SHOCKHOUND.COM TWILIGHT MUSIC TO DRAW BLOOD
Artist Direct’s Rick interviews some of the cast for Shockhound.com. He asks the cast about their music taste….
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 Think”) 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 Hole”] 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)”] 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 Mouth”] 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.
Each one of them has fun taste in music. Was this interview unique? Do you like some of the same music the cast likes? Which ones?
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BEST INTERVIEW EVER
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=JFBodj48k3E
Hayley Williams and Rob Pattinson
I thought the song choices are really interesting. I ‘d love to know where Kristen got turned on to Iron & Wine - I’d never heard of them. I am an instant fan of Muse - going to get a lot of their music - thank you Stephenie. I hope Rob is not scared off of releasing more music - I was surprised by how soulful his voice is. I want more! Linkin Park has long been a favorite of mine - and this song is perfect. The soundtrack in on repeat on my ipod!!
Thanks Brittany! That was an amazing interview. I love the type of interviews where you actually learn somthing about Rob. He gets asked the same stupid questions by the these supposed hard hitting questioners. Rob gives so much more of himself when he’s aloud to be himself. Id love to talk with him, NOT scream at him. He seems like a cool friend.
Iron and Wine has been huge in the underground indie scene for years. I’ve been meaning to see him live for the past like four years, and finally got to see him open twice for The Swell Season in early October. He’s absolutely breathtaking live.
Check out his song Trapeze Swinger - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzRRVOFNiZ0
He opened with that on this most recent tour and it damn near brought me to tears each time. I highly highly suggest checking him out live if you ever get the chance to.
Here are some other good songs of his:
Freedom Hangs Like Heaven - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvovUwI5aZY (weird video but the only one I could find of the song)
Pagan Angel and a Borrowed Car - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tg2ukfHn-I
Naked As We Came - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd-A-iiPoLg
And of course everyone knows his Postal Service cover from Garden State - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZYhgG32pn8
I am VERY impressed to hear Rob say he enjoys Van Morrison. No one sets a mood or an emotion like Van. While Into the Mystic is one of his easy favorites, I’ve found the one song that just incapacitates me is “TB Sheets”. The opening of the song is this SICK guitar lick that sounds almost like a Bass line, and if you’re driving in the car with the windows down, you just want to drive slow and look like a bad ass when you hear it, HAHA. He kicks in with a sharp slap of harmonica to the face, and then tells you that you’re clinging to him, Julie, baby, and he needs his breathing space! I get the Shivers thinking about it. I’m so glad I got to read this article. Because I feel Rob has such SUPERB taste in music, I’m itching to see his music and book collection. Is he a Neil Young fan? Donovan? He strikes me as the Donovan type. ARG! I would love to talk music with this guy. Talking about good music sets me on fire.
I always like paramore way more than others, they are my favorite in the punk section, but I always liked Death Metal and Black Metal better, I think the song were awesome but needed some improvement….*smiles* I also think that paramore’s songs matched the movie *laughs*
i am a fan of paramore and was surprised it was on the soundtrack.i never heard of”supper massive black hole,flightless bird American mouth’
and mainly half of the soundtrack songs.i never knew rob was a singer and i wish i had. i am always listening to the soundtrack over and over again. it is the best music.
i’m so impressed that Rob is both a good actor and has a such nice voice, i was so shocked when i a month ago got to know that he sang Never think….
i’v loved muse since 6th grade, and i’m 16 now, so it was nice to hear a song from their album of 2006 (i guess) in this movie, stephenie seems to be a cool mum..
György Ligeti was born in Hungary, in 1956 (like many other Hungarians) left the country, lived in Germany, Sweden, US, died in Austria.
i loved bellas lullaby i thought it was sweet
I love paramore too!
And its so kewl that Pattinson recommended little artists! They should check out “My Broken Soul” by Casey T. !! She’s a little solo artist too but omgggoosshhhh the lyrics are absolutely perfect for the New Moon movie~bellas big meltdown :p haha it should definitely be on the soundtrack!
heres where we found it:
http://www.myspace.com/caseytmusic
rob has inspired me now all i want to do is sing and act thankyou so much lov ya loads april xoxoxoxo
since twilight has come out rob has insired me now all i want to do is sing and act thans so much lov ya loads april xoxoxoxoxo
The song that makes me want to go wild is~”The other one”by Twilight sleep.After hearing that music I would love to be on the hunt for someone like Rob.This whole thing is make’n me crazy!!!!!
györgy ligeti was a hungarian composer.
Wow! That is amazing he likes Van Morrison!! I do to!! I am the original brown eyed girl!! lol. Van Morrison is amazing. But I will have to say for as much as I like Van, Robert your version of I’ll be your lover too. WOW!!!! There are not even words. It was by far the best cover I have heard in my life! And I love music and listen to it all the time.
anything by thriving ivory needs to be in future soundtracks/in the movies Any of their songs work so well with the series and they have the most unique sound!
very interesting interview…I like to hear the different tastes of music everyone has. As a music lover - I don’t really have favorites so I wouldn’t have been able to participate in this kind of interview I don’t think! I like all of the music mentioned above but I have to say the best fitting was Rob’s music I think and Muse in the baseball scene…those were my absolute favorites that in my opinion fit the best with the corresponding scenes…
Madonna has a song just perfect for New Moon: Miles Away….here’s the lyrics:
I just woke up from a fuzzy dream
You never would believe the things that I have seen
I looked in the mirror and I saw your face
You looked right through me, you were miles away
All my dreams, they fade away
I’ll never be the same
If you could see me the way you see yourself
I can’t pretend to be someone else
Always love me more, miles away
I hear it in your voice, miles away
You’re not afraid to tell me, miles away
I guess we’re at our best, miles away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
When no one is around then I have you here
I begin to see the picture, it becomes so clear
You always have the biggest heart
When we’re 6,000 miles apart
Too much of no sound
Uncomfortable silence can be so loud
Those three words are never enough
When it’s long distance love
Always love me more, miles away
I hear it in your voice, miles away
You’re not afraid to tell me, miles away
I guess we’re at our best, miles away
Always love me more, miles away
I hear it in your voice, miles away
You’re not afraid to tell me, miles away
I guess we’re at our best, miles away So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
I’m alright
Don’t be sorry, but it’s true
When I’m gone, you realize
That I’m the best thing that happened to you
You always love me more, miles away
I hear it in your voice, miles away
You’re not afraid to tell me, miles away
I guess we’re at our best, miles away
You always love me more, miles away
I hear it in your voice, miles away
You’re not afraid to tell me, miles away
I guess we’re at our best, miles away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away
So far away, so far away, so far away, so far away