Interview: Michael Penn - Page 3

And I think I suffered because of the way the corporatization of music was starting to get control of everything.  If it wasn't something that followed the model of what was currently a hit, it disappeared.  I wouldn't have gotten signed if it wasn't for Buziak, because "No Myth" was not like anything on the radio at the time, and they never would have put the money behind it.  

How did you get into film scoring? 

I had this fan named Paul Thomas Anderson, who wanted me to score his first movie, which I had never been interested in doing because of the prejudices I have about the film business.  With all the crap in the press after the first album, I didn't want to do anything that smelled of nepotism, and putting my foot in the film business, even if it had absolutely no connection to my family, still kept the possibility of that.  

So, I avoided pursuing that, even though I had been an armchair film composer for a long time – watching movies and complaining about how the music sucked.  But Paul waited for me for about a year, and I finally saw the movie and was blown away.  My fears about film music being art-by-committee and an unrewarding experience were blown out of the water.  Paul was great to work with.  

You used "High Time" on an episode of Scrubs a few years back.  Are you finding that TV shows and movie soundtracks are better outlets these days for getting your music heard? 

They're certainly better outlets than radio, yeah.  Where radio was once a reflection of the tastes of thousands of DJs around the country, now it's a controlled, consulted business that locks people out of it.  But music supervisors can allow their tastes to be known. 

Article Author: Dave Lifton

Dave Lifton is a writer whose take on pop culture can be found at Wings For Wheels. He also blogs about soccer at Booked For Dissent.

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