When we watch a movie, what we see is only half of the experience. The audio is the other and having bad music backing a film can distract from the experience, while having great music can elevate a movie from being good to being fantastic. Composing the score for a movie is no easy feat, even for a professional musician.
It’s not good enough to just write a catchy tune, a fun beat, or something pleasing to the ear. The music has to be composed, paced, structured, and created specifically to go along perfectly with what’s being shown on the screen, matching the mood and tone of that exact moment in the movie’s story. With that said, there’s a wealth of talent in the world of rock’n’roll that would be up for the challenge, and if paired with the right project, would be able to create a perfectly crafted, unique, and bad-ass movie soundtrack.
John Frusciante
Now back in the Red Hot Chili Peppers after a 10-year hiatus, this virtuoso isn’t just known for his funk-based shredding and melodic songwriting, but has released 12 solo albums of his own, many of them electronica-based. At times he uses bizarre combinations of instruments, electronic noises, and absolutely off-the-wall songwriting techniques, unlike anything else.
It’s this wide array of instrumental know-how and experimental attitude that would make Frusciante perfect to score something unique. If paired with a similarly experimental filmmaker, the possibilities here are limitless.
Josh Homme
The Queens of the Stone Age leader has never been one to shy away from a challenge and is also a fan of collaboration. He views not just Queens, but every band and every project he’s been a part of (a very extensive list) as an opportunity to find something within the shared creative experience of working with others.
This makes him the perfect man for the job of scoring a movie. He even contributed a track to the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack. One of the main duties a composer must take on for a movie is working alongside the film’s director to help actualize their vision and this collaboration is something Homme would excel at. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s the frontman and primary songwriter of one of the most popular working rock bands today.
Kevin Parker
Anyone who knows Kevin Parker, or his psychedelic project Tame Impala, has to have seen this one coming. Scooping up awards consistently since the start of his career and hot off the release of Tame Impala’s fourth album, Parker is the sole songwriter and producer of the project, not to mention the fact that is plays almost all of the instruments on his albums.
He can create ethereal sonic soundscapes like few other musicians working today and this is something that would lend itself to a brilliant movie soundtrack.
Mastodon
That’s right, the whole band. The four Atlanta-based hard-rockers would, with their unique blend of progressive melody and heavy metal tone, bring forth a soundtrack unlike anything ever heard. The band regularly produces concept albums, often tying extensive, bizarre storylines through their music, such as the story of a desert wanderer being tied into their latest effort Emperor of Sand and their sophomore album Leviathan, following the story of the classic novel Moby Dick.
Hiring an entire metal band to do a movie soundtrack would be a risk, but one that could surely have a final product like no other. And we know they’re fans of the visual medium, as the band has had cameos in Game of Thrones and Jonah Hex.
Rob Scallon
He’s not a household name and many in the rock community might turn their noses up at the idea of calling YouTuber Rob Scallon a genius, but listen. Rob Scallon is a creative force to be reckoned with. He is a genuinely talented musician, comedian, and video creator. In his videos, he regularly has backing tracks and snippets of music to play over and use for his comedy, all of which he writes and produces himself and all of it is good. Not basic good, not kind of good, but honest-to-goodness good.
And it’s time Scallon branches out from just writing songs and making small-scale comedy videos, with a project large enough to flex his talent and his work ethic and prove his haters wrong.
Misha Mansoor
For fans of heavy metal and progressive rock, Periphery is a breath of fresh air and it’s founder, Misha Mansoor, is a large part of the equation that makes this band so. While not the only songwriter in Periphery, Misha is a unique talent on the team. His songwriting process is one that allows him to work precisely, using a mass of gear in order to find an extremely specific sound to suit the song or project at hand.
Mansoor is known primarily for his chugging, screaming guitar riffs, but he also has experience with electronic music, through some of Periphery’s more electronica-influenced tracks and with his various side projects. He even contributed a track to the Halo 2: Anniversary soundtrack. He uses computers to not create music with ease, but to experiment with precise tones and musical direction that would suit itself perfectly to a movie soundtrack. Shredding guitars AND beautiful, ambient soundscapes? Yes, please.
Steven Wilson
The fact that this hasn’t happened yet is surprising. Frontman and primary songwriter of progressive rock powerhouse Porcupine Tree, Wilson has shown over the past few decades his immense talent for unique songwriting and music production.
Once dubbed the “King of Prog Rock” at the Progressive Music Awards, Wilson has a genre-defying career and has created music worthy of soundtracks all on his own. The world needs a movie with Wilson’s music backing it.
Danny Carey
While percussion-based soundtracks aren’t the norm, they do tend to stand out when they’re done right. And few people would be able to do better than Tool drummer, Danny Carey. Using the term “drummer” to describe Carey’s position in the band doesn’t even feel right, as he uses an array of strange percussion techniques and instruments to both create the beats of the music and add to the complex atmospheres that make Tool’s music so unique.
He doesn’t just use the drum set as a percussive instrument, but as a melodic and atmospheric one, as well. A movie with Carey’s unpredictable yet precise drumming and creative soundscapes would be a seriously unique experience.
Jonathan Davis
Jonathan Davis has a way of pushing things like few people in rock. At the height of the dubstep craze (remember that?), the Korn frontman pushed his heavy metal band to experiment with the electronic genre, fusing dubstep production and sounds with the hard-rocking, guitar-crunching identity of the band.
While reviews to this were mixed, it’s one of many examples showing that Davis loves to experiment and push boundaries. With that said, this sounds like the exact type of musician who would love to tackle the massive project of writing a movie soundtrack.
Geddy Lee
Topping off this list, this one has to be a given.
Having consistently topped lists of all-time greatest bassists, fronted a band that churned out consistently great music for 40 years, and being one of the original adopters of synthesizers in modern music, there are few musicians who would be better suited for the task of writing music for a movie soundtrack than Canadian rock legend Geddy Lee.
