FINNEAS

“The first thing that I’ve picked out is A Hard Day’s Night. This is really one of the first things I kind of remember watching with my dad.... This is sort of back-to-back magic. The second or third scene is them on the train and they’re like, “Who’s the little old man?” And he goes, “It’s Paul’s granddad.” And then he goes, “He’s very clean. He’s a clean man.” The Beatles’ music is totally the most important music in my life.... This made me feel safe and comfy.”

“This is Eyes Wide Shut, the Stanley Kubrick film. From a music perspective, the reversed choral thing that plays during the seance/ritual scene, one of the scariest pieces of music I’ve ever heard. I watched it a couple years ago right before Thanksgiving... I remember pulling up that piece of music from that sequence. And Billie was like, “Why are you playing this?” I think it was so jarring and unsettling to her, which is the whole point of that piece of music.”

“This is Sound of Metal. This is a film I’ve only seen the one time, but I was really moved by this film. I was also haunted by it. And the sound design is fantastic. His gradual deafness is amazingly designed. And then he gets a cochlear implant toward the end of the film. Then his world is this kind of lo-fi, degraded thing... And then there’s a sequence at the end of it – he takes his cochlear implant off and it just goes to complete silence, which is so effective and haunting.”

“I’ve picked out WALL·E. I really loved this film, seeing it in theaters at whatever young age I was when it came out. I will admit it seemed like a more distant future than it seems like it is now. But it’s so funny and it’s romantic, and I did rewatch this very recently and it really does hit. It’s aged fantastically. Actually the thing I wanted to do before I wanted to make music for a living was be an animator... So I think that is really the core of why I’m happy to talk about WALL·E.”

“Punch-Drunk Love. Paul Thomas Anderson, one of my favorite directors. I really think that Adam Sandler is the GOAT. He’s especially great in this. And I’m highlighting this specifically because of Jon Brion’s music in this. I just think that it’s spectacular.... As I have tried to get as good an Education as I can in film score and soundtrack, Jon Brion has been a North Star for me because of how the music in the movies that he’s scored makes me feel.”

“We have Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. My backstory on Alfonso is that, pre-Roma, Billie and I played a show in Milan... Alfonso had brought his daughter to the show. He was like, “The sound that is at the end of the song ‘hostage,’ what go like that?” I was so surprised that he had taken the time to listen to the music.... I really credit Sophie and “Ponyboy” for him offering me the scoring gig for Disclaimer.... I have learned just as much from standing over his shoulder as I have from watching his...”