Soundtracking With Edith Bowman

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a returning composer who has fast become one of the hardest working and most sought after talents in the business. Pinar Toprak's latest efforts can be heard on the light hearted jungle romp, The Lost City, but she's also got a number of exciting projects in the pipeline and is fresh from conducting Billie Eilish and Finneas's performance of No Time To Die at the Oscars. It's an absolute delight to hear her talk about her craft.

We're 300! Wow. Thanks so much for all your continued support. It means the world to us and we wouldn't be here without you. To celebrate, we're joined by a Norwegian writer/director whose wonderful film The Worst Person In The World was up for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category, missing out to the Japanese road movie, Drive My Car. Joachim Trier has received widespread acclaim for his black-comedy drama, which tells the story of Julie as she tries to navigate the troubled waters of her love life and career. It has an absolutely brilliant soundtrack, and you'll hear plenty of examples from it.

We have a friend of the show returning to Soundtracking this week in the shape of Craig Roberts - who has directed a British indie film that Edith absolutely loves. The Phantom of The Open was written by Simon Farnaby, and tells the unlikely true story of Maurice Flitcroft - an excellent hoaxer and terrible golfer who posted the worst ever score recorded at an Open Championship when he contrived to take part in qualifying for the event in 1976. Mark Rylance and Sally Hawkins head a strong cast, while the film is scored by another friend of the show, Isobel Waller-Bridge.

Our latest guests on Soundtracking are Pixar animator, writer and director, Domee Shi, and producer Lindsey Collins, who's new project together is the wonderful Turning Red. Streaming now on Disney + Turning Red tells the story of a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian student who transforms into a giant red panda when she gets into a heightened emotional state. It's scored by our old friend Ludwig Goransson, and you will, of course, hear plenty of his music throughout the conversation.

We can't quite believe the run of guests we've had on Soundtracking, what with Andrew Garfield, Dave Grohl and Jonny Greenwood among those who've joined us in recent weeks. But when it comes to marrying music and film, Paul Thomas Anderson is right up there with Scorsese and Tarantino as a master of the art. His latest movie, Licorice Pizza, is not only a delight to behold, but also chock full of needle drops. He talks all things music, including his relationship with the aforementioned Mr Greenwood.

Legend alert! Our latest guest on Soundtracking is not only the lead guitarist, keyboardist and instrumentalist of one of the greatest bands on planet Earth, but has also transitioned with huge success into the realms of movie scoring. Jonny Greenwood has formed a formidable partnership with Paul Thomas Anderson since providing the music for There Will Be Blood, and has also worked with Lynne Ramsay, Pablo Larrain and Jane Campion - who are esteemed company indeed. He's also one of the most understated and humble people you could ever wish to meet. We'll get into his collaborations with all these great filmmakers during the course of the conversation, and sprinkle plenty of his music throughout.

We continue our bumper run of guests on Soundtracking with a man who's up for an Oscar this month in the Best Actor category. Andrew Garfield delivers a knockout performance as Jonathan Larson in Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical biopic Tick Tick Boom, as you can see for yourself on Netflix. It's always a joy chatting to him, though if you haven't seen the latest Spiderman film, we should say this interview contains a major spoiler. Amazingly, Andrew has never been required to sing for a project before, not that you'd know it. 

Rock 'n' roll royalty joins Edith for the latest episode of Soundtracking, as Dave Grohl discusses his comedy horror Studio 666 among many other things. Featuring all six members of The Foo Fighters as themselves, Studio 666 is a pretty bonkers yarn about the band recording an album in an old mansion possessed by evil spirits. As you might imagine, carnage ensues!

We're starting a bumper run of Soundtracking episodes in the coming weeks, with two shows a week for the foreseeable future, including conversations with PTA, Dave Grohl & Jonny Greenwood. Eesh! Today, it's the turn of writer, director, producer and all round legend, Adam McKay. He is FANTASTIC company, and we have an absolute ball discussing the music in his latest film, Don't Look Up, which is scored by our dear friend, Nicholas Britell. Enjoy!

It's another double-header for you, with two returning guests to Soundtracking. First up, it's Bryce Dessner from the National, who composed the score and music for Cyrano with his brother, Aaron. Then it's the man who directed this latest interpretation of the classic tale, Joe Wright, who is always a joy to speak to.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is an actress, singer and dancer who dazzled us all in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of West Side Story. Ariana DeBose's performance as Anita has already seen her win a Golden Globe - and she's also been nominated for an Oscar and Bafta among many other accolades. It was an absolute delight to catch up with her - Ariana really is a thoroughly sparky and likeable character.

Our latest guests on Soundtracking are actor and now writer/director Maggie Gyllenhaal and composer Dickon Hinchliffe, who join us to discuss their collaboration on The Lost Daughter. Available on Netflix, The Lost Daughter stars Olivia Coleman, Dakota Johnson and Jessie Buckly, and is - among many other things - a genuinely powerful meditation on the trials and tribulations of motherhood. We absolutely love it - and can guarantee music lovers will LOVE this conversation.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a friend of the show, returning to discuss his sequel to a massive family favourite in households across the globe - not least Edith's. Garth Jennings found a winning formula with his joyous animation, Sing, and has thankfully managed to recreate it with Sing 2. In addition to an all-star cast reprising their roles from the first film, Garth also managed to persuade none other than Bono to play a reclusive rock star and allow him to rework some classic U2 songs. He shares a couple of lovely anecdotes about that too ...

We have a proper legend for you on our latest episode of Soundtracking in the shape of the great Sir Kenneth Branagh, who also happens to be one of the loveliest people you could ever wish to interview. Edith caught up with him a few months back to discuss Belfast, a coming-of-age comedy drama and beautiful ode to his hometown, which he both wrote and directed. It really is a very special movie, and we highly recommend getting to your local cinema to see it if you feel safe doing so. Apart from anything else, you'll get to hear loads of classic Van Morrison tunes - with Van also having scored the film.

Our latest guest is a composer who's perhaps best known for his work with the Coen Brothers, though he's collaborated with plenty of other great filmmakers too. Carter Burwell was something of a punk rocker before landing the gig to score Joel and Ethan's first feature, Blood Simple. He's since provided the music for virtually all of their films - including the latest, The Tragedy Of Macbeth.

Our latest episode sees the welcome return of Nicholas Britell - with us on this occasion to discuss his score for Adam McKay's Don't Look Up.  Heading up the extraordinary cast are Leonardo Di Caprio and Jennifer Lawrence as astronomers attempting to warn mankind about an approaching comet that will destroy civilization.  It's fair to say the film has strongly divided opinions, but Edithfor one really enjoyed it - and Nicholas's score is great too.

Our first guests of 2022 are two brothers who've formed a formidable creative partnership since being given the opportunity to shine. Will and Arthur Sharpe have taken on directorial and compositional duties on several joint-projects, with The Electrical Life of Louis Wain their latest collaboration. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy, the biopic tells the story of the eccentric artist of the title, who had a particular - and many would say peculiar - affiliation with cats ... While Will co-wrote and directed the film, Arthur provided the music, and as always you'll hear plenty of it throughout the conversation.

Edith's latest guest on Soundtracking is without doubt one of the most exciting fresh talents at work in the industry today. Julia Ducournau burst into the popular consciousness with Raw, and follows it up with the equally scintillating Titane, which won the Palme d'Or  We don't want to tell you too much about it, as it defies a fleeting summary. Suffice to say it absolutely blew us away, and we highly advise you to go and see it at your local cinema if you feel safe doing so. The film is scored by Jim Williams, who's worked extensively with our old friend Ben Wheatley, and you'll hear plenty of his music throughout the conversation.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is a screenwriter who's proved extremely adept at adaptations of books, including The Men Who Stare At Goats, The Snowman, The Goldfinch and - the main reason we have him with us on this episode - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the film of which is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Peter Straughan was a delight to spend a little time with as we explored the ways music informs the writing of a script. 

Our latest guest on Soundtracking needs no introduction, other than to say we are absolutely over-the-moon to welcome Steven Spielberg to the podcast to discuss his jaw-dropping adaptation of West Side Story. We'd have loved to have got a few more minutes with him, if we're honest, but anyone who follows us on social media will know there's potentially some exciting news on that front ... And Edith did manage to tease out a few of his favourite scores, how he met John Williams, and the process behind the score for Jaws among many other things.