Joel McNeely

"I Know Who Killed Me" is in the can. Done. I had a really good time with it. It was a real change of pace for me. There were some interesting plot points involving music, that I took advantage of in the score. I'll give more away later, but the score is loaded with clues, most which I'm the only one who'll ever get, but they're there. It's a very piano-centric score but much of the time you won't be able to recognize what you are hearing as piano. The director, Chris Sivertson, had so many details and clues established and organized, that it was fantastic fitting into his world and trying to have the score function the same way. I'm really happy Varese Sarabande is putting out the soundtrack. Thanks Bob! It looks to be around 44 minutes of music. Look for the film and the CD to be out the last week of July.

I'm deep into preparing Herrmann scores for my concert in France next week. (Contrary to what one poster said on another site, I DO in fact, prepare like crazy.) Every time I reunite with these scores, I find something new, something undiscovered. And I now feel free to experiment. Since the recordings are there, which attempted to be as true as possible to the films, why not take the concert experience as an opportunity to reinterpret and reexamine? Why not try and bring out new things in the music? After all, how interesting would it be if La Mer were played precisely the same at every performance, by every conductor? I look forward to working with the Lyon National Symphony. I expect them to be a passionate group and as such, perfect for this passionate music.

Au Revoir for now.