Today on Soundtrack Alley, You’ll hear as I interview Frank Ilfman, a world renown composer of various projects such as Big Bad Wolves, Speer Goes to Hollywood, The Operative, and most recently Gunpowder Milkshake. Along the way for the interview you’ll hear some impressive credentials of Frank’s as he discusses his process and how he was influenced for film music.

One of the main things you’ll hear is music from Frank’s various projects.

Since the age of eight, Frank had his heart set on a career in film music.

He studied piano and trombone at the renowned Jaffa Conservatorium of Music in Tel Aviv and as a teenager, was playing lead trombone with the Tel Aviv Dixieland Band.

However, the tenacious young composer became frustrated with the structured methods of the Conservatorium and wanted to be more imaginative in how he created music, so he set out to achieve his ambition to be a film composer.

Fast forward to today, Frank has scored numerous TV dramas, documentaries and feature films including the hit black comedy horror, Big Bad Wolves, which saw him win the coveted Saturn Award for Best Original Music in 2014 ahead of John Williams, Howard Shore and Danny Elfman.

His innate ability to forensically diagnose how music can best contribute to the atmosphere of a film, coupled with his ability to create strong orchestral themes undercut with a brooding melancholy, has proved the perfect musical companion to projects in the horror and thriller genres.

Frank scored the critically acclaimed Lionsgate horror Ghost Stories directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, starring Martin Freeman and Paul Whitehouse. Other recent credits include the original music for the Legendary Pictures Fanfare logo, the thriller The Operative starring Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman, and drama Rory’s Way starring Brian Cox and Rosanna Arquette. 

He has just completed work on the documentary feature Speer Goes To Hollywood, which is screening in competition at this years Berlinale and the forthcoming action thriller Gunpowder Milkshake, starring Karen Gillan, Angela Bassett, Lena Headey and Michelle Yeoh.

Music for the interview…

Fantasia from Neverending Story by Klaus Doldinger

Noodle Farewell cue

Big Bad Wolves – Main Theme, The Chair of Horror, Now Talk.

Ghost Stories – The Allerton Suite, The Meshuggeners, Something is Coming, Snowbound, Goodman’s Theme

Legendary Logo Music

The Operative – Rachel’s Theme, Spygames, The Smugglers, The Informant

Speer Goes to Hollywood – Speer the TV star, The Actor Presentation, The Nuremberg Testimonies, The Interview, Whitewashed, Mephisto 

Gunpowder Milkshake – Scarlett’s Theme, Goonfight at the Gutterball Coral, La Balada de los Charros, The Rollin Roars, The Monsters, Rock Monster

Ennio Morricone – The Good, The Bad, The Ugly Suite

The Art of Waiting – The Art of Waiting Suite

Gunpowder Milkshake – Sam’s Theme

Soundtrack Alley’s theme music is composed by Alexander Schiebel

Find his work through xanderscores.com

I’m on Social Media through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

The podcast is on Anchor.fm, Stitcher, Spotify, Radio Public, Breaker, PocketCast, OverCast, Google Podcast and Apple Podcast