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© 2008 Ramin Djawadi
IRON MAN composer Ramin Djawadi
Exclusive Music Interview:
E-Notes: RAMIN DJAWADI BRINGS ON THE HEAVY METAL FOR 'IRON MAN'
The full metal jacket composer masters the turbulence of bringing a hero to film
By DANIEL SCHWEIGER, Soundtrack Editor
Published 5/7/2008
Each month, iF Magazine brings you Internet conversations with Hollywood’s top composers. This is E-notes.
As Iron Man repulsors his way into theaters this summer, the cinematic debut of Marvel’s man-machine is giving its creators plenty of reasons to believe his debut flight will blast them into the Hollywood stratosphere. And if one person will likely benefit from putting pedal to red and gold metal, then it’s IRON MAN composer Ramin Djawadi. Like Iron Man’s alter ego Tony Stark, Djawadi has found himself strapping on an imposing costume for the first time here. And although he’s had similar turbulence mastering the suit on its shakedown cruise, Ramin Djawadi has landed IRON MAN’s soundtrack in style, firmly announcing a new, rocking voice in the justice league of superhero scoring.
That’s an even more impressive feat when you consider the big, agent-powered musicians that a score like IRON MAN would normally go to. But if Tony Stark has allies like S.H.I.E.L.D. to help watch his back, then Djawadi can credit Hans Zimmer for helping him get the prized gig. That über-composer’s home base is command central for the new, rhythmic sound in action scoring, a place where such composers as Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell have broken out after their work on such Zimmer-produced soundtrack spectaculars as THE ROCK and ARMAGEDDON. The German-born Djawadi would also prove there that he had the right, percussive stuff after his work for Zimmer on such films as THUNDERBIRDS, PIRATES OF THE CARRBEAN and BATMAN BEGINS.
Though he’s more than showed his own mettle on such stylistically varied scores as DECEPTION, MR. BROOKS, BLADE: TRINITY, ASK THE DUST and his continuing music for the TV series PRISON BREAK, IRON MAN would give Ramin Djawadi the opportunity to break into a whole new budgetary realm. And he’s pretty much delivered everything you’d expect from an IRON MAN score, from metal guitar grooves to electric-orchestral suspense and cool waves of percussive adrenalin. It’s the kind of energetic blast that’s very much part of the Zimmer action wave, yet one that more than show’s Djawadi’s touch for the genre. And that’s a neat thing here, as Djawadi’s fun grooves help turn IRON MAN into an energetic jam session of comic book excitement.
Now waiting for what will likely be a to-the-Moon launch for IRON MAN, Ramin Djawdi discusses what it takes to fill the boots of comic book’s metal god
iF: Were you familiar with Tony Stark's character, or a comic book reader before doing the film?
RAMIN DJAWADI: Yes, I used to be an active comic book reader as a kid. Iron Man was always one of my favorites. When I visited my parents last year I found lots of old comics on the attic. They are dating back to the late 70’s and early 80’s and are in German. I brought one back to show to Jon. It was interesting to see how the artwork changes over time.
iF: IRON MAN is the kind of plum scoring assignment that usually goes to very well established Hollywood composers. How did a relative big-budget newcomer like yourself land such an auspicious gig?
DJAWADI: I already had an existing relationship with Marvel due to scoring BLADE: TRINITY, and Paramount due to MR. BROOKS. So the studios were already aware of me. When I heard that the composer position was still open, I had my agent start to inquire about it. Hans Zimmer definitely played a big role in coming onboard as a score producer.
iF: How do you think your work with Hans Zimmer helped you when scoring IRON MAN?
DJAWADI: Having worked with him on projects like PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN and BATMAN BEGINS showed me how to structure the workflow. Huge movies like this have constant conceptual and picture changes. A lot of CG scenes couldn’t even be written until very late in the post schedule. So I knew I had to schedule the scoring sessions as late as possible and I was not surprised that I was working on fixes until the last possible moment.
iF; Was a techno "heavy metal" approach an obvious musical choice for IRON MAN?
DJAWADI: It was always Jon’s vision to have less of a traditional orchestral approach and to focus more on heavy guitars. Placing Sabbath’s “Iron Man” in the trailer also received an exciting hype. I also welcomed the idea, as I love to take on different approaches. We all knew that the orchestral thing would work and we could always fall back on that, but this way we could take on a different direction than other superhero scores that we knew we would be compared to.
iF: There's a lot more exhilaration and fun to IRON MAN's music than the usual darkness you find in today's superhero scoring. Was it a relief to write in a more entertaining, "popcorn" vein?
DJAWADI: I have to admit I was little bit caught off guard at first, as I had expected the movie to be a lot darker before I saw it. But Jon had created this incredible movie that was fun, yet not cheesy at all. Robert Downey Jr.’s performance is so strong that it really leads the way for the tone of IRONMAN. So it was a blast to write to music that would make you laugh and not feel so serious all the time.
iF: Was it difficult to actually compose the metal guitar licks for IRON MAN, and was there a lot of improvisation going on during the “rock” sessions?
DJAWADI: As my main instrument is actually the guitar, it felt natural to come up with rock riffs. The tricky thing was to create riffs that would also work well with the orchestra. And my biggest fear was to create themes that would be played as melodies on the guitar, which could instantly set you back to the 80’s. Scary. So really the only choice was to create hooky riffs and rhythms. There was not much improvisation going on other than that. For one day, we sort of put a band together and played out some ideas with Jon present. That was a lot of fun. Then some ideas were put together that could later be orchestrated.
iF: Talk about the instrumental breakdown of IRONMAN. What kind of balance did you want to give a more "traditional" symphonic approach with the rock-percussive sound?
DJAWADI: Even though we knew we wanted heavy guitars throughout the score, we kept changing the relationship between orchestra and guitar constantly.I would double parts a lot and kept them separate in the mix, so we would have control until the very end on the dub stage. Then Jon could mute orchestra, or the guitars, as he preferred. I think the mix relationship between the two is very difficult, as the orchestra has this lush wide sound. The guitars can end up very small-sounding when you mix them with orchestra. So we doubled a distorted cello with the other two elements a lot to try and close that gap.
iF: How did you want to differentiate the "metal" sound of Iron Man with the Iron Monger?
DJAWADI: There are several themes that lead to the Iron Monger. One of them is a more traditional comic book villain orchestral theme. Then we have an arpeggio motif that functions as a ticking clock that leads us to the development of the Iron Monger. Then there is also an action riff based on guitars, but meaner and darker than the Iron Man one. I also used some prepared piano effect to add an additional distinction to IRON MAN’s score.
iF: How did you collaborate with director Jon Favreau?
DJAWADI: Jon and I had conversations very early on. He always had a great vision of how he wanted this score to sound. Before I even saw the movie, I sat down and wrote this lush orchestral theme. When I played it for him his response was that he loved it, but he did not want to take that obvious approach for this movie. That’s when we started the whole conversation about the focus on guitars. The cutting room was very close to my studio, so he would be come by at night a lot to listen and give me feedback. It was a wonderful collaboration.
iF: There were some last minute, major musical changes you had to do for the score. How did you pull them off, and how did Favreau's new directives differ from the previous scoring you'd done?
DJAWADI: As mentioned before, sudden direction changes can happen a lot on these big movies. I dealt with fixes like I did on any other movie in the past. I went back, didn’t sleep for days and made adjustments. We decided to pull back more on some guitars and feature the orchestra more. Some other problems were that we were facing some strong sound effects that we didn’t have until the dub stage, so I had to make adjustments that would accommodate that. I worked until the last possible minute.
iF: Since IRON MAN is Marvel Studio's first big "solo" superhero film, did you feel any pressure, or the sense that you were helping to make superhero movie history with this picture?
DJAWADI: There certainly was a lot pressure. I started on the movie as early as I could, because I knew that we would have a lot development to do. It was a great collaboration, but it also meant that we would experiment a lot. There were a lot of discoveries about how the tone should be. I think the result is a wonderful movie and I’m very proud to have been part of it.
iF: Many composers like Harry Gregson-Williams and John Powell have emerged from Hans' studio. Do you think you've truly made the "break" with IRON MAN? And how do you think this score shows your own voice, while reflecting the action sound that Hans pioneered so many years ago with him and his protégés?
DJAWADI: I believe it takes more than one big movie to get established as having your own voice. I have two other features coming out this year, DECEPTION, which is a more electronic thriller score, and FLY ME TO THE MOON, which is a traditional orchestral score. Between those three you can definitely hear my style come through, but I leave that up to the listener to decide. I hope that people don’t think that IRON MAN sounds like a Zimmer score, because I personally don’t believe so. Sure, there are certain elements that reflect a little bit of his style, but those are things that occurred, as he was score producer. I’m actually proud of that. Hans has been a big influence on the way I work and write.
iF: Where do you think your IRON MAN music will take him in the undoubted sequels to come?
DJAWADI: I think I have established a musical style and tone that could become characteristic, and I would love to see that live on in upcoming IRON MAN sequels. I certainly think there is a lot of room to grow with any direction that his character develops in.
Listen to the power chords of Ramin Djawadi’s IRON MAN score here.
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