Interview with Julia Goryuchkina

Note: This was is a piece I did for Performer Magazine and can also be found on their blog.

Garrett Frierson recently sat down with Julia Goryuchkina. Julia is a pianist, composer, and film scholar from St.Petersburg, Russia. She attended New England Conservatory of Music in the 1990s where she was influenced by Ran Blake’s "Third Stream" philosophy (now known as Contemporary Improvisation). After intensive private studies with Mr. Blake, Julia went on studying jazz piano and film music composition at the Berklee College of Music. She just released her second CD, TheatreWorks, through CD Baby.

Performer Mag: How did you become interested in film music?

Julia Goryuchkina: I first became interested in film music during the 90's, I checked out a book by Tony Thomas called Music for the Movies. It focused on composers of Hollywood's Golden Age, and I found it to be a very fascinating art-form that didn't seem to be fully explored. I started watching films with these scores, and they influenced me tremendously in the way they compliment the action and the story. Today the music in movies is mostly used to provide ambiance and mood, they like to insert something that is not in the film already.

P: How do you use this history in your writing?

J: How film music inspires me is the way the music tells a story, often with time changes because in a film the music must sync up with what's happening on the screen. Also in terms of melody and texture, both very important in French film music. I let the melody twist and turn, much like film music, instead of constant repetition like in most popular music.
P: Your music has a great sense of location, where do you write? Do you pursue that sense of place or is natural?

J: A lot of that comes from instrumentation, we all have our favorite instruments to work with and then complimenting those with a consistent band. I have always loved the vibraphone and have a lot experience writing for it, so once I formed the band around that I stayed with it and got comfortable in that space.P: Does the orchestration affect the writing process or does it come later?

J: Later. For me, melody always comes first, instrumental thinking comes later. I compose and then I orchestrate.

P: Does that change when you score film?

J: Yes, then you have to focus more on genre-specific instruments. The director will often have desires that you need to fulfill, so a lot of your work will be discovering what will suit their needs. If you develop a relationship with a director they may start to trust you and allow you to do your own thing with visuals. Personally, I tend to blend classical and jazz, which is very thin wire to walk because it is most often done very badly.

P: But you manage to avoid the stiffness most composers encounter when approaching this combination, you do a great job of keeping Jazz's fluid nature while using more classical melodic ideas.

J: Well, I was classically trained in Russia before spending several years at Berklee focusing purely on Jazz. I was very influenced by Ran Blake's Third Stream Philosophy.

P: Has technology changed the writing process?

J: Somewhat. After writing out the parts I sequenced everything in MIDI, and then subistuted the most important instruments with live musicians. Also, the mastering was done with Guilherme M. Vaz in Rio De Janeiro, we worked completely online mastering my record. He was a delight to work with.

P: What could you recommend for people who don't know much about film music but are curious?

J: Watch movies and listen to their scores. Start with the Golden Age, the old composers like Max Steiner and Franz Waxman. Many classics, like King Kong (1933), Informer(1935) and The Bride of Frankenstein, have brilliant scores that compliment the action beautifully. Georges Auric was the main collaborator of Jean Cocteau and wrote very interesting scores to movies like La Belle et la Bete and Le son de Poet.

P: What about contemporary composers?

J: Michael Giacchino has had a lot success recently, he recently won an Oscar and composed for Ratatouille and successful TV shows like Lost. It's funny because he got his start writing for video games. Ennio Morricone is legendary, he lives in Italy, but works for Hollywood. James Horner and Howard Shore are both amazing composers working right now.

P: What challenges might an artist run into on their first scoring project?

J: Most artists used to writing for themselves will find it challenging to create within the limits of what they are given. In contrast to a free composition, which is a method of your self expression, writing film music you have to write for someone else. You have to write for the visuals and there is a director whose vision you have to conform to. With the right mindset though, this challenge can become an inspiration to create in a new and refreshing manner.