Morgan Rojas

Bobby Krlic: "That pushed me in a direction I had not gone before in scoring"

When director Ari Aster set out to write the screenplay for Midsommar, he got into the zone by listening to Excavation, the dark and moody album from LA-based electronic producer Bobby Krlic, aka The Haxan Cloak.

Krlic's unique experimental sound perfectly matched the vibe of Aster's Scandinavian sunlit horror film, so much so that Aster eventually asked him to compose music for the film.

Using his expansive knowledge and genius, plus his interest in Scandinavian and medieval folk music, Krlic creates an entrancing, otherworldly wonder that blends light and dark moments seamlessly into ritualistic mysteries. In our exclusive conversation, Krlic talks about the process of creating the sound of Midsommar (sans computers), the difference between the LA and London music scene, and running his own record label.

What kind of music do you like to listen to, like what's in your Spotify Top 5 of 2019?

Oh, that's a hard one. I tend to listen to a lot of classical music, but I always kind of flip back into this zone of listening to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. I produce music for other people and am a songwriter for people too, so I can get caught up in an analytical zone of listening to things. So I might listen to Italian records from the 50s because of the crazy weird studio techniques they were doing. I'm in more of an archival zone a lot of the time.

When you were writing this score, had you seen the movie? Or were you writing blindly, just under the assumption of what you thought the movie was going?

Kind of both. [Director] Ari Aster and I met a long time ago, January 2017, before Ari made any features. He hadn't done Hereditary yet. I had the script to Midsommar back then, and that's when all the conversations started. We had the great opportunity to talk at length for a very long time about what the music could and should be. There were quite a lot of things I made in advance of the film. We would swap notes on it all the time; I would send out music every few days, and we both agreed it was in the tone of what we thought the film should be. And then ultimately, when the dailies started coming through and we put it against the picture, it actually wasn't working. So there was a whole kind of reapproach to the score after that.

Wow...

Not to say that it wasn't a worthwhile exercise, but yeah. Ultimately what I wrote before seeing the film didn't make it in.

Would you say any of the characters influenced the shift in tone?

Yeah, definitely, seeing the characters come to life. Everybody in the film is incredible, but Florence, in particular, just watching her performance was something else. A lot of the score is driven by her and her experience.

Courtesy of Create Digital Music

What are a couple of ways that you experiment or push boundaries with your own sound?

I'm classically trained in guitar; I started when I was younger, about six or seven years old. Everything else I've just kind of stumbled upon and taught myself how to play: violin, viola, cello, piano.

In terms of pushing boundaries of my own music, one thing that I was quite militant about with this score was all of the electronic manipulation and electronic sounds. Ari didn't want them to be made with the use of a computer. I've spent the last few years building my studio in a way where if I want to, I can go completely analog and record everything straight to tape. And I've got a lot of modular synthesizers from the 60s and 70s, that kind of thing. All the electronics in Midsommar were made with synthesizers and tape loops, not using anything inside a computer. That definitely pushed me in a direction that I had not really gone before in scoring.

Impressive! Is that something that you would look forward to doing again, that same style?

Yeah totally. Making something that's outside of the computer and it's tactile and you're touching it, I felt like I had a more attuned relationship to the picture with the sound.

Do you feel like there's a difference between being a film musician versus a solo musician working on your own projects like The Haxan Cloak?

Yeah, totally. If I'm scoring something, I'll never use my artist's [The Haxan Cloak] name; I always use my own name. If I'm making a solo record, I purely satisfy my own impulses. Working on a film, you're in service to somebody else's sensibilities, but that's not to say it's not satisfying. You're helping to tell a story, and it's for the greater good.

For example, I could write a score and make what I believe is the best piece of music I've ever written, I'll never write anything like that again, and I'm so happy with it. But ultimately, if it doesn't work against the picture, you have to be prepared to throw it in the bin. You would never do that if you were doing something purely for your own satisfaction. I think that's the main difference for me.

It seems like it would be humbling for sure, having outside influences saying what works and what doesn't.

Totally.

What's the difference between the London music scene versus the LA music scene?

That's an interesting one; I think there are pros and cons to both. The thing that attracted me to Los Angeles is that there's a great sense of community and collaboration that I didn't find in London. When I would visit here, I'd meet a lot of musicians and people who I admired whose records I own that I never thought I'd get to hang out with! It's always like, 'Oh, I've got this friend who has a studio, and you guys should get together and do something...'. [LA] seems like a very collaborative place, which I really, really love a lot.

London doesn't necessarily have that; I'm not really sure why that is. But on the flip side, I don't think you can beat London for their left-leaning experimental, electronic, and club music. I think that's second to none. I don't think there's a particularly vibrant electronic music scene in LA, not that's comparable at least. But if you want to go and see great musicians play live music, LA is really fantastic for that.

I read the other day on The Fader that you're launching a record label.

Yeah!

That's super exciting.

I acquired all the master rights for my back catalog, so instead of licensing them again, I just decided to do it myself. So I launched a label. So far, they've been re-released digitally, and next year there's going to be a physical re-release of everything so far. And there's going to be some new solo music from me coming early next year. I also score a lot of television; I just did this show for Hulu called Reprisal that I'm really proud of. For things like that, I think the label is going to be an exciting home for me to experiment with releasing vinyl in cool ways.

I'm pretty militant about the environment too, so I'm looking at ways of releasing sustainable and carbon-neutral records and compostable packaging. I see the label as a cool place for me to experiment with those things as well.

by Morgan Rojas