Out of the blue: The man behind the music for Blue Planet 2.
Blue Planet 2’s Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer talks about his life in the music industry and his love of New Zealand. Peter Eley reports.
Hans Zimmer has some pertinent advice. “New Zealand is a very civilised country, just great. Don’t ever leave it.”
The 60-year-old German composer, named on a list of the world’s 100 living geniuses for his award-winning work on movie soundtracks, gave a concert at Auckland’s Spark Arena in March and fell in love with the country.
“Nobody wanted to leave so we might come back and stay this time,” says Zimmer.
The concert was part of a world tour and was out of character, says Zimmer who works from his studio in Santa Monica. “I don’t get out much. I spent 40 years in a room by myself so I decided to leave the room for a bit.
“I’ve always had really bad stage fright, and I’m not even good at dinner parties, so my way of tackling it was to go out on tour and stand in front of thousands of people.”
Zimmer won an Oscar for his
Lion King soundtrack in 1995 and his speech was famously brief.
“I’ve never seen it, I can’t bring myself to see it. I was off so fast they didn’t even get to play the music they play to get you off the stage. I really confused them.”
Even at the start of his career, in the 70s, Zimmer was in the public eye. He had joined a band called the Buggles after leaving school in London, where he had moved to as a teenager from Frankfurt.
The Buggles had a major hit with a song called Video Killed The Radio
Star, which was the first video track to be played on the fledgling MTV.
“It was a long time ago. I was along for the ride – the quirky German guy on the synthesiser.
“We had this huge hit just a week before my 21st birthday. All the things you see in Spinal Tap (a mockumentary about a rock band) are true and I never saw any money from it.
“I had thought, ‘Oooh, my career’s
really taking off’, but it went in exactly the opposite way.”
There was a long-term silver lining. “Video Killed The Radio Star wasn’t a love song. It’s a story and I thought, ‘I like this storytelling thing’ and that’s how I first became interested in films.”
He gained his big break when Stanley Myers, a film composer who had worked on more than 60 films including The Deerhunter, took him under his wing.
“He threw me in the deep end and I got to learn from people like (directors) Nick Roeg and Stephen Frears. Stanley hated car chases and I got really good at doing the car chases for him.
“But I didn’t work hard at my career. I worked hard at the music because I loved it ... You’re speaking to me in the studio and I’m looking at my keyboard and screen and I have to say to myself, ‘I am going to be good and have this conversation and not touch the keyboard’. It’s hard not to get distracted.” His latest work, on the series
Blue Planet 2, is what our interview is ostensibly about.
Zimmer teamed up with British rock band Radiohead to produce the music used on the prequel to the series, hosted by Sir David Attenborough. It’s a reworking of a track called Bloom from the group’s 2011 album The King Of Limbs.
“We all knew Bloom had been inspired by the first Blue Planet series and it seemed like such an interesting idea to take the song and customise it for Blue Planet 2.
“Blue Planet is such an important programme. I keep on thinking, ‘Why are you guys talking to me? You should be talking to the guys who were diving under the sea for 500 hours’. They’re such heroes of mine and I think Radiohead feel the same way.
“We just want to support them on this mission, for this gift they are giving us by shooting this incredible footage. I think the great thing that David Attenborough does is to show us our world in a way that makes us more empathetic, to be a little bit more careful and make us understand that we do have a duty to leave this planet in a better state than we found it.
“More people saw Planet Earth 2 than watched the Kardashians or the X Factor, and to me that’s mission accomplished.”
“We do have a duty to leave this planet in a better state than we found it.” – Hans Zimmer