1. First of all, congratulations on the release of your film Exemplum. It's not often you see a Breitbart reporter produce an entirely non-political, super artsy indie film in the vein of Eraserhead and Pi. Let's get right to the music, because personally, that was my favorite part of the film. Who wrote the score?
Thank you so much for your kind words about EXEMPLUM and I agree that I have stepped into a rather peculiar arena as a writer for a politically-charged site while, at the same time, producing a piece of radically non-political art.
As to who wrote the score of EXEMPLUM, I am proud to say that title goes to my beloved friend, Andrew Halpin. We met some years ago through a network of Catholic Young Adult groups in the Pasadena area and he has been a stalwart collaborator ever since. Andrew, who also served as a producer, first learned of EXEMPLUM when I conceived of producing a movie on a meager, ultra-low budget, and I knew from the beginning that he would be the one to make this film's soundtrack come alive. I had full confidence in him every step of the way and he delivered great work despite the massive limitations. Andrew has proven to be an eclectic musician, working across multiple genres while being responsive to direction. I could not have asked for a better composer, frankly.
2. The music created a very specific vibe for the entire film. Was this pre-planned or did you tell the music director to do whatever they wanted?
Andrew and I certainly discussed the types of atmospheric tones we wanted to set in the film through his score. I recommended some prompts (Following, Memento, Pi) and he would give me some of his ideas. For instance, that wonderful organ techno you hear throughout and over the end credits, he sent me a brief 20-second template of it in a bundle of other templates. It instantly captivated me and I told him to work a variation on it.
In terms of specific style, we discussed combining classic liturgical music with modern techno to better match the character of Colin, who markets Medieval morality tales (Exemplum) through the digital channels of modern technology. In every scene, I wanted the dichotomy between religion and technology readily present, evoking a haunting atmosphere where nothing quite fit together.
Some music I improvised in the editing bay. For instance, the harp theme you hear repeated throughout was a single piece that Andrew had created in one song, but I loved it so much that I kept returning to it over and over again to create a callback theme.
3. Does the music in the film reflect your personal influences in art?
The music certainly jives with my tastes. I consider Zola Jesus to be my favorite modern music artist, specifically her ability to evoke beauty and darkness in the same breath. If you listen to some of her albums, specifically Taiga and Stridulum, you can definitely hear the similarities. What I would give to collaborate with her on an original song for one of my feature films.
The music also reflects some of the films upon which EXEMPLUM had been based. I certainly wanted the film to have that 1990s independent movie feel, as if we had picked up a 16mm black & white camera and shot a movie, and the music helped to create that. In some parts, viewers would be pressed to distinguish if the film were made today or sometime back in 1996.
4. Why do you think most artists are left-wing or liberal?
I would say that the Right has done a horrific job courting artists. In all honesty, the silent majority of artists fall somewhere in the middle, especially in this day and age where "wokeness" has become such an unpopular ideological position. True artists, as in artists who care about creating worthy art, can only tolerate censorship and coerced speech for so long until they retaliate, and I see that happening in all sorts of industries: film, music, comedy.
An artist ultimately has an obligation to see the complexities in individual people and lay their ideological positions down in the service of uniting people under a universal truth or idea. The more artists become partisan cheerleaders (right or left), the less they become explorers of the human condition and more become vanguards for power, which makes them lesser artists. Notice how the more openly hostile certain artists become to other ideas, the worse their art gets. Hollywood caved to wokeness and their movies suffered as a result.
3. What are your thoughts on Jason Aldean's new song?
Yet another example of art's value being decided by an overreaction. Ultimately, Jason's song should have been judged for what it was: a song. Nothing more. Instead, political agitators chose to judge the song based on their own meaning and tried to cancel it as a result. Is it a great song? Is it a mediocre song? Audiences should have been the deciders of that, but instead, CMT and other cultural vanguards decided to cancel it, which therefore fueled the viral sensation.
We now live in a world where art cannot exist for its own sake or survive on its own terms. Every movie or song needs to be politicized or become a weapon in the ongoing culture war.
I'm glad that the public stepped up the cancel campaign, but I'm also sad that this has become a common occurrence in our culture now. Somebody puts out a piece of art and its value gets determined not by its aesthetics or even its popularity, but by people's politicized reactions.
5. What role can music play in shaping the politics of a culture? Or do you think art should stay out of politics?
Unfortunately, you cannot have good politics without good culture, but you also have no culture without good politics. For instance, artists do not thrive very well under totalitarian or communist regimes. An artist must have core principles that animate them, but their art cannot become subservient to a political ideology, even a good one. Once the art becomes subservient to ideology, it becomes propaganda.
The Western world does not need right-wing artists or left-wing artists, but rather artists in love with their craft and who desperately want to share something special with people. We need artists who value their vocation as artists and forsake letting that become entangled in politics - a whole separate vocation.
You can follow Paul Roland on Twitter here: @Prolandfilms
