For composer Jared Michael Fry, the landscape surrounding James and Odin in ‘Heart of the Beast’ is more than a backdrop—it is part of the story.
“It’s not just playing to what’s on screen, it’s playing to specifically that deep underpinning, maybe introspective voice that’s going on inside James’s head,” says Fry of the score.
In discussing his score for David Ayer’s ‘Heart of the Beast,’ Jared Michael Fry describes the music as an extension of James and Odin’s relationship and James’ spiritual journey, with the Alaskan landscape serving as a major source of inspiration. Fry explains how he began developing the score from the script stage, establishing the love theme between James and Odin before developing recurring determination and reckoning themes that could follow the characters throughout their journey. He also discusses his use of percussion, vocals, aleatoric strings, Pamyua’s performances, and extended instrumental techniques to evoke the water, waves, wind, trees, and broader natural environment. Fry talks about working with the London Contemporary Orchestra and orchestrator David Krystal, recording at AIR Lyndhurst Hall in London, and the importance of capturing the openness and organic quality of the musicians and space.
Following a devastating plane crash, Special Forces veteran James Belmont (Brad Pitt) and his combat dog, Odin, are stranded in the remote Alaskan wilderness. As they struggle to survive, the pair must contend with the unforgiving elements and the dangers of the wilderness around them.
Directed by David Ayer from a script by Cameron Alexander, ‘Heart of the Beast’ stars Brad Pitt, J.K. Simmons, and Anna Lambe.
‘Heart of the Beast’ is now playing in theaters.
Awards Focus: It’s so nice to meet you. How are you doing?
Jared Michael Fry: I’m doing good, thank you very much. Yeah, here in Hollister, California, it’s a nice, cool day. Are you also in California?
AF: No, I am in Chicago.
Jared Michael Fry: Chicago! Fantastic! Was there a last summer for G-Fest? Have you been to G-Fest? Godzilla Fest? My son’s a huge Godzilla fan. Anyways, one and only time I’ve been in Chicago. It was great.
AF: You’ve worked with David Ayer on three films now. How has the shorthand improved in your professional relationship?
Jared Michael Fry: Yeah, I think trust has grown exponentially, and especially on this film, being how such a departure it has been from the previous two action movies. Honestly, that’s huge. Shorthand, David’s through and through, pretty much the same he was the first time I met him. He’s such a good guy. Honestly, this one, we probably tried more ways to tell the story than most, as far as the discovery of what this film is, what this story is, and maybe that was me, and just following his vision. He’s awesome. Shorthand’s great. I think the main thing is the trust that he’s just continued to send my way to treat his movies.
AF: Did you get any particular direction as far as what he wanted the, score to look like?
Jared Michael Fry: Yeah, absolutely. The main thing for him was, this is a love story between James and Odin. And not only that, but it was a spiritual journey for James from beginning to end. That was huge. We talked a lot about the land, and James’ return to the land, and how the music would reflect that, how the nature is a character in the movie.
I mentioned we tried different ways of telling the same story, and in the end, we found that, restraint and openness and letting the picture breathe. Obviously, that’s always a good thing, but in this one in particular, it became essential to the storytelling. He’s the one that brought up and mentioned the spiritual nature of just the Inuit culture, and so that got me deep diving into Alaskan culture. It’s filmed in New Zealand, but the story is based in Alaska.
We really wanted to connect it to the land. I think that’s huge. You got to see the film, right?
AF: Yeah.
Jared Michael Fry: Yeah, alright, great. It plays such a huge role, and for me, storytelling-wise, James’ encounter with the nature, with the spiritual, I think that’s what’s new to James—his journey as a previous soldier, trying to live this new life, now he’s at the end of his days, if you will.
His encounter with his return to the dirt, if you will. It starts one way, and then obviously the progression of that to the very end is really kind of perhaps where the score truly lives. Its North Star, telling that story continually throughout the journey. It’s not just playing to what’s on screen, it’s playing to specifically that deep underpinning, maybe introspective voice that’s going on inside James’s head. I hope it comes across. If it doesn’t come across, it’s there. We intended it to be there.
Even J.K. Simmons’ character, Watkins, it’s not obvious, but to me, when I saw it for the first time and he rides off in his boat, I’m like, this is like Greek mythology. This is the Chiron character, the riverboat fairy guy. He’s there to signal the end, and foreshadow. So whether or not any of that comes across as a little easter egg, for me, it was definitely inspiring to write to those tones in the picture.
Yeah, always connecting it to nature. A lot of the music reflects nature in a lot of ways. Sorry, I’m just rambling.
AF: That’s okay.
Jared Michael Fry: There’s a lot of melodic themes, but then there’s just a lot of musical motif, thematics. I described a lot of the percussion as a cascading type of thing that imitates the water and the waves. We had a lot of vocals doing textures that cascade off of… and then Pamyua coming in and just obviously offering just that true connection to the landscape.
But, what is it, even the strings do this pattern where it’s just aleatoric in a way where it’s just a performance that you can’t necessarily create without a group of musicians there. We ended up calling it a blur. Oh, let’s do that blur effect. One would go off, and another would go off, and do this motif like that. So thematically, we have a lot of that, just trying to imitating the nature in a lot of ways.
That was all discussed with, David. I think David Ayer at once said, “What does the wind sound like? What does the water sound like? What do the trees sound like?” That was a wonderful musical exploration. I hope we achieved something close to what he was hoping for.
AF: Do you generally start composing at the script stage, or do you prefer until seeing footage?
Jared Michael Fry: If it was up to me, I definitely like the script stage. On this one, I did get to start on the script stage. It’s not always the case, right? You’re brought in, and usually the later on in the production or post-production, the less time you have, right? You just kind of get to it. You don’t necessarily, which is good in a lot of ways, sometimes, not having to overthink things, and you just do what naturally your instincts tell you to do, and you move on and hey, was that good? And yes, no?
This one, I had a lot of time to really think about the story, a lot of deep thinking about the story, not only with David, but the score producer with me, Brian Lawson, who’s also the music editor. We would talk daily about where we were, and how we were telling the story. What are the North Stars? The love story.
You asked—before I get sidetracked—about when I started. I did start early on with the script on this one, and, fundamentally, the first thing was anchoring down the love theme, if you will, between James and Odin. That was the starting point.
And again, I just rambled on a bit ago about all the connection to nature and stuff, and that was all extremely important to the storytelling of this, but fundamentally, the heart of the beast is between James and Odin.
AF: Was there a particular cue that evolved the most from start to finish?
Jared Michael Fry: Great question. Oh, all of them. Gosh, yes. You mentioned a cue. I guess my mind went to a specific theme. Wwhat I want to actually probably comment on is probably, the determination theme that we have. If you listen to—on the album, it’s called “The Final Mission.” In the movie, it’s when Odie’s running across the field at the end.
That’s our determination theme, and that, I think, is as much as—it’s just the art of film scoring. It’s a three-note motif, but for me, it became counterpoint in my writing, it became a top line, it became a secondary line, it was always throughout.
As far as developing it, I think originally it was more in that statement. I was actually in the letter at the end, when the letter’s being read, and that’s the original form of that. I think we found that it was just the right piece of music for so many other scenes in this, when you needed to tell the story of them on their journey up the mountain or whatnot.
On top of that, another theme that continued to evolve, to me, I called it this reckoning theme, and it has to do with Pamyua’s voices, but it’s also performed on woodwinds when he’s packing up his plane to head out, you hear this woodwind just scream it out.
That theme, in particular, just became representative of perhaps the spiritual journey that they were on more than most. The love theme between James and Odin, the determination thing between them, their journey, them continuing on, but then their reckoning theme was their encounter with the world, and I think it always sits there, with not just the world, but the spiritual journey, the behind the scenes, the connection to nature.
But to see that come to its fullness, I guess, I don’t need to expound on that. As Pamyua sang it, Phillip Blanchett and Ossie from Pamyua—Philip wrote the lyrics for it, and Ossie performed it, and it’s wonderful.
When you hear their voices, it’s staggering, it’s just beautiful to behold, and so I think that really came together quite nicely. And again, it’s played on multiple different instruments in multiple different ways throughout, but it’s always one that comes back, and it always surprises me, how that worked out so wonderfully. I think, anyways.
AF: How did you decide on using the London Contemporary Orchestra?
Jared Michael Fry: Good question. Yeah, I think they were the right fit for this score, being that much of the writing I was doing, I was big on extended techniques and textures and whatnot. That’s just what they handle so well. I mean, I’ve listened to scores that they’ve recorded on in the past.
Their tone, the way they balance each other out, how they listen to each other as a band, if you will. Hugh, their conductor and, leader, I was flabbergasted by the care he took in learning the music, absorbing it before we even got going.
But on top of that, I mean, I have a great orchestrator, David Krystal, who was able to take what I’ve done and put it into notation so that the players knew what they had to do. It seemed the obvious choice, and I’m very grateful that we were able to make it happen.
Aanother obvious choice for us, at least, in intention was to record it at the Hall at AIR Studios, because we wanted that depth of sound that you don’t get in a smaller studio space. We wanted the openness, we wanted the broadness of the sound to match the landscape that you’re witnessing.
A lot of different details, but the London Contemporary Orchestra was definitely a number one choice for the reasons I mentioned, and probably others. Many discussions went into why, and again, I’m just so grateful. The soloists that we had that played on a few things, they just nailed everything.
I felt like, more than I ever have, when they played the music, I felt so at ease, because I just felt they get it. They’re storytellers in themselves, right? Every single one of them, they just embody the emotion that we provided to them on the page. But they made it come alive, and, so, yeah, absolutely stunning group, so very happy we got them.
AF: That kind of segues into my next question. Is there a studio that you like to record at because of the way it sounds?
Jared Michael Fry: Yeah, well, I personally have only—this is my second recorded film score. My third feature film with David Ayer. We did ‘A Working Man’ and this movie, both at AIR Lyndhurst Hall in London, and I couldn’t be happier.
I think it was the right choice, creatively, as far as the storytelling. For instance, you can do a lot of things in post. If you get a good recording, you can mangle things and mess with them after the fact, but we wanted this score to sound as natural as possible, as organic as possible, and, segue into the London voices. We had them go up into the balcony and sing up there into the ambient mics, and so just capturing humans in a space made all the difference in the world, I think. That’s why AIR is my number one place in the world to record at the moment. So, no, yeah. Way to go, AIR. Good job.
AF: It was so nice to meet you.
Jared Michael Fry: Oh, Danielle, thank you so much. Wonderful. Yeah, beautiful. Thanks for having me.