composer jay
Sarah MacDonald: After I saw Tony, I wrote in my notes that the score seemed contemplative. I felt remorse there. Then I heard Matt Johnson say in an interview your score showed us Tony’s honest thoughts and reactions because, for most of the movie, he’s lying to people. I wonder if that’s accurate to you and can you tell me how you got there?
Jay McCarrol: You know, something I haven’t talked about before is that yes, I was obviously trying to represent where all of the needle drops in the soundtrack could not really give us a window into [Tony’s] true self. I was trying to put myself where this character was and—no matter how wild of a time he was having—to represent his inner turmoil. That adolescent uncertainty he was going through. He was wrestling with things. He talked about being angry during that time in his life.
Against all that chaos, composer Jay McCarrol goes in the opposite direction. His minimal yet thunderous, bass-heavy piano score gives voice to the anger Bourdain refuses to express outright. Between punching walls and smashing bottles, it leaves the audience sitting in the frustration he’s constantly trying to outrun.
“We know that the storm of Anthony Bourdain is coming,” McCarrol says. “But this is just the beginning of him realizing he’s going to set sail in his life. It’s the first casting-off part.”
Paste Magazine: Let’s talk about Tony. How do you even begin to soundtrack Anthony Bourdain’s coming of age?
Jay McCarrol: Well, first, when I knew that we were doing a Bourdain movie and I was tasked to do the score, I knew I needed to just find a piece of music that I thought was fair and something that I could sign off on about the Bourdain that I have always known and loved. I’ve appreciated the type of man that he was and how he carried himself. He was very cool and dark and dignified, and I knew I needed a piece of music that had that in it. So, for a month or two, I played around on the piano and recorded a million different little voice memos on my iPhone, just trying to search for something that contained all those parts of him.
Nick: Tony begins his time at The Flagship by washing dishes. He’s low on the food chain, so to say. I’m curious to know what were the jobs you were doing where you had to cut your teeth before working your way into this industry?
Jay McCarroll: You know, I didn’t have particularly normal jobs when I was around that age. Like, I was a tennis instructor at a kids camp! In the winter, I learned how to snowboard pretty well, so I got certified and I would teach people snowboarding. But I was never like a hardcore coach. These were just summer jobs or winter jobs. Then I was a librarian, putting books back in the Dewey decimal system and sitting in complete quiet. I always made little mistakes and had embarrassing moments here and there. And I remember being 19 and having a short fuse, so I feel like I have a lot of empathy for anyone that age. You’re just going through a formative time where you’re still wrestling with inner angst and anger and frustration and whatever your inner demons are.
Similar article from the Toronto Star.
McCarrol says the experience exposed him to a more regulated production environment, with stricter rules around unions, actors and what filmmakers can do on set.
“I think where the movie started to really come alive is when Matt returned to Canada, and all of us at Zapruder got to weigh in and watch it and discuss how to support certain sections, fix certain sections,” said McCarrol. “It’s a very collaborative process.”
Similar article from CBC Music
In the meantime, the pair are dealing with an unexpected consequence of their “Nirvanna” success: becoming internet heartthrobs.
“Matt and I have, in some corners of the internet, just been turned into sex dolls. Hey, look, we deserve every bit of it — it’s all on screen,” McCarrol quips.
He says the online fandom runs “the spectrum from fun and cute to downright freaky,” and includes a fair share of Nirvanna the Band fan fiction.
“I’ve been given a few artists’ renditions of Matt and I with our arms around each other, kissing,” he says.
“We like it.”
We asked McCarrol to share his favourite film scores — here’s what he said:
Back to the Future, Alan Silvestri
“It’s probably the best and most popular use of the octatonic scale or the diminished scale. When you dance around these chords, it sounds like it’s flip-flopping on itself. It’s so evocative. It heightens reality. “