Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch’s Gone Girl Score Was Inspired By “The Really Terrible Music You Hear in Massage Parlors”
Imagine “The way it artificially tries to make you feel like everything’s OK,” Reznor says. “Then imagine that sound starting to curdle and unravel.”
David Fincher's eagerly much buzzed about adaptation of Gillian Flynn's best-selling literary thriller Gone Girl arrives in theaters next month with an accompanying -- and likewise anticipated -- score produced by Fincher's go-to's, Trent Reznor and his longtime partner Atticus Ross. Today, that so-far winning threesome revealed a little of their process in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. And apparently, they sought inspiration for their score composed "of lilting, haunting synths interspersed with doleful piano melodies" in what is generally assumed to be the least discomforting of places: the massage parlor.
According to Reznor's recollection, Fincher's instructions were to, "'Think about the really terrible music you hear in massage parlors.' The way that it artificially tries to make you feel like everything's OK. And then imagine that sound starting to curdle and unravel." Later in the interview Fincher rebuffed that point-- but only sort of, explaining that the soundtrack is merely meant to evoke the sort of uncanny comfort a nice spa might provide to it's patrons. "The movie is about the facade of the good neighbor, the good Christian, the good wife," he explained. "So the notion was to start with music that's attempting to give you a hug." Got it? Hear a little of what that sounds like in the trailer above.
Reznor, Ross and Fincher also discuss their attempts to work "purely in unconscious mode," as well as their experience working with a live orchestra, a first for the mechaniphilliac Nine Inch Nails frontman. Read the whole thing here. And when you're done with that, revisit our FADER 88 interview with the award-winning director. Gone Girl opens in theaters October 3rd.
