Ramin Djawadi Quotes

I talked to the record company about what I had in mind. They said they wanted something lush. I figured the best thing to do was let them hear what I had in mind.

Well, I've been recording myself on a computer since I was about 13 or 14. So it's completely entwined with my creative process. Essentially, it allows you to make music that's better and smarter than you are, by using your ears to lead the way.

I always relish the idea of collaborating with the director on creating the sound world, the sound spectrum, and the sound environment of the film. I use every means at my disposal to create a score that is as strong and powerful to enhance the director's vision for the film.

At the beginning of each project, I like to create a palette of sound for that particular project.

When I'm writing film music, I feel like I'm more a filmmaker than a composer. It's more about what the film needs. I'm basically part of the team that's creating a film, and the music is a very important part, but it's just one part of many.

As a film composer I deal with short bursts of musical ideas that are defined to a large extent by what's happening on the screen, by not only narrative and action, but staying out of the way of dialogue, sound effects.

I love putting the music together. It's like art.

I usually start from the most general to the more specific. I'll get an emotional overview for the film as a whole, trying to pinpoint what the musical identity is and come up with thematic ideas - any ideas that identify as succinctly as possible what the film is.

I think a lot of composers get into trouble just making up a plot and expecting an audience to follow that.

I think one of the reasons that I got so good at it, as somebody making radio stories, is that on the radio I can actually - I can understand what's happening in the interview and can make a connection in a way that makes sense.

Writing in the electronic world, you imagine a sound, and then you have to go and find it. It's not like imagining a flute and then making that sound materialize. That's easy!

I find it hard to get excited by just a sound. I have to have a song there, then I'll find what used I can make of that sound within the song.

I've always been interested in what happens in the studio.

I realized I liked being in the studio and working on translating the ideas into recordings.

There are a lot of aspects of filmmaking that I love, but one of my favorites is in post, finding the right song for the right moment.

I record all of my music with authentic instruments in a studio before we start editing, doing many, many versions. The music shapes the film as we edit so it has an organic relationship to the content.

Sometimes I write them down in musical notation as a trigger to remind me about certain directions to go. Or I can be specific about a sound I'm looking for.

Every time I see a film or TV show, I think about how that composer made those choices and how that director envisioned music and how that could work onstage or in a film and how you could support that even further by putting lyrics to it.

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.

What really excites me is the production. I get in there and change a lot of stuff.

When you work on animation, the music has a great task: to create a sound and melodies and mood and atmosphere and energy dedicated to these extraordinary characters.

I like making sounds and putting it together, I'm not just a singer or a producer.

When I compose for any film, I always work with the story in mind.

The first time I experimented with sound design was on 'Fruitvale Station,' where I recorded the BART train and manipulated it.

TTS was the unit that I was directly involved with the productions, and I'm still really, really proud of what we had put together, not just visually but musically at that time and age.