Top 67 Quotes & Sayings by Ludwig Goransson

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a Swedish composer Ludwig Goransson.
Last updated on September 18, 2024.
Ludwig Goransson

Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson is a Swedish composer, conductor and record producer. He has scored films such as Fruitvale Station, the Rocky franchise entries Creed and Creed II, Venom, and Tenet. He also composed the new fanfare for Warner Bros. Pictures, as well as the fanfare for the Star Wars brand logo. For his work on the 2018 superhero film Black Panther, he won the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media and the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. Göransson is also known for his work on American TV series like Community, Happy Endings, New Girl, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, and The Mandalorian, the latter of which won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for both Chapter 8: Redemption in Season 1 and Chapter 16: The Rescue in Season 2.

My starting point is always to read a script and have a conversation with the director about what their vision is, and then, after that, I love to do research.
A friend of mine put me in contact with the artist Baaba Maal.
I think I'm a pretty good listener. — © Ludwig Goransson
I think I'm a pretty good listener.
Words fail to express how surreal and humbling it feels to be invited into the 'Star Wars' universe.
If you make modern rap music, how do you write without ripping off anyone else? It's just about having a distinct voice in your songs.
Every now and then, as a composer and producer, it's important to write music for yourself.
I work pretty fluidly across all genres.
I'd say for a film composer, 'Star Wars' is kind of like the holy grail of film music. It's probably the best film music ever written.
The plan was just to make great art, and working with Donald Glover, who is such a renaissance man, we've been working together for ten years, and he is always pushing the envelope in a way - like, whenever we work together, I have no idea what it is going to turn out to be.
So when I'm listening to music, I'm listening to a lot of hip-hop to be inspired and to hear new things.
So much music in Africa was created for specific moments, written for rituals or for a funeral or for challenges, thousands of years ago, and these rhythms are still used.
I think, for me, a way to really come up with new ideas and come up with new ways of writing music is to create a unique sound palette or soundscape for all the films I'm working on.
I would love to do more superhero work; as a young film composer, that is one of the things you dream of. — © Ludwig Goransson
I would love to do more superhero work; as a young film composer, that is one of the things you dream of.
These days, you're always surrounded by music and sounds, whether you're in the mall or a subway car.
I think, as a composer, pressure should be something that makes you better.
When I'm by myself - composing or writing film scores - it's very lonely. I'm just sitting by myself in the studio.
I'd love to work with Frank Ocean. I really like his music.
I think with everything I do, I'm trying to just come up with new ways of creating music and mixing styles together. That's just what's fun for me to do, to try to make myself inspired.
I just want to say, creating music with Childish Gambino has been one of the greatest joys of my life.
No matter where you're born or what country you're from, you connect with 'This is America.' It speaks to people; it connects right to your soul. It calls out injustice, celebrates life, and reunites us all at the same time.
The first time I experimented with sound design was on 'Fruitvale Station,' where I recorded the BART train and manipulated it.
I wanted to be the best guitar player in the world. And then my dad got me a portable recorder, so I started writing my own music.
In western classical music with an orchestra, you focus the orchestra on melodies and harmony. In African music, the biggest focus is on rhythms and counter-rhythms - the complexity of rhythms.
The through line of the way I like to work, what makes me different, and what I like to do for every project - although they are completely different from each other - is I like to do a lot of research and create a unique landscape and unique soundscape for each movie.
I really want to get better at conducting.
I moved to L.A. in 2007 from Sweden.
Obviously, the 'Rocky' theme is one of the most recognizable themes in film.
Any time I get a chance to work with artists that make me inspired and learn new stuff about music - every chance I get, I'll take.
Any time you have the chance to celebrate something with your closest best friends, it's very special.
As a kid growing up in Sweden loving American music, I always dreamt of migrating here and working with brilliant artists like Donald Glover.
Growing up, I was listening to a lot of Metallica, a lot of instrumental guitar music because I started out as a guitar player.
I'm always trying to experiment and come up with new palettes of sound and new combinations of music that you haven't really seen or heard in film before.
Chance The Rapper is a person who really knows what he wants.
Normally when you write for an orchestra, you think about melody and harmony and countermelody.
I'm just constantly figuring out new ways to reinvent myself.
I love learning new things.
I think the more you know people and the more you get to know artists, the better you can collaborate.
I think in 'Rocky IV' there are three montages with three five-minute songs, which is insane. You can't do that today. — © Ludwig Goransson
I think in 'Rocky IV' there are three montages with three five-minute songs, which is insane. You can't do that today.
Something I grew up with is John Williams, of course, with 'Indiana Jones' and 'Star Wars.'
It's not lost on me that I'm a Swedish guy from one of the coldest countries in the world.
Music in Africa is perceived so differently than Western classical music - it's language and storytelling.
It definitely feels like I'm living a dream, but I try not to pinch myself because I don't want to wake up.
I never used to get calls from artists or labels, but once you have a top 20 hit, you start getting them.
I've worked with Childish Gambino for so long, so I've learned that from those producing skills - how to really produce music - where, of course, it's about writing, but it's also about combining sounds and styles and genres.
If you're a film composer, you have the music tell the story of the character.
Needless to say, I like to create a unique sound for each project I do.
I was drawn to West Africa. I did listen to a bunch of different styles of African music, and there was something about the percussion and the drums of West Africa, and the energy, that felt so cinematic to me.
I think to try to make new music and new ideas, you have to push the boundaries of existing music. — © Ludwig Goransson
I think to try to make new music and new ideas, you have to push the boundaries of existing music.
I would say that 'Creed' has a lot more music in it. It's 60 minutes of music, while 'Fruitvale' had about a fourth of that at best. There's a bigger focus in 'Creed' because I had to make music for training montages.
Needless to say, when I work on a film, it's mostly just me alone in my room just waiting to present the music to the director - and either he likes it or not.
I've produced all of Childish Gambino's music.
I traveled to a library in South Africa called ILAM (International Library of African Music), which has a collection of about 500 different instruments that don't really exist anymore.
When I'm working with an artist, my job is to make their vision come to life.
For the last 10 years, I've been working with Donald Glover and Ryan Coogler, and we've put down so much time really trying to make the best that we can, whether it's a movie, a film score, or a song.
One of the instruments that really stuck out to me was the talking drum, which is basically the first type of communication device. It's a drum you put on your shoulder, and you can pitch it with your arm, and you can 'talk' with it.
At USC, when I studied film scoring my first year, one of my first friends that I met was Ryan Coogler. He was in the directing program at USC. He became one of my best friends at school.
One of the first things I want do when I start writing music for a film is to create its own sound world, its own music world.
It was very challenging, trying to add an orchestra on top of these traditional African rhythms, because as soon as you add any kind of melody or chords over it, it stops feeling African.
I haven't really ever seen a big budget Hollywood film with African music. Most of the time, it's just Hollywood's perception of what African music is.
Some of my favorite scores include Bernard Herrmann's Hitchcock scores.
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