Colin West’s latest feature, Linoleum, follows Cameron Edwin (Jim Gaffigan), the host of a failing children’s science TV show called Above & Beyond. Cameron has always had aspirations of being an astronaut, and after a mysterious space-race era satellite coincidentally falls from space and lands in his backyard, his midlife crisis manifests in a plan to rebuild the machine into his dream rocket. As his relationship with his wife (Rhea Seehorn) and daughter (Katelyn Nacon) start to strain, surreal events begin unfolding around him.

Mark Hadley

Linoleum is a multilayered, with comedy, drama and science-fiction elements. Each of these genres normally have specific guidelines on how they should look and sound, so how did the creatives approach this genre-bending story? Linoleum composer Mark Hadley spoke to us about this and more…

How would you describe your Linoleum score?
The score for Linoleum is heartwarming, dreamy and intimate. At times it’s lighthearted and at other times it’s deeply emotional.

Can you talk about what the producers wanted the score to sound like? How much input did you have?
The conversations around the sound of the score primarily happened with writer and director Colin West. We’ve worked on a few projects together at this point, and there is a huge amount of trust he puts in me. We talked a lot about what the film was really about at its core and what we wanted the music to feel like emotionally without getting too prescriptive about instrument choices or other specifics at the beginning.

Did you lean to one instrument more than others to get your desired result? If so, what was that?
For Linoleum, I used a lot of piano, a string quartet and analog synths. This combo felt like it hit all the right notes of intimacy, emotion and dreaminess that we were after.

What scene in Linoleum was the most fun to score?
There were several scenes that were fun. The first one that comes to mind is when Marc and Nora are walking on the train tracks at night and really opening up to one another. It’s such a touching scene. I loved writing music that really supported their developing relationship and the innocence of being a teenager discovering oneself.

You had to walk the line between comedy and drama for Linoleum. What were some of those challenges?
I think the challenge is simply just not writing funny music. It’s all about supporting what is happening on-screen, and like writer/director Colin West told me once, we don’t need to put a hat on a hat. If the scene is funny, the music doesn’t need to be funny as well. It’s about creating the space for the story to breathe and for the actors to shine. It can be a real process of trial and error to figure out what works.

What tools did you use to create the Linoleum score?
I used several analog synthesizers and my preferred DAW which is Ableton. The most important tool I used was collaboration — with the director, editor and my musicians.

Name three pieces of technology you can’t live without?
For this particular score, the three pieces of tech I couldn’t live without are:

• • My Mac Pro computer outfitted with Ableton and hundreds of plug-ins, as the whole score was produced on this computer.
  • Tasty Chips Electronics’ GR-1, which is a granular synthesis hardware unit that I used to create many of the atmospheric textures in the score.
  • Finally, the Teenage Engineering OP-1, which is an amazing small and portable synth that I used in the score for many of the bleep-bloop sounds and some of the vocal textures.

What advice would you give to composers who are just starting out in the business?
In many ways, even after a decade of doing this, I feel like I’m still just starting out and continuing to figure things out myself. My advice would be to be patient, stay in it and find a composer to work for to learn about the actual process of scoring something. There is so much more to it than just writing music.

Can you talk about the moment you knew you wanted to become a composer? What led to that?
I’ve been writing music for as long as I’ve been playing instruments. Whether in my high school rock band or in my jazz groups in college, I’ve always found writing original music to be one of the main ways I can truly express myself.

The first moment that film music caught my attention was when I saw Revolutionary Road in 2008. I was completely absorbed by Thomas Newman’s beautiful score, and becoming a composer for films became one of my primary interests after seeing that film.