SANTA MONICA, Sept. 24, 1999 - Basil Poledouris has given audiences years of memorable movie music. From his ground-breaking CONAN THE BARBARIAN score to the ominous-sounding Russian choirs in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, from the thrilling STARSHIP TROOPERS to the expansive Emmy-winning score to LONESOME DOVE, Poledouris creates musical landscapes that complete a film, allowing viewers to lose themselves entirely in the drama and action of a scene.

Growing up in Orange County, Calif., Poledouris mastered the piano, winning numerous competitions as a child. Later, in college, he decided to pursue a major in cinema rather than music, directing student films alongside John Milius (CONAN THE BARBARIAN), Randal Kleiser (THE BLUE LAGOON), and George Lucas.

But music won him back, and Poledouris began his professional career as a commercial and industrial film editor and scorer. In 1971, he scored his first TV show, CONGRATULATIONS, IT'S A BOY! on ABC, and two years later made his feature scoring debut with EXTREME CLOSE-UP.

Some of Poledouris' more familiar scores include THE BLUE LAGOON, ROBOCOP, WHITE FANG, HOT SHOTS! PART DEUX, UNDER SIEGE 2, LES MISERABLES, MICKEY BLUE EYES, and the just-released FOR LOVE OF THE GAME.

Hollywood.com recently spoke to Poledouris about his accomplished career.

Eric Rosenberg: You won an Emmy for your LONESOME DOVE score. Do you consider that to be your best work, or do you have other scores that you feel deserve more attention?

Basil Poledouris: Oh, I don't know if they deserve more, but just because one wins an award doesn't necessarily put the work in any different caliber than it necessarily ought to be. I was thrilled with winning it, let me say that. LONESOME DOVE was certainly a score that utilized a lot of what I know about music and what I love about music, though it was kind of like a collision with a genre that I thought was very interesting. It was the first time I'd ever done a Western or wanted to do one.

ER: Which of the many scores you've composed is your favorite?

BP: They're all like children - you do them and give them life and then you sort of send them on their way. The last one is always the favorite for a while.

ER: So your favorite at this moment is FOR LOVE OF THE GAME?

BP: I think FOR LOVE OF THE GAME is a very interesting score for me.

ER: How much research do you normally do before scoring a movie like FOR LOVE OF THE GAME or MICKEY BLUE EYES?

BP: Well, there really wasn't too much research to do for either of those. I'm a real Nino Rota freak (referring to the Italian composer), and 8 1/2 happens to be one of my favorite films. When I met with Hugh Grant (about MICKEY BLUE EYES), he was looking for a score that had much more of a European kind of sensibility to it in that he wanted something that represented the whole concept of the film. And the model, if there is such a thing, that I used for it was really 8 1/2, because of that circus atmosphere where you have a lot of different things happening at once. And basically the idea was to keep it moving so it has that kind of backbeat. And of course it's very Italian because of the mob.

In FOR LOVE OF THE GAME I don't know what research there was. The score doesn't speak to the game in terms of like, "Gee, where does the shortstop stand?" and, "How far is the second baseman off the plate?" It wasn't technical in that sense. What I was really trying to do is represent the love and respect that the Costner character (Billy Chapel) has for the game itself. And baseball is 100 years old so I try to give the score a sense that it is very American all those kinds of bands, with a "concert in the park" kind of quality, although I didn't linger on that. FOR LOVE OF THE GAME has a lot of different kinds of music in it. Chapel's a modern guy but he's reflecting back over the whole history of his career. His attitudes and his values are very "old school". Like the idea of being traded is repugnant to this guy. It's not about money, it's not about glory - it's about the producing as opposed to the end product.

ER: When you're doing a movie like THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, STARSHIP TROOPERS, or CONAN THE BARBARIAN, where it's a widely-used genre with expected types of music, what do you do to try and differentiate your scores from the others that have come before? For example, how does one write a Science Fiction score after John Williams' STAR WARS?

BP: You've got to realize that when I did CONAN THE BARBARIAN, STAR WARS hadn't come out. There was really no model for CONAN. I think CONAN sort of spawned the whole Sword & Sorcery craze that followed it. Musically for that I tried to create something that was prehistoric-sounding. Renaissance and medieval music was much too modern, so it was deconstructionist in a way. I sort of went back to the beginnings of harmony with a lot of open fifths and a lot of octaves, and the chants are not terribly sophisticated in their harmonic construction. I figured that's where the beginnings of music would be. As the movie progressed, I got a little more complicated harmonically. In the case of RED OCTOBER, I didn't really research, but I bought a Red Army chorus album to listen to.

In the case of CONAN, RED OCTOBER, and certainly LONESOME DOVE I tried to make them all sound like they were folk music music that existed. I think that gives it a mythology. So when an audience hears it they think, "Oh well gee, that music must have existed at that time". Or in the case of RED OCTOBER, "Gee, that must be a traditional Russian folk song or hymn". Of course it isn't I manufactured all of those things.

ER: So you always strive for the melody first, then?

BP: Well, that seems to be, yeah. Looking back over all the film scores I've done I guess that's really the way I try to express the concept of a film: melodically. Obviously, some composers express it with atmosphere, color, or other things. But the orchestra is my medium and I use it in a very melodic way.

ER: You've composed music for an eclectic range of movies. How do you choose the movies that you score?

BP: Well, it just has to be something that I think I can write music to. I gotta tell you that writing music, for me at least, is a very difficult process. Unless there is something that I can key off of in the film itself, it's impossible to write. I try not to imitate, although I'm certainly influenced as everyone else is by everything we hear, but I just try to put myself in the situation. I use the Stanislavsky sort of magic "what if". What if I were not CONAN because I'm not tall enough but what if I were living in the Hyborean Age? Or what if I was on that submarine? Or what if I was the PR guy hired to write some propaganda piece of music. So I always try to put myself in the film; I don't stand back from it. I'm not like an observer; I try to become a participant in whatever I'm scoring.

ER: Was scoring the music for THE ADVENTURES OF CONAN: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacle at Universal Studios different or more difficult than scoring for a movie?

BP: Oh, it's amazingly different because there are no pictures, there are no visual references. When I actually scored it, I worked with Gary Goddard who directed it, and he would act out all the parts. And of course there's no timing sheets it was to a stopwatch. They'd say, "well, this is gonna take about 22 seconds and then I want a change here with the magician coming out and the scrim going up". It wasn't as I'm not going to say "limiting", because I think scoring films is just that - you work with that limitation of having to stick round pegs in square holes. This was a little freer. And same thing with the Olympics that I did, the music for the games in Atlanta - that whole dance with the Ancient Greek theme. It's a little more free and the music has a little more time to develop itself as opposed to having to follow the blueprint of the picture.

ER: Do you conduct your own music at the recording sessions?

BP: It's the rare exception when I don't conduct. I didn't conduct ROBOCOP because we had so many technical things going on at once - we had live synthesizers from another studio being mixed in with the orchestra and the mixes were live. In the case of LES MISERABLES, Eric Colvin conducted half of it and I conducted half of it just because we started falling behind schedule. There are many factors that enter into it there's a vast difference between what music sounds like on the podium and when you go into the booth. If you have live mixes then the place to really put the music together is in the booth, assuming of course that I can speak to the orchestra and conductor. But generally I conduct my own music.

ER: As a child you were a piano prodigy, winning many competitions. Because of your skill on that instrument, do you compose at the piano?

BP: Yes, I do. I think at the piano, but the composition process really takes place in my head and on paper. It's like a writer - there's a kind of rhythm that gets set up just by moving your fingers over a keyboard and it becomes almost a meditation.

When I first get a picture, I try not to do anything specific with it. I let the free associative process happen and sort of try to find the picture without making any kind of judgments about it as it's happening. Sometimes I'll come up with 10 or 15 minutes of just rambling, noodling stuff, but somewhere in there I know that the truth of it lies. And it could be just an eight-measure fragment or even an eight-note motif that then starts to grow.

ER: Do you still perform on the piano?

BP: I did a performance for a benefit honoring Richard Kraft, my agent. It had been 30 years since I'd last performed in public and it was pretty atrocious. It was terrifying! I really stopped being a pianist because I couldn't deal with the nerves.

ER: Have you ever considered conducting a pops orchestra concert and playing piano for part of it?

BP: I've done pops concerts where I've conducted, but no - I haven't played. I'm not Michael Tilson Thomas! But I did go to school with him and we were friends in college.

ER: Do you ever compose at a synthesizer?

BP: Yes, that's a major part of the way we have to work now. The mockup thing is very strong. I have a full-blown studio in Venice (CA), and actually we mix down our films here at my studio. We did all the SDDS mixes for STARSHIP TROOPERS here, and FOR LOVE OF THE GAME and MICKEY BLUE EYES. So, yeah, the MIDI/electronic thing is an interesting process. I fought it for years. I don't write at the computer specifically, but I'm starting to use it more and more. In fact, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME was probably about 50% writing at the computer and 50% on paper. I think it frees you up a little bit because you can try things that you may not want to do with a 100-piece orchestra, just to see if they work or not.

ER: Do you prepare your own sheet music for the recording sessions?

BP: Oh, no - that's all done by music preparation people. It's very time-consuming and also needs to be very precise. My main function is to write the music to fit the mood, the tempo, the densities of the orchestra. I'm a micromanager to a point, but not to that point.

ER: Do you keep in touch with your alma mater and ever visit the campus?

BP: USC? Well, yeah! I mean, certainly not the music school - my degree is in cinema. I have a B.A. in cinema, then I worked toward a master's in cinema while on full scholarship there. See, I quit music when I was about 20! When I became a junior, I really turned my back on it. Then I went into cinema and studied directing. Made a few movies and then started scoring films when I couldn't find music for my own films and for films of Randal Kleiser and John Milius and people like that. But when I got out, I realized that music was what I really needed to do.

ER: You just answered my next question, about going to school with John Milius and Randal Kleiser at USC! You even directed some award-winning student films with them.

BP: Yeah, well, there was Randal and John, Walter Murch, Matthew Robbins, George Lucas. It was a pretty extraordinary time, and that's just to name a few people.

ER: Did your friends' asking you to score their movies provide the impetus that brought you back to music, or did you start to score your own at first because you couldn't find anyone?

BP: No, well, there were very few people Bruce Broughton was there, Bob Randals, who is now a music editor, was in the music school as well. It just was the most natural thing to do - I knew music, I played several instruments - it was just more of a complete expression to be able to do the music for the two films I had also directed.

ER: After college, you interned with Lawrence Truman (producer of THE GRADUATE, SHORT CIRCUIT, THE RIVER WILD) at 20th Century Fox.

BP: Right - that was through The American Film Institute.

ER: How did that experience prepare and influence you?

BP: It influenced me to the point that it really pushed me back into music. I must tell you, I was very idealistic. My film gods in those days were Kubrick, Fellini, Stanley Kramer there was kind of an idealism. Antonioni was certainly high on the list. And I wasn't ready for the harsh realities of making movies in Hollywood. I was too young. It was a grand opportunity but I don't think I seized it because I think I realized that I really wasn't cut out to be a producer. And maybe not a director either because I like working alone in a room for 12 to 16 hours a day. I'd been playing piano as a kid four hours a day and communicating with dead guys - Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven. I think that does strange things to you. I much prefer to be alone than be with 40 people on a film set.

ER: Who are your favorite colleagues scoring films, and which of their recent movie scores is your favorite?

BP: Well, I gotta tell you, right now I don't listen that much. When I'm writing I refuse to have any kind of external input. I don't even read the newspaper when I write. I certainly don't go to movies or listen to any music. I really think it's important to let the score grow from those initial feelings I have about the movie. So I really tend to isolate myself. And I have a great producer, her name is Mi Kyoung Chaing, and she kind of keeps the world away from me. Let me just say that I think that Thomas Newman is doing some terrific work. His are really the only scores that I've heard that I ever want to hear again. I really like what he did for MEET JOE BLACK - that's the last one I heard.

ER: Do you have any favorite classical composers?

BP: Oh, I'm a serious Prokofiev freak. Oh yeah - Prokofiev just I mean there's such even today the landscapes are so new and exciting for me. Alexander Nevsky, more specifically, and of course that's a film score! I guess that makes him a film composer, doesn't it? Contemporary artists - I think Trent Reznor is amazing. Nine Inch Nails. I just heard his new album that's coming out and it's phenomenal. I think it's going to influence the way we score film, and I think it's going to change the face of rock 'n' roll.

ER: Do you have favorites in other idioms, like jazz or rock?

BP: Well, I've always been a Peter Gabriel freak, although he hasn't done anything recently. I think Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) is an interesting singer. I tend to go more for things that are really, really expressive, really integrated where the music and the lyric is the same - coming from the same place, as opposed to somebody who's written the music and somebody sticks lyrics on it and then they get somebody else to sing it.

ER: When you're not scoring for movies, what do you do for fun?

BP: I sail. I'm a serious, serious boater. In fact, I just went over to the dark side last year - I got a powerboat, in addition to my sailboat.

ER: What kind of boats do you have?

BP: The sailboat’s a Peterson 44, it’s a cruising cutter. Then I have this little Sea Ray - 21 foot inboard. I spend a lot of time in Catalina! I have a mooring there and I keep my sailboat there in the summer and then go back and forth in the speed boat.

ER: What's next on your agenda? Have you chosen your next movie?

BP: I actually haven't decided. There are a couple of things I must tell you, FOR LOVE OF THE GAME was an extraordinary experience for me; I've always wanted to work with Kevin Costner. I think it's going to take an interesting movie. I like this genre, I like movies about people, I like movies about real human emotion. And I've certainly done my share of SUPERMAN-type films and science-fiction. I must say at this point where I am in my life right now I like doing films that are about people.

ER: In the liner notes for the GENERAL'S DAUGHTER, scored by Carter Burwell, director Simon West mentions his intent to never begin one of his military-themed movies with snare drums, trumpets and bugles. Do you ever find it difficult to avoid musical stereotypes like that?

BP: Well, I think that depends on what the formal requirements are for the film, and I also think it depends on what the requirements are for the filmmakers. I met with Simon West, and he's an interesting director. I thought what he did in CON AIR was wonderful, he really made it a very special film. I think you have to be careful you don't become self-conscious about that. If it's motivated by not having it be that way, if the film has a strangeness to it, if you want to create a mood of suspense and mystery, I think just to do it as an effect is fine. For example, I think the opening of THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER was brilliant, but you couldn't have done that on STARSHIP TROOPERS - it wouldn't have worked.

ER: When you're composing, how do you choose when to use non-orchestral instruments such as electric guitar and synthesizer?

BP: Well, it kind of comes out of the film. I just used a lot of electric guitars in FOR LOVE OF THE GAME. I hadn't planned on it, originally, but it just seemed natural because the Kevin Costner character is a modern guy - he's not a hipster, he's not a be-bop guy - but he lives in the 1990s and it just seemed to work. I used it essentially when he's hard pitching or when he gets a little mean on the mound. It gives the scene a strength and an edge that an orchestra couldn't do. The guitar is not used extensively, but when it's there it fits the picture.

That's the whole point - the way I try to approach a film is, "what's appropriate?" I don't just throw stuff in because, "oh, gee - they're really gonna think this is cool!" It really has to be motivated by what's happening on the screen. And then within that context you have to keep in mind what the larger arc of the music is going to be. I think this is an interesting score for me because I've put a lot of different kinds of styles together. And generally I've always tried to keep it in the same world, but because this film goes to so many different places through its flashbacks, it gives me license to be very gentle, be very romantic, to be very hard-edged during the game itself. I dunno - I really liked it! I guess if you asked me what my favorite score was right now, I'd say it was this one!

ER: Do you ever find it difficult to score around the popular songs producers place into movies, such as in MICKEY BLUE EYES and FOR LOVE OF THE GAME.

BP: No, I think it's interesting because, particularly in the place of MICKEY BLUE EYES, they had all those songs in place. What they couldn't find was music for the scenes I scored. They couldn't accomplish that with just songs or with just cutting instrumental sections of songs. I think that's enormously encouraging for a composer, that studios still need to have music written for a film.

There's a lot of music in FOR LOVE OF THE GAME - I think I scored about 90 minutes, and I think the songs break it up. I think that if it had been all score it would have been, frankly, a little too much. For MICKEY BLUE EYES, I think the songs are great too. I think they certainly match the mood and the tone, and they lend an energy and a quirkiness to the picture that it needed. But you get to those scenes where they couldn't find music for them, and that's what we do! That's what film composers are.