How Son Lux brought experimental post-rock energy to Marvel’s ‘Thunderbolts*’

Thunderbolts*, the latest MCU blockbuster, brings together an unlikely team of super-powered rebels, renegades and former assassins. Featuring Florence Pugh’s scrappy super-spy Yelena, disgraced one-time Captain America John Walker (Wyatt Russell) and former Ant-Man antagonist Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), they’re definitely not The Avengers – and Marvel knows it.

The script has been written by Lee Sung Jin, the creator of Netflix’s passive aggressive cult classic Beef, and Joanna Calo, who’s worked on anxiety-inducing comedies The Bear and Bojack Horseman. Meanwhile, frequent Chance The Rapper collaborator Jake Schreier directs. The film’s official logline describes them drolly as “a crew of indie veterans who definitely sold out.”

So, what better group to score “an irreverent team-up featuring the MCU’s least anticipated band of misfits” than Son Lux? After all, they’re the experimental post-rock band who picked up an Oscar nod for their trippy work on the Everything Everywhere All At Once soundtrack. Here are five things NME learned when we joined them during recording at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios.

Scoring a big Marvel movie is a funny ol’ process

It’s day four of eight in Abbey Road’s Studio 2. String players from the London Contemporary Orchestra are recording a piece called ‘Do The Chimney’ as we sneak into the control room – after signing a hefty NDA, of course. On one screen, footage from the movie is being played on a loop as Son Lux tries out different variations of their orchestral score.

The trio have a strict schedule to stick to, and there’s a whole host of Marvel executives, assistants and engineers in the control room with them, but there’s still a playful intensity to proceedings. There’s a similar vibe in the brief clips we see of Thunderbolts*, which show the bickering antiheroes figuring out how they’re supposed to work together.

“The core of who we are as a band is always trying to do something new. We’re always exploring” – Son Lux’s Ryan Lott

Son Lux encourage the orchestra to deliberately play bits out of time, make things “more wonky” or simply bash their instruments about a little bit. A few takes later and all three band members (Ryan Lott, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang) start cracking up. That’s the sign they’ve nailed it. “It is a high-pressure situation. There are a lot of people involved and every minute counts. You can’t waste time,” Bhatia explains. They’re not exaggerating: our 20-minute interview window is their only chance to grab a bite to eat.

“We were cracking up because what’s happening on screen is funny,” adds Chang. “It’s instinctual. The thing you’re watching is funnier than it was before, because of the music. There’s joy in that.”

Son Lux have never done anything like Thunderbolts* before – but neither has Marvel

Son Lux formed in 2008 as the solo project of Ryan Lott, who released three dreamy, post-rock-indebted albums before Bhatia and Chang joined in 2015. They worked together on the three-part ‘Tomorrows’ album series, then created the ambitious, 149-track score for Everything Everywhere All At Once, which featured collaborations with Mitski, David Byrne and Andre 3000. Thunderbolts* is very different, though.

Lott first worked with director Jake Schreier on 2015’s coming-of-age drama Paper Towns and the pair stayed in touch. So when he asked Son Lux about working on Thunderbolts*, it was an immediate “absolutely we should do this” from the band even if they had their doubts it would actually happen. “We said the exact same thing about Everything Everywhere All At Once.”

But once contracts had been signed and Son Lux knew they were actually going to score a massive Marvel movie, they felt no nerves. “There was a huge amount of exuberance to be involved with Thunderbolts*, but we were also very aware of how unknown the experience was going to be,” Lott tells NME. “It’s good to live in that tension, though. The core of who we are as a band is always trying to do something new. We’re always exploring.”

“There are some key moments in Thunderbolts* which were definitely planned around the music” – Ryan Lott

“Any trepidation came from not knowing how we would fit into this world because the MCU is perhaps one of the most established things in cinema,” Bhatia continues. “But we soon discovered that Marvel and Jake wanted to do something different with this movie. We were just really excited about embarking on a journey of exploring what that different thing could be. Now that we’re nearing the finish line, it’s been a really rewarding experience.”

Thunderbolts* is a very musical film

Don’t worry, Bucky (Sebastian Stan) doesn’t save the day with a song and dance number, but Son Lux’s music has been used to shape Thunderbolts*’ narrative. Before the cameras started rolling, Schreier and Son Lux spent a lot of time together in the studio working on the overall feel of the score. “It enabled us to have a formative influence on the film that you don’t normally get to have as a composer,” says Lott.

The first table read for Thunderbolts* started with Schreier playing the cast an eight-minute suite of music that Son Lux had composed  for the film. When the band visited the set, they saw their music being used to set a tone for the actors. “Normally you’re chasing what’s already happened,” Lott says. “But I know there are some key moments in the film which were definitely planned around the music. That feels amazing.”

The two big influences were John Williams and an iconic scene from Heat

As soon as Son Lux started thinking about Thunderbolts*, they knew they wanted an orchestral score. “We also found out very early on that (Marvel boss) Kevin Feige’s favourite composer is John Williams. His music set the blueprint for orchestral scores and is just part of our DNA at this point, so that was something we were excited to explore,” says Chang.

But the band didn’t simply want to imitate Williams’ greatest hits. “We had full permission from Jake to explore and do things differently,” adds Lott. As well as working with the brilliant London Contemporary Orchestra, the band bashed together everyday objects including “bits of rubber, coffee mugs and thermos flasks” to add an extra dimension to the score. “They’re sounds you don’t normally hear in a big action movie,” says Lott with a grin.

“It’s definitely a movie that’s got big action, but it’s got even bigger emotion” – Ian Chang

Son Lux also have a reputation for bringing together musical influences that probably shouldn’t work. It’s perhaps why, early on, Schreier showed them the bank robbery scene from Michael Mann’s 1995 classic Heat. “The score is just this relentless, extremely minimal rhythm with moments of punctuation. It couldn’t be more different to what John Williams does,” says Chang. The band were suitably inspired. “We wanted to make things feel really tight and small to go alongside the orchestral grandness,” he explains.

There’s a lot of heart to Thunderbolts* – which is why Son Lux got the call

As experimental and playful as Son Lux are, their score for Thunderbolts* is firmly in service of the story. In the control room of Abbey Road, music is pared back to allow the actors’ dialogue to shine and there’s a vintage copy of Thunderbolts #3 proudly displayed on the mixing desk.

“There’s no big superhero in this film. They’re all fallible, complex characters and the movie is something that’s grey and shaded. We tried to do right by that with the music,” says Bhatia. “If the thing Marvel wanted was far outside of our wheelhouse, I’m sure they would have asked someone who could do a better job. I think we were asked to do this film for a reason.”

Lott points out that “the movie has a lot of heart” too. “As nerdy and exploratory as we are as composers, we also make music that is deeply emotional. I think that’s why Jake reached out to us,” he says. “The film is a good reminder that we need each other.”

“Especially in an increasingly isolating world,” adds Chang. “It’s definitely a movie that’s got big action, but it’s got even bigger emotion.”

‘Thunderbolts*’ is out in UK cinemas from May 2

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