As a group, 3epkano are as open to criticism from the film school as the music heads and Nolan seems to find this duality every exciting.”I think there’s a massive overlap there,” he says. “I’m more worried about the film community because for me, the films have always come first. I’ve always been really interested in creating alternative theatrical outings for these amazing films, some of which have been forgotten, some are iconic and some have become silent movie clichés. If I can keep giving them a life and keep doing something different with the soundtracks, then I’m happy out. The only criticism that will bother me is a badly informed one, and even at that it won’t rub me the wrong way. If someone is going to offer us a rigorous deconstruction of what we’ve created and it’s coherent, then brilliant. It means someone has taken the time to listen to it in a detailed way.”
One of the things that becomes apparent is the constant desire Nolan and the rest have to challenge themselves. The prospect of working more with modern film is something that he and Doyle fins particularly interesting. “I think part of the idea in setting the whole thing up, with me and Cameron, was to create an alternative show-reel for writing film music. We might focus our energies on that a bit more next year, trying to get more contemporary film work in. It’s a nice challenge and a different challenge to the silent film work.”
So is there anything the 3epkano wouldn’t do? Would they shill for the corporate cash? The answer is, as always, practical. “There is a line but I don’t know where that line is. Would we sell our music to a Miller ad? The Flaming Lips did it, we’ll do it! I know a lot of people who would be adamant they wouldn’t but you start waving a cheque in front of people… We have a particular style which is more suited to melancholy, dramatic works and I think that’s what we’re best suited to. I don’t think we could turn around and write a score for a rom-com. Maybe we could! Fucking hell, it would be something to try!”
