time Music, Integrity’s Hosanna! Music, Leadworship Songs
“Breathe On Me”; Natalie Grant; Nat In The Hat Music
“Jesus Messiah”; Chris Tomlin, Daniel Carson, Jesse Reeves, Ed Cash; worshiptogether.com Songs, Alletrop Music, sixsteps Music
“Mighty To Save”; Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan; Hillsong Publishing
“You’re Not Alone”; Meredith Andrews; Word Music LLC

ROCK ALBUM
Comatose Comes Alive; Skillet; Carl Diebold, Paul Kerby, Zachary Kelm; Ardent Records, INO Records
For The Love Of The Game; Pillar; Travis Wyrick; Essential Records
Satisfied; DecembeRadio; Scotty Wilbanks; Slanted Records
Southern Hospitality; Disciple; Travis Wyrick; INO Records
To Know That You’re Alive; Kutless; Peter Kipley; BEC

ROCK/CONTEMPORARY ALBUM
Daylight Is Coming; Remedy Drive; Ian Eskelin; Word Records
Expect The Impossible; Stellar Kart; Ian Eskelin; Word Records
Hello; After Edmund; Scotty Wilbanks; Slanted Records
Never Going Back To OK; The Afters; Dan Muckala; INO Records
Unbreakable; Fireflight; Rob Hawkins; Flicker Records

POP/CONTEMPORARY ALBUM
Bebo Norman; Bebo Norman, Jason Ingram, Rusty Varenkamp; BEC
Fall And Winter; Jon Foreman; Credential Recordings, lowercase people records
My Paper Heart; Francesca Battistelli; Ian Eskelin; Fervent Records
Relentless; Natalie Grant; Bernie Herms, Shaun Shankel; Curb Records
Revelation; Third Day; Howard Benson; Essential Records

INSTRUMENTAL ALBUM
A Treasury of Hymns; LaDonna; Eric Wyse; Martingale Music
Always There; Harold Rayford; Antoine Chamber; Tyscot Records
Born to Play; Barry D.; Barry D.; Taqa Records
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian; Various; Harry Gregson-Williams; Walt Disney Records
Love Beyond All Measure; Stephen Petrunak; Stephen Petrunak; GIA Publications
The Breath of Life; Angella Christie; Angella Christie, Kevin Griffen; ACSM

PRAISE & WORSHIP ALBUM
A New Hallelujah; Michael W. Smith; Michael W. Smith; Reunion Records
Great God Who Saves; Laura Story; Ed Cash; INO Records
Hello Love; Chris Tomlin; Ed Cash; Sparrow Records; sixsteps Records
Opposite Way; Leeland; Matt Bronleewe; Essential Records
The Invitation; Meredith Andrews; Jason Ingram, Rusty Varenkamp; Word Records

LONG FORM MUSIC VIDEO
Alive and Transported; tobyMac; Eric Welch; Tameron Hedge, Dan Pitts; Broken Poet Productions; Forefront Records
Comatose Comes Alive; Skillet; Carl Diebold; Carl Diebold, Paul Kerby, Zachary Kelm; Atlantic, Lava , Ardent, INO Records
Country Bluegrass Homecoming Volume One; Bill & Gloria Gaither; Doug Stuckey; Bill Gaither; Gaither Television Productions; Gaither Music Group
O Holy Night; David Phelps; David Phelps, Jimmy Abegg; David Phelps, Jim Chaffee, Jimmy Abegg, Ben Pearson; MG&A; Word Records
The Altar and the Door Live; Casting Crowns; Cary Goin; John Erwin, Andy Erwin; Erwin Brothers Motion Pictures; Beach Street

Harry Gregson-Williams composes X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Paul Martin — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:14:51 +0000

If the music of Narnia has captured your attention, and you enjoy symphonic music, or have become a fan of Harry Gregson-Williams, you’ll want to check out the score for X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Harry Gregson-Williams was the composer for both The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian. He won’t be working on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, though, as that is going to be composed by David Arnold.

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE, the first chapter in the X-MEN saga, unites Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) with several other legends of the X-MEN universe, in an epic revolution that pits the mutants against powerful forces determined to eliminate them.

The X-MEN series has already generated more than $600 million at the U.S. box office — and each film has been more successful than the last. X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE is destined to be one of the big blockbusters of the summer movie season.

The X-MEN ORIGINS saga kicks off with an epic symphonic score by Harry Gregson-Williams (The Chronicles of Narnia, Kingdom of Heaven, Man on Fire).

20th Century Fox opens X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE nationwide on May 1.

Order from Amazon

Or enjoy some of his Narnia music in this player:

Regina Spektor’s The Call could win Oscar Nomination

Paul Martin — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:24:22 +0000

Regina Spektor "The Call"

Regina Spektor is among those eligible for a Best Original Song Oscar nomination. According to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, there are 49 songs from films in 2008 that are eligible.

“The Call” was the song that played at the end of the film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which sums up the feelings that the characters were going through at the end of the adventure quite well.

There is, however, pretty stiff competition in the field. Beyonce Knowles co-wrote the song “Once in a Lifetime” for Cadillac Records this year, and Miley Cyrus co-wrote “I Thought I Lost You” for Bolt. Peter Gabriel could also earn a nomination for “Down to Earth” from Wall-E, and Bruce Springsteen for his song “The Wrestler” which he wrote for a film of the same name.

Nominations will be announced on or around January 22, 2009. Let’s keep our hopes up for that possible nomination! Hopefully the Academy loves the song as much as we do!

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Harry Gregson-Williams: Scoring the Return to Narnia!

Paul Martin — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:58:00 +0000

Animated Views’ Jeremie Noyer e-mailed us to tell us that his newest Caspian article is online: an interview with Narnia composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Here’s the summary from the top of the article, followed by a link to the rest!

For any film music buff, Harry Gregson-Williams is no stranger. We owe him such notable scores for all three Shreks, Gone Baby Gone, Chicken Run, Man on Fire, Flushed Away, Domino, Phone Booth, Bridget Jones: The Age of Reason, Enemy of the State, Antz and Kingdom of Heaven, among others. Such impressive credits that prove his being as comfortable in live action as in animation to provide elegant, smooth and at the same time strong scores.

Born December 13 1961, Gregson-Williams began his career as a music teacher at the Amesbury School in Hindhead, Surrey, England, then at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he had been a pupil, and also for a short period in both Egypt and Africa, thus experimenting music as a universal language, before stepping into film music.

Prince Caspian is his fifth collaboration with director Andrew Adamson after composing the scores for his Academy Award-winning Shrek (co-composed with John Powell), the hit sequels Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third, and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for which he collected Golden Globe and Grammy nominations for his score. From the delicate and otherworldly notes of an electric violin to the stabs of a furious, full orchestra, let him be your guide through the sounds of Narnia…

Harry Gregson-Williams: Scoring the Return to Narnia!

Harry Gregson-Williams talks Prince Caspian

Paul Martin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:34:00 +0000

iF Magazine has interviewed composer Harry Gregson-Williams. Check out the full interview at the source link, or just read the portion below.

iF: There’s a real flow to PRINCE CASPIAN. Talk about how you integrate the orchestra with your samples for its unique, and melodically pleasing sound?

Harry Gregson-Williams: Caspian is more or less an acoustic score, as was LWW. As I often do, I integrated some of my customized sounds (nothing heinously electronic!) alongside an orchestra, a choir and various ethnic instruments from all around the world to create the sound of Narnia. It is amusing to me that on LWW I seemed to ruffle some people’s feathers for sounding too electronic. Please! I enjoy and listen to plenty of ‘electronic’ music and sometimes create scores along those lines, but…. well…. I don’t know what some people’s idea of ‘electronic’ is, but it’s not mine.

iF: You make ample use of choral music in PRINCE CASPIAN. Do the words have any actual meaning, a la Howard Shore’s use of Elvish in his RINGS scores?

Harry Gregson-Williams: As it happens they do, and they did for the most part in LWW. There are many sections where I used various Runic phrases (a very old English language) which served as exclamations that the choir would sing – usually small, rising phrases that I always thought of as a sort of ‘Greek Chorus’ commenting on the action as it happened. Also, in the more noble and heroic parts of the score there is a large use of Latin. Secular Latin.

iF: Is it more difficult writing “lighter” fantasy scores like SHREK and the first NARNIA, or going for the more sophisticated sound of epics like PRINCE CASPIAN?

Harry Gregson-Williams: If you know me, you’ll know that I find it stimulating and creatively necessary to move between genres. I wouldn’t say I find any particular thing easy, either. Working on the NARNIA movies has been a blessing and I have been aware of what a responsibility this has all been. I’d follow Andrew Adamson in to any old battle at any old time, too. He’s a brilliant director who has an amazing ability to get the best out of the people around him, and he’s a good friend too.

iF: How do you see your NARNIA sound developing for the next film THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER?

Harry Gregson-Williams: No idea. Ask David Arnold — he might have given this subject some thought!

iF: In addition to scoring CASPIAN, you also voice the swashbuckling squirrel Pattertwig. What’s it like to finally be part of the fantasy universe? And do you hope for an action figure?

Harry Gregson-Williams: When I phoned my two children from a London ADR stage to tell them that I was about to voice one of the characters in the movie, there were squeals of utter delight- initially. But as my son, not so much his sister, discovered that it was to be Pattertwig’s voice that I was going to do and not some mighty Minotaur or something, he had great difficulty hiding his disappointment! It was fun to do nonetheless, and yet another reason I feel amazingly fortunate to have been a part of the Narnia adventures thus far. Of course, a Pattertwig action figure would have to be kept on a very high shelf, well out of sight …

Switchfoot’s Jerome Fontamillas on New ‘Narnia’ Song

Paul Martin — Fri, 23 May 2008 02:28:00 +0000

By now, whether you are Christian or not, you have heard at least one hit song from the beloved Christian rock band Switchfoot.

While all the band members are Christian, they prefer to be known as just a rock band because they say their music contains broad themes that everyone can enjoy, whether it be “Meant to Live,” “Dare You to Move” or their newest hit single, “Awakening.”

The San Diego-based group now has a new original song out called, “This is Home,” which plays in “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” the latest “Narnia” film which this past weekend seized the box-office crown, with $55 million in ticket sales over its debut weekend.

The Switchfoot song is featured during the end credits of the film, and appears on the Original Walt Disney Records Soundtrack CD, which released May 13.

The Christian Post caught up with Jerome Fontamillas, who is often found jamming on the guitar or keyboards for the band, to discuss the new “Narnia” song and to get the 411 on Switchfoot’s latest projects.

The following are excerpts taken from the interview:

CP: Tell me a little bit about “This is Home” – Switchfoot’s new song, recorded for the movie “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.” How does the song tell the journey of these four kids?

Fontamillas: Well, the whole idea of the song – if you read the Chronicles the series from beginning to end – it’s this idea that the place you live now is not the place you are really meant to be. You feel this is just a passing by and there is something bigger for you beyond this place. This song has a longing to go to that place. ‘This is Home’ is about longing to be in the place where you belong and destined to be.

CP: What do you think is the destiny of these four kids?

Fontamillas: Well, I’m sure for the four kids, Narnia is their place to be. But you know, you can relate it to you. ‘This is not my place. I belong in a place bigger than this.’

CP: Now, have you read the books?

Fontamillas: Yes, I have … when I was a kid.

CP: Was it surreal to work on a story you read when you were younger?

Fontamillas: Yeah. It was surreal to be a part of a work like this. Reading C.S. Lewis all my life, it’s an honor and a privilege to work on something like this. So when they called us up and said, ‘Hey can you work on a song for the movie?’ we were like pretty floored. We were like, ‘Really? For Chronicles of Narnia? That’s amazing.’

CP: A lot of your songs are known to contain messages that Christians can relate to. Do you see any such messages in this song?

Fontamillas: Oh, yeah. I mean a lot of our songs have Christian themes because C.S. Lewis is a big part of us. We read a lot of it at work, so a lot of the themes he had put in his book, you can see them in a lot of our songs.

We have a song called, ‘Meant to Live.’ The idea is that we are meant to live for something more, something bigger than where we are at.

We have a song called “This is your life,” where you are talking about ‘Is this all there is or is there something big you could be living for?’ And a lot of C.S. Lewis themes are in that area.

CP: How about for this song?

Fontamillas: ‘This is Home,’ like I said before … this song has a longing to be in a place where you are destined to be at.

ChristianPost.com for the rest

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