One wild ride
Onetime finalist on “The Voice” says recording for film a highlight of her fruitful musical career
Onetime finalist on “The Voice” says recording for a film a highlight of her fruitful musical career./
Dani is in “Dune.” Sort of. And maybe. Bethlehem High School graduate Dani Moz, who advanced to the final 12 contestants on the spring 2014 season of NBC’S “The Voice,” is among the vocalists who recorded a version of the Pink Floyd song “Eclipse” that is heard on the trailer for the epic remake of the sci-fi classic “Dune,” being released in December.
“This is pretty big for me,” said Moz, chatting on the phone recently from Los Angeles, where she has lived for the past eight years. “It’s my first session for a film that actually got greenlit,” she said.
The 3-minute trailer, released Sept. 9, promotes the new version of “Dune,” adapted from Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel of the same name. Said to be science fiction’s best-selling title of all time, with an estimated 20 million copies in print, “Dune” drew praise from the genre’s luminaries, including Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. Its handling of big themes—the environment, civilizational decline, gender dynamics—is now considered prescient.
“Dune” first made it to the big screen in 1984, directed by David Lynch prior to his “Twin Peaks” fame, in a version starring Kyle Maclachlan that received generally poor reviews. The book also became a 2000 miniseries on the Sci-fi Channel.
This year’s remake is directed by Denis Villeneuve, a French-canadian director known for the 2013 thriller “Prisoners,” with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal, and “Blade Runner 2049,” released three years ago. The screenplay is by Eric Roth (an Oscar winner for writing “Forrest Gump” and nominee for the 2018 version of “A Star Is Born”), with a cast that includes Timothée Chalamet, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgard and Charlotte Rampling.
To go from 50 of us in one live room at Capitol Records in February, with maybe one microphone for every five people, to July, with four of us in isolation booths with our own microphone. ... It was so extreme.” — Moz “
The music is by Hans Zimmer, famed for his scores for the Oscarwinning “The Lion King, the “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Dark Knight” series and “Gladiator.”
“I’ve always wanted to work with him,” said Moz. “To be able to do it on this film is so exciting.”
Moz was one of 32 singers chosen to perform “Eclipse,” a moody, atmospheric, 2-minute song from Pink Floyd’s best-selling 1973 album, “Dark Side of the Moon.” Connections made during the last few years working as a studio singer in L.A. led to the gig, Moz said. The singers, all members of the Screen Actors Guild, received union approval to record in the studio under strict coronavirus-related safety protocols, including groups limited to four singers, each in a private booth.
“My group was the last session of the day,” Moz said. “We thought we were going to sing the ‘oooh’s and ‘ahhh’s, but when we got into the studio they said they needed us to do the lead line, so we shifted gears and had to learn the parts really quickly.”
It offered a dramatic comparison with Moz’s last job before the pandemic shutdown, when she was part of a large group of singers who gathered over the winter at a famous studio in Los Angeles to record tracks for the Academy Awards broadcast.
“To go from 50 of us in one live room at Capitol Records in February, with maybe one microphone for every five people, to July, with four of us in isolation booths with our own microphone,” said Moz. “It was so extreme.”
Working with the film’s vocal contractor, who was on-site, and Zimmer via videoconference, the singers recorded the whole song, Moz said, and she was delighted to see excerpts used in the trailer.
How much of “Eclipse,” if any, remains in the final cut of the film won’t be clear to the public until the Dec. 18 release of “Dune.”
“There’s this idea that if you don’t have a record label, if you’re not recording and touring, you’re not a successful musician,” said Moz. “But I’ve discovered you can make a career, and a great deal of money, recording at all different levels and on all kinds of music, even if you’re in the background.”
She has recorded backing vocals of the new season of “The Masked Singer,” which premiered last week on Fox, and Moz said she has also recorded music for a Netflix movie she is precluded from naming. Other projects include vocals for the Eurovision song contest, many commercials and music for a Los Angeles Rams spot, she said.
“If it weren’t for (‘The Voice’), I wouldn’t have been able to have the career I’ve had,” Moz said. “There’s so much more to being in music than just trying to be the next breakout star. I’m so happy and fulfilled doing what I’m doing, being in rooms working with people who are my idols. It’s been wild.”