Music plays a key role in the films of Richard Linklater, the writer-director meticulously picking songs to set the scene in Dazed and Confused, to suggest the passing of time in Boyhood, and to bring the rock in…well, School of Rock.
His new feature is no different, with Everybody Wants Some!! set in 1980, revolving around one guy’s first weekend at a Texas university, and powered by a soundtrack that combines pop and soul with new-wave, disco, and yet more rock.
So we asked the man himself about the songs that made the cut, the songs that didn't, what you do when you can't get a Michael Jackson track, and why Prince wouldn't let him have a funk classic...
“These are all songs that were either on the radio or minor hits” Linklater explains when we meet at a London hotel. “I had so much to pick from. It was probably the last era where I felt like I was in touch with the mainstream – whatever was popular. Being a young person then, listening to the radio. The 80s sent me underground pretty quickly. But this was to me the last moment. So when I started this I had 200 songs that I culled from memory. And the different genres too. There’s a lot – there’s so much that didn’t make it into this movie. Where’s the Elvis Costello? Where’s the Talking Heads? It’s endless what’s out there, and what ended up working in the movie, what you can get the rights to. So I started big – had a lot of options I guess. It just doesn’t work out with every song.”
Continue reading…
Continue reading...
His new feature is no different, with Everybody Wants Some!! set in 1980, revolving around one guy’s first weekend at a Texas university, and powered by a soundtrack that combines pop and soul with new-wave, disco, and yet more rock.
So we asked the man himself about the songs that made the cut, the songs that didn't, what you do when you can't get a Michael Jackson track, and why Prince wouldn't let him have a funk classic...
“These are all songs that were either on the radio or minor hits” Linklater explains when we meet at a London hotel. “I had so much to pick from. It was probably the last era where I felt like I was in touch with the mainstream – whatever was popular. Being a young person then, listening to the radio. The 80s sent me underground pretty quickly. But this was to me the last moment. So when I started this I had 200 songs that I culled from memory. And the different genres too. There’s a lot – there’s so much that didn’t make it into this movie. Where’s the Elvis Costello? Where’s the Talking Heads? It’s endless what’s out there, and what ended up working in the movie, what you can get the rights to. So I started big – had a lot of options I guess. It just doesn’t work out with every song.”
Continue reading…
Continue reading...