Since his debut in 1999, Spanish composer Fernando Velazquez has scored a wide variety of genres in film and TV, but he’s perhaps best known for a a handful of horror and suspense scores, including BackWoods (2006) starring Gary Oldman, the Guillermo del Toro executive produced The Orphanage (2007), Devil (2010), and the box office hit Mama, directed by Andres Muschietti, which the director expanded from his 2008 short film after del Toro showed an interest in producing a feature length version.

Unlike Devil, which featured a series of snarling suspense cues, Mama is a more layered work, and in our conversation recorded in late January of 2013, Velazquez describes his work in horror, writing for the cello, and avoiding musical clichés.

Mama is available from Quartet Records (Spain) on CD, and as a digital album from Amazon.com and iTunes. Special thanks to Fernando Velazquez for his generous time, and Chandler Polling at White Bear PR for facilitating this podcast.  

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Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

All podcast editing, mixing, and audio restoration produced in-house. For inquiries and demo reels, please visit Mondomark.com.

After enjoying a successful music career in his native Iceland, composer Atli Örvarsson moved to the U.S. and studied music composition at Berkley. Örvarsson eventually landed a plum scoring position on the hit TV series NYPD Blue with veteran TV composer Mike Post (The Rockford Files, The Greatest American Hero, Hill Street Blues, Magnum P.I., Murder One, and Law and Order).

Orvarsson eventually joined Hans Zimmer’s Remote Control Studios, learning the ropes of composing for a wide variety of genres until he eventually landed several auspicious solo ventures, where he delivered a heavy, percussive design for Vantage Point (2008), and epic orchestral sounds for Babylon A.D. (2008).

The Eagle (2011) is perhaps his strongest work, in terms of scope and experimentation with natural sounds and folk instruments, and in his latest work, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Orvarsson creates a kinetic mélange of orchestral, folk, and rock styles to match the transposition of the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale from wandering kids to a pair of adult bounty hunters, under the direction of Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow).

If you enjoyed this podcast, connect with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Visit KQEK.com for additional film reviews, soundtrack reviews, interviews, and read the Editor's Blog by Mark R. Hasan for additional info and related links.

All podcast editing, mixing, and audio restoration produced in-house. For inquiries and demo reels, please visit Mondomark.com.