Digging into the Sound of ‘Something in the Dirt’ with Composer Jimmy LaValle
Rachel Reeves
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Recently premiering at Sundance 2022, Something in the Dirt is the latest offering from filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Conceptualized and created during the global pandemic, the film is a small-scale and intimate production that effectively demonstrates the captivating, creative strength that exists when the pair’s creative powers combine.
Ripe with the mindblowing theoretical science and emotionally complex characters Benson and Moorhead’s films are known for, this latest entry follows two strangers, John and Levi, drawn together by circumstance. As the two begin to investigate the unsettling array of mysterious happenings surrounding their apartment complex, a complicated and meaningful friendship develops. Supported by truly incredible performances from Benson and Moorhead as Levi and John, respectively, Something in the Dirt is as heartbreakingly beautiful as it is exhilarating.
For the film’s score, Benson and Moorhead once again called upon their frequent musical collaborator, Jimmy LaValle. No stranger to the twosome’s boundary-pushing approach to sci-fi horror, LaValle provided the scores for Spring, The Endless, and Synchronic. Having also created music under the moniker The Album Leaf since 1998, LaValle’s ability to compose evocative and ethereal electronic-based soundscapes made him a perfect cinematic partner for the duo’s unique cinematic creations.
In celebration of the film’s recent Sundance premiere, Dread Central sat down (virtually) with LaValle to dig into his score for this latest Benson and Moorhead adventure. We chat about his relationship with the intriguing filmmakers, The Album Leaf, his approach to scoring the characters of Something in the Dirt, the shifting landscape of modern film scores, and the complexity of balancing multiple careers. You can also learn more about the film by checking out our full Sundance review, here.
Dread Central: Something in the Dirt is your fourth collaboration with Benson and Moorhead. How did you first get involved with this dynamic duo?
Jimmy LaValle: So Justin was originally hired to film me while making a record back in 2005.
I also release records as The Album Leaf and he followed me around to various places. We went around San Diego, up to Seattle on a leg of the tour, and then off into Iceland. So, that was when I first met him. He was just this really quiet cinematographer, just doing his job. You know, as a cinematographer, especially filming vérité or doing a documentary, you’re supposed to kind of just disappear. And so, I didn’t really get to know him well, but I knew him at the same time.
Then, fast forward. I think it was 2011 or 2012 and essentially, my wife and I had just moved to LA. He reached out and said that he had written this film and he was listening and wanted me to do the music. At that point, I hadn’t met Aaron. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust them, I just didn’t know anything about it. I had been only kind of in the film world and the documentary, very indie, DIY scene, et cetera. But basically, I met them for some drinks.
They gave me this script and I met Aaron and it seemed cool enough. They also gave me a copy of Resolution. So then I went home and the next day my wife and I watched Resolution and were both just like, “Whoa. This is cool.” Like, totally, utterly impressed. Especially me just remembering Justin as this quiet guy behind the camera from seven years prior. It was just very, really cool to see. Sot hat kind of opened the flood gates and opened up the collaboration for Spring. They filmed a two-minute pitch piece which I scored. But again, I didn’t really know what kind of ride it would become or what they would do with it. And, they did some pretty impressive VFX work just for that Spring pitch. That film then ended up premiering at Toronto [International Film Festival] and yeah, here we are. Four films later. Pretty cool.
DC: There always seems to be a lot of thought behind each and every detail in Benson and Moorhead films and Something in the Dirt is certainly no exception. That said, did they have specific ideas of what they were looking for in regards to the musical direction for the film? Or do they kind of let you take the lead at this point?
JL: They always have specific ideas. I got the script back in September 2020. It’s typically followed by a lengthy email from Aaron with all of the musical ideas that they’re thinking. And typically it always kinds of pulls from the same batch of cookie dough, for lack of a better way to explain it. But, it’s always an ode to medieval kind of instruments and Gregorian chants, otherworldly, you know. There are a lot of buzzwords that they pretty much repeatedly use.
And then there are just musical mentions of other films; just references and maybe the kind of tone and feel that they’re maybe thinking about.
But at any rate, I read the script and kind of sat on it for a while. I thought about it and thought about what I was going to do. At the same time I was listening to this soundtrack for this show called I May Destroy You. On that soundtrack was an all-vocal, British choral piece. And I just thought, “Oh, this sounds along the same lines”. I called them right away and was like, “I just had this idea of doing this with all vocals!” Obviously, we didn’t end up doing that. [Laughs] But, that was my first train of thought.
For some reason, whenever I read the scripts, when I finally get the picture I’m just like, “That’s not what I was thinking”. This happens all the time and that’s typical. So for [Something in the Dirt], I had another inspiration upon reading the script. It was an ode to film noir or Hollywood. I think it was the rabbit holes and investigating, digging up things, and trying to find answers to mysterious conclusions or whatever. And so I wanted to also take from film noir aspects as far as chord structures and then try to marry those with voice.
Then I turned to my synth, which is what I kind of normally do. And, I came across this sound and this tone that I created and thought was really cool. I thought it really represented both the addiction that these two characters had with wanting to solve this mystery, but also represented the push and pull of their characters and their competitive nature. So I did a version where I basically played it for like, four minutes. And then I did another version with some choral voices over it, which is what we’d originally talked about. I sent it to them and they were like, “This is it. This is great!”
Now fast forward to when they finally gave me the cut in July. They had used this Philip Glass cue from an Errol Morris film. And basically, that threw me for a loop. They had been using this piece of music over and over and over again underneath the theorizing moments. And if you’ve seen the film you know that the majority of this film is those moments.
So then I basically felt like I needed to come up with that theme first and foremost before I could move forward with the rest of the film. After a month and a half of just really kind of failing, I finally came back to that original demo that I did. They had placed it in the film and it was in the cut already that they had given me. But it turned into dissecting it, splitting it up, and turning it into the main motif of the entire film.
DC: You touched on Something In The Dirt’s main characters, John and Levi, who engage in this odd circumstantial relationship. Not only do we see this play out on-screen, but you also infuse them and this relationship into the score as well. How did you approach this relationship and embody these characters with music?
JL: Let’s start with John’s character. His backstory is that he’s split up from his husband and he’s got a tie to the church. It doesn’t really seem like he is Evangelical and he doesn’t reference anything religious in his every day. He’s also not talking about God first and foremost all the time, but that is part of his backstory. And so with that, we had talked about using organ to kind of support his narrative and to support that character. Just to give him a little hint at that without being too obvious.
The other part about John is the fact that he’s very sinister and you don’t know what he’s up to. You don’t really trust him. He seems like he’s got a trick up his sleeve and you don’t really know what his intentions are; if they’re good or if they’re bad. The entire film is pretty moody and pretty dark with the score, but we wanted to keep that as his tone. That was kind of the approach with John as a character.
It’s the opposite of Levi because Levi’s outlook is, this is a transition for him. He’s just landed in this apartment because he’s wanting to really go off and find some happiness and find somewhere that he can settle down, stop, relax, and just enjoy life and be slow. He’s got a positive outlook on life. Just like noticing the beauty in LA when everybody else is typically stressed or whatever, he’s just kind of a more optimistic, whimsical character.
I wasn’t really sure how to get there with him until I worked with this woodwind player [Hailey Niswanger] on this film. She tracked a clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute, and I had her just do a bunch of improv. And particularly, she did this kind of solo improv, almost jazzy kind of flute. Some of those moments really clicked of just like, “Oh wow.” I think I received those Stems when Justin and Aaron were here and all of us were just like, “That’s it. That’s Levi’s sound.”
You can get even deeper into, not the actual physical characters, but the objects that they’re discovering and the objects that they’re collecting. All of those things are also kind of characters and parts of the film so they also had their own tone. When you would see them on screen we would kind of accent it with that; just as a reminder that this is another piece of the puzzle and this is another part of the collection of data. Obviously, there’s also the actual ashtray prism floating in the room too. That also had its own kind of motif.
DC: Benson and Moorhead’s films never fail to get me thinking and Something in the Dirt got me musing about music from a scientific standpoint and the human emotional response to it. Do you ever find yourself pushing against these ingrained culturally defined conventions? Or perhaps intentionally utilizing them to mislead or guide audiences?
JL: Yeah. I feel like I go into every single film saying I don’t want to use piano or strings. [Laughs] That’s how it always feels and I do everything I can to stay away from it. It also comes down to the fact that is still a collaboration. You are still supporting the filmmaker’s vision and their story, you know? And, Justin and Aaron, love strings. They love the effect that strings can have. So with that, I like to then take that and see what I can do with it so that it’s not a typical horror score with shrilly strings in those tense moments, generic stingers, and those kinds of things.
The flute we used was also inspired by that Philip Glass cue. There was a flute in it and it was like, “Oh, this does make sense.” And to go beyond that, I then was just looking for a flute player. I was recommended this player and I looked at her Instagram and saw she was basically a Jill of all winds. Then I heard a clip of her playing bass clarinet and I was like, “That’s the sound I want. That’s incredible.” So I specifically kind of went and asked her for just bass clarinet and flute. And, she really delivered.
The violinist, Jake Falby, this is the second score that he’s done with me. With all the players that I work with, there is a roadmap of things that I want. I do ask for specific things. For instance, on the John cue, I wanted that [hums John’s melody] to be doubled. We actually didn’t end up using the strings to double it, but that was something that I specifically was looking for and hearing. I was also asking for any kind of improvisation that he could do. He’s a great player because he’s a classical protege, but at the same time is super into the indie art music scene as well. I think that’s where we both intersect—my crossover into composing and his crossover back into the non-classical world. So, he always contributes something that’s very, very cool.
With both players, they track and they send me things, but then I take them and I further manipulate it. I start to move things around and I take different parts and pieces and put them into other cues. We’ll do effects to them, reverse them, or just kind of manipulate them in a way that makes it a little more unique, less formulaic, and less conventional.
DC: One thing I love about this score is the way you blend electronic elements with more traditional acoustic instrumentation. Not only does this really accurately represent the more scientific and otherworldly aspects of the narrative, it mirrors a trend that has been developing in film scores over the last 10 years or so. Do you think this trend has anything to do with our increasingly digital world? Or do you have any other theories about this particular stylistic development?
JL: That’s an interesting question. I mean, it’s hard to tell, because I’ve been in the electronic utilizing strings space since early The Album Leaf days; like the mid to early 2000s. It was kind of my formula, which is also why I still try so hard to stay away from it. [Laughs] I’ve just been doing it for so long. But also, yes. Tools have become more available.
I think the trend actually stems more from more artists crossing over into the composing world. I feel like The Social Network changed a lot [composed by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross]. Sicario changed a lot [composed by Jóhann Jóhannsson], as far as the score world is concerned. And then you move into Hereditary [Colin Stetson] and you move into Annihilation [Geoff Barrow and Ben Salisbury]. Those are all people that are artists. It’s Nine Inch Nails and even Jóhann who was an incredible composer, but he also had a lot of hands in the band world in Iceland. Colin Stetson was in Arcade Fire and Geoff Barrow is from Portishead. So I feel like there are a lot of electronic musicians that are moving over into the score world and utilizing it and presenting them.
Going way back to Cliff Martinez and Clint Mansell, those composers were utilizing a lot of electronics. Or even back to The Shining Soundtrack with Wendy Carlos. It’s pretty exciting. Anything that’s just not the classic piano-string score is going to be way more exciting, to me at least. And I feel like maybe to listeners, something that’s unique is going to draw and help push the story, push the narrative, make you feel something.
DC: Before you got your first film-scoring gig, was this a field you were looking to get into? Or did an opportunity just kind of present itself?
JL: It’s a funny story to me because I felt a big ignorant of the composing world until I was in it. I feel like for so long I was just watching movies and not really putting any thought into what was happening behind the scenes or the fact that someone was doing the music and actually making the score. I don’t know why it never clicked, but it just didn’t. Of course, I knew who Danny Elfman was and who John Williams was, all of these really classic modern composers. I knew all that stuff and also still knew that Danny Elfman was part of Oingo Boingo. But basically, my success started with licensing my music.
So, I had a lot of my songs licensed and used in TV shows and some films. Because I make instrumental music, it just kind of lent itself. I also started to see more people using my music as temp scores in films. So, I saw that happening a lot and started because of that. There was one particular documentary that came by and I got handed this DVD to approve of the usages. There was a lot of my music in it and it was just like, “What if I just scored it?” So I offered to do it for free and I did it for free. That was my first jump into it.
Then I went to another film where my wife had a friend of filmmakers that needed composers. (My wife is a filmmaker as well) These were filmmakers that had SXSW premieres and they’re renowned filmmakers so, I was lucky to dive into that documentary side. But for a while, I was just kind of doing more of a sound-alike approach. If I wanted to do something different than the director wanted me to, I kind of had to go back to what the temp track was. So as far as when the creativity really started, where I was able to really spread my wings, it was with Justin, Aaron, and my wife’s films.
DC: You’ve mentioned your other musical outlet—The Album Leaf. How does that creative endeavor fulfill you differently as a musician and what keeps you pursuing both careers simultaneously?
JL: That’s a good question. That’s a good question I should ask myself. [Laughs] I mean, first and foremost, that was what I was and where I started. That was my world and that’s how I came up and what I was used to; making records, touring, and playing shows. And of course, that feeds excitement into you as an individual. Making something and getting recognition in that sense. Or playing a show and seeing the response and really feeling those things.
The processes of both are so, so different and yet, so similar at the same time. I feel like it’s so different because, when I’m making a record, I’m working on a song, I’m working on that structure, and I’m focused on the end result. I’m focused on adding elements here and there to make it interesting or adding elements here and there to do something different than I did before. I can work on a song for months. Of course, you can work on a score for months, but you have a lot more ground to cover.
But also, it’s you coming up with your own voice, melodies, approach, and thoughts on your own from whatever is coming out of you. Or, what’s happening around you and coming from wherever your source of inspiration is. With a film, it’s a very specific source of inspiration. You’re reading a story, you’re watching the picture, or you’ve been told something and it’s how you translate that as a composer. That’s also really exciting.
I like the idea that I’m always writing something, always creating, always creating new music, and always writing things. It does have the same trajectory as far as like, wanting to outdo yourself or wanting to do something different, do something better. But as to why I’m still in both worlds, I guess I’m still not that busy with scoring. I still don’t have that much work. I would like to be doing more of it. But I also still enjoy performing. I enjoy making records and I enjoy the process. I enjoy the experimentation.
I’m lucky and fortunate that I have all of these tools on my belt and that there’s a wider umbrella that I’m able to live in. Not only with scoring and making records, but I’ve also done sound design. For example, I did the sounds for Beats headphones and those connection tones. All of these different kinds of opportunities and different things that I’m sought after for my artist side, it’s the tone, vibe, and world that I live in musically and atmospherically. I’m really lucky and I never forget that. I’m just glad that I’m able to expand and not just be in one kind of thing. Because just as I start getting bored with making records, I get a film, and then I learn something new from that film, and then it bleeds over into my record somehow. They feed each other.
DC: Seeing multifaceted artists such as yourself work in different areas, it really does give fans and audiences such an interesting and complex glimpse into you as an artist. Not only do we get to see your more personal solo work, but also how that style and individual approach translate to a professional, creative-for-hire type of situation.
JL: What I’m trying to find is a balance of being completely recognized as both. While this is the first film that I’ve had play at Sundance, I’ve done performances and shows at Sundance before. Even talking with filmmakers and directors after those shows and telling them that I’ve scored films they’re like, “Oh, really?” You know, like totally surprised. And it’s just like, “Yes!” I also often get friends that are composers tell me, “Oh, your music was used all over this.” And it’s just kind of like, “Well, why…why…why aren’t they just coming to me in person?” [Laughs] So I think that’s what I’m trying to do is really kind of marry the two and be known as an individual that exists in both worlds.
Along with his score for Something in the Dirt, you can hear more of LaValle’s music via the Calm app where he composed a 60-minute sleep song called “Trails.” You can also catch him out on tour this spring with The Album Leaf as well as a new album being released later this fall.
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