Composer/musician Anna Meredith recently scored the horror/fantasy drama Tuesday from A24. The feature stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lola Petticrew as a mother and daughter who must confront death when it arrives in the form of a talking bird. The project marks the debut of director Daina O. Pusić and was released theatrically on June 14th. It is now available via several streaming platforms, including A24, Apple TV, Prime Video and YouTube, while Anna Meredith's score is available through A24 Music.
Meredith (pictured) recently shared insight into her work on the project, which began back in 2022.
Hi Anna! How did you get involved in this project?
“It was a first-time director. I think initially…they were going to do a different type of thing with the score. Maybe A24 suggested me, and then I met the director, and we got (along) really well, and so it went from there.”
Was this all in 2023?
“No, 2022. It was done ages ago. It was all wrapped up at the end of 22.”
What were your initial conversations like and what kind of direction did you receive for the score?
“It's been different with each project I've done, but, yeah, normally the thing that I've found for me that works best, is, it's just me and the director in a in room, with pre cut-up (material). We will watch the whole film and talk about stuff in a more general sense early on. But the actual creative bit, they come here, and we dig into each scene and…have some overall conversations about, ‘Is there a is there a sound to the film? Is there a color to the film? Is there a particular instrumentation that I think is going to shape it?’ And then, with that kind of color and that palette in mind, we'll look at the scene, and we'll chat about it, and then I'll just kind of go off and do it. Normally we'll chat through the details of a bunch of things. ‘Can you hit this point?’ ‘We think it should do that.’ Or, ‘I want this to underpin whatever.’ Try and discuss what it needs to do, and I’ll mock it up and then come back and (have) a bunch of stuff, and kind of go from there.”
Are you getting on board before the film is shot, or are you coming in after there are some visuals for reference?
“I think it can happen in different ways. I'm doing one right now where you might make a pallet of stuff, where it hasn't been edited yet, and they're kind of editing to your temporary score. So here, this is quite late. The visual effects were still not done, and there was still lots of edits and things happening, but it was essentially shot and edited. We chopped up the scenes that needed the music and would deal with them one at a time.”
Is the album a close reflection of the soundtrack? I see it has 15 tracks.
“They are not the tracks. What I actually submitted for the soundtrack was slightly different. I probably wrote more cues, but some of them are super short. Obviously, sometimes you only want 10 seconds. I wrote, I don't know, probably more like 30- or 20-something cues.”
Tell me about the album version?
“Some are combinations of a few of them, some are slight extensions. I think with an album or a soundtrack album, you can do it however you want. Some people just literally take the submitted scores. Other people write whole new things or rework things massively into whole new bits of material.”
So you write the specific cues, rather than a longer piece that an editor might draw from?
“Ideally, I don't really want anybody else to do any editing to the music, so I'll try to write it to be exact to the scene. And if anybody wanted stuff to be shorter, I would rather that I did it so I can make it work musically. If they suddenly they need a shorter cue, I'll do that, sort of musically, so the soundtrack is slightly different.”
Your background is in both acoustic and electric instruments. How did that influence the score?
“For me, it's a very unique film, and I wanted it to have a real color. And Daina (O. Pusić), the director, is very adventurous. She was very up for me being quite experimental in terms of how I approached the color, and not be be conventional in terms of what the materials or the types of instrumentation are. I tried to keep the palette quite focused. I mean, there's a couple of tracks — the longer ones — which do have a bit more beat-based work, but the majority of the score is sort of the cello with extended technique, like unconventionally-played cello and percussion, handheld percussion, sandpaper, texture, very textural sound. It's very much about atmosphere, anxiety and tension created through these physical, tactile signs. I tried not to use that much electronics in a lot of the material. It definitely comes in at some points, but I tried to give myself a challenge of this kind of bells, cello, sandpaper palette as the predominant palette for the sound of the world, apart from a few particular moments where some other stuff comes in.”
Were you the sole musician on it this, or did you have other collaborators?
“No. I work with a very small amount of people. I just worked (with) the cellist and a percussion player and a studio engineer to record them. I've got a classical background, so everything's all notated out. But this was a slightly different way of working. Less notated, more, ‘let's try and find the right kind of sound’ for this sort of thing. I was thinking something ticking…So (there was) a bit of experimentation to get the palette.”
Do you have a cue that is one of your favorites because of the way it affects a scene?
“There's maybe two. There's one, which was a sort of the big scene, which was this this ‘killing spree’ montage, where it was almost like a little mini music video, and it was treated more like a needledrop. The idea was to treat the score in that moment — there’s no dialog — the score's right up front. It's a bit whooshy. It goes through these like little montages of people dying. I love Daina’s approach. It’s really sad that people are dying or losing people. It's heartbreaking, but she wanted it to appear almost joyful and confident and to lean into Zora, the main character's growing confidence and her identity and strength. I kind of ended up writing somewhat of a big dance track, which kind of goes at odds with the sadness, and to try and portray death in this more empowering, positive way, and I thought that was a great take. I remember I'd written some of the stuff and she was coming round to hear it, and I remember saying, ‘Look, I'm not sure if this is too far? This is just so much bolder and more joyful in a way.’ And she was like, ‘No, I loved it!’ So that was great.
“And then I also really like a couple of cues right near the end of the score. I normally write quite dense music, and these are very, very spare — just a few chords. One is called ‘After,’ which is where the daughter died and the mom is just in the house on her own. And again, I think the braveness (of) Daina…letting the music have massive gaps between the notes. I think the sort of isolation and solitude of that feeling was felt. I've loved watching that bit back. It feels very sad.”
Are you working from a home studio and then going into a larger studio to record?
“A bit of both. I'm in a writing studio. I'm not at home. I work in Somerset House in London. I've got a little writing room here, and then there's actually a recording studio in the same building, so I will do the writing here and then we record the players individually in the recording studio. Then I work with someone else in their studio to mix it, but it's all done in quite small facilities. It's not like a big orchestral set up or anything.”
You’re initially from Scotland?
“From Scotland, yes. I've lived in London a very long time.”
Does a project like this take an emotional toll on you and do you look forward to working on something more upbeat?
“I actually did another film after that. I did a film last year that was very different and a very different palette. I'm more interested in the intentions of the director and the kind of role they want for the music. Sure, I'm definitely trying to keep an eye on the types of projects/scores I do, to make sure I'm not doing the same things. But, I like writing anxiety. I like writing tension. There was a lot of sadness in this film, but you had to kind of work for it in a way. Because so much of the film is weird and funny and all this other stuff, I think it doesn't lead with the sadness. That sort of comes through getting to know these characters and see their struggles. I've done some comedies. I've done some more tense type. I've done a few different things, so I like trying different projects. But in some ways, the thing that excites me most is where someone is really up for letting the music do a thing, be a character, take up space, help the film be strong.”
What was your timeframe for creating 20 or so cues?
“It really depends, because there's lots of people who want to give their feedback and change stuff, so I don't get to decide when (it’s) done. It normally does move pretty quickly - two, three months - that kind of thing.”
You are also an artist who creates your own original music. I understand you're working on a third album now? What, is your personal music like?
“Not too dissimilar. I'm not someone who really thinks about genre or anything when I write my own material. I try to approach everything I do, whether it's a film or, orchestral piece or my own album stuff, I try to approach them all in the same way. I'm not someone who puts on different hats in terms of the way that I do the writing. It's all using the same kind of material that I like, the way I like to write. My own stuff is pretty varied. It's got electronics and instruments and some vocal stuff. It's quite complex. It's a bit of a mix of intentions really, but it's sort of the same way I've made films.”
For people who want to know more, I know you have your own website, annameredith.com?
“Go on to Spotify. You can lose yourself…digging through a back catalogue of sorts.”