Soundtracking with Edith Bowman

We recently had Charlotte Regan on the podcast to discuss her brilliant debut feature, Scrapper, and we're following up on that episode with her composer Patrick Jonsson. Scrapper tells the story of 12-year-old Georgie and her estranged father Jason, who comes into her life for the first time after her mother dies. Told very much from Georgie's perspective, the music had to communicate her innocence and wonder - and also the childlike way in which she is dealing with her grief.

We have a double-header on our latest episode of Soundtracking - so busy are we at the moment. First up are writer/director Molly Manning Walker and songwriter, producer, DJ and composer James Jacob - who goes by the professional soubriquet of Jakwob. They join Edith to discuss Molly's powerful and important debut feature, How To Have Sex, which has already scooped a major award at Cannes. How To Have Sex deals with that very particular rite of passage for girls of a certain age, as three young female friends travel to Crete in search of sun, sand and, possibly, you know what ... We also have writer / director Kitty Green to talk about her psychological thriller, The Royal Hotel, which sees two backpackers land jobs in a remote Australian bar, with events uncoiling thereafter in a truly gripping and suspenseful fashion.

Editor Eddie Hamilton and music editor Cecile Tournesac join Edith to discuss the music of Top Gun: Maverick, covering original songs, needle-drops, score, sound design, and an Easter egg. They talk about creating the score, selecting music tracks, the creative process, and finding the perfect song. They also mention a clothing continuity error, editorial detail, and hidden Easter eggs. A brilliant chat definitely worth listening to!

We can't quite believe our luck to have David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads to discuss the remastered re-release of their seminal concert film, Stop Making Sense. These guys are so lovely and humble and, of course, groundbreaking and brilliant, it really is a pleasure to bring you the interview - with a little taster of the live recordings from Jonathan Demme's film thrown in for good measure.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking is Garth Davis, who makes a welcome return to discuss his psychological sci-fi thriller, Foe. Based on the book by Iain Reid, it stars Saoirse Ronan and Paul Mescal as a couple whose life is turned upside down when a stranger arrives at their farm to tell them one of them will be sent to a space station, while the other will be left in the company of a robot. Unusually, Foe is scored by 3 composers, so find out right here what Garth had in mind with that decision ...

It's three for the price of one this week, as Edith is joined by writer / director Philip Barantini and composers Aaron May & David Ridley to discuss their collaboration of Phil's BBC television spinoff of his film, Boiling Point. Featuring many of the original cast, the episodic format allows Philip and his co-writers to flesh out the characters, as you can see by checking out the whole season on the BBC iPlayer right now.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking has scored one of films that has most profoundly affected Edith in recent years, such is the gravity of the subject matter. 20 Days in Mariupol is genuinely harrowing, but also genuinely necessary and important documentary, charting in quite heart-wronching fashion the besieging of the Ukrainian city during the Russian invasion. Jordan Dykstra composed the music for the film, and we're thrilled he took the time to talk to us.

As Edith has noted before, our latest guest on Soundtracking has effectively created his own genre of naturalistic musical cinema, in which the songs featured feel organically rooted in the landscape of the narrative. John Carney is the man who brought us Once and Sing Street - and now blesses us with Flora And Son, which you can watch on Apple TV and in selected cinemas. It tells the story of a mum struggling to deal with her rebellious son, whose fortunes start to change after she rescues a beat-up guitar from a skip. John enlisted the help of Gary Clark of Danny Wilson fame for the original songs and the score, and you'll hear examples of his music throughout the conversation.

Our latest guest on Soundtracking was also one of our very earliest, when he joined me to discuss his brilliant contribution to the Star Wars franchise, Rogue One. And Gareth is back with The Creator - which he wrote and directed, and is a quite simply extraordinary addition to the sci-fci canon. It's hard to tell you too much about it, aside from the fact that it puts a hugely compassionate twist on the classic battle between humans and machines and artificial intelligence. Oh yes, and it's scored by our old friend Hans Zimmer ...

We continue to celebrate independent film on Soundtracking this week in the company of Prasanna Puwanarajah and Niall Lawlor - respectively director and composer of Ballywalter, a bittersweet comedy set in the Northern Irish village, which counts among its stars Seána Kerslake and Patrick Kielty