The Holdovers composer Mark Orton discusses his organic, 1970s-inspired score for Alexander Payne’s new holiday classic in the making.
Summary SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT By most accounts, The Holdovers is a future classic and yet another success from director Alexander Payne. Payne also directed 2014’s Nebraska and won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his 2005 hit Sideways. On his latest film, Payne reunites with Sideways star Paul Giamatti, who has been praised in many a The Holdovers review for turning in yet another fantastic performance.
So, I just had the requisite skills. I also burned out on touring, and so film scoring was a great way to stay home. To your question, that sound came from a performance project for me, so yeah, it became a performative thing for me.
It's rare for me, also. I don't often get to pull out a Les Paul in overdrive and an old amp and actually play, and that was really fun. And we did actually put together a band for this, and I did it at early stages. Very often in early stages of demoing cues, seeing if they're going to work for your director, you're going to be using MIDI, or using digital instruments to mock stuff up.
Alexander came up to Portland where I live. He spent a week with me, roughly, up here. It was us, honestly, not looking at picture, talking about the story somewhat, but really talking about the side of early ‘70s music he was drawn to, and what aligned with the film and the story versus what didn't. There's not early ‘70s funk or something like that in this score.
the music is not going to be leading the comedy, or the emotion, or drama. It's going to be allowing for it and not betraying it. That’s not to say that Alexander is looking for this super-neutral score that doesn't have any of those dynamics in it. It’s just that he doesn't want to… music's not meant to push or lead the audience, ever. It’s also walking that fine line with something like this because there are so many dimensions to the characters and story.
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