So I’ve been asked to score a documentary. It’s called The Next American Dream. (this is the trailer I scored) Of course I accepted. The film, set to air on PBS in April, is a documentary about how we will build our environment in the future. It features Chris Lienberger of the Brookings Institute
The question is, how does one compose music for the future? Or I guess, how does one conceive of a soundprint for what America will be like in 50 years?
Right now, where we sit, with all the ugly news, it sure seems like the tendency is to write something dark. But I’m an optimist now aren’t I?
What I know now is that we’re looking at America as a family. A great big family full of good and . . . well . . . mistakes. And families have a past, a present, and a future. Families all have their share of mistakes and screwups. We all have our crazy uncles, and bizarre moments in our history.
So a lot of what I’m thinking about for the score is built around the music of family. I think that will always be there. The kind of music a family surrounds itself with will change, but it will always be there. The instruments may change, the songs will be varied, but they’ll be an ever-present part of how we continue down this experiment we call America.
It’s a great opportunity, and when I think about it in the terms of America as family it seems much more promising.
