Johnny Marr at Pre-Oscar reception with Trent Reznor

On 26 February 2011, Johnny Marr attended The Society of Composers and Lyricists Oscar Reception in Beverly Hills to honour the Music Nominees, along with Trent Reznor, John Powell and Hans Zimmer.

Trent Reznor and Johnny Marr

Asked for his favorite among the others, Reznor said, “I think way Hans did with Inception is excellent. The way he used the orchestra and the bombast was something I’m impressed with… With that said, ours is the best! I’m just kidding.”

“In the last four or five years, the state of the artistry for film composers has gotten higher and higher, from what I’ve seen,” said Marr. “Pretty much all the movies that have been nominated, you can imagine listening to in the car or on a plane, whereas ten years ago, everything sounded like bombs going off, because that was what was going on on screen at the time.”

As for Inception, “Hans is a Jedi,” Marr laughed. “Even some people who didn’t quite get the movie straight away got the music.”

“Hans and I have been hanging out a little, and I love the process. Because with film music you’re
reacting to things emotionally. It’s a completely different world from writing rock music. There’s a need to be very, very clear when you’re writing to a (pop music) audience, and I like that movies can be a little more abstract. As soon as you put words on something, it completely ties it down, and you have to be very deliberate. And you have to make assumptions about the audience, too, in rock music. If you don’t, you’re being indulgent. Whereas you don’t have that at all in movies; it has to be dictated by what you’re seeing.”

Y Music, 27 February 2011