Lost Issue: Mason Daring Interview Conclusion

LD: What do you think of the attitude that writing for movies is less respectable than writing for the concert stage?

MD: Oh yeah! [hearty laugh] I love that! I love that attitude. That's a great one. First of all, I want to tell them I have no idea why anyone would want to go to a grant foundation and beg them for money. I mean, I would rather dig a ditch and write in my spare time. I don't wanna go begging for money. I get paid. I want it to be for a job. Somebody once asked me, "Doesn't the compromise inherent in what you do ever bother you?" and I just about hit him, you know? The compromise? To me it's just opportunity. You don't give me a picture, I don't have a note in my head. I mean, I sit down at the piano and play melodies all the time -- I think it's great fun. But they're worth about...when the echoes die in the living room, that's about what they're worth, okay? I mean, they're just fun. Give me a picture, I'll give you something to remember. I've had clients go, "What you did for me five years ago" and they hum it and I say, "Jeez, where'd that come from?" Give me the picture and let me look at it. I'll try to come up with something that you can remember in five years.

LD: Is it picture and drama?

MD: Yeah, it's more than just picture. Yeah, that's right. And I tend to do a lot better on a story. I mean, I do some bad movies. I've done a lot of bad movies, but remember, I've done a lot of great movies. I had a lot of composers say, "How do you...How come you got that job?" My answer is...I mean, I don't get paid as much as a lot of composers do. And the movies I do don't make much money by and large.

LD: But they're critically acclaimed...

MD: That's right. But you know? I can tell my kids what I do for a living. That's the good news. I'm mainly thankful that the people I tend to work with are very nice. And that's kind of my big thing. If I get in with somebody that's mean or rude or a liar, which has happened but only two or three times in my whole career...By and large the people I work with are nice to be around as they are efficient, capable and intelligent. When people ask me about how I feel about myself I say, "Lucky mostly," because -- well, for instance, I get to do a movie like Roan Inish which touches people. You understand, I have gotten more mail and more phone calls on Roan Inish than all the other movies I ever did put together. I got letters from people I went to high school with.

LD: Did you go to Ireland?

MD: Yeah, twice. I worked on it on the set.

LD: Did you scout the local musicians?

MD: Yeah, all that stuff. Then the second time to record. In Dublin. I did two thirds, one half the movie there. I did the rest in Marblehead. We've got great Irish musicians in Boston and New York. Really! Fabulous. But I did a lot of it over there. I've been really lucky with the people with whom I get to work. It makes a real difference. There are times when I...I was very proud of the Dickens. I did more of my own orchestrations on that than I'd done before.

LD: How large was the orchestra?

MD: Fifty players. And it was 90 minutes of music. It was a huge score. It was a wonderful show. Tom Bourtney as Quilt -- it was amazing. Beautifully done. But very Disney. Very grand and sweeping and romantic. I had a ball.

LD: Did you research the period for authenticity?

MD: Yeah, I did a little. It's about the dark side of London, or the country side. It's not about royalty, it's about commoners. The lower middle class. I made a decision to stick with strings, woodwinds, percussion and french horns. It presented an interesting challenge.

LD: How long did you have for that 90 minutes of music?

MD: Oh, they gave me a good amount of time. Five weeks. [laughs] For me, that's great. Five weeks with nothing but good support, fabulous support... it just couldn't have been better.

LD: There's deadly little music in City of Hope.

MD: You know what there is in City of Hope? There's a lot of really great rock and roll songs. I know you can't hear them...

LD: "Balls to the Wall"?

MD: Balls to the wall! That was a request of John's. He said, "Give me something really dumb." I said, "How about the phrase 'Balls to the wall'?" That works for me, man. It gets a laugh every time.

LD: It's very ac/dc.

MD: That's right.

LD: There's very little underscoring.

MD: That's exactly what he wanted.

MD: I have a record label, Daring Records, I just happen to put out some of my scores. Most of the records are jazz and blues. I serve as the record company, and usually producer, for them. Rounder Records distributes Daring Records.

LD: Here's the cheesy question. Desert Island discs?

MD: I don't have them anymore. They change. I mean, if I really were, what would I take...? Schuberg's 160 in C Major quintet, New World Symphony, collected works of Copland, and early album by Traffic, Bonnie Raitt's greatest hits... hmm, let me think... I'd probably take a Duke Levine record. He's this guitar player I've done two records with. He plays on everything I do. He's a great musician. He's brilliant. If you ever heard one of his albums, you'll see why. It's very difficult and unusual country blues -- I don't know what you call it. You tell me. It's music, it's real music, not riffs. He plays in Passion Fish, City of Hope, Wild Hearts...I did a TV movie, Murder in Mississippi, in place of Elmer Bernstein. The real story of Mississippi Burning. It got nominated for an Emmy. Duke's on that.

LD: Did you ever notice -- this seems to be true in all the arts -- when people are younger, they need to make a splash so much...young jazz players always need to play a zillion notes at a million miles an hour. It seems like by the time you got to film scoring, you had that all out of your system. I don't know if you've ever been through that -- it seems most artists do. But your film scores have never been heavy-handed.

MD: That's good.

LD: So many people, they're out to make a mark in a way that is detrimental to the story. I don't see that in your scores.

MD: Thank you. That's a very nice compliment. I think I may have gotten over being full of myself at an earlier age. I definitely was there! [laughs] I had it down to an art form. Are you kidding? I was the Picasso of full of myself. Somehow, I just got over it. I don't plan to be famous or rich. Comfort. That's my goal. I mean, you've got to really care about money and fame to get either. They're not generally by-products. Occasionally, but not generally.

LD: Are you saying, if you go after quality work and hanging out with the good, fun people, that's what you get? That's not too bad!

MD: That's right. I think if I stay doing great movies for the rest of my career, that's a great thing. What's the problem there? I'm very lucky.
 
 

MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com