FINNEAS shares his creative process for creating music for AppleTV+'s new show, 'Disclaimer,' while simultaneously working on Billie Eilish’s 'Hit Me Hard and Soft.' He discusses creating hits for 'Turning Red' with Billie and more!
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MusicTranscript
00:00In the world where I do all these different things, where I, you know, make music under my own name,
00:04I make music with my sister, I make music with other artists, and then I score TV and film,
00:10to me, it's all in service of the project at hand, if that makes sense. To me, the goal is that
00:16I think Disclaimer is an amazing show. I think the acting in it is incredible,
00:21the cinematography, the directing, the writing. I want to participate in this experience that I'm a
00:26fan of, and hopefully, you know, you love the show, and whether you are conscious of loving
00:32the music or not, hopefully it feels like a perfect marriage for that show.
00:36We talked to Finneas about composing music for new Apple TV Plus show Disclaimer,
00:40and yes, he even did it while working on an album with his sister Billie.
00:44We got the details with Billboard News.
00:47Destiny doesn't knock on any door. It crashes in without permission,
00:56and grabs you mercilessly by your soul.
01:00You've been involved in so many amazing film projects, Oscar winning,
01:04I mean, from James Bond to Barbie. Why was it time for television?
01:09I think the short answer to that is that Alfonso, who's a person I've known for a while,
01:14and been an admirer of and a fan of for even longer, asked me to be involved in something,
01:19and I would have done whatever he asked me to do. I think he's such a genius,
01:23and it was such an honor to get to work with him. And then I was sent these scripts for this
01:28series that he was making, and I thought the scripts were incredible,
01:31and I was so excited to do it. I mean, I'm obviously a lover of television series,
01:37the series that come to mind the last several years, mini-series specifically, maybe White
01:43Lotus is a favorite of mine. The first season of Big Little Lies is a favorite of mine.
01:48Yeah. All right. I'm getting the two thumbs up from you. I appreciate it.
01:53Those are good ones. I'm just saying those are the ones I was addicted to.
01:56So getting to be involved in a series was a real dream come true. It was really fun.
02:02She needed to feel it. She needed to suffer as I had.
02:08When I listen to some of the tracks that you've made and composed for the show,
02:12they have a very eerie yet beautiful vibe to them.
02:16Tell me what you, of course, and tell me what you did,
02:18or what puts you in the place to be able to create those types of songs?
02:22I think that first and foremost, I think the thing I try to do when I compose music for
02:28anything, for a film or, you know, writing a song that's going to be in a film, is I try to just
02:34let myself react to the thing. So I think the first thing I'll do is I'll, you know,
02:41sometimes I wrote some pieces of music after just reading the script and I was just reacting to the
02:46feelings that the script made me feel. But a lot of the pieces of music, obviously,
02:50I wrote to picture and I'd watch the scene. And the first version, I tried to always just
02:55be true to what I was feeling responding to that scene. So I'd watch a scene of Catherine
03:00and her husband, Robert, having this argument, and I would just literally sit there and I'd
03:08create a piece of music in not real time, necessarily, because I'd watch the scene over
03:12and over to really digest it. But I would just create the music that was what I was
03:16feeling responding to it. The world needs to know who Catherine Ravenscroft really is.
03:26The world needs to know the truth.
03:29I will say some of the things that I read,
03:34like, ended up being filmed so similarly to how I saw them in my mind that that was so satisfying.
03:41There were like things that I remember sort of thinking about and seeing in my head in the
03:45script. And then I would watch a chapter of the show and I'd be like, that's exactly how I saw
03:50that. It was such an amazing experience. So what I'm hearing there, Phineas, is Phineas
03:54the director that's coming down the pipeline. No, I'm no Alfonso Cuaron.
03:58And something that's also intriguing to me is that you've always been honest about who you are
04:03and kind of who you are as a person and a writer, even as recently as like posting about your
04:08political beliefs and common fears and everything. So when you're selecting a project, whether it's
04:12a TV, film, music project, how important is it to you for it to represent how you feel
04:18personally or who you are as a person? That's a good question. I think to me it has the most to
04:25do with the person behind the project feeling like a person that I see eye to eye with. I think that
04:32that's probably, you know, at the end of the day, it's people in a room. You know, this project,
04:40I worked with two primary collaborators on this, Aaron Forbes, who has been a music director of
04:46all of my live touring for many years, and David Campbell, who notated, you know, I'd write a piece
04:51of music and he would actually write it out and make it readable by a string quartet, which
04:57is super exciting. And, you know, those are people in a room. I was in a room with these two
05:02people and the conversations that we had were engaging and fun and I thought they were smart
05:07guys and they, you know, saved me many times over the course of this project. I might have,
05:14you know, had something that I had an idea, but I didn't know how to execute it and they would
05:18help me execute it. You know, Alfonso is a person that I have loved my conversations with, you know,
05:24so I try to kind of just be a judge of character and a judge of personality. And then the work
05:31that we get into is a side effect of my personal relationship with them. I love that honesty and
05:36that you're able to have those like real conversations. Oh, yeah. Every time I work
05:41with any artist, it's like nobody has a hundred percent batting average. You know what I mean? I
05:46think if I worked with an artist where they just thought everything I did was great, like I don't
05:52think everything I do is great. And if they thought everything I do is great, I would probably
05:56question how discerning they are. I'd be like, wow, really? Like you think all of this is great?
06:01So maybe that has to do with my own sort of self critiquing or, you know, being hard on myself. But
06:08I think in general, it's like everyone's an artist. Everyone has, you know, taste and opinions. And
06:13that's that's why you sign up for the project. I could go make a thing alone, but I'm in a
06:18collaboration and that's what's fun about it. And I mean, another frequent collaborator of yours
06:21that I'm sure is honest with you, obviously your sister. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. And the reason
06:26the reason that I think that's sort of chicken or the egg, like the reason that I think we're
06:31such effective collaborators is because we can be so blunt and honest with each other, because
06:36obviously we've known each other our whole lives. And I think the the fact that we're blunt and
06:40honest with each other makes the music better. So I think it's like it's true on both sides.
06:46Well, that's why I was asking, has she the show or heard your music from the show or seen the episodes?
06:51Yeah, I scored this show at the same time as I was making Hit Me Hard and Soft. So the way that
06:58would work would be she'd have she'd come over for a recording session. She'd usually she's a
07:03late sleeper. So she'd wake up late and come over at about 1 p.m. And I had had been usually working
07:10on Disclaimer from the time I woke up until she got there. And so she'd walk in and I'd be like
07:14cooking up these crazy orchestral motifs for Disclaimer. And then I'd I'd send those in and
07:21get feedback. And then Billy and I would work on Hit Me Hard and Soft all day. And then she'd leave
07:24usually around seven or eight p.m. And I'd go right back to Disclaimer. So it was a busy period, but
07:30really fun. I have no idea how much your caffeine intake is, but it's one it's one cup of cold brew
07:37a day. I'm very regimented about it. If I have more than that, I feel like my heart's going to
07:41explode. I feel like cold brew is heavy enough on the caffeine. More than that, I feel crazy.
07:47That's amazing. And we're talking to obviously about TV, but I want to talk to you just a little
07:51bit about film. Sure. What what was a moment that you saw a movie from your childhood or your past
07:56that you knew that you wanted to score at some point? For me, I think of like Jurassic Park and
08:01Harry Potter. Oh, yeah. Man, those are such amazing scores. I think that the score that made me want
08:06to score the most was probably the social network. I think I don't have a background in classical
08:12music. And so scores like Harry Potter or Jurassic Park, which are so amazing. I sort of had a feeling
08:19growing up of like, wow, I'd have to learn an entirely different language to learn how to score
08:23those films. And I remember seeing the social network and thinking like that's like I do that.
08:28I sit and make these these, you know, modern sounds, so to speak. So I think that's probably
08:36the thing that inspired me. And then Disclaimer has been this amazing opportunity to learn that
08:41other language, to learn an orchestral language and learn how to compose music for orchestras
08:46and for string quartets. And it's been a really amazing learning experience. And speaking of just
08:51being a fan, I have to ask you about one of my favorite projects of yours, My God, I am a four
08:59townie for life. So I had to at least ask you about being involved in Turning Red and how that was for
09:05you and how you've seen fans take it and become a whole thing. First of all, Billy and I making
09:15those songs as fans of, you know, NSYNC and Backstreet Boys was such a fun experience
09:23and really just such a unique opportunity. I don't think I feel confident we would never
09:28have written those songs if we hadn't been asked to, you know. And then I think the third chapter
09:33of it that really tickled me was I have some friends that have kids. And when the movie came
09:38out, they'd be like, oh, I watched Turning Red with my my son or my daughter today, and we loved it.
09:44And then I'd see them like three months later, and they'd be like, my children have been playing
09:49Nobody Like You or You Know What's Up for three months straight. I've heard it every time I've
09:55gotten in the car. Like there was a they'd they'd grown to they'd grown to have deep hatred for me
10:01just by virtue of having to hear the song 600,000 times. But I was that way as a kid. Every time I
10:07got in the car, I wanted to hear, you know, this song or that song. So, yeah. No, I'm incredible.
10:14It was incredible, man. And as a fourth, thank you. We're very appreciative. That means a lot.
10:18Yeah, we're excited about Disclaimer. So thank you so much for hanging out with me. Thanks for
10:21talking to me. And continue being a great multi-hype. And don't don't take that away
10:25from yourself. Thanks so much.