Giovanni Spinelli, composer of Pop Star On Ice: This film needed a rap song

Have you seen Pop Star On Ice starring Johnny Weir yet? I attended the New York premiere and it was great! You know what contributed to the greatness? The music behind it. Wow, there was classical, dance, techno, rap(!), alternative, you name it, they all fit Johnny moods throughout the film. Giovanni Spinelli (at right) is the composer of Pop Star On Ice and he shared with us his experience as the man behind the music.

How did you become the composer for Pop Star On Ice?

The filmmakers James Pellerito and David Barba called me in September 2007 while they were still shooting Pop Star On Ice. I had already worked with them on several film and theater projects in the past and was of course very excited to contribute to this project. It struck me from the outset as something very specific and unique, not only because of Johnny's captivating personality and talent, but also because of the filmmakers' entirely fresh approach to the subject and to the medium. They said the film would be more a portrait of Johnny than a traditional biographic documentary and that the score would require a mix of classical and pop music. Overall, the final score contains examples of classical, solo piano, alt rock, dance, pop, techno, ambient, electro, reggaeton, arrangements of Russian traditional music, and, yes, even an original rap song about Johnny (My Moment performed by John MackEnflow).

What was it like to compose an entire soundtrack around Johnny?

Johnny Weir was, of course, a very inspiring topic. His unique style on and off the ice, as captured by the filmmakers, was a catalyst for all sorts of musical ideas. A lot of the skating sequences, coupled with solo piano pieces (for example Aftermath or Vulnerable), in my opinion, really do resemble a "ballet on ice" (please be sure to say that with a thick Russian accent:). On the other hand, his "Pop Star" persona fits in so well with dance tracks (like the Heatherette Runway sequence), alt rock (like the explosive skating sequence of the Introduction and my favorite Johnny's Workout) and even Latin music (like the Johnny Reggaeton sequence). For his more introspective and challenging moments I sometimes worked with classical (like the Rink opening sequence) and other times with ambient and electronica ideas (like Practice).

Can you talk about a little about the process you went through?

As I often do, I asked the filmmakers to involve me well in advance of the final cut of the film. This allowed the film and the score to grow and mature together. Because of the nature of this film, David and James had literally over a hundred hours of footage from which to choose and edit. They knew what certain key highlights of the film were going to be, but, beyond that, they had many difficult editing decisions to make. This also meant that the film was continuously changing as we worked together.

As a result, we went through many different versions for the same cues (overall, the draft cues I wrote for the film occupied more than 72 gigabytes of disk space). To cite an example, for Johnny's segment in Canada, we worked with several pop versions, an alt rock version, a marching band version, a classical version, a chamber version, a techno version, etc. of the Canadian national anthem, for over 30 different arrangements (the latter two were used: see O Canada and Cruising High). The same applied to my various arrangements of the Russian traditional songs Kalinka, Ochi Chernie and Katyusha. Instead, for Johnny's visit to Japan for the 2007 World Championships, the filmmakers chose a very specific ambient track that I happen to be very fond of (the track is entitled Worlds '07).

The entire process of working on Pop Star On Ice was highly stimulating and enjoyable for me as a composer. I found it effortless to work with David and James who I think are two very innovative, thoughtful and mature filmmakers. I would keep an eye on them!

One of my favorite songs in the movie is the figure skating rap song My Moment. Was a rap song a hard sell to directors David Barba and James Pellerito?

The rap song came about in one of those magical moments that one hopes will occur at least once in every artistic collaboration. Once we had agreed upon the film's basic musical theme with the filmmakers, it suddenly struck me that what this film needed was a rap song about Johnny and his oncoming struggle to win the gold medal in 2010. Don't ask we why. A rap song about a figure skater. It seemed such an absurd juxtaposition that it had to work! However, I imagined that if I suggested this idea to the filmmakers at that stage, in the abstract, without the finished song in hand, they might think I had lost my mind. So I called upon the very talented rapper and actor, John MackEnflow (see right). I sent him an instrumental base for the rap, and asked him to work on some lyrics for the song. After a few days, John came to my studio and we recorded the track in less than two hours. The lyrics were exactly on point, and John's delivery (I guess I am really supposed to say "flow") was superb. I was flabbergasted and couldn't wait to have the filmmakers hear the piece. I then met James and David at the annual New York Shorts Film Festival (of which they are the organizers) and sprung the rap song on them (I literally had them listen to it on my iPod cold, without explanation). Sold! There were about a dozen or so mixing sessions following that, but the basic song was set.

I also want to add that the soundtrack album also contains songs performed by two outstanding female singers: Everybody Wants This a dance piece, sung by Lindsay Campbell, and Flying an electronica piece, sung by Katy Cunningham. These are bonus tracks that were inspired by Johnny and the film and that we wrote and recorded without a specific scene in mind. However, an instrumental version of Everybody Wants This was in fact used in the film (the Heatherette runway scene: the track is entitled Runway).

My thanks to the multi-talented Giovanni Spinelli for sharing the inside scoop with us Johnny fans. Folks -- The soundtrack album is now available on iTunes. You can purchase the whole album or single tracks individually. For more information on Giovanni Spinelli, you can visit his website:
http://www.giovannispinelli.com

And now, for those of you wondering what a figure skating rap song about Johnny Weir might sound like, here is a portion of the lyrics from My Moment, music by Giovanni Spinelli, lyrics by John MackEnflow:

I've worked my whole life / to be right here, right now /
but what I do in the next few minutes / could shape my whole future /

Everyone thinks I'm gonna blow it / But I got what it takes inside, I just know it /
Talk is cheap, it's time to just show it /  'Cause this is my moment

A lot of folks wanna know why I changed coaches /
Can I win gold, or is Johnny just plain hopeless? /
All of this hype while I'm trying to stay focused /
A lot on my shoulders right now if you ain't noticed! /
I'm not like everyone else—started late in the game,
started taking my pain, started skating my way
to the top like I was meant for the fame,
but today, it's a shame the way you taking my name
through these hoops and these scoops about me and my family /
and why I withdrew my events from the Grand Prix /

Comments

[taylorfax]

Great stuff.

[K]

Having watched the film, I definitely agree that the music contributed significantly to the viewing experience. Spinelli did a phenomenal job.

Thanks for the interview, Susan! Your interviews are interesting, as always.

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