2023.09.14 - Brooke Marsden - Slash On Film Producing, Music and More

Excerpts from Ultimate Guitar:
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Slash compared writing music "in a band context" to working on a film score, noting how he tends to focus on riffs and grooves on the former, and mood on the latter.

Recently, Slash has been dipping his toes in the film world as the co-producer and composer for the Sci-Fi shocker "The Breach", but he tells Brooke Marsden in a recent interview how he's got even more work along that line on his plate.

Of course, most people know Slash as one of rock's most prominent ax-wielders who now splits his time between Guns N' Roses and his solo outfit also featuring Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy, so making music for film isn't something most fans would consciously expect from the man with the hat.

Asked to compare writing music for bands to contributing to a film score, the guitarist said (transcribed by Ultimate Guitar):

"When I'm writing in a band context, I'm just putting together a cool groove and riffs; I'm starting to think of a song structure. When you're writing a score for a movie or a TV show, you're creating a mood for a concept or a storyline... It's using a whole different side of my brain [laughs].

"One of the things I love about producing is that I'm involved with the music in some way, shape or form. And I don't want to be a scoring composer; I don't have the time to sit with an entire movie, from one end to the other, and write [music]. So, what I'd do is come up with bits and pieces; a theme, and then work with a composer to incorporate that into the film.

"Obviously, I write on guitar, but using the guitar for an actual score is not something you do all the time. So, we have to come up with the instrumentation."

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/slash_compares_writing_music_for_bands_to_working_on_a_film_score_its_using_a_whole_different_side_of_my_brain.html

More excerpts from Rockcelebrities.net:
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Guns N’ Roses lead guitarist Slash talked about what persuaded him to perform for the ‘Barbie’ movie during a recent conversation with Brooke Marsden.

When the host asked if he really played on the ‘Barbie’ soundtrack, the musician replied:

“Yeah, I did. I played on the Ken song. It was Mark Ronson. He wrote and produced music for that, and he called me up and said I would play on something. And I was like, ‘For Mark, I would do anything.’ I wouldn’t mind, so I just said, ‘Yeah, what have you got?’ And so he sent me a demo. It was the kid song, and I was like, ‘Huh.'”

Detailing how the rest of the process worked, Slash noted:

“And he goes, ‘Well, it’s for the ‘Barbie’ movie,’ and whatnot. So I said okay. It was funny because he sent it to me as a demo, and I started working on it as a demo, and then he started introducing real drums to it and other changes. So all of a sudden, I had to trash what I did already and do it again, and it actually was one of those one-offs that took a little bit longer than I had expected it to take, but it was fun to do it for Mark, and it’s actually a pretty funny song.”

Marsden then stepped in and said she was surprised it was a really good song. The guitarist added:

“Yeah, Mark’s great, but when I first heard it, it was sort of out of context. He was like, ‘What is this?’ [laughing]”

Then, when the host said his solo in it was beautiful, Slash replied:

“Yeah, I think it came out pretty cool.”

Brooke also wanted to learn whether the rocker had seen the movie, and he revealed:

“No, I haven’t seen it yet.”

The guitarist made an appearance in the song ‘I’m Just Ken,’ along with Wolfgang Van Halen. Mark Ronson also praised Slash’s performance on the track in a chat with Variety, saying he ‘killed’ it.

https://rockcelebrities.net/guns-n-roses-slash-on-how-he-was-convinced-to-play-for-barbie/