Twilight is not your average vampire saga. The mega-popular book series — now a hotly anticipated film, which hit US theaters on Friday, November 21 — Twilight is a dreamy and dreary tale set in the sleepy town of Forks, Washington, which explores the dark, intense love between Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Edward’s a brooding and lonely high school vampire, and Bella just can’t get enough of him…
In the series, the iPod zeitgeist trumps fangs, coffins and bats; while crafting the books, author Stephanie Meyer drew inspiration from the likes of Linkin Park and Muse. It’s hard to imagine that those artists would’ve been on Dracula author Bram Stoker’s playlist — he probably would have been more of a Type O Negative fan — but the film (and its equally anticipated soundtrack) prominently features songs from both of those bands, as well as some of director Catherine Hardwicke’s favorites and a heart-wrenching original composition (“Never Thinkâ€) by Pattinson himself.
Given rock music’s integral role in the Twilight phenomenon, we thought we’d give you an in-depth look behind the tunes that fueled the film. For this exclusive ShockHound feature, we sat down with Meyer and Hardwicke, as well as Stewart, Pattinson and Ashley Greene (who plays Alice Cullen in the film), and they candidly spoke to us about what rocks their worlds. Don’t worry; none of this music bites…
SHOCKHOUND: Who is one of your favorite bands?
CATHERINE HARDWICKE: Right this second, I’d probably have to say Radiohead, because I love that song, “15 Step,” at the very end of Twilight. I went to see them at the Hollywood Bowl back in August. I was standing outside, and they played that song first. At that moment, I started seeing a whole idea for a credit sequence for the film. I went back and made the final credit sequence the next day. I was getting very inspired watching them. Prior to the show, we just had white-on-black credits. After I saw Radiohead, I was like, “No, this sequence could be a lot better.” [Laughs]
KRISTEN STEWART: The Beatles are a band I’ve grown up with, grown out of and grown back into a million times. It’d be weird to say anything besides the Beatles. However, we all became entirely obsessed with Van Morrison on this film. Rob [Pattinson] will take credit for that, and he’ll resent all of us for taking that from him. [Laughs] However, we were obsessed — really obsessed. We saw [his live performance of] Astral Weeks at the Hollywood Bowl, and it was baffling. It was truly amazing. Van Morrison screams sometimes, and the way he emits is hard to describe. I liken it to when I find a script that I like. I can’t describe what I like about it. It says something to me. It stirs me up, and that’s what this music does.
ROBERT PATTINSON: On set, I turned everyone onto Van Morrison. They all recently went to see him, pretending that they knew about him before me. I said, “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” I was going to the show already, and they were like, “We’re all going as well.” Copycats! [Laughs]
STEPHANIE MEYER: Muse is one band that I definitely listen to all the time.
ASHLEY GREENE:I like everything. I’m really stoked that Linkin Park was played in the film. I’ve always loved them since like sixth grade when I got invited to one of their concerts. My mom wouldn’t let me go, and I was so angry. [Laughs] It was in Orlando, and I’m from Jacksonville. I loved their first CD, Hybrid Theory, which had “Crawling,” “One Step Closer” and “Papercut.”
SHOCKHOUND: What’s one of your favorite songs on the film’s soundtrack?
HARDWICKE: I was very intimately involved in picking every song. Each track fits its particular scene in the film. I love the Radiohead song. That’s a given. The Muse song [“Supermassive Black Holeâ€] is wild. Out of the new songs, I love Rob Pattinson’s song. That track plays at the end when Bella’s dying. All you hear is Rob’s mournful, beautiful voice. The Perry Farrell song [“Go All The Way (Into the Twilight)â€] was great. Wasn’t that wild when it was in the prom scene? We got Perry to come in on this because he played at the Lords of Dogtown premiere. I was like, “Perry, this would be awesome!” He got into it and mutated this song. It was fun. The Iron & Wine song [“Flightless Bird, American Mouthâ€] is fantastic too.
STEWART: I like Rob’s song. I haven’t even seen the movie with the finished soundtrack, but he got his song in there. He doesn’t like talking about it because he thinks people are going to say he’s trying jump start his music career and capitalize on the success of Twilight. However, that’s not what he’s doing, and I’ll promote him if he doesn’t want to do it. [Laughs]
PATTINSON: It’s funny because I gave Catherine a ton of songs I was listening to when I was shooting the film. They were all very different. I gave her music from a lot of young female acoustic singers. One artist was a girl named Laura Marling. I don’t know if she’s famous in America or not. She’s really young. She’s 18 now, but she wrote loads of songs when she was 16. It’s very desperate music. I was also listening to a lot of music from György Ligeti. He’s this Polish composer. It’s all very different from what ended up on the soundtrack — Linkin Park and such. [Laughs] I didn’t even give Catherine my song, “Never Think,” for the soundtrack. Nikki [Reed, who plays Rosalie Hale] gave it to her. My song wasn’t supposed to be for the soundtrack though. Catherine cut the song to the scene on her own. To have a career in music is so hard, especially now. So many people will try to influence you. Even now, because I’ve got the song on the soundtrack, people are saying, “We want to give you a contract…then you have to do all this shit. You have to do a co-written album. You can co-write one song on your album. You have to do it in white makeup on the cover and call it Out of Twilight.” [Laughs]
GREENE: I’ve taken a liking to Paramore. They’re on the soundtrack with Linkin Park. I was like, “Can they come to the premiere?” [Laughs] If I see them on the red carpet, I’m going to be the girl that’s like, “Oh my God, I love you!” I’m sure someone will say, “You’ve got to keep walking down the carpet, Ashley! You’re in the movie!” Also, Rob’s song is great too.
MEYER: Besides the Muse song, these tracks were all new to me, for the most part. I’d have to say the Iron & Wine song was the one that made me an instant fan, though. That’s probably because the first time I heard it was when I watched the movie. In that scene, the song perfectly melds to the feeling.
Home Media Magazine is reporting on Summit’s marketing plan for the upcoming DVD release of New Moon. Instead of the millions of options that Twilight had, it sounds like the 2-disc DVD and the Blu-ray edition of New Moon will be it. Read more below:
Artist Direct’s Rick interviews some of the cast for Shockhound.com. He asks the cast about their music taste….
