Cinelinx’s resident film music specialist recently got to speak to composer Gavin Brivik about Neon’s How to Blow Up a Pipeline.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with composer Gavin Brivik about his work on the recently released film How to Blow Up a Pipeline, adapted from the book of the same name. The story follows a group of young people who, as the title suggests, learn how to blow up an oil pipeline in the pursuit of protesting climate change.
Brivik studied contemporary classical and electronic music composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas and went on to receive his Masters in Music Composition for Film and Multimedia at New York University. Past credits include Cam, Wild Indian, and The Visitor, just to name a few.
I hope you enjoy this interview!
How did you get attached to How to Blow Up a Pipeline and what did you think of the story?
This is my second collab with director, Daniel Goldhaber. We first met in NYC when I scored his first feature Cam. We became close friends after working together and we always spoke of our next project. When Danny, Ariela and Jordan wrote the script, I immediately pitched them the idea of flying out to the set of production and recording oil drums, pipelines, and found sounds for the score. They got excited quickly after hearing that. The story is my shit, I am very passionate about climate change and go into deep existential dread often when the topic comes up. This story gave me some hope and inspired me to be more active in the moment.
What was it like getting to work with Daniel Goldhaber again, I saw you previously collaborated on Cam together.
It’s honestly like working with a best friend. He just has a way of bringing the best out of me and challenges me constantly to make the music better. We always joke about writing three scores for this movie. We just kept writing scenes over and over again to make the music the best it could be. At the end of the day, I want to be challenged and push my craft. Danny knows this and makes me a better composer.
Where did the idea of recording the sounds of oil drums and pipes and placing them into the sound mix come from? Were there any other unconventional instruments you used?
I studied musique concrete in college, which is a compositional style of using raw, recorded found sounds as musical material. I had a class taught by Dr. Paul Rudy, and our textbook was a zoom handheld recorder. Our assignments were to travel into the world and record everyday sounds from trains, birds chirping, doors opening and closing, to pencils dropping on the floor. These samples would be the foundation of our music. So when it came to scoring How to Blow Up a Pipeline, the idea of recording oil drums and found sounds came instantly. It’s a part of my musical vocabulary.
What was your starting point in scoring the film?
First I read the script, then I read the book it was based on. I then enlisted my longtime friend, Morgan Greenwood, who is also a composer/percussionist. We flew out to New Mexico to the production and recorded all the found sounds. Morgan brought a huge bag of drumsticks, and we spent two days just banging on metal objects. I then came back to my studio in LA, and wrote an entire album of material inspired by the writing and small daily clips I saw on set. These album suites were used as a temp score, and the editor had them before he started. We worked a bit untraditionally for this film. Usually composers start much later once the film is deep into the editing stage.
On a related note, did you also use a traditional orchestra to record any of the music or was it all synthesized?
All found sounds, guitars and synthesizers for this score.
Did you create any specific musical themes in the score, be it for characters or specific ideas in the story?
Yes, we had an overarching melodic theme which can be heard throughout the movie. Since there were eight characters, we thought it would be too much to give them each themes since there wasn’t enough time to develop each one. Instead we used certain samples or sounds for each character. For example, every time Michael wires the bomb, you hear these creaking oil drum samples, and each time we see Dwayne, you hear some western guitars.
How much time did you have to score the film?
I was very fortunate to have 9 months on this movie. That includes all the time I worked while they were shooting and the post process.
How did working on How to Blow Up a Pipeline compare to previous projects you’ve worked on?
Since this is the longest, and hardest I’ve ever worked on the film, it felt the most gratifying once we finished. We all spent so much time and energy making this our best work. I doubt I will ever get this much time to score a single project again. Especially since so many of the crew members are my close friends. It’s hard to compare to other projects, this one was just different. Honestly anything with the name Daniel Goldhaber attached is just different… haha
Do you have a favorite part of the score?
Honestly the scene where they all wake up hungover from partying, and go off to start the heist is my favorite part. It’s 12 minutes of straight music. Was a beast to write.
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I want to say thank you to Gavin Brivik for taking the time to speak with me about How to Blow Up a Pipeline. I also hope you enjoyed reading this interview.
